Q: So, when did the subject first come that you might or should consider
joining Los Alamos?
MR: Well, I believe it was the summer of '48. I had been working -- Teller
was actually my thesis advisor, and he never sort of had any time because he
was always running off to Los Alamos, or was doing fifty other things. So he
said why don't you come out to Los Alamos and spend a summer there. There is
interesting physics problems, and I will have more time then to look at your
thesis and so on. I agreed, and as I recall, it was about a couple of weeks
before the summer vacation when I would have gone out there, and I said that it
was nearly impossible because of the clearance and he said, don't worry about
it. I got my clearance the next day. So, I think that indicates that he had
quite a bit of pull with the clearance mechanism, whatever it was. So, then I
went out to Los Alamos for the summer, and I believe that I spent two summers,
'48 and '49 and then decided that I would go back to academic life and went to
Stanford.
Q: So, when did you finally join Los Alamos?
MR: Well, the next year, in '50. So, at that point, people were not very
optimistic. Of course, everybody would have felt the best thing would be if
you could prove that you absolutely couldn't do it (build the H-bomb), but it
was sort of hanging in this gray area, where it looked difficult, but maybe it
is possible, and you had to worry.
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