[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 26 (Thursday, February 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2346-S2348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT

  Mr. PRYOR. I thank the Chair for recognizing me this morning.
  Mr. President, we, in the U.S. Senate, are often very fortunate to be 
witnesses to history as it is being made, and we often talk of the need 
to have a vision for America, for the country, for our Government, for 
our world and for our people. But very few of us ever, in and among 
ourselves, make history--very few of us. We often fall short of 
articulating a true vision, settling instead to seize upon symbols as a 
substitute.
  With that in mind, Mr. President, this morning I rise to pay tribute 
today to a former Member of this body who has repeatedly made history 
in his lifetime and who dare to articulate a vision throughout his 
lifetime. That man is J. William Fulbright, a native son of Arkansas, 
who served with the with distinction in the Congress for 32 years, 30 
of those years as a Member of this body, the U.S. Senate.
  He loved this body. Senator Fulbright died early this morning, and I 
would like to take a few moments of the Senate's time to remind the 
people of this body and the people of this Capitol and certainly the 
people of this land of the significant impact this remarkable human 
being had on the lives of Americans.
  J. William Fulbright was born in the year 1905 to a family that 
became quite prominent in northwestern Arkansas. His father was a 
banker, a successful businessman, while his mother ran the Northwest 
Arkansas Times, the newspaper in Fayetteville. In fact, Mr. President, 
the public library in Fayetteville, AR, bears the name of Roberta 
Fulbright Library.
   [[Page S2347]] After graduating from the University of Arkansas at 
Fayetteville, Bill Fulbright attended Oxford University on a Rhodes 
scholarship, an experience that we will see later having a profound 
effect upon his life and his philosophy and, yes, upon his vision.
  After earning his law degree from George Washington University, he 
joined the antitrust division in the Justice Department where Senator 
Fulbright, or Bill Fulbright at that time, helped to prosecute the 
landmark Schechter case, the ``chicken case,'' as we call it, which 
helped establish the boundaries of Federal authority to regulate 
interstate versus intrastate commerce. It was a landmark case.
  In 1936, Bill Fulbright returned to his native State of Arkansas to 
teach law at Fayetteville and there, 3 years later, he was appointed 
president of the University of Arkansas. At age 34, he was the youngest 
university president in America, and he gained national attention at 
that time for his efforts to raise the educational standards of not 
only the University of Arkansas but all educational institutions in 
America.
  In 1943, Bill Fulbright won a seat in the U.S. House of 
Representatives, and he was appointed to the House Foreign Affairs 
Committee. He wasted little time making history.
  In the spring of that year, he introduced a resolution that, even by 
today's standards, was remarkable for its brevity and its directness. 
Yet, it was powerful as a vision of young Bill Fulbright. The 
resolution read as follows, and it is one sentence:

       Resolved, That the House of Representatives expresses 
     itself as favoring the creation of an appropriate machinery 
     with power adequate to prevent future aggression and to 
     maintain lasting peace, and as favoring participation of the 
     United States therein.

  Mr. President, this was the Fulbright resolution. It became known as 
that and soon it passed overwhelmingly by both Houses of the Congress.
  This Fulbright resolution is credited as being one of the very major 
stepping stones that led to the creation of the United Nations. And 
with this resolution, a very young Bill Fulbright brought an official 
end to longstanding American policies of isolationism and made our 
country formally commit to becoming a willing, ongoing partner in 
global affairs.
  Bill Fulbright did not stop there. The very next year, he served as a 
delegate to an international conference, at which officials from 17 
nations sought to find a way to reconstruct the educational 
institutions of the world in the wake of the ravages of World War II. 
Congressman Fulbright then was unanimously named as chairman of this 
Congress, and he presented a four-point proposal that became the 
foundations for the U.N. Economic and Social Council.
  In April 1945, Mr. President, delegates of 50 nations gathered in San 
Francisco to draft a charter of the United Nations Approval by the U.S. 
