It’s Old News: U.S. President Harry Truman supports hydrogen bomb developmentBy MEDICINE HAT NEWS on January 29, 2026. News Archives News ArchivesShare this story:Harry Truman accelerated the United States’ pace in the nuclear arms race this week in history. The 33rd president of the United States publicly announced his support for the development of a hydrogen bomb on Jan. 31, 1950. The announcement came five months after the Soviet Union’s atomic bomb project progressed to a test, detonating their first bomb August 29, 1949. Oppenheimer, called the “father of the atomic bomb,” argued against work on the hydrogen bomb due to both lack of need and the enormous human casualties that would result from its use.18-17