[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 26 (Thursday, February 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S2432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S2432]]
                REMEMBERING SENATOR J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, the United States lost a great and 
distinguished citizen today with the death of former Senator J. William 
Fulbright.
  Senator Fulbright was a giant in the Senate. He became a person of 
international reknown and reputation during the period of his 
chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Relations from 1959 until his 
defeat in 1974. I came to know him very will after I joined the 
Committee on Foreign Relations in 1969 and came to admire very much his 
careful and thorough approach to issues of tremendous national 
importance, most especially the war in Vietnam.
  William Fulbright was born in Missouri and grew up in Fayetteville, 
AR. He attended pubic schools, graduated from the University of 
Arkansas in 1925, as a Rhodes Scholar from Oxford University England in 
1928, and from the Law Department of George Washington University in 
1934. In 1939 he became president of the University of Arkansas--the 
youngest in its history. He served one term in the House of 
Representatives from 1943-1945 and went on to election to the Senate in 
1944. He was reelected in 1950, 1956, 1962, and 1968.
  William Fulbright brought to his political career a great love and 
understanding of the responsibilities of an educator. His experience as 
a Rhodes Scholar taught him the value of international exchanges and 
led him to conceive of the Fulbright Scholars Program in the period 
immediately following World War II, which he described as ``a modest 
program with an immodest aim.'' Since the program's establishment in 
1946, more than 100,000 people from abroad have studied in the United 
States and more than 65,000 U.S. students and professors have studied 
overseas in what is undoubtedly the largest and most successful 
international exchange program in existence.
  Earlier, as a freshman member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 
Senator Fulbright offered a resolution setting forth U.S. support for 
an international peacekeeping organization. This resolution, the first 
to be passed by the U.S. Congress since the League of Nations debacle 
following World War I, set the stage for establishment of the United 
Nations in 1945.
  He was a maverick during much of his time in the Senate and was known 
for taking positions he believed in regardless of their level of 
popularity. For instance, in 1954, he cast the single Senate vote 
against funding Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's investigative 
subcommittee.
  Senator Fulbright's period of greatest prominence was that of the 
Vietnam war. He introduced the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave 
President Johnson virtually free rein in the early stages of the 
Vietnam war. Only two Senators opposed the resolution and Senator 
Fulbright later made it clear he wished it had been three, including 
himself. ``Not that it would have made the slightest difference in the 
course of affairs, but I'd feel better about myself.''
  Senator Fulbright was one of the earliest critics of the war. Under 
his stewardship the Committee on Foreign Relations conducted extensive 
investigations of involvement in Vietnam, held numerous hearings and 
was the fountainhead of legislative initiatives beginning in 1969 to 
restrict United States activities in Vietnam. In 1973, a Fulbright-
Aiken amendment stopped direct involvement of United States combat 
forces in Vietnam.
  Through the committee's intensive work on the war, Senator Fulbright 
tried steadfastly to educate his colleagues, the Senate, the Congress, 
and the public as to the tremendous folly of the Vietnam involvement.
  I can well remember watching Senator Fulbright facing down hostile 
witnesses while chairing hearings of great thoroughness and steadily 
and calmly posing questions until the truth of various problems was 
there for all to behold.
  His widow, Harriett, recalled that the Senator deeply believed ``that 
in order to ensure prosperity for all members of a free country, those 
who live in a democracy must be educated,'' In fact, education ran 
through the heart of whatever he said and did. His speeches he wrote 
himself on yellow pads in pencil, full of lines through any fuzzy 
phrase. He worked them over until he was satisfied that every sentence 
was not only perfectly understandable but devoid of hyperbole. They 
were meant to clarify and persuade; in other words to educate--to 
educate audiences around the world as well as constituents.
  One of the finest writers in the history of the Washington Post, the 
late Henry Mitchell, wrote a profile of William Fulbright in 1984. He 
pointed out that, despite Senator Fulbright's concerns over the 
arrogance of power:

       He does not say a nation can forget self-respect in the 
     world or allow its citizens to be run over roughshod by 
     others.
       ``But dignity has nothing to do with domination, nor is 
     self-respect the same thing as arrogance. A nation can take 
     pride in its accomplishments without taking on a missionary 
     role in the world. . .
       ``Which is the greater legacy any generation of leaders can 
     bequeath, a temporary primacy consisting of the ability to 
     push other people around, or a well-run society of cities 
     without violence of slums, of productive farms and of 
     education and opportunity for all citizens?''
       To ask it is to answer it.

  Mr. President, the Vietnam war made the Nation very much aware of the 
efforts of William Fulbright and of the Committee on Foreign Relations. 
To many in official Washington, he was anathema. But to others who saw 
Vietnam as a quagmire he was simply a hero. A leader who gave 
legitimacy, respectability and honor to opposition to the war and what 
it was doing to the United States. At the time there were many who were 
quite disdainful of William Fulbright and who disliked him intensely. I 
remember well how he would sometimes conclude that his sponsorship of a 
measure would cost votes rather than gain them. This was a price that 
he felt he had to pay.
  In 1993 Senator Fulbright's fellow Arkansan, President Clinton, 
awarded the Medal of Freedom to the Senator. President Clinton said at 
that time ``Senator Fulbright has long been known as a patriot and a 
realist. He has never been one to waste time and energy cursing the 
darkness; he is far too busy seeking and finding lamps to be lit.''
  William Fulbright has been gone from this body for over 20 years. The 
controversy surrounding him as certainly abated and many more have come 
to appreciate the intelligence and care he brought to his assessment of 
public issues. His reputation has grown over the past two decades 
rather than dwindled. And his term as chairman of the Committee on 
Foreign Relations is now regarded as a halcyon period for the committee 
and the Senate.
  There were many challenges to be faced in the period of his 
chairmanship and he did not shirk from taking those challenges on and 
doing his best to meet them. His central interest was never personal 
aggrandizement but rather the discovery of the best way for the Nation 
to proceed. He is gone now but his legacy is powerful and he will live 
on as Fulbright Scholars are trained and educated and return to their 
countries and to the United States better able to play meaningful and 
productive roles.
  Our deepest sympathy goes to his widow, Harriett and his family.
  

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