Senate became critical at that point, so critical that President Harry 
Truman came to this body and stood in the well of the U.S. Senate and 
pled with his former colleagues in the Senate on July 2, 1945, to 
persuade this body to adopt this charter. President Truman briefly 
sketched the history of the U.N. effort, and he mentioned the passage 
of the Fulbright resolution.
  President Truman said that this resolution had played a major part in 
shaping certain proposals, and the Senate approved the charter by an 89 
to 2 vote. It took effect October 24, 1945.
  I might add, Mr. President, that this year in June in San Francisco, 
50 years later, there will be a commemoration, or a birthday, an 
anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.
  By this time, Congressman Fulbright had become Senator Fulbright, 
after winning a Senate seat in the 1944 elections. He did not rest upon 
his laurels, and despite being named to the Banking and Currency 
Committee instead of the Foreign Relations Committee, he did not 
abandon his interest in global relations.
  During his very first year in the Senate, Senator Fulbright sponsored 
legislation that became one of the major accomplishments of his 
distinguished legislative career. This bill established a program that 
exchanged scholars, students, and educators between the United States 
and other countries, and the program eventually was called the 
Fulbright Scholarship Program. It drew heavily from Senator Fulbright's 
experiences as a Rhodes scholar and from his belief and deep feeling 
that academic exchange would contribute to better understanding among 
all countries.
  Foreign students coming to the United States received money for 
travel and sometimes received an allowance, modest as it might be, 
while tuition and books were provided through scholarships from 
American colleges and universities.
  While he fervently believed in the value of such exchange programs, 
Senator Fulbright also knew full well that his plan had a number of 
hurdles to overcome--financial, governmental, partisan. The U.S. 
Treasury was not in a position to directly finance such a venture at a 
time of massive war debts.
  Meanwhile, the State Department voiced its reservations, as had 
Senate Republicans. But Senator Fulbright was undaunted, and he 
persevered. He came up with a very novel way of financing this venture 
by combining the need to fund it with the problem of disposing of 
surplus U.S. equipment overseas that had been left behind.
  Under Senator Fulbright's plan, any country that purchased part of 
the U.S. surplus would then be eligible to participate in the exchange 
program. He won the support of the State Department by giving the State 
Department greater control over the program disbursements. He won the 
support of the Congress by getting an endorsement from former President 
Herbert Hoover. President Truman signed the Fulbright Scholarship 
Program into being August 1, 1946. It was another tribute to the vision 
and to the brilliance and to the perseverance of J. William Fulbright 
and his fervent belief that education and communication hold the power 
to save man from himself.
  Bill Fulbright's career was not without controversy, Mr. President. 
He certainly did not shrink from it. He once suggested that President 
Truman resign from office, but soon he suggested that President Truman 
was absolutely correct, even a year later, and he defended Harry Truman 
in the wake of President Truman's firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and 
bringing him back from the Far East. He sparred repeatedly with Joseph 
McCarthy, a former Member of this body, defending against McCarthy's 
attacks on the Fulbright Scholarship Program and then defending himself 
from McCarthy's attacks and charges that he, Senator Fulbright, might 
be subversive because Senator Fulbright's first wife belonged to and 
was active in, of all things, the Red Cross.
  Ultimately, Senator Fulbright led the way in getting the Senate to 
condemn Senator McCarthy in 1954 for his red-baiting tactics. In doing 
so, he helped deliver this body out of one of its sadder chapters in 
history.
  In 1959, Mr. President, Senator Fulbright became chairman of the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and by the time he left the Senate 
in 1974, he had held the title of chairman of the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee longer than any previous Senator.
