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FOIA Number: 2006-0462-F FOIA MARKER This is not a textual record. This is used as an administrative marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff. Collection/Record Group: Clinton Presidential Records Subgroup/Office of Origin: Speechwriting Series/Staff Member: Terry Edmonds Subseries: OA/ID Number: 10982 FolderID: Folder Title: 6-5-96 Fulbright 50th [1] Stack: Row: Section: Shelf: Position: S 0 0 0 0 DR AFT PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM -- 50TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER THE WHITE HOUSE JUNE 5, 1996 Acknowledgments: Mrs. (Harriet) Fulbright; the Fulbright family; Dr. Duffey; members of Congress; friends Welcome to the White House. I want to thank all of you for joining Hillary and me tonight at this 50th anniversary celebration of the Fulbright Program. We are all here to honor the dream and legacy of a great American. Senator Fulbright understood that world stability depended upon more than the trading of goods and services among nations. He knew that the ideal of lasting world peace could never be realized without the free and open trading of ideas, knowledge and friendships. Those of us who understood and shared his roots in the Ozarks owe him a special debt of gratitude. His brilliance and vision said to a whole generation of us: yes, we could rise above the poverty and divisions that surrounded us and make something of our lives. Yes, there was a world out there that needed our gifts just as much as we needed to explore its treasures and mysteries. I cannot tell you what this meant to me as a young man growing up in Hope, Arkansas. But Senator J. William Fulbright did not simply affect the lives of young Arkansans -- he became an inspiration to the world. More than anyone I have ever known, he understood that the only way to lasting peace between people from different countries and cultures is through the simple act of giving and receiving the best that each has to offer. For five decades, the Fulbright Program has stood as a proud symbol of America's fundamental commitment to that ideal. For hundreds of thousands of scholars here and around the globe, it has cemented America's mission as a nation that cares about, and is engaged in, the world community. Many of the planet's finest leaders and artists have benefitted from this special experience some of them are here tonight. No matter their native tongue, all of them are now known by the same proud name Fulbrights. Senator Fulbright once said, "The essence of intercultural education is the acquisition of empathy -- the ability to see the world as others see it, and to allow for the possibility that others may see something we have failed to see, or may see it more accurately. The simple purpose of the exchange program is to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another. It is not a panacea, but an avenue of hope " As we celebrate 50 years of bipartisan support for the Fulbright Program, let us rededicate ourselves to this ideal and let us pledge to do all we can to keep the Fulbright Program alive for future generations. Thank you and God bless you all. Page 3 1ST DOCUMENT of Level 1 printed in FULL format. Public Papers of the Presidents May 5, 1993 CITE: 29 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 759 LENGTH: 1818 words HEADLINE: Remarks at the Tribute to Senator J. William Fulbright BODY: Thank you very much. It's good to know that I did get a vote out of the press. [Laughter] Roger, I'm delighted to be here, and I'm so glad that you're here. I'm glad to be here with Senator and Mrs. Gore. Senator Gore, after you spoke and you said you resented the fact that Senator Fulbright was 88 and you were a mere 85 1/2 when you went over to him, I heard him say what the crowd did not. Senator Fulbright looked at him and said, "Albert, if you behave yourself, you'll make it, too." [Laughter] I want to say that it is a deeply humbling experience for me as an American to be here with all these wonderful people. Many people in this audience have made remarkable contributions to our Nation and to the world over the last half century or SO. And I thank you all, as part of the contingent of Arkansans who are here who feel very protective of Senator Fulbright and fell that in some ways he is still our own. It's a great pleasure and sense of pride for me to look out and see all of you here. I also want to say a special word of appreciation to Harriet. You know, when Senator Fulbright announced that he and Harriet were going to be married, all the people from Arkansas started telling cradle robbing jokes. [Laughter] And I've got an 88-year-old uncle, and for kicks, he goes out once a week and drives two ladies around. One of them is 91, and one of them is 92. And I asked my uncle, I said, "You like these older ladies?" And he said, "Yes, it seems to me like they're a little more settled." [Laughter] I'm glad Bill didn't give into the temptation for being settled and instead found Harriet. You know, somebody ought to put a little levity into this evening. Senator Pryor and Congressman Thornton are out there, and Jim Blair, who once ran one of Senator Fulbright's campaigns. Those of us who grew up in Arkansas, I have to say, had this incredible image of Senator Fulbright. First of all, if you grew up in our State and you knew anything about politics, it was immensely gratifying after it, to see the way people sort of dumped on our State back in the forties and fifties and said we were all a bunch of back-country hayseeds, and we had a guy in the Senate who doubled the IQ of any room he entered. [Laughter] It was pretty encouraging. You know, it made us feel pretty good, like we might amount to something. When Hillary first came to Arkansas she said, "You know, you all beat better people down here than most States elect." Unfortunately, there were two occasions when that might have applied to me. [Laughter] But anyway, Hillary finally developed this theory that the reason all of our good people went into politics is that we couldn't make an honest living in the depressed economy. Page 4 Public Papers of the Presidents, May 5, 1993 And it increased the quality of political life. I say this to try to give you some texture. You know, a lot of people are out here in this audience tonight who worked for Senator Fulbright in his campaigns, worked for Senator Pryor, Congressman Thornton, and worked for me. And some of us have been so controversial that we are, to use the Arkansas colloquialism, we are quite a load to carry. [Laughter] And I wish I could take every one of you back tonight to Senator Fulbright's 1968 reelection campaign. I mean, I wish you could have been there. Now remember, here we are, '68: The country is embroiled in the Vietnam war, split right down the middle, except in the South where it wasn't down the middle -- more people were still for it than "agin" it. The country was torn up. There had been riots in the streets. There was great division over poverty and race. Everybody was wound tight as a drum. George Wallace was moving through the South faster than Sherman did and carried Arkansas that year. And here we are, all of us kids, trying to reelect Fulbright in this environment, right? Now, let me give you a flavor. Senator Fulbright had an opponent in 1968 who decided to make trade an issue. Now, the distinguished Japanese Ambassador is here. You know, people write as if we're having blood fights when we have arguments over trade policy. We didn't have arguments in '68. This guy got up at a platform and held up a shoe to his opponent, and he said. "This shoe was made in Communist Romania." This is a verbatim account, right? "Communist Romania," he said. "And Bill Fulbright is letting these shoes into your country, throwing our good, God-fearing people out of work to let the Communists from Romania have the job." That's a sample of what we had to deal with. [Laughter] So you know, we worked hard on him, and we got him to wear a checkered shirt. That picture you saw up there in a checkered shirt, that's the only time he ever came home without a necktie. [Laughter] So he's wearing this checkered shirt, you know, and we think we finally got him where he can sort of at least tolerate all this insanity that was going on there. All he had to do was kind of halfway be nice to people, and we thought he could get reelected. So, I was driving him around one day, and at the middle of all this tension we come to this little country town in southwest Arkansas, one road in, same road out. And we go into a feed store. And you remember what Lyndon Johnson used to say? If you can't look at a person in the eye and tell whether they're for you or against you, you've got no business in politics. No one could have mistaken the atmosphere in the feed store this day. [Laughter] This guy in overalls looked at Senator Fulbright and said, "I wouldn't vote for you if you were the last person on Earth." And Senator Fulbright sat down on this bale of hay or this -- it was a big sack of seed, and he said, "Well, why?" And I thought, be nice. The television cameras were on, you know. He said, "Because you're letting the Communists in. They're everywhere. Today it's Vietnam; tomorrow it will be -- they're everywhere." And he looked around, and he said, "I didn't see any when I came into town." He said, "Where are they, and what do they look like? I wouldn't recognize one." [Laughter] Well, anyway, he got reelected anyway. I say that because, you know, in all this highfalutin talk, it's important not to forget that the American political system produced this remarkable man. And my State did, and I'm real proud of it. Senator Fulbright always believed there were some things that he should defer Page 5 Public Papers of the Presidents, May 5, 1993 to the judgment of his constituents on, and others that he was charged with knowing more than they were and that he should do what he thought was right. And it did get him into a lot of trouble, but it helped our country get through a lot of rough times. In addition to those things which have been mentioned and written about, I can't help noting one of the things that drew me to him as a young man, and that is that he stood up to Joe McCarthy, something that meant a lot to a lot of us. The other thing he always tried to do was to get all of us who were around him to look at the other side of an argument. I remember when I was a young man working for him in that campaign, I was driving him around, and sometimes I'd get SO exasperated arguing with him because I could never win. We just argued all the time. And one day we were in a town, and I drove back out the same way I drove in. I was going to take us 100 miles in the wrong direction until he corrected me, which meant that the professor was not as absentminded as the student. [Laughter] But all during this time, it is impossible for me to fully capture for you the impact that he had on young generation after young generation in my State, how he made us believe that education could lift us up and lift this country up, how he made us believe that our obligation was to develop our minds to the maximum of our ability and then to use it, wherever it took us. He believed in reason and argument, and he believed in the end democracy could only prevail if we knew enough and were thoughtful enough to face the truth and try to search it out. It's still a pretty good prescription for what we ought to do. He also deeply believed that the racial, religious, and ethnic differences and the political differences that divided the world so deeply during almost all of this public career were vastly less important than the common bonds of humanity which could unite us if only we could take our blinders off. He was among the first Americans to try to get us to think about the people in the Islamic world as people; among the first Americans to try to get us to understand the different and various and rich cultures of Asia, which have now produced some of the most amazing achievements in all of human history. And that is one of the reasons, I think, Mr. Ambassador, that Japan, thankfully, has become the most outstanding supporter of the Fulbright scholarship program, something for which we are all very grateful. I close with this thought. About 4 years ago, Senator Fulbright's hometown of Fayetteville, which is the seat of the University of Arkansas where Hillary and I used to teach