...Two nuclear security experts recently took issue with his remarks, asserting that vacuum tubes "have nothing to do with the RRW debate." Writing last month in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Jeffrey Lewis and Kingston Reif argued the devices are "the perfect symbol of technological obsolescence" but also an example of "Chilton's dramatic flair."

Lewis directs the New America Foundation's Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative, and Reif is deputy director of nuclear nonproliferation at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation. Last week, the strategic commander said Lewis and ...