  Yes, he was controversial. He was a controversial chairman, and he 
dared to insist that cold war relations should not be dictated solely 
by militarism. He warned all of us in 1961 that our efforts in Vietnam 
were doomed to failure as long as we placed our stress on military 
rather than long-term economic and educational assistance, a warning 
that now seems prophetic. He placed his reservations aside to support 
the Gulf of Tonkin resolution when he felt that American soldiers were 
threatened and then had the courage to publicly call that action his 
most humiliating experience. He became one of the country's most vocal 
critics of that war even though it cost him his long-time friendship 
with Lyndon B. Johnson, and many believe it ultimately might have cost 
him his seat in the Senate.
  J. William Fulbright did not believe that his return to private life 
meant the end of his need to articulate a vision for his beloved 
America. He continued to write books and to give lectures about how he 
felt government could be run more effectively, how countries could 
better deal with one another, and about the arrogance of power.
  Those of us who were fortunate to know him and even to be close to 
him 
[[Page S2348]]  during some of his life during those years knew him as 
a man of continued brilliance, of foresight and wisdom, and he 
continued to command our respect.
  Mr. President, when the Fulbright Program was threatened, when it was 
endangered by cuts, he took to the phones in recent years to galvanize 
support. He roamed the Halls of the House of Representatives and the 
Senate for his beloved Fulbright Program. After all, all over the 
world, many leaders of the free world had been called Fulbright 
scholars.
  We will miss this great man, Mr. President. I first met him when he 
was speaking at the Ouachita County Courthouse in Camden, AR. The year 
was 1944, and he was seeking his seat in the Senate. I was 10 years old 
at that time, but I could still take you to that corner in Camden, AR, 
where I first had the opportunity and the privilege of meeting J. 
William Fulbright. I just knew that I had met a great person. And 
through these many years, I was never quite able to ever bring myself 
to call him ``Bill.'' To me, he was and he will always be Senator Bill 
Fulbright.
  He spent his life attempting to end the obsession with war. He spent 
his life attempting to educate us that using war as the solution for 
our conflicts was a course of action that would bring us nothing in the 
end but sorrow. We will miss this great man, this great Senator, and 
this great person who has contributed so much to peace in the world and 
understanding among all men.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Mr. BIDEN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware, under the previous 
order, is recognized to speak for up to 30 minutes.
  Mr. BIDEN. I thank the Chair.
  Before I begin what I wish to speak to, let me compliment my friend 
from Arkansas. I had the great privilege of being a young Senator 
serving with Chairman Fulbright. I did not know him nearly as well, nor 
was I as close to him, by any stretch of the imagination, as my friend 
from Arkansas, but it was a real honor and privilege and, let me say, 
something that I tell my children and will tell my grandchildren and I 
am sure they will tell their children, that their father and 
grandfather had a chance to serve with such a great man.
  I will tell you one anecdote in my relationship with him. I remember 
him as a young man. I had just been elected. I was 29 years old. I had 
not turned 30 yet. I came down here to meet with what was then referred 
to as the old bulls of the Senate. I went around and made my obligatory 
stops at the offices. Senator Fulbright asked me what I wanted to do, 
and I said how very much I would like to be on the Foreign Relations 
Committee.
  I say to my friend from Arkansas, back in those days I do not think 
there was anybody on the committee under the age of 55 and it was only 
senior Senators, very senior Senators who were on the committee, made 
up of great men like Jack Javits and Mike Mansfield, Bill Fulbright, 
Stuart Symington, Hubert Humphrey, et cetera. And I realized it was a 
reach, and I did not expect to get on as soon as I did. But I just 
wanted to let him know.
  He said, ``Why do you want to be on the Foreign Relations 
Committee?'' I said, ``Mr. Chairman, one of the great concerns I have 
is our foreign policy, American foreign policy. It is my avocation, my 
interest. Quite frankly,'' I said, ``Mr. Chairman, if as a Senator I 
would not be able to deal with foreign policy, there would be no reason 
to run for the U.S. Senate; I might as well run for Governor. But the 
reason I am here is because I care about that.''
  He looked at me, and he said, ``Well, I understand your sincerity. 