and where we were married, threw a big party for him and invited me as the Governor to come up and speak. And SO I went up there. It was a wonderful day on the square. It was a Saturday. And afterwards the farmers market was there, and I walked around the square and talked to all the farmers. We shot the bull about Bill Fulbright and talked about his career. And then I went up to the hotel room where Senator Fulbright, believe it or not, was watching a football game. And when I walked in and sat down with him -- we watched this ball game, and this young man kicked a field goal about 2 minutes after we sat down. He looked at me, and he said, "You know something, I can't believe it's been 64 years since I did that." I say that to make my final point: It doesn't take long to live a life. He made the most of his. And I think his enduring legacy to us is trying to help us all to have a better chance to make the most of ours. Thank you very much. Sit down: we're going to do one more thing. The job I now have, in the eyes Page 6 Public Papers of the Presidents, May 5, 1993 of my mentor, is probably not quite as good a job as being a United States Senator, mostly because I have to take all that criticism. But it does give me some prerogatives. In spite of what you may have seen or heard in the last several days, there are some things I can do without anybody agreeing to it. And tonight, for the first time as President of the United States, I intend to do one of them. And I'd like to enlist the aid of my distinguished military aide. Major Schorsch, would you please read the proclamation. NOTE: The President spoke at 9:49 p.m. at the ANA Hotel. Following the President's remarks, Senator Fulbright was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: June 14, 1993 05/30/96 18:22 202 205 2452 USIA Dabielle Bush 001 OEOB 196 OFFICE OF ACADEMIC PROGRAMS FAX COVER SHEET Date May 30, 1996 USIA FROM: TO: Name Linda ROTUNNO Name Tracy LABRECQUE Office Academic Programs Office Soud Secretary Phone (202) 619-6409 Phone Fax (202) 205-2452 Fax 456-6235 - 6235 Total number of pages including cover 11 Comments: Tracy - Lara IS some Fulbright background materials for the speach writers. \ will fax more get relasid From here. concrote talking points one \ Thanks, Link = -Black he - Pool during toasts - Audience: 130 301 4TH STREET, S.W., RM. 202 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20547 05/30/96 18:22 202 205 2452 USIA 002 [ULBRIGHT 1946 1996 Promoting Global Understanding FULBRIGHT PROGRAM - HISTORY AND IMPACT PROGRAM CONCEPTION Senator J. William Fulbright, raised and educated in Arkansas, had never seen a major American city before he received a Rhodes Scholarship in 1925 to study in England. His three- year experience at Oxford University and his travels in Europe convinced him about the importance of seeing the world from the points of view of other peoples and nations. This conviction would find lasting expression in 1945 when, as a freshman U.S. senator from Arkansas, he sponsored legislation establishing the exchange program which bears his name. At that time, Fulbright saw a world devastated by World War II and awed by its newly acquired atomic power. Albert Einstein warned: "We must acquire a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive." Remembering his overseas experience, the young Senator from Arkansas reasoned that people and nations had to learn to think globally if the world were to avoid annihilation. Fulbright believed that if large numbers of people lived and studied in other countries, "they might," he said, "develop a capacity for empathy, a distaste for killing other men, and an inclination for peace." LEGISLATION Senator Fulbright's legislation establishing the educational exchange program was added as an amendment to a bill about disposing of U.S. wartime properties in Europe, and passed through the Senate without debate. It was signed into law by President Truman on August 1, 1946. The program's first participants went overseas funded by war reparations and foreign loan repayments to the United States. The final legislative underpinnings of the Fulbright academic exchange program came with the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961. Also known as the Fulbright-Hays Act (Senator Fulbright introduced it in the Senate and Representative Wayne Hays of Ohio, in the House,) this law is still the basic charter for all U.S. Government-sponsored educational and cultural exchanges. It consolidated all previous] on the subject, retaining the principal characteristics of the program as it had developed and adding some new features. The stated purpose of the Act summarizes well the broad goals of the Fulbright Program: " to enable the Government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States, and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange; to strengthen the ties which unite us with other nations by demonstrating the educational and cultural interests, developments and achievements of the people of the United States and other nations, and the contributions being made toward a peaceful and more fruitful life for people throughout the world; to promote international cooperation for educational and cultural advancement; and thus to assist in the development of friendly, sympathetic, and peaceful relations between the United States and other countries of the world." Fulbright Program USLA Room 202 and 301 4th Street, SW Washington; DC 20547 THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release February 17, 1995 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT National Cathedral Washington, DC 10:25 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Mrs. Fulbright, the children and grandchildren of Senator Fulbright, all of his family and friends here assembled, we come to celebrate and give thanks for the remarkable life of J. William Fulbright -- a life that changed our country and our world forever and for the better. In the work he did, the words he spoke and the life he lived, Bill Fulbright stood against the 20th century's most destructive forces and fought to advance its brightest hopes. He was the heir of Jefferson in our time. He believed in the American idea, but he respected others who saw the world differently. He lived with passion tempered by reason. He loved politics, but cautioned against the arrogance of power. He cherished education as the answer to our common problems and our personal dreams. But he knew there would always be more to learn. Time and again for 32 years as a Congressman, a Senator, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He worked for progress and peace, often against great odds and sometimes at great personal cost; expanding opportunities for the people of his beloved Arkansas and other Americans who needed help to make the most of their lives; leading the way to found the United Nations; taking a long, lonely stand against Joseph McCarthy; expanding the reach of our culture as the driving force behind the Kennedy Center; fighting to change our course in Vietnam; reminding us that the forces of freedom would win the Cold War if we could avoid nuclear war, what he called his generation's power of veto over the next; and, of course, in a cold dawn only two weeks after Hiroshima, calling for the creation of the international exchange program that will live as his most profound legacy. The Fulbright Scholarship Program is a perfect example of Bill Fulbright's faith -- different kinds of people learning side by side, building what he called "a capacity for empathy, a distaste for killing other men, and an inclination for peace." Next year will be the 50th anniversary of that program. Now it includes as its alumni Nobel Prize winners, members of Congress, leaders for peace and freedom the world over; and many not SO famous people who went home to live out the faith of Senator Fulbright, more than 120,000 from other countries have come here and more than 90,000 Americans have gone overseas to study, to learn and to grow. No matter what their native tongue, all of them are now known by the same name Fulbrights. In a way, a lot of us here, especially those of us from Arkansas and those who worked for him in other ways over the years, are also in our own way Fulbrights. Those of us who knew and loved him, who worked for him, who learned from him, each of us have our indelible memories some of them serious, some of them quite funny. I must say that I was a little reluctant to accept the request that I speak today because I once attended a funeral with Bill Fulbright, and I know how much distaste he had for highly formalized rituals. If he were giving me instructions, he'd say, Bill, say something nice, be brief, and try to get everybody out SO they can enjoy this beautiful day. But let me tell you that those of us who understood and shared his roots in the Ozarks; those of us who knew what his life was like as a young person growing up and playing football and becoming president of a university; those of us who understood later in life what he learned when he had the chance first to travel overseas and study in England and see the insanity that resulted from the squandering of the victory in World War I; those of us who saw firsthand the enormous anguish he felt, as I would see him early in the morning and late in the evening in the Senate Office Building, in the great struggles over the Vietnam war; those of us who saw him in his campaign in 1968, when this country was being literally torn apart, still trying to learn, trying to understand, and trying to be understood. We will never forget the debt that we owe him and the debt the country owes him. When Mrs. Fulbright spoke last year in Germany, in recognition of the Senator's receipt of a distinguished award from the American Chamber of Commerce there, she quoted from a letter Senator Fulbright received 30 years ago. I'd like to leave it with you, SO that you can remember something of what he did, and the times in which he did it. She said, all this talk of leadership, freedom and education may seem simple, self-evident and commonplace to you now, but there was a time when it was considered radical, even dangerous. Thirty years ago, Senator Fulbright was called names I wouldn't dream of putting on paper, much less pronouncing to a respectable audience. 2 He got emotional letters full of praise and hate. There was one which affected him far more deeply than all the rest. And after reading it, he closed his office doors, ordered all the calls held, and wrote in longhand an answer which he did not copy. I will read you the letter: "Dear Senator Fulbright: I have never voted for you. I have never missed a chance to belittle you. But deep inside me, there was a nagging suspicion that I have been wrong. If this world plunges headlong toward what well may be its destruction, it gets increasingly harder to hear lonely voices, such as yours, calling for common sense, human reason and the respect for the brotherhood of man. But be of good cheer, my friend, keep nipping at their heels. This old world has always nailed its prophets to trees, SO don't be surprised at those who come at you with hammers and spikes. Know that those multitudes yet unborn will stand on our shoulders. And one among them will stand a little higher because he is standing on yours." We owe a lot to Bill Fulbright -- some of us more than others. Let us all remember the life he lived and the example he set. A few years ago, Senator Fulbright came home to Fayetteville, and we celebrated a Fulbright Day. I was then the Governor, and after the official event, we went back to his hotel room and watched the football game. And when the young player for one of the teams kicked a field goal, he looked at me and he said, you know, I used to do that over 60 years ago. I don't know what happened to all those years; they sure passed in a hurry. I think we can all say that they also passed very well. Senator Fulbright's lesson is captured on the statue in the Fayetteville town square in these quotes: "In the beauty of these gardens, we honor the beauty of his dream peace among nations and free exchange of knowledge and ideas across the earth. Bill Fulbright also left us the power of his example always the teacher, and always the student. Thank you, friend, and Godspeed. 3 05/30/96 18:25 202 205 2452 USIA 003 FULBRIGHTERS In its 50 years, the Fulbright Program has cnabled nearly a quarter of a million people from the United States and 140 countries to live and study in another country. More than 120,000 foreign nationals have taught, studied or done research in the United States, and more than 90,000 Americans have gone overseas to do the same. A master of Pembroke College, Oxford, has called this "the largest and most significant movement of scholars across the face of the earth since the fall of Constantinople in 1453." Many foreign Fulbrighters have returned home to become prime ministers, cabinet, members, diplomats, newspaper editors, and academics. Past and present heads of government who have come to the United States on Fulbrights include Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, Italian Prime Minister Lamberto Dini, and Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. Some Fulbright alumni, like United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, have become internationally prominent. American Fulbrighters have included university presidents Derek Bok and Hanna Gray, economist Milton Friedman, scientist Joshua Lederberg, historian Henry Steele Commager, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, novelists John Updike and Eudora Welty, composer Aaron Copland, actor Stacy Keach, and opera singer Anna Moffo. They also have included hundreds of elementary and high school tcachers who have exchanged classrooms for a year with foreign counterparts. ADMINISTRATION AND OVERSIGHT The Fulbright Program is administered by the United States Information Agency, the federal agency responsible for a wide range of educational exchange, information, and cultural programs abroad. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, composed of 12 presidentially-appointed members drawn from academic, cultural and public life, was created by Congress to establish policy guidelines for the educational exchange program. BINATIONALISM The Fulbright Program has become a global system of binational exchanges, each between the United States and a partner nation. Binational commissions which administer the exchange have been established in 50 of the countrics where the Program operates. Binationalism was a primary objective of Senator Fulbright. "I had not wanted this to be solely an American program," he wrote. "In each country, binational commissions were to develop the kind of program that made sense to them what kinds of students, or teachers and professors, should be selected, what kind of research work." ACADEMIC MERIT From the outset, the Fulbright Program has been truly "academic," with respect for the freedom and integrity that should characterize scholarly and intellectual discourse within and across national boundaries. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board pledged at its first meeting in July 1947 that "in all aspects of the program the highest standards be developed and maintained the individuals to benefit will be of the highest caliber, persons who demonstrated outstanding scholastic and professional ability and whose personalities and characters will contribute to the furtherance of the objectives of the program" FUNDING The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is a congressional appropriation; 05/30/96 18:26 202 205 2452 USIA 004 in 1995, $118 million was appropriated (72 per cent of the program cost). In addition $22 million came from 37 foreign government, $4 million from private donations, and $20 million in in-kind support. Foreign and American universities also provide indirect support such as tuition awards, salary supplements, housing and other benefits. Since its creation, the Fulbright Program's cost to U.S. taxpayers has not yet exceeded the price of one battleship, a fact that Senator Fulbright delighted in pointing out. Some of the 140 countries where the Fulbright Program operates now contribute up to half the funds needed to run their individual programs. These countries include Austria, Finland, Germany; Japan, Morocco, the Nethcrlands, Norway, and Spain. The program is currently facing a substantial decrease in its Congressionally-appropriated funding. IMPACT The Fulbright Program has produced several generations of leaders with broadened vision in the sciences, the arts, education, literature, business, the media, and government. It also has brought about an untold amount of shared knowledge, cross fertilization and global networking in all these fields. In a human sense, the program has touched the lives of nearly a quarter of a million Fulbrighters and, through them, and the students and colleagues they touched, brought greater understanding between the U.S. and other nations around the world. While the Fulbright Program begins on a community level, as a whole it represents a tremendously positive and far- reaching achievement in U.S. foreign policy. In 1993, South African President Nelson Mandela received the first J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, an award created to honor the spirit and career of Senator Fulbright. In receiving the prize, President Mandela spoke about how Fulbrights change the world view and direction of people who have received them: "We are thousands of miles away. Why should people in the United States of America worry about what is happening at the tip of the African continent. It is because we now have produced in this generation men and women who are not satisfied with addressing and solving the problems within the borders of their country, who regard themselves as part of humanity men and women who have chosen the world to be the theater of their efforts." On another continent, Augusto Alvarez Rodrich, director of Peru Economico, a leading Latin American business magazine, wrote recently, "The best U.S. investment in Latin America was not the Alliance for Progress, but the Fulbright scholars program." THE FULBRIGHT LEGACY For nearly 50 years, Senator Fulbright remained convinced of his program's worth. In 1986, he said, "The simple, basic purpose of the exchange program is to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another. Its essential aim is to cncourage people in all countries, and especially their political leaders, to stop denying others the right to their own view of reality and to develop a new manner of thinking about how to avoid war rather than to wage it. The exchange program is not a panacea but an avenue of hope -- possibly our best hope and conceivably our only hope for the survival and further progress of humanity." Speaking at the Feb. 17, 1995 memorial service for Senator Fulbright at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., President Bill Clinton recounted the Senator's many contributions to the world, including "in a cold dawn only two weeks after Hiroshima, calling for the creation of the international exchange program that will live as his most profound legacy." DRAFT PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM -- 50TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER THE WHITE HOUSE JUNE 5, 1996 Acknowledgments: Mrs. (Harriet) Fulbright; the Fulbright family; Dr. Duffey; friends Fifty years ago, in the aftermath of World War II, a man and his dream opened vast new horizons for a generation of young Americans who were hungry for greater cooperation and understanding in their world. Since the beginning of the Fulbright Program in 1946, more than 70,000 Americans have gone overseas to study, learn and grow; and more than 130,000 students from other countries have come here. Some of the world's finest leaders, thinkers and artists have benefitted from this special experience -- some of them are here tonight. No matter what their native tongue, all of them are now known by the same proud name -- Fulbrights. No one in my lifetime was more influential both personally and globally than my friend and mentor, Senator J. William Fulbright. He understood, better than anyone I have known, that the only way to lasting peace between people from different countries and cultures is through the simple act of giving and receiving the best that each has to offer. Senator Fulbright once said, "The essence of intercultural education is the acquisition of empathy -- the ability to see the world as others see it, and to allow for the possibility that others may see something we have failed to see, or may see it more accurately. The simple purpose of the exchange program is to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another. It is not a panacea, but an avenue of hope " As we celebrate 50 years of bipartisan support for the Fulbright Program, let us rededicate ourselves to this ideal and let us pledge to do all we can to keep the Fulbright Program alive for future generations. Thank you and God bless you all. 05/30/96 18:29 202 205 2452 USIA 006 [ULBRIGHT 1946 1996 Promoting Global Understanding World Leaders on the Fulbright Program "No one who has lived through the second half of the 20th century could possibly be blind to the enormous impact of exchange programs on the future of countries. [W]hen I was a young man, I worked for the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Fulbright: There is a scholarship program that carries his name that literally, in my judgement, has changed the whole direction of policy in country after country after country." ~ President Bill Clinton "I was one of a generation of students for whom there was nothing more desirable than to get a Fulbright scholarship" - German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, quoted in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Munich "Fulbright exchange is an expansive concept founded on a global vision. A program which once promoted the solidarity of the West now sustains exchanges between the United States and over 120 nations It expresses, it helps us to master the growing interdependence of the world" - Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 1974 "The experience in the United States clearly played a part in molding my philosophy of life, a philosophy which took me into the New Zealand Parliament for 22 years and in a way almost predestined that I would return to the United States as New Zealand's Ambassador." - Sir Walter Rowling, former Fulbrighter, New Zealand's former Prime Minister and Ambassudor to Washington "Along with the Marshall Plan, the Fulbright Program is one of the really generous and imaginative things that have been done in the world since World War II." - Arnold Toynhee, 1971 The Fulbright Act has been "responsible for the largest and most significant movement of scholars across the earth since the fall of Constantinople in 1453." ~ Oxford Don, Robert B: McCallum "I was able to work on the very frontier of a new and exciting part of economics, and India was an excellent laboratory in which to study the development process undoubtedly my experience as a Fulbright student was one of the highlights of my coming to maturity." - Andrew Brimmer in a quote while member of the Federal Reserve Board "There is a flickering spark in us all which, if struck at just the right age can light the rest of our lives, elevating our ideals, deepening our tolerance and sharpening our appetite for knowledge about the rest of the world. Educational and cultural exchanges, especially among our young, provide a perfect opportunity for this precious spark to grow, making us more sensitive and wiser international citizens through our careers." President Ronald Reagan, The While House, May 1982 Fulbright Program USLA Room 202 301 nth Street, SW Washington, DC 20547 05/30/96 18:30 202 205 2452 USIA 007 [ULBRIGHT 1946 1996 Promoting Global Understanding Quotes from Senator J. William Fulbright "Our future is not in the stars but in our own minds and hearts. Creative leadership and liberal education, which in fact go together, are the first requirements for a hopeful future for humankind. Fostering these -- leadership, learning and empathy between cultures was and remains the purpose of the international scholarship program that I was privileged to sponsor in the U.S. Senate over forty years ago. It is a modest program with an immodest aim -- the achievement in international affairs of a regime more civilized, rational and humane than the empty system of power of the past. I believe in that possibility when I began. I still do." - The Price of Empire "International educational exchange is the most significant current project designed to continue the process of humanizing mankind to the point, we would hope, that men can learn to