[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 36 (Monday, February 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3147-S3148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               A TRIBUTE TO SENATOR J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT

  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, a constituent of mine, Clyde Edwin Pettit, 
was a member of the staff of the late Senator J. William Fulbright. Mr. 
Pettit went to Vietnam as a foreign correspondent and made many 
distinguished radio broadcasts from there in 1965 and 1966. He was one 
of the very first Americans to predict that the United States would not 
prevail in that tragic undertaking. He wrote what Senator Fulbright 
called a long and prescient letter * * * from Saigon that was a 
substantial influence upon my long opposition to America's adventure in 
Indochina. Mr. Pettit has written a moving and eloquent tribute to 
Senator Fulbright.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the eulogy to 
which I have referred and a letter of introduction Senator Fulbright 
wrote regarding Clyde Pettit be inserted in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    Bill Fulbright--an Appreciation

       Senator J. William Fulbright is dead.
       He was, in every sense, an American original.
       A small-town boy, who was both a scholar and triple-threat 
     halfback on the Razorback football team at the University of 
     Arkansas, he became, almost by chance, a Rhodes scholar in 
     England.
       Later, while a law professor, he became president of the 
     University of Arkansas--the youngest college president in the 
     country.
       He backed into politics almost accidently, running for the 
     House of Representatives and winning.
       In Congress in 1943 he revived the concept of the League of 
     Nations, but a more effective one. This was the Fulbright 
     Resolution pledging U.S. membership for a future United 
     Nations. Arkansas made Fulbright a Democrat. Europe made him 
     an internationalist.
       After his Rhodes scholarship experience, he wanted other 
     young men and women to have the educational opportunities he 
     had. In 1945 he had a unique idea: the world was awash with 
     surplus war materiel. The secretary of state could dispose of 
     assets outside the U.S. in return for foreign credits. Since 
     none of the countries involved had dollars to pay for the 
     materiel, why not exchange it for credits and use them for an 
     educational exchange program? The idea became the 
     internationally celebrated Fulbright Act. Since that time, 
     approximately 220,000 young scholarship students have 
     traversed the globe--the greatest cross-pollination of 
     learning in the history of the world.
       Few remember that he cast the single vote in the Senate in 
     1954 against funding Senator Joe McCarthy's witchhunting 
     subcommittee. McCarthy called Fulbright a communist 
     sympathizer, referring to him as ``Senator Halfbright.'' 
     Fulbright: ``I can only say that his manner and his methods 
     were offensive to me. I thought him to be a demagogue and a 
     ruthless boor.'' He said McCarthy had ``done more harm to the 
     United States than 
     [[Page S3148]] he has ever done to the Communist conspiracy 
     here or abroad.'' He cosponsored the censure resolution that 
     was the beginning of the end of McCarthy.
       In 1960 President Kennedy wanted Fulbright as his Secretary 
     of State, but was dissuaded from asking him to serve. Much 
     later Fulbright said he was ``not temprementally asuited'' to 
     administer ``somebody else's policy--or one I disagreed 
     with.'' Another reason is that it would have removed him from 
     the Senate that he loved.
       He opposed the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and 
     tried vainly to talk President Kennedy out of proceeding with 
     it.
       As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 
     Senator Fulbright led the floor-fight for the Gulf of Tonkin 
     Resolution because President Johnson asked him to, promising 
     him that its effects would be limited and not open-ended. 
     This began Johnson's tragic adventure in Indochina. Soon 
     after, Fulbright realized he had been lied to about what 
     really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin, he had the courage and 
     the manhood to confess that he had been wrong in supporting 
     it. He then convened the so-called, Fulbright Hearings of the 
     Senate Foreign Relations Committee, summoning Dean Rusk and 
     Robert McNamara and all the great war-hawks to educate the 
     American public via television. He began his courageous 
     seven-year crusade against the Vietnam War.
       When a colleague asked him if the Senate had the power to 
     enact certain legislation, Fulbright replied, ``We have the 
     power to do any dawn fool thing we want, and we always seem 
     to do it.''
       Apropos of Vietnam and our tragic experience there, he 
     liked to quote Kipling:

     The end of the fight is a tombstone white
       with the name of the late deceased,
     And the epitaph drear: ``A fool lies here
       who tried to hustle the East''.