Let me think about it.'' So I saw him coming over on the subway a 
little while later, a week later, and he said, ``I thought about it.'' 
He said, ``You really want to affect foreign policy?'' I said, ``Yes, I 
would like to eventually, Mr. Chairman.'' He said, ``Why don't you go 
see my colleague, Senator McClellan.'' I said, ``I beg your pardon, Mr. 
Chairman. He is the No. 2 man''--then was about to be the chairman--
``of the Appropriations Committee.'' And I said, ``That's 
appropriations.'' He said, ``Yes, but that's where foreign policy is 
made.''
  I will never forget that.
  Mr. PRYOR. A good story.
  Mr. BIDEN. And he did support me, I might add, to go on Foreign 
Relations. But he told me if I really wanted to affect foreign policy, 
I should go with the other Senator from Arkansas, the chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee.
                    TRIBUTE TO J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I come this morning sadly to eulogize one 
of the truly great political and intellectual giants of my home State 
of Arkansas. In a way, it is especially difficult for me because in 
1974 I ran against him for the Senate.
  J.W. ``Bill'' Fulbright had been a Congressman, president of the 
University of Arkansas, U.S. Senator, chairman of the Foreign Relations 
Committee, and an icon to millions of people, not just in Arkansas, but 
all over the world.
  In 1974 Senator Fulbright had served in the Senate for 30 years and 
was prepared to run for his sixth term. I was Governor of my State, 
completing my second term, and I can tell my colleagues that being a 
Senator is infinitely more enjoyable and less stressful than being 
Governor. I was not interested in running for the House of 
Representatives, nor was I particularly interested in returning to the 
practice of law.
  While I had been a great fan of Bill Fulbright's, I was late in 
opposing the war in Vietnam, long after he opposed it. I had admired 
his courage in speaking out against that war almost from its inception. 
I suppose now would be a good time to say that he once told me that his 
vote on the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was the worst vote he ever cast, 
and that he regretted it.
  But I had to make a decision about the Senate race, and I had to make 
it by March 1974. So I made what was one of the most difficult 
decisions of my life--to run against him in the Democratic primary. 
There are people, needless to say, who never forgave me for it, and I 
understand that.
  I do not mean this to sound self-serving, but it is not terribly 
uncommon for people to come up to me and say, ``How does Arkansas elect 
the quality of people that it does?'' And they always include Bill 
Fulbright's name. We have a saying in Arkansas that we defeat better 
men than most States have a chance to vote for.
  So while our relationship was not close even before that primary 
election, it was certainly not close afterward. Happily, about 5 years 
ago, we had a 2-hour luncheon, which I would have to say was one of the 
highlights of my life. It was not spectacular from a content 
standpoint, but we obviously liked each other and regretted that we had 
not been closer the first 15 years I was here.
  Out of that luncheon grew a very, very warm friendship, not only with 
him, but with his beloved wife Harriet, who is one of the truly 
superior people I have ever known.
  I might say at this point that Harriet has been as loyal, faithful, 
caring, and compassionate during Senator Fulbright's illness as anybody 
could possibly be.
  Mr. President, I will introduce more formal remarks into the Record 
sometime in the near future, but I hastened here this morning after his 
death last night to say that I know I speak for all of the people of my 
State in expressing our genuine sadness at the loss of this truly great 
man.
  Bill Fulbright believed in public service. I was just a youngster 
when he was first elected to the Senate, but in the time I did know 
him, while I was Governor and in the past few years, I never heard him 
express any idea that was not noble, an idea that was not motivated by 
his commitment to his country, or an idea that would not inspire our 
young people to choose politics as a career. Though he did not suffer 
fools gladly, he was not a cynical man.
  I came here to say he was a great icon, a great public servant, and a 
brilliant man who loved his country beyond the love of anything else. I 
will personally miss him and the warm relationship we had been 
enjoying.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.
  

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