live in peace -- eventually even to cooperate in constructive activities rather than compete in a mindless contest of mutual destruction We must try to expand the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy and perception, and there is no way of doing that except through education." - Remarks on the thirtieth anniversary of the Fulbright Program, 1976 "Educational exchange can turn nations into pcople, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations. Man's capacity for decent behavior seems to vary directly with his perception of others as individual humans with human motives and feelings, whereas his capacity for barbarism seems related to his perception of an adversary in abstract terms, as the embodiment, that is, of some evil design or ideology." - Speech to the Council for International Education Exchange, 1983 To continue to build more weapons, cspecially more exotic and unpredictable machines of war, will not build trust and confidence. The most sensible way to do that is to engage the parties in joint ventures for mutually constructive and beneficial purposes, such as trade, medical research, and development of cheaper energy sources. To formulate and negotiate agreements of this kind requires well-educated people leading or advising our government. To this purpose the Fulbright program is dedicated." - Remarks on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Fulbright program "The essence of intercultural education is the acquisition of empathy -- the ability to sec the world as others see it, and to allow for the possibility that others may see something we have failed to see, or may see it more accurately. The simple purpose of the exchange program is to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another. The exchange program is not a panacea but an avenue of hope - The Price of Empire Man's struggle to be rational about himself, about his relationship to his own-society and the other peoples and nations involves a constant search for understanding among all peoples and all cultures -- a scarch that can only be effective when learning is pursued on a worldwide basis." Forward from The Fulbright Program. A History Fulbright Program USTA Room 301 4th Street, SW Washington, DC 20547 05/30/96 18:34 202 205 2452 USIA 008 2 "Or all the joint ventures in which we might engage, the most productive, in my view, is educational exchange. I have always had great difficulty -- since the initiation of the Fulbright scholarships in 1946 -- in trying to find the words that would persuasively explain that educational exchange is not merely one of those nice but marginal activities in which we engage in international affairs, but rather, from the standpoint of future world peace and order, probably the most important and potentially rewarding of our foreign-policy activities." - The Price of Empire "There are limitations to foreign policy. We are neither omniscient nor omnipotent, and we cannot aspire to make the world over in our image. Our proper objective is a continuing effort to limit the world struggle for power and to bring it under civilized rules. Such a program lacks the drama and romance of a global crusade. Its virtuc is that it represents a realistic accommodation between our highest purposes and the limitations of human capacity. Its ultimate objective is indeed total victory, not alone for our arms in a nuclear war or for the goal of a world forcibly recast in our image, but rather for a process -- a process of civilizing international relations and of bringing. them gradually under a worldwide regime of law and order and peaceful procedures for the redress of legitimate grievances." - From a Senate address, July 24, 1961 "Wc make policy apart from the image of what our world would be like after a war -- or, as in the case of Vietnam or Nicaragua, apart from any awareness of the piles of decomposing bodies, the mutilated children, the cemeteries, and the broken lives that are always the tangible human results of any war." - The Price of Empire "The making of peace is a continuing process that must go on from day to day, for year to year, so long as our civilization shall last. Our participation in this process is not just the signing of a charter with a big red seal. It is a daily task, a positive participation in all the details and decisions which together constitute a living and growing policy." ~ From a Senate address, March 28, 1945 "Peace is not a negative, static concept. It is not a tranquil state of felicity and blessedness. It is a positive method of adjusting the endless conflicts inherent in the nature of restless and energetic men. The institution of law based on justice and adaptable to the EVCI- changing life of man has been such a method in the history of mankind." - From a Senate address, July 23, 1945 "Ever since the end of the Marshall Plan, when it has been a question of meeting the desperate needs of people clsewhere for economic and social programs, we have been pinch- penny in our approach. But when it has been a question of aid for the military establishments of other countries, the hand has gone deep and unhesitatingly into the pocket of the American people. We have on a grandiose scale provided peoples of the underdeveloped nations with the weapons of destructive warfare, and have been miserly in providing them weapons to wage war on their own poverty, economic ills, and internal weaknesses." - From a Senate address, August 6, 1958 05/30/96 18:34 202 205 2452 USIA 0 009 3 "Professors have an influence that is hard to identify or to measure. But I think it's there, and eventually their students, or in some cases the professors themsclves, are in positions to influence government policy, which is the final pay-off. They influence the policy to find a way of conciliation and compromise rather than warfare. That's the ultimate objective. I think [the Fulbright program] is a very specific, concrete way to approach it-to DO something, as people say, about peace." - From a Voice of America interview on the 40th anniversary of the Fulbright program "The preservation of our free society in the years and decades to come will depend ultimately on whether we succeed or fail in directing the enormous power of human knowledge to the enrichment of our own lives and the shaping of a rational and civilized world order It is the task of education, more than any other instrument of public policy, to help close the dangerous gap between the economic and technological interdependence of the people of the world and their psychological, political, and spiritual alienation." - Prospects for the West "Il is altogether unrealistic -- and probably undesirable as well - to aspire toward a single, universal community of humankind with common values and common institutions The rapprochement of people is only possible when differences of culture and outlook are respected and appreciated rather than feared or condemned, when the common bond of human dignity is recognized as the essential bond for a peaceful world." From remarks upon receiving the Athinai International Prize awarded by the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, Athens, April 1989 "When all is said and done, when the subtleties and abstractions of strategy and power have all been explained, we remain confronted with the most fundamental questions about war and peace, and why we contest the issucs we do, and why we even care about them. Why, after all, is it that so much of the energy and intelligence of nations is used to make life painful, and difficult for other peoples and nations, rather than to make life better for all? Why are we willing to fight and die over ideological questions and sacrifice so much for abstractions so remote from personal satisfactions that bring fulfillment to our lives?" - The Price of Empire "And finally what of the writer? You have a unique responsibility to the political community of which you are a part. That responsibility arises from your talent, from your capacity to enlighten, to civilize those citizens to whose hands is entrusted the ultimate power in our society. The writer is the natural teacher of the people. In this hurried mechanical age, the artist and intellectual are among the few who have the serenity and sense of perspective which may help us to find a way out of the fevered confusion which presently afflicts us. Through you the political community needs to be taught how and what to laugh at, how and what to scorn or to pity; needs to be taught continuously that honor is not the same as fame or notoriety, that physical bravery is not the only form of courage. It needs to be taught the proper objects of anger or of love. It needs to be taught the nature of justice. And above all, through you, the political community needs to be taught that the capacity of the human mind has yet to be explored, that there can be new possibilities for men themselves." - From the National Book Award luncheon address, New York City, January 25, 1955 05/30/96 18:35 202 205 2452 USIA 0 010 1946 1996 Promoting Global Understanding Fulbrighters on the Fulbright Program "The Fulbright Program is not some form of aid or cultural imperialism or carrying American expertise to a foreign country (though it does that too), but it is also setting up a large body of people who have acquired not only knowledge about this foreign country to which they go, but far deeper knowledge about our own country, to return here to teach or do research." ~ Robin Winks, a Yale historian, Fulbrighter to New Zealand in 1952 and to Malaysia in 1962. "These international exchange programs, especially the Fulbright, are the best and most cost-effective way to achieve two priorities: maintaining peace and security, and fostering American economic growth." ~Chicago lawyer David Russo, Fulbright to Italy in 1963. "Fulbright means the development of special relationships with a country and its people through deep immersion over time and shoulder-to-shoulder work on important problems. Fulbright means a spirit and a vision It means confidence, it means touching people, it means changing other people's lives and one's own." - Deborah Christie; a London neuropsychologist, Fulbrighter to the United States in the mid-1980's. "A teacher can get whatever he or she wants from a Fulbright Teacher Exchange. That can be lifelong friends, or an enduring pedagogical exchange, or a new perspective on education in the United States. My assignment was to teach English. The strategy I used was to call on the enormous vitality of our nation. U.S. music, sports, history, and geography make for thrilling classes The students had such a thirst for our culture that it made my curriculum endless." ~ Brian Fitzpatrick Fulbrighter to Colombia in 1992. "We're used to, in modern life, to a number of things, products, that we identify by their brand names. That with which we blow our noses (Kleenex), that on which we copy pieces of paper (Xerox), or objects that we define by their brand names. But we (the former Fulbright Scholars) are also 'products' defined by a brand name, namely Fulbright. The product is less tangible, it's probably more difficult to specify its many virtues, we know instinctively what they are." Hanna Gray, President, University of Chicago, Fulbrighter to "One did not have to spend many weeks in Norway to recognize that its pre-university educational system was vastly superior to that in the United States. This realization, indeed shock, catalyzed a continuing involvement in the struggle to create an educational system for young Americans that is compatible with their future responsibilities to themselves, their country, and to freedom The Fulbright Program is many things to many fortunate people. For me, the Fulbright experience clearly shaped the broad framework of my life - Harrison H. Schmitt, U.S. astronaut and later senator from New Mexico, Fulbrighter 10 Norway in 1957. Fulbright Program - Over - USIA Room 202 301 4th Street, SW Washington, DC 20547 05/30/96 18:36 202 205 2452 USIA 011 "The years in America made me feel more open. Now I don't want to speak only to my own people. I want to use the international idiom to speak to the world. And the Fulbright contributed to that importantly." ~ Putu Widjaja, Indonesian short story writer, film-maker, and magazine editor, Fulbrighter to the United States in 1985. "Professionally, I've had a peek at the world from a different vantage point -- exactly what I'd hoped