several months there was an intense debate within the U.S. government, military, and scientific communities regarding whether to proceed with development of the far more powerful hydrogen bomb, then known as "the Super". McMahon was strongly in favor of going ahead with the Super, and argued as much in a series of letters he wrote to President Truman. The senator rejected morality-based arguments against the hydrogen bomb based on it being inherently more destructive than previous weapons, asking "Where is the valid ethical distinction between" the World War II multi-day-and-night bombing of Hamburg, the firebombing of Tokyo, and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and any future raid with whatever technology that caused mass casualties. Connecticut voters reelected McMahon to his Senate seat in 1950. During his entire tenure in the Senate, he served as Secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference. Presidential campaign, illness and death Beginning in January 1952, McMahon was mentioned as a possible candidate in the 1952 Democratic Party presidential primaries, but he vacillated over whether he was actually running or not. His campaign slogan was to be, "The Man is McMahon", and his main campaign platform was the insuring of global peace through strength of atomic weaponry. Then in March 1952 he fell ill and spent a week at Bethesda Naval Hospital; his condition would be determined to be lung cancer. From his sickbed, he sent a message to the Democratic state convention in Hartford, Connecticut saying that if elected President, he would tell the Atomic Energy Commission to manufacture thousands of hydrogen bombs. By the time of the 1952 Democratic National Convention in July, he was too weak to be considered an actual candidate, but the delegation from Connecticut initially cast their 16 votes for him as a symbolic gesture. Brien McMahon served in the United States Senate until his death at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., on July 28, 1952, at age 48. His obituary was given front page, above the fold treatment in The New York Times. More than four years remained in his second Senate term. Brien McMahon is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Norwalk. Legacy and honors A commemorative stamp honoring Brien McMahon and his role in opening the way to peaceful uses of atomic energy was issued by the United States on July 28, 1962 at Norwalk, Connecticut. The stamp features a portrait of McMahon facing a rendition of