Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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Tombrello–190 ASPATURIAN: How about countries that are turning into, you know, scientific powerhouses at some level or another. Singapore, Israel, the PRC. Well, it doesn’t really call itself the PRC anymore—China. Parts of India. TOMBRELLO: Well, I think of it as the PRC, because, after all, there’s Taiwan. ASPATURIAN: That’s true. TOMBRELLO: Not much collaboration, but we try to figure out what’s going on. On the weapons game, of course, Israel is, officially, an enigma. ASPATURIAN: Well, yes. TOMBRELLO: And I have concerns about Israel. It’s the hope of democracy in the Middle East, but at the same time the current government is not one of my favorites. I’m not a fan of [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Bibi Netanyahu and certainly not of [Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs] Avigdor Lieberman, whom I consider seriously destabilizing individuals, and I think Obama’s handling it— ASPATURIAN: As well as he can? TOMBRELLO: —in a mediocre fashion. ASPATURIAN: Oh, really? TOMBRELLO: Yes. Can it be handled better? That’s another question. I’m concerned that the American Jewish population is backing a single party in Israel that does not speak for even a majority of the Israeli people. ASPATURIAN: Although there’s a quite large split among the American Jewish community on this issue. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
Tombrello–191 TOMBRELLO: I know. I’ve noticed that, and I wish them well. Because it would be a good thing if they were not just parroting the line of the Likud Party, which I feel very uneasy about. That does not automatically make me a fan of Labor, but I would like to see [Israeli Opposition Leader Tzipporah] Tzipi Livni move forward. I would like to see her run Israel, just to see what will happen. Seems like an interesting lady. Once she’s in, I might not like what she does. If I were in that country, I might well be doing exactly what they’re doing, and I try to temper what I say. But what they’re doing is not necessarily in the interests of the rest of the world. But then again, let’s not talk about the Muslim countries, because then I really get concerned: what Iran is doing; what Iraq was doing. The country I worry about the most of all in the whole world is Pakistan, and I have worried about them for more than two decades. They have been taking nuclear weapons technology that they were given by the Chinese and selling them on the street to all concerned. And this has been going on for a long time. They traded nuclear weapons technology to North Korea for rocket technology that the Koreans had developed. They were basically selling to Libya, Iraq, Iran. You name it, they were doing it, and while they may want to blame it all on Mr. Khan [Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan], I think it was government policy in Pakistan and may continue to be. Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world. I’ve said this for many, many years. There are countries that are, you know, quiescent now. When the ANC [African National Congress] took over in South Africa, the previous government destroyed the nuclear weapons they had, and they destroyed the capability of building them, but they did not destroy the ability to process U-235, nor did they get rid of the fact they have a lot of U-235 that’s perfectly decent material to make weapons out of. So you might say there is a sleeping giant in the nuclear business in South Africa. Libya got out of the game as a trade for something else—Lockerbie, I don’t know. ASPATURIAN: Maybe Qaddafi just got tired of it. TOMBRELLO: Or help from the West in producing oil. The whole thing is quite unstable and has gotten more so. I remember writing a position paper at Livermore—I guess some of it is classified, but the most of it certainly is not. [Francis] Fukuyama was talking about the end of history, and my opinion, back at that point in time, was that it was not that way. The Soviet http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Tombrello_T
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THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO (b. 1936) INTER
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Contact information Archives, Calif
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NOTE TO READERS Per agreement betwe
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Tombrello-iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTE
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Tombrello-vi Session 4 68-72 Colleg
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Tombrello-viii his presidency. Tomb
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Tombrello-x 206-213 Establishes (wi
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CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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Tombrello-3 TOMBRELLO: Bisacquino.
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Tombrello-5 TOMBRELLO: This proceed
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Tombrello-7 Memphis, and I believe
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Tombrello-9 otherwise, we mostly we
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Tombrello-11 of the ability of the
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Tombrello-13 truly bigger than life
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Tombrello-15 I associated with the
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Tombrello-17 they’re probably rig
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Tombrello-19 ASPATURIAN: Your thesi
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Tombrello-21 wonderful time. And yo
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Tombrello-23 TOMBRELLO: Let me go o
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Tombrello-25 ASPATURIAN: When you s
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Tombrello-27 We did that again in t
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Tombrello-29 funding our research t
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Tombrello-31 from the NSF grant, bu
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Tombrello-33 doing great stuff, bec
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Tombrello-35 TOMBRELLO: I wasn’t
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Tombrello-37 [Morrisroe Professor o
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Tombrello-39 clearly willing to pay
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Tombrello-41 my teaching assignment
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Tombrello-43 ASPATURIAN: No. TOMBRE
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Tombrello-45 Charlie, that’s numb
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Tombrello-47 heavy ions. Jancaitis
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Tombrello-49 because, no surprise,
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Tombrello-51 of a wreck somewhere.
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Tombrello-53 concurrent computers,
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Tombrello-55 your green card.” He
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Tombrello-57 USC. She said, “My n
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Tombrello-59 video of it. Brian was
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Tombrello-61 ASPATURIAN: Without th
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Tombrello-63 ASPATURIAN: Consciousn
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Tombrello-65 Stone reported this co
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Tombrello-67 says, “That is so im
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Tombrello-69 basement was where I l
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Tombrello-71 Graaff generators] at
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Tombrello-73 groups at Chicago, and
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Tombrello-75 TOMBRELLO: I think it
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Tombrello-77 TOMBRELLO: Yes. I reme
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Tombrello-79 TOMBRELLO: Well, it wa
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Tombrello-81 were made up of these
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Tombrello-83 TOMBRELLO: It had a re
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Tombrello-85 ASPATURIAN: It wasn’
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Tombrello-87 Remington bronzes but
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Tombrello-89 He’d done all kinds
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Tombrello-91 side, with totally ira
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Tombrello-93 TOMBRELLO: Yes. It too
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Tombrello-95 wouldn’t have asked
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Tombrello-97 U.S. independent of fo
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Tombrello-99 own operating people a
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Tombrello-101 particularly in compa
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Tombrello-103 Six months later, “
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Tombrello-105 necessary—that was
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Tombrello-107 make things harder. A
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Tombrello-109 TOMBRELLO: It really
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Tombrello-111 it. It was clearly an
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Tombrello-113 little bit—he had h
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Tombrello-115 protons, you didn’t
Page 131 and 132: Tombrello-117 Did she have an affai
Page 133 and 134: Tombrello-119 questions. But Murray
Page 135 and 136: Tombrello-121 marvelous teacher—h
Page 137 and 138: Tombrello-123 ASPATURIAN: What I ha
Page 139 and 140: Tombrello-125 ASPATURIAN: That woul
Page 141 and 142: Tombrello-127 and all sorts of thin
Page 143 and 144: Tombrello-129 ASPATURIAN: Someone e
Page 145 and 146: Tombrello-131 DuBridge interpreted
Page 147 and 148: Tombrello-133 sciences. They were g
Page 149 and 150: Tombrello-135 candidates came and g
Page 151 and 152: Tombrello-137 TOMBRELLO: I don’t
Page 153 and 154: Tombrello-139 TOMBRELLO: Yes. But I
Page 155 and 156: Tombrello-141 opposite sides. But h
Page 157 and 158: Tombrello-143 ASPATURIAN: Now, was
Page 159 and 160: Tombrello-145 ASPATURIAN: Really? T
Page 161 and 162: Tombrello-147 TOMBRELLO: Yes. I’d
Page 163 and 164: Tombrello-149 I believe he had a vi
Page 165 and 166: Tombrello-151 to predict something
Page 167 and 168: Tombrello-175 And then in the summe
Page 169 and 170: Tombrello-177 think you need that c
Page 171 and 172: Tombrello-179 nuclear counterterror
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Page 175 and 176: Tombrello-183 particularly the weap
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Page 185 and 186: Tombrello-193 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO S
Page 187 and 188: Tombrello-195 discretionary $19,000
Page 189 and 190: Tombrello-197 Lange is PMA chairman
Page 191 and 192: Tombrello-199 Witten’s here, Zewa
Page 193 and 194: Tombrello-201 There were many thing
Page 195 and 196: Tombrello-203 the key—the hallmar
Page 197 and 198: Tombrello-205 TOMBRELLO: Not exactl
Page 199 and 200: Tombrello-207 pieces of hardware th
Page 201 and 202: Tombrello-209 TOMBRELLO: It’s nic
Page 203 and 204: Tombrello-211 Wendy, until well int
Page 205 and 206: Tombrello-213 realized it was a wor
Page 207 and 208: Tombrello-215 you try for. But you
Page 209 and 210: Tombrello-217 TOMBRELLO: He did not
Page 211 and 212: Tombrello-219 ASPATURIAN: Just a re
Page 213 and 214: Tombrello-221 ASPATURIAN: How do yo
Page 215 and 216: Tombrello-223 He’s not dumb. OK.
Page 217 and 218: Tombrello-225 ASPATURIAN: And incre
Page 219 and 220: Tombrello-227 could control him. We
Page 221 and 222: Tombrello-233 down to the late stag
Page 223 and 224: Tombrello-235 THOMAS A. TOMBRELLO S
Page 225 and 226: Tombrello-237 the tandem laboratory
Page 227 and 228: Tombrello-239 picked Motorola’s 6
Page 229 and 230: Tombrello-241 ASPATURIAN: How did y
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Tombrello-245 TOMBRELLO: Somebody v
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Tombrello-247 years before, I’d s
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Tombrello-249 as good as you can im
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Tombrello-251 Los Alamos is a wonde
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Tombrello-253 TOMBRELLO: No. I thin
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Tombrello-255 navy, done the submar
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Tombrello-257 TOMBRELLO: —had don
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Tombrello-259 interesting people wh
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Tombrello-261 putting up a substant
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Tombrello-263 TOMBRELLO: I think so
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Tombrello-265 TOMBRELLO: There were
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Tombrello-267 at that, just to see
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Tombrello-269 ASPATURIAN: Is he ori
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Interview with Thomas A. Tombrello - Caltech Oral Histories

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