On 31 January 1950, US President Harry Truman made a momentous public announcement, declaring his administration’s support for the development of a hydrogen bomb—a weapon far more potent than the atomic bombs that had devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This decision, made against the backdrop of escalating Cold War tensions and the Soviet Union’s successful detonation of its first atomic bomb in 1949, marked a pivotal shift in the nuclear arms race.
Truman justified his stance as a necessary measure to maintain US military superiority and deter potential threats, despite growing ethical and strategic debates over the implications of such an advanced and destructive weapon.