for. In journalism, this is extremely hard to see and invaluable after learned. This alone will carry me far in my career a career aimed at communicating different perspectives and promoting fuller understanding of the political and cultural 'whys' and 'why-nots' in the world." ~ Delin Cormeny, from Overland, Kansas, Fulbrighter to Zimbabwe in 1993. "Words cannot adequately describe my Fulbright experience in Poland. The warmth and generosity of the Polish people the joy and wonder of living in a new and different land, the teaching the knowledge gained and the stimulation of creative efforts all this and much more have made up my Fulbright year in Poland." ~ William A. Lang, Associate Professor of Theater Arts, University of Arizona, Fulbrighter to Poland, 1994-95. "Personally the exchange has shown me that I can function almost anywhere. Fears of the unknown, strange, different are at a minimum level. A greater sense of adventure has been aroused. I have also discovered how "American" I am in that I enjoy the freedoms we have This experience has made it much more evident to me that similar problems exist everywhere through the sheer fact that we are human beings and interact as human beings." - Dagmar Haney, Fulbrighter to Germany, 1993-94. Soprano Anna Moffo, the daughter of a shoemaker from a small town in Pennsylvania, and a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, visited Rome on a Fulbright grant. When an Italian singer was suddenly taken ill, Moffo filled in and was an instantaneous success. Back in the United States, she became one of at least a dozen former Fulbright students who have sung at New York's Metropolitan Opera. When interviewers compliment her on her beautiful voice and outstanding singing career, she responds, "Most of all, I thank God for my Fulbright." "I come away from my Fulbright with an even deeper commitment to the need for anyone teaching in higher education to spend time working abroad. The importance of so-doing is immeasurable in terms of international understanding. The appointment gives one an opportunity to view the world from a fresh perspective and leads one to become more sympathetic to the problems other peoples confront." - George Stephen Semsel, Fulbrighter to the People's Republic of China, 1993-94 "I visited the United States in 1969-70 and taught senior students physics and mathematics in a senior high school in southern Missouri. It helped me become a better teacher, and, for the past 10 years, principal of a large school here. The aim of the Fulbright Program -- increasing understanding between nations and strengthening their relationship has given me a mature view of the relationship between the United States and India. I understand the United States better, and I understand my own country better." - G.K. Kapoor of New Delhi, Fulbrighter 10 the United States, 1969. February 8, 1996 H:\FULBRIGHAQUOTESAL.WPD January 1995 A sampling of background items about J. William Fulbright Birth: Sumner, Missouri, April 9, 1905 Education: University of Arkansas, B.A., 1925; Oxford University, Oxford, England, M.A.A.B. and Rhodes Scholar, 1928; George Washington University, LL.B., 1934 Service: Faculty member, University of Arkansas Law School, 1936-1939; President, University of Arkansas, 1939-1942; Member of the United States House of Representatives, Third District of Arkansas, 1943-1945; Member of the United States Senate representing Arkansas, 1945- 1975; Legal Counsel, Hogan & Hartson, Washington, D.C., 1975-present J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT 17 89 THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF GEORGETOWN COLLEGE: TO ALL WHO SHALL VIEW THESE PRESENTS: GREETINGS AND PEACE IN THE LORD Georgetown University today honors J. William Fulbright - whose name within his own lifetime has been inscribed in dictionaries of the English language as a common noun standing for international education. Conceived in 1945 by the newly elected senator from the state of Arkansas and enacted into law in 1946, the Fulbright scholarships stand today as the largest exchange of persons program in the history of the world. They also stand as the enduring emblem of J. William Fulbright's career - a career devoted to the advancement of world peace and understanding. Known through much of his career as a dissenter, Senator Fulbright has had the courage to stand alone when conviction and principle required him to do so. In 1954 he cast the single vote in the United States Senate against funding the McCarthy investigating committee. In 1965 he spoke out, alone, against the Dominican intervention, and in the years that followed his was perhaps the foremost voice of reasoned dissent in opposition to the Vietnam War. Dissent, however, is only part of the story, and that the lesser. Senator Fulbright's larger purpose has been to build, to help his country fulfill the high promise of herself in which he has never ceased to believe. If "America was promises," as the poet Archibald MacLeish wrote, then Senator Fulbright's enduring purpose was to find the practical means by which promise could be made into reality. Accordingly, Senator Fulbright has been a pioneer in support of a world peacekeeping organization. As a freshman congressman in 1943 he secured enactment of the Fulbright resolution, which put the Congress on record in support of American membership in a postwar United Nations. Senator Fulbright remained a strong supporter of the UN idea throughout his thirty years in the Senate. When others lost faith, he retained his; if the UN seemed not to be working, he would seek for ways to make it work. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee . a position he held longer than any senator in American history - Senator Fulbright turned the Committee into a classroom for the nation. Always seeking for new ideas, new insights, and new approaches to the great issues of international affairs, Senator Fulbright brought before the Foreign Relations Committee not only government officials but an illustrious array of scholars, thinkers, and writers to help educate the American people on matters ranging from the nature of revolution to the psychological aspects of international relations. And in these hearings the chairman always seemed to be the most ardent student in his own classroom. A citizen of the world and an American patriot, Senator Fulbright is no less a son of the South and of his home state of Arkansas. His empathy for nations that have suffered defeat and occupation is the empathy of a son of the South, the only region of America that has known defeat and occupation. His sympathy for the less developed nations of the world - expressed in his strong, effective support over many years of aid to developing nations through international agencies - has derived in no small part from the experience of Arkansas, until recently one of the poorest states, and now, due in no small part to the legislative efforts of Senator J. William Fulbright, one of the fastest growing and more prosperous states in the American union. At home, as well as in international affairs, Senator Fulbright's theme has been education. An early and relentless sponsor of federal aid to education at all levels, Senator Fulbright has seen the classroom as the single most important arena for the economic advancement of his state and of the nation as well as for the elimination of racial inequality in all regions of the United States. Such have been Senator Fulbright's aims, and the United States Senate was his forum. The great debates in which he participated, and more often than not initiated, are in the great tradition of the Senate, and have given Senator Fulbright a place among the most illustrious figures in the history of that great body. For his many contributions to his country and his state, for the luster he lent to the United States Senate, for the wisdom and idealism of his statesmanship, for his lifelong efforts in support of world peace and understanding, and for his creative and far-sighted contributions to education both at home and abroad, the President and Directors of Georgetown University proudly and respectfully proclaim J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT Doctor of Humane Letters, bonoris causa In testimony whereof they have issued these their formal letters patent, under their hand and the Great Seal of the University of Georgetown in the District of Columbia, this twenty-second day of November, nineteen hundred and eighty-five. VIRGINIA M. KEELER TIMOTHY S. HEALY, S.J. Secretary President RICHARD B. SCHWARTZ PETER P. MULLEN Dean Chairman, Board of Directors Oct.19,1989 Dinner in Honor of J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT was born in 1905 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Educated in the public schools, he went on to the University of THE HONORABLE J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT Arkansas to take a B.A. in political science in 1925. He then left Arkansas for Oxford, England, where - a Rhodes Scholar - he 7:00 p.m. Cocktails Lecture Room earned B.A. and M.A. degrees. Returning to America, he entered 8:00 p.m. Dinner Great Hall George Washington University Law School, graduating with 9:00 p.m. Dinner Program distinction in 1934. After two years with the Antitrust Division of the U.S Department of Justice, he returned to the University of Welcome and Introduction of The Honorable J. William Fulbright Arkansas to teach law. Presentation of Gift to Senator Fulbright In 1939, when Fulbright was just thirty-four years of age, he was named president of the University. Three years later, in 1942, he was The Honorable David Pryor United States Senator elected to the U.S. Congress and, in 1944, to the U.S. Senate. Over State of Arkansas the next thirty years, Senator Fulbright was chairman of the in- fluential Banking and Currency Committee (1955-1959) and the Remarks Committee on Foreign Relations (1959-1974), holding the latter Dr. Samuel O. Thier President, Institute of Medicine position longer than any previous incumbent. He also served as a Dr. Daisaku Miwa member of the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Economic Chairman, Research Foundation for Committee. Opto-Science and Technology Senator Fulbright is best known for the enlightened legislation he Dr. Michio Okamoto introduced in 1945 (revised as the 1961 Fulbright/Hays Act) spon- Japanese Council for Science and Technology and former Fulbright Scholar soring academic exchange to promote better understanding between Americans and the people of other countries. To date, the Fulbright Introduction of Keynote Speaker Program has awarded over 171,000 scholarships and involved more Dr. James D. Ebert than 120 countries. Vice President, National Academy of Sciences In 1975 Senator Fulbright left government to join the Washing- and Director, Chesapeake Bay Institute ton law firm of Hogan & Hartson. Married for more than fifty Keynote Address years, he has two daughters and five grandchildren. One of America's most distinguished statesmen, Senator Fulbright "Challenges of International Science and Technology in the 1990s" The Honorable D. Allan Bromley is this country's acknowledged champion of education in the service Assistant to the President of international understanding. for Science and Technology Policy Fulbright does not get excited as he speaks, but drawls along in a rich deep tone. He can voice withering before anybody can stop him. A par- Fulbright criticism without heating up, speed- ing up or raising the pitch. Quite liamentary system, with its vote of apart from his dark blue suit, white no confidence, can keep any presi- shirt, blue tie, careful grooming, in- dent from getting tco big for his telligent face and non-stupid smile, breeches and Fulbright likes it. He his voice has made it impossible for has pointed out that a parliamentary him to mesmerize millions or draw system would have ensured the Vantage to himself the crowd that seeks fran- prompt dumping of President Nixon tically for some new savior. He is, in without trauma to the country at fact, a gentleman. large. His parents came from rural Mis- He also deplores the present sys- tem as an "invitation to amateurs to souri and he grew up in rural north- western Arkansas. His father, Jay compete for the highest office in the Still Keeping an Eye on Fulbright, was a farmer who moved land" and such is his faith in legis- from Sumner, Mo., to Fayetteville, lators he would prefer a system in Ark., in 1906, when the future sen- which they chose the president. "The Bully' and the Bear ator was a baby. There the father He supposes a man cannot help prospered. He died in 1923, leaving being deeply influenced by the work WASH 5-6-84 interests in a lumber business, farms, he has done for most of his life, and By Henry Mitchell a newspaper and other properties. says President Reagan is of course ULBRIGHT-it was only natural he should be Still, in a small town such prop- influenced by his Hollywood years. F called Halfbright by the careless, though the insult erties do not spell vast wealth, and "He goes on television and it's is not heard much now. Brightness never was the the senator's mother, Roberta hard for people to remember he's Waugh Fulbright, had her work cut reading a script, playing a part, and problem, anyway, but clarity was; he saw too clear- ly the muddle of the American brain and spoke just a trifle out managing with six children. of course as an actor he's good at it." too plainly of the nerds around him who got the nation "A genius," Fulbright says of her. mired in Vietnam and who have now gone on to further ac- Along with everything else she wrote Fulbright now lives quietly-does complishments of similar luster. a newspaper column, "As I See It," anyone live loudly?-in the Kalo- for the Fayetteville newspaper, a col- rama section of the capital with his J. William Fulbright sits these days at a desk in the umn Fulbright is reminded of by wife, Betty (Elizabeth Kremer Wil- Hogan & Harston law offices, where he has been counsel to some he reads in Washington. liams of Philadelphia), who has been the firm of 70 partners since 1977, facing a rather large pic- At the University of Arkansas he ill. On chilly spring mornings they sit ture of the log house he used to own in Arkansas, with a played football, which rewarded him downstairs together by the fire and gazebo out front and some fine trees and plenty of room, you with a bum knee that gives him talk. Their two daughters, Elizabeth would judge. He sold the place and its land, but he likes to some trouble, but then football and Roberta, are married to acade- look at the old picture. helped him win a Rhodes scholar- micians. He never intended to be a politician, let alone a senator ship to Oxford. And in Congress, Sometimes he wonders if it would from Arkansas and chairman of the Foreign Relations Com- when some of his constituents waxed have been better to stay in Arkansas mittee, which, a lot of people would say, was the key insti- wroth at his fierce opposition to Sen. as university president. Life can be tution in reversing public sentiment on the Vietnam war. Joe McCarthy, or when Fulbright pleasant there, "and I'd be a richer There had been dissent, but it was only when the powerful criticized popular policies, the fact man today." Senate committee began holding critical hearings that great that he played good ball in school He ponders for a second, perhaps numbers began having second thoughts. did a little to temper the outrage. wondering if it would be agreeable to Now retired from politics (he was defeated by fellow He became president of the uni- adopt a suffering-servant stance, but Democrat Dale Bumpers in 1974), he suspects the nation versity, the youngest college presi- smiles instead and goes forward: ought to start having second thoughts about a few other dent in America, and before long "Growing up innocent from the things, including Israel, Central America, Lebanon, Grenada had a falling out with the governor. backwoods, I used to believe all the and the arrogance of American power in general. Indeed one He ran for the House and won in government says. It took me years to of his books is called "The Arrogance of Power." 1942. (Earlier he got his law degree notice otherwise, and to see they do "I don't approve of the use of force in Lebanon or, for with distinction from George Wash- it all the time. that matter, Grenada. For a big country to send troops to ington University, and was for a year "We are easily misled. Americans areas of no real great interest to this country is a bad thing; an instructor in law there, before naturally want to believe the pres- returning to Arkansas.) ident." it's like the role of a big bully. "In Lebanon we accomplished nothing except lose some "Another thing-" Fulbright said, He speaks of the Korean Air for he proceeds a little bit in the Lines incident in which the Soviet fine Marines and we looked foolish: The Lebanon venture was ill-conceived. because the trouble there is simply part of manner of the Psalms, recapitulating Union shot down an unarmed plane and advancing a step, "they handed flying far off course. Fulbright says the ongoing argument between Arabs and Jews, and that out 8,000 medals for Grenada or that after the president rallied the argument will only be settled by intense negotiation, which whatever it was. What a silly child- nation, a good many of his facts is where all the emphasis should be. ish thing. Some of them went to turned out not to be facts. But the "In Israel Begin created a terrible attitude, and now the guys sitting around the Pentagon. most depressing thing, Fulbright sus- expansionist moves of settling the West Bank are going to There's something rather degrading pected, was that hardly anybody make it that much harder. Any number of thoughtful Jews about it. Now, when a real hero gets failed to applaud the president's are distressed; they disapprove, but hesitate to criticize. a medal, it's been cheapened, it handling of it.. They don't want to be thought opposed to Israel. And now, doesn't mean a thing." It's the drift toward an "evil em- anything less than open adulation will bring you the charge He is well aware there is less like- pire" view of the world, us against of anti-Semitism, as I very well know. lihood the nation will turn to a par- them, that bothers Fulbright. He "What's going on in Israel now is against their interest, liamentary system than there is for speaks of the First World War and against both their interests Ithe Arabs'l and against nure the to turn scarlet but hn likes the shock it produced that civilized have innocent people without any experience." He turns to the Japanese, whom he admires: "We think you win by fighting, by competition. They believe in consen- sus and the pressure of peers. They don't go in for winning or losing, they believe in agreeing. "What was significant in Presi- dent Nixon's approach to Russia was the joint ventures, however small, whether with Russia or China-pol- lution control or space, cooperative action was the thing, and this is what builds confidence between na- tions. "A great authority said of his work with teen-agers that the thing was to get them working together. They became friends and the rest fol- lowed." The senator, you could easily guess, was leading up to the Ful- bright program of exchange stu- dents, but was not quite ready for the major launch and returned to his own political career and two things that have plagued him. J. William Fulbright; by John McDonnell-The Washington Post "First, I should have been more alert at the time" the Senate passed in the world to stop it. Fulbright been called anti-Semitic. Well, the Tonkin Gulf resolution giving Christ." says it's no wonder that when people the president virtually free rein. Two reflected on this, they decided there A pause. The senator is thinking senators, Wayne Morse (I-Ore.) and of the number of people he has Ernest Gruening (D-Alaska), alone had to be a better way, and that made mad over the years and (al- opposed the resolution and Ful- communism was one of the ways most certainly) thinking what the bright wishes with all his heart he'd some tried, at the price of wiping out hell if he did: made it a party of three. much personal freedon. and dissent- "I'm beyond redemption anyway." "Not that it would have made the ing lives. Z slightest difference in the course of Still, as he sees it, and thinks any- Fulbright often walks from his affairs, but I'd feel better about my- body else is bound to see it, Russia is Connecticut Avenue office to the self." a superpower and that the first con- Metropolitan Club for lunch. He He grew up in a region where sideration, beside which all else is watches out for evil things like rich blacks are fewer than 1 percent of secondary, is that the two superpow- food (formerly you could spot him at the population, far different from ers avoid pushing their differences to parties by going straight to the crab other parts of Arkansas where they the point of war. legs, which he had a passion for) and greatly outnumber whites. "I remember Khrushchev ap- most doctors would be proud of him In the Senate he dragged his feet peared at the Foreign Relations since he is pretty abstemious in diet. or opposed civil rights legislation. Committee. In effect he said there's Still, he sometimes smokes a ciga- Fulbright's position was not an ex- no reason we should not get along if rette afterwards. A man ought to alted one-he felt it was better for you treat us seriously as a great na- remember he was born part devil, him to survive in the Senate, and his even if he was born Baptist-clean. fondness for looking straight at facts tion. I say why can't we face the fact "When you get down to it," he whether he liked them or not re- that Russia exists and we can't continues, "what the hell are we minded him he could not conceiv- change it. It's like this mole on my fighting with the Russians about? ably remain as senator from Arkan- face. I don't like it but I accept it." The main thing is we can't get our sas if he pressed for civil rights for One of his chief objections to thinking straight enough to form a blacks. American policy supporting Israel is sensible foreign policy. We're still The experience of Rep. Brooks that it affects a more important afflicted with the idea the Russians Hayes (D-Ark.) sobered many thing-American relations with the are intractable, you can't trust them Southern legislators. When Presi- Soviet Union. As he sees it, the So- and 80 on. dent Eisenhower threatened to send viets have moved to the Arab side "I hate this business that we troops to Little Rock to ensure in- largely to counter American influ- preach so much that the Russians tegration of public schools, Hayes ence resulting from its close ties with are monsters that soon everybody proposed that Gov. Orval Faubus go Israel. seems to think they really are. By to Washington to discuss this with "The Israeli lobby is the most contrast there was détente-Nixon the president. The mere suggestion powerful in Congress. Israel would started it in 1972- and that was the of compromise or accommodation not exist except for American aid right approach, to start on joint ven- ensured the end of Hayes' political over the years, but they may pursue tures we could both agree on. career. policies contrary to our own interest. "Think of self-fulfilling prophe- me proposed recon- his Fulbright Program of sending the rest of It. struction of schools ruined in the Americans abroad to study and "The ones who believe in spending war, leading to the U.N. Economic and Social Council. bringing foreigners here. Funded all this for the symbols. of interna- largely by American taxpayers, there tional power say they are realists Soon after taking his Senate seat and call me romantic. It is exactly (he won election in 1944) he intro- are nevertheless 24 foreign govern- ments that chip in, and 140,000 stu- duced his resolution on international the other way around. They are the dents- have lived abroad for a time. freedom of the press. romantics and I am the realist here." Sometimes these students think Ful- In 1946 the Fulbright Scholarship He said in a recent talk: bright is a rich man who paid for it program was begun, through an act "Power and pride are not cheaply all himself, as one of Fulbright's of Congress allowing surplus war bought. Neither the Soviet Union cousins did: property abroad to be sold to pay for nor the United States has yet be- "I just can't understand Bill doing an exchange of students between the come a paradise of prosperity and it. He's SO tight." United States and other countries. happiness. But both feel obliged to If he visits Japan (where 14 uni- He was the only senator to vote expend additional vast sums on versity presidents are former Ful- against funding the Operations Com- matching each other's ever-growing bright scholars, along with members mittee of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy stockpiles of weapons This, we of the Diet and the Supreme Court), (R-Wis.) and later, when he thought are told, is political realism. he is revered. A newspaper with cir- the Senate's censure of McCarthy "The Romans were able to glory culation several times that of The was not strong enough, he offered an for a time in their domination of the Washington Post devoted 16 pages amendment of six specific charges. world and to swell with pride to him and the Fulbright project. but eventually their empire decayed Recently 100 Japanese came here on and fell apart. The respected journalist Arthur a sentimental journey to visit their "The British were able for a few Krock once wrote that Fulbright was old Fulbright alma maters, and to decades to survey an empire over more favorably known in more coun- thank Fulbright. which the sun never set, but that did tries than any legislator in many A business leader, chairman of Johnson Wax Japan, said after the not make Liverpool a beautiful place decades, and Walter Lippmann once war he felt he had no future, no to live in, nor did it make the chil- observed that nebody else was "so powerful, so wise, and if there were chance of advanced education. He dren of Welsh coal miners healthy any question of removing him from won à Fulbright scholarship and the and strong. On the contrary, it con- public life, it would be a national world opened up. Now the Japanese sumed resources that might have calamity." alumni of the program are raising gone for these purposes. And then— But the press has not always idol- millions, through personal gifts, ben- after all-the sun did set." ized him, nor he the press: efit golf tournaments and so forth, to He does not say a nation can for- "We take very seriously a trial like swell the coffers for American stu- get self-respect in the world or allow [John] Hinckley's [who shot Presi- dents to come to Japan. its citizens to be run over roughshod dent Reagan] though I'm not sure Fulbright thinks that if the pro- by others. what the significance of Hinckley is gram can continue another 40 years, to the national welfare. But enor- without disastrous war, the cumu- "But dignity has nothing to do mous space, whole pages, were given lative effect may be greater than with domination, nor is self-respect to him. Nothing like that is devoted anyone thinks. the same thing as arrogance. A na- to foreign affairs. That reflects what tion can take pride in its accomplish- the judgment of the public interest Some will argue that the pervers- ments without taking on a mission- ity, romantic nonsense and blissful ary role in the world is. The public is thought to be un- interested in serious political ques- unawareness of reality among Amer- tions. A man like Jerry Falwell can icans will make it impossible for any "Which is the greater legacy any program of any kind to have sub- generation of leaders can bequeath, a stir up hatred against the foreign devil-a sign of immaturity in the stantial effects on American policies, temporary primacy consisting of the which will (they argue) go from one ability to push other people around, populace RS a whole." folly to another in the hands of one or a well-run society of cities without That observation was made a few violence or slums, of productive months ago. He supposes the press, demagogue or another until the ul- like the legislature and the presiden- timate ruin. Fulbright, however, re- farms and of education and oppor- members how the nation turned ful- tunity for all citizens?" cy, reflects the thought of the aver- ly around on Vietnam, from the days To ask it is to answer it. age citizen and much of the time Fulbright thinks it atrocious. He also every critic was called a "nervous It drives him almost bats to be thinks it could be changed, and he Nelly" to the day Lyndon Johnson thought singular. In the back of his has always marveled that those who knew his career was at a flat dead cheerfully smiling, politely spoken, have had every advantage (he does end. As the senator said recently (for blue-eyed 79-year-old head he is not single out the press) do so little he occasionally sounds off even out sure the country will come round to to advance the nation's welfare and of office): him; that is, to his view, for he never risk so little, in the way of popular- "Even if it turns out, as it may, cared much for personal adulation. ity, in leadership toward sanity. that man's capacity is not great He is himself a country boy, played enough to eliminate the danger of ball and worked in the lumber yards He considers Vietnam, Lebanon, nuclear war, to feed an overcrowded and a bottling plant and all the rest Grenada and so on, and sees the en- world and to elevate the human ma- of it, and there is nothing that he thusiasm of virtually every citizen jority from the degradation of pov- can see that sets him apart from for actions that seem to him not erty, it is better for us not to know what is sometimes called the "Com- merely stupid and jingoistic, and not in advance that we are going to fail. mon Man." The common man had even merely morally wrong, but po- "Our own human nature does not no trouble doing an about face on tentially ruinous to American secu- rity. allow us to give up the game in ad- Vietnam and Lyndon Johnson. And vance, to reconcile ourselves to hope- Fulbright, the optimist, does not He is aware many well-placed lessness or to death in nuclear war. think he is all that far from the com- 13 '93 03 58PM PUBLIC STRATEGIES DC P.3 Today, we honor a Rhodes Scholar, a teacher, lawyer, university President, Congressman and Senator who served longer as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee than anyone in history; his enduring legacy includes the flagship program for international exchange that carries his name. He led the Senate to approval of several historic arms reduction treaties, he helped commit Congress to the establishment of the United Nations, and he played a critical role in the creation of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. On the square in Senator Fulbright's hometown is a tranquil flower garden in which stands a bust inscribed in tribute to the town's favorite son. It reads: "J. William Fulbright, a Fayetteville son, President of the University of Arkansas, and United States Senator from 1945-1974, planted seeds of peace which grew into the United Nations, the Fulbright Exchange Program, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In the beauty of these gardens, we honor the beauty of his dream peace among nations and the free exchange of knowledge and ideas across the earth." The United States honors this man of peace and principle who has help make this world a better place to live. From the President of the United States I am extremely delighted to honor Senator Fulbright on his 88th birthday. I have admired his patriotism and service to our nation since I was a young intern in his office. The valuable lessons Senator Fulbright taught me have profoundly affected my understanding of government and international relations, and for that I am eternally grateful. Senator Fulbright has long understood that nations must engage in meaningful dialogue in order to avoid the isolation- ism that can tear the world fabric apart. As a freshman Congressman, he secured the enactment of the resolution that committed the House of Representatives to support the cre- ation of the United Nations. Later, as a newly elected senator, he conceived the student exchange program that today pro- vides many young men and women with the skills and educa- tion they need to contribute to global prosperity. This program provides a valuable medium for learning the processes of international relations and for developing new ways to improve relations among nations of the world. As a critic who sought and found solutions for the things he criticized, he dissented when his conscience and his judg- ment required him to do so. Walter Lippmann recognized the Senator's contributions by declaring, "There is no one else who is SO powerful, and also so wise; and if there were any question of removing him from public life, it would be a national calamity." 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. Happy Birthday and thank you. President William J. Clinton and Senator J. William Fulbright at The American University Centennial Convocation. Bru Clinton Bill Julbright: Patriot and Realist W hatever the assessment by historians and biographers of Senator Fulbright's contribu- tion, there is no doubt whatever that, in his own view, the exchange program that bears his illustrious name was the single most important achievement of his thirty-two years in public life. That program, begun so modestly and initiated almost surreptitiously in 1946 as a convenient means of disposing of surplus foreign assets after World War II, now stands as the largest exchange of persons program in the history of the world. Now, after 47 years - years in which some 80,000 American students and scholars have studied and lectured abroad while more than 100,000 foreign scholars have come to the United States - there are signs that in some degree Senator Fulbright's great vision is beginning to be realized. The world is still beset with regional strife, poverty, and environmental degradation. But the simple, basic purpose of the exchange as Senator Fulbright has defined it - "to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another" - no longer seems quite the utopian dream of the worst years of the cold war. Senator Fulbright is often thought of as a dissenter - and he surely was that. He dissented from the excesses of the cold war - from the Bay of Pigs in 1961 to the Dominican intervention of 1965, the long, divisive involvement of the United States in Vietnam, and the long and ruinous arms race with the Soviet Union. And in all of these dissents, costly though they were to him both politically and personally, he never flinched from his own responsibility as a senator and as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - the responsibility, as he himself defined it, to offer the best advice he could on matters both foreign and domestic, a responsibility that took precedence over per- sonal political advantage and even party loyalty. The discharge of this legislator's duty was not always welcomed by presidents and Senate colleagues, some of whom directed memorably colorful epithets at the junior senator from Arkansas. But through all the uproar and fireworks Bill Fulbright equably persisted, pointing out, as he did in The Arrogance of Power, that when your country falls short of its own promise and capacity, "then approbation is a disservice and dissent the higher patriotism." Dissent, however, was not Mr. Fulbright's favorite activity, nor was it his primary occupation. Besides the exchange program, he gave useful service to the nation by securing the adoption of the Fulbright resolution of 1943 under which the Congress committed itself to support the creation of the United Nations; by hard and often thankless work year in and year out in shaping and reshaping the foreign assistance program; by leading the Senate to approval of the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963, the nuclear nonproliferation treaty of 1968, the ABM and SALT I agreements of 1972; and by his ceaseless efforts in support of federal aid to education. Under Senator Fulbright's leadership the Foreign Relations Committee became a forum in which some of the nation's leading scholars and thinkers were called in to advance ideas on issues ranging from Soviet-American détente to the Middle East, the history of American relations with China, the nature and patterns of revolution, the psychological aspects of foreign policy, the condition of American society and the impact of that con- dition on the nation's foreign relations, and still, on the prospects of international organization, of realizing, as he put it, "the age old dream of beating swords into plowshares." For all these contributions - and for the wit and wisdom with which he advanced them - we honor Senator Fulbright on his 88th birthday. Most of all - if there is a "most of all" among so many lifetime achievements - we thank the senator for the educational adventure he made possible for so many - the exchange program whose multiplier effect, as Senator Fulbright has