 The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 that created the Atomic Energy Commission provided for a nine @-@ man General Advisory Committee ( GAC ) to advise the Commission on scientific and technical matters . Rabi was one of those appointed in December 1946 . The GAC was enormously influential throughout the late 1940s , but in 1950 , the GAC unanimously opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb . Rabi went further than most of the other members , and joined Fermi in opposing the hydrogen bomb on moral as well as technical grounds . However , President Harry S. Truman overrode the GAC 's advice , and ordered development to proceed . Rabi later said : 
