After the war, Bethe argued that a crash project for the hydrogen bomb should not be attempted, although after President Harry Truman announced the beginning of such a project and the outbreak of the Korean War, Bethe signed up and played a key role in the weapon's development. Although he saw the project through to its end, Bethe had hoped that it would be impossible to create the hydrogen bomb. He later remarked in 1968 on the apparent contradiction in his stance, having first opposed the development of the weapon and later helping to create it: