Fulbright, (James) William (1905–1995)
US Democratic politician. A US senator 1945–75, he was responsible for the Fulbright Act 1946, which provided grants for thousands of Americans to study abroad and for overseas students to study in the USA. Fulbright chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 1959–74, and was a strong internationalist and supporter of the United Nations.
A moderate dove
Fulbright was a member of the US House of Representatives 1942–45 before becoming senator for Arkansas. After World War II he anticipated the creation of the UN, calling for US membership in an international peacekeeping body. He was an advocate of military and economic aid to Western nations but a powerful critic of US involvement in the Vietnam War and other military ventures against small countries.
Legal career Fulbright was born in Sumner, Missouri. He studied in England at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, and then at the George Washington University law school. He was a special attorney in the antitrust division of the Department of Justice 1934–35, and was president of the University of Arkansas 1939–41. Defeated in the 1974 congressional elections, Fulbright spent the rest of his career working in private law practice. |
Political career In 1954 Fulbright stood out publicly against the notorious campaign against left-wingers that was being orchestrated by Senator Joseph McCarthy. However, he signed a declaration opposing desegregation, in order to safeguard his political base in conservative Arkansas. During the 1960s and 1970s, Fulbright advocated a more liberal US foreign policy. He led the congressional opposition to the use of presidential power to launch armed interventions overseas – notably the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba 1961, the intervention in the Dominican Republic 1965, and the escalation of the war in Vietnam – and chaired televised hearings on the Vietnam War. The future president Bill Clinton worked in Fulbright's Senate office as a college student. |
Books His publications include Old Myths and New Realities (1964), Arrogance of Power (1966), and The Pentagon Propaganda Machine (1970). |