       He was one of the first to warn that Americans were being 
     taxed to pay for being propagandized by what he called ``The 
     Pentagon Propaganda Machine.''
       He had the wisdom to see that in all political systems 
     there is a tendency for public servants to metamorphose into 
     public masters, surfeited with unchecked power and privilege 
     and increasingly overpaid to misgovern. He knew that even 
     free peoples can be led to death and maiming because they do 
     not realize that all wars are against their interests. The 
     tragedy of his life is his discovery that wars, once started, 
     tend to become inundating forces of nature, inexhorable and 
     beyond the control of any of the participants.
       He was a tory by birth and breeding, a capitalist by 
     background, conviction and instinct. He used to say, ``I 
     believe that capitalism is, by and large, the best system to 
     bring the highest standard of living to the most people. If, 
     however, a country wants to try socialism or some other 
     system, then they should by all means be permitted to. But I 
     do not believe that we have the moral right, and certainly 
     not the capacity, to prevent their going their own way.''
       He was a conservative. He believed as the Founding Fathers 
     did that governments derive their powers from the consent of 
     the governed. He believed in the limitation of executive 
     powers, in checks and balances and in the separation of 
     governmental powers. Constitutionally he was a strict 
     constructionist.
       He was a liberal, resonating to the principles of the 
     American Revolution and the inherent right of all peoples to 
     change their governments. His liberalism was in the original 
     sense of the word, derived from the word liberty, in being 
     broad-minded, undogmatic, tolerant--which is what all true 
     conservatives should aspire to be.
       He was one of the early champions of the wise investment of 
     American aid to rebuild and strengthen a war-ravaged Europe. 
     Later, he was one of the early opponents of the extravagant 
     support of unpopular and repressive dictatorships abroad--
     enriching Asian countries merely because they professed to be 
     anti-communist. He fought against the transfer of hundreds of 
     billions of U.S. dollars to the Far East, enriching Asian 
     nations merely because they professed to be anti-communist. 
     He was a reluctant witness to America's rapid decline from 
     being the biggest creditor nation on earth to become the 
     biggest debtor nation--what he called ``a crippled giant.''
       Usually courteous to the point of courtliness--especially 
     to the humble--he was sometimes professorial, even 
     condescending to his peers--especially the pompous. Only with 
     difficulty did he suffer fools, He had contempt for 
     politicians and their ``communications'' experts--with 
     government by poll. ``Their purpose seems to consist largely 
     in discovering what people want and feel and dislike,'' he 
     said, ``and then associating themselves with those feelings. 
     * * * This is the opposite of leadership, it is followship, 
     elevated to a science, for the purpose of self-advancement. 
     Even formal policy speeches are determined by the polls. The 
     policy statements that emerge have little to do with the 
     national interest.''
       He lived through most of a terrible and turbulent century. 
     In the vastness of time, his nine decades of life were but a 
     narrow valley between the peaks of two eternities. And yet, 
     what a bountiful valley it was.
       Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph in London--in the St. Paul's 
     Cathedral he designed--is Si monentum requiris circumspice--
     ``If you would seek his monument, look around you.''
       The same epitaph is appropriate for Bill Fulbright.
       The United Nations.
       The Fulbright scholarships.
       The anti-war years during the maelstrom of Vietnam.
       The scores of legislative accomplishments.
       The wise world-view he sustained thoroughout his long 
     lifetime.
       ``Our future is not in the stars,'' he used to say, ``but 
     in our own minds and hearts.''
       In a sense, his most lasting monument is invisible. It is 
     the thousands of names that are not engraved on The Wall of 
     the Vietnam Memorial in Washington--all the names that are 
     not there because once, long ago, he led the fight against an 
     unwinnable war he knew was contrary to the interests of his 
     country. He was one of the first to diagnose the dangers of 
     the arrogance of unchecked executive power, the price of 
     pride and hubris. He had the common sense to oppose old 
     myths, the vision to appreciate new realities, and a keen 
     feel for the great lesson of history--that the price of 
     empire is always too high.
       If half the Congress were composed of Bill Fulbrights, 
     legislative functioning might be extremely difficult. But 
     unless America continues to produce two or three in every 
     generation, America democracy as we know it might indeed 
     perish.
       We have lost a great national treasure--perhaps a 
     nonrenewable resource.
       Sic transit.
                                                                    ____

     To whom it may concern:
       Mr. Clyde E. Pettit, Jr. is well known to me. He is a 
     lawyer and television producer from a prominent family in my 
     state. He is President of KYMA-TV and Vice President of Sun 
     Communications.
       Mr. Pettit was on the United States Senate staff during the 
     years I was U.S. Senator from Arkansas and Chairman of the 
     Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was Special Assistant 
     to the late Senator Carl Hayden, then the President of the 
     U.S. Senate.
       Mr. Pettit went to Vietnam as a foreign correspondent and 
     made many distinguished radio broadcasts in 1965 and 1966. He 
     was one of the very first Americans to predict that the 
     United States could not prevail in that tragic undertaking. 
     He wrote a long and prescient letter to me from Saigon that 
     was a substantial influence upon my long opposition to 
     America's adventure in Indochina. Later he wrote the book, 
     ``The Experts''--the definitive chronicle of the Vietnam War. 
     He has had a consistent vision of our proper role in foreign 
     affairs and a continuing concern for U.S. involvement in Asia 
     and the Middle East.
       He believes, incidentally, that since more than fifteen 
     years have elapsed since the end of hostilities, it is time 
     for diplomatic, cultural and commercial relations to be re-
     established. I agree.
       Any courtesies extended to him will be appreciated.
           Sincerely,
                                                   J.W. Fulbright.
     

                          ____________________