written, "carries the possibility - the only real possibility - of changing our manner of thinking about the world, and therefore of changing the world." The Julbright Program the Julbright / Issociation O ften called the flagship for international educational exchange, the Fulbright Program T Fulbright Association is the private, nonprofit membership organization of Fulbright was created by legislation introduced in 1945 by Senator J. William Fulbright and Program alumni and friends. Senator J. William Fulbright serves as its honorary chairma signed into law in 1946. The legislation sought to promote mutual understanding The Association works to insure the availability of the Fulbright Program for future gener between the people of the U.S. and the people of other nations. tions of students, teachers, and scholars. Association chapters throughout the United States offe The first executive agreement authorizing educational exchange under the Fulbright Act was pitality and enrichment programs for visiting Fulbrighters from nearly 130 countries to increase concluded in 1947 with China. Derk Bodde, a Sinologist from the University of Pennsylvania, soon mutual understanding. The Association promotes cooperation among the nearly 200,000 Fulbri, became the first U.S. scholar to receive a Fulbright award. Within six months exchange agreements Program alumni worldwide, working with Fulbright associations in 43 other countries to foster g were adopted with Burma, the Philippines, and Greece. cooperation in solving global problems. Approximately 4,800 Fulbright grants are awarded annually to U.S. students, teachers, and Created by alumni in February 1977, the Fulbright Association supports and promotes the scholars for study, teaching, lecturing, and research in more than 130 countries around the world and Fulbright and other programs of international educational and cultural exchange through the eff to foreign nationals to engage in similar activities in the U.S. of its dedicated volunteers around the country and those of its professional staff at the national in Washington, D.C. Thirty-three chapters, organized and run by volunteers, offer Fulbrighters Since 1949 approximately 94,000 Fulbright grants have been awarded to U.S. students, teach- tunities to "give something back" to the program and to stay in contact with each other and curr ers, and scholars, including grants from both the United States Information Agency and the Fulbright grantees. The Association also provides public service opportunities to Fulbrighters Department of Education. Some individuals receive more than one Fulbright award. The total number through task forces on Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union and on AIDS. of U.S. awards represents an estimated 78,000 alumni. Since 1949 approximately 123,000 Fulbright grants have gone to foreign nationals. The worldwide network of Fulbright alumni will soon reach In October 1993 the Fulbright Association will award the J. William Fulbright Prize for 200,000 people. International Understanding to honor the Fulbright Program and the vision and creativity of its 250,000 founder. The U.S. Congress appropriates Fulbright Program funds - $111 million in fiscal year 1992. Last year 39 foreign governments also allocated funds to the program. Host institutions in the U.S. and abroad support the program through in-kind contributions - for example, housing and airline Board of Directors tickets - and salary continuations, stipend supplements, and tuition waivers. Foundations, corpora- tions, and alumni around the world also make donations. President A distinctive feature of the Fulbright Program is its use of binational commissions in countries Michael S. DeLucia which have entered into exchange agreements with the U.S. There are 48 active Fulbright binational commissions. These bodies are composed equally of distinguished national educators and cultural Vice Presidents Kempton Dunn leaders and of Americans from the U.S. embassy and resident American community. Roy N. Freed Crystal S. Ettridge Maurizio A. Gianturco Philip O. Geier John B. Hurford Loren W. Hershey Stephen Kanter John Chonghoon Lee, Sr. Brenda S. Robinson Dale A. Masi Elliott P. Skinner Steven Muller Kathy Waldron Naima Prevots Cassandra A. Pyle Directors Aphrodite Sarelas Dwayne 0. Andreas Maxine S. Thomas Judith A. Cochran Robert Wright Executive Director Jane L. Anderson President John F. Kennedy and Senator Fulbright greeting Fulbright scholars in the White House Rose garden. 05. 07. 93 02:31 PM P02 12.00.00 us newswire=> coc 551 9158 Lall 000-345-8845 rage 1 Fax National Press Building Phone (voice) Office Fax U.S. Newewire Fax Newswire Suite 1272 202-347-2770 202-347-2767 800-945-8845 Washington, D.C. 20046 500-544-8995 800-942-1150 2521# U.S. NEWSWIRE GENERAL DIRECTORY ext of President's Remarks in Tribute to Sen. Fulbright To: National Desk Contact: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 202-456-2100 WASHINGTON, May 7 /U.S. Newswire/ - The following is a transcript of President Clinton's remarks during this week's tribute to Sen. J. William Fulbright. ANA Hotel Washington, D.C. May 6 9:49 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. It's good to know that I did get a vote out of the press. (Laughter.) Roger, I'm delighted to be here, and I'm 50 glad that you're here. I'm glad to 1 be here with Senator and Mrs. Gore. Senator Gore, after you spoke and you said you resented the fact that Senator Fulbright was 88 and you were a mere 85 and half, when you went over to him I heard him say what the crowd did not -- Senator Fulbright looked at him and said, "Albert, if you behave yourself, you'll make it, too." (Laughter.) I want to say that it is a deeply humbling experience for me as an American to be here with all these wonderful people. Many people in this audience have made remarkable contributions to our nation and to the world over the last half century or SO. And I thank you all, as part of the contingent of Arkansans who are here, who feel very protective of Senator Fulbright and feel that in some ways he is still our own. It's a great pleasure and sense of pride for me to look out and see all of you here. (Applause.) I also want to say a special word of appreciation to Harriet. You know, when Senator Fulbright announced that he and Harriet were going to be married, all the people from Arkansas started telling cradle robbing jokes. (Laughter.) And I've got an 88-year-old uncle, and for kicks, he goes out once a week and drives two ladies around one of them is 91 and one of them is 92. And I asked my uncle I said, "You like these older ladies?" And he said, 0'5. 07. 93 02:31 PM P03 05/07/93 14:20:58 US Newswire-> 202 331 4158 Call 800-945-8845 Page 2 "Yes, it seems to me like they're a little more settled." (Laughter.) I just am -- I'm glad Bill didn't give into the temptation for being settled and instead found Harriet. (Applause.) You know, somebody ought to put a little levity into this evening. Senator Pryor and Congressman Thornton are out there, and Jim Blair, who once ran one of Senator Fulbright's campaigns. And those of us who grew up in Arkansas, I have to say, had this incredible image of Senator Fulbright. First of all, if you grew up in our state and you knew anything about politics, it was immensely gratifying after it, to see the way people sort of dumped on our state back in the '40s and '50g and said we were all a bunch of back- country hayseeds. And we had a guy in the Senate who doubled the IQ of any room he entered. (Laughter.) It was pretty encouraging. You know, it made us feel pretty good like we might amount to something. (Applause.) When Hillary first came to Arkansas she said, "You know, you all beat better people down here than most states elect." (Laughter.) And then she (applause) unfortunately, there were two occasions when that might have applied to me. (Laughter.) But, anyway, she finally developed - Hillary finally developed this theory that the reason all of our good people went into politics is that we couldn't make an honest living in the depressed economy and it increased the quality of political life. I say this to try to give you some texture. You know, a lot of people are out here in this audience tonight who worked for Senator Fulbright in his campaigns, worked for Senator Pryor, Congressman Thornton, and worked for me. And some of us have been so controversial that we are, to use the Arkansas colloquialism, we are quite a load to carry. (Laughter.) And I wish I could take every one of you back tonight to Senator Fulbright's 1968 reelection campaign. I mean, I wish you could have been there. Now, remember, here we are '68. The country is embroiled in the Vietnam War, split right down the middle, except in the south where it wasn't down the middle - more people were still for it than "agin" it. The country was torn up. There had been riots in the streets. There was great division over poverty and race. Everybody was wound tight as a drum. George Wallace was moving through the south faster than Sherman did, (Laughter.) And carried Arkansas that year. And here we are, all of us kids, trying to reelect Fulbright in this environment, right? Now, let me give you a flavor. Senator Fulbright had an opponent in 1968 who decided to make trade an issue. Now, the distinguished Japanese Ambassador is here. You know, people are write as if we're having bloody fights when we have arguments over trade policy. We didn't have arguments in '68. This guy got up at a platform and held up a shoe to his opponent and he said, "This shoe was made in communist Romania." (Laughter.) This is a verbatim account, right? "Communist Romania," he said. "And Bill Fulbright 05/07/93 14:21:38 US Newsuire-> 282 331 4158 Call 800-945-8845 Page 3 is letting these shoes into your country." (Laughter and applause.) "Throwing our good God-fearing people out of work to let the communist from Romania have the job." That's a sample of what we had to deal with. (Laughter.) So, you know, we worked hard on him and we got him to wear a checkered shirt - that picture you saw up there in a checkered shirt. That's the only time he ever came home without a necktie. (Laughter and applause.) So he's wearing this checkered shirt, you know. And we think we finally got him where he can sort of at least tolerate all this insanity that was going on there. All he had to do was kind of halfway be nice to people and we thought he could get reelected. So one day we come to the -- I was driving him around one day. And we -- at the middle of all this tension we come to this little country town in southwest Arkansas, one road in, same road out. (Laughter.) And we go into a feed store. And you remember what Lyndon Johnson used to say? If you can't look at a person in the eye and tell whether they're for you or against you, you've got no business in politics. (Laughter.) No one could have mistaken the atmosphere in the feed store this day. (Laughter.) This guy in overalls looked at Senator Pulbright and said, "I wouldn't vote for you if you were the last person on earth." And Senator Fulbright sat down on this bale of hay or this -- it was a big sack of seed, and he said, "Well, why?" And I thought, be nice. The television cameras were on, you know. He said, "Because you're letting the communists in. They're everywhere. Today it's Vietnam, tomorrow it will be they're everywhere." And he looked around and he said, "I didn't see any when I came into town." (Laughter.) He said, "Where are they and what do they look like? I wouldn't recognize one." (Laughter.) Well, anyway, he got reelected anyway. (Laughter.) I say that because, you know, in all this highfalutin talk it's important not to forget that the American political system produced this remarkable man. And my state did, and I'm real proud of it. (Applause.) Senator Fulbright always believed there were some things that he should defer to the judgment of his constituents on, and others that he was charged with knowing more than they were and that he should do what he thought was right. And it did get him into a lot of trouble, but it helped our country get through a lot of rough times. In addition to those things which have been mentioned and written about, I can't help noting one of the things that drew me to him as a young man, and that is that he stood up to Joe McCarthy, something that meant a lot to a lot of us. (Applause.) 05/07/93 14:22:13 US Mewswire-> 282 331 4158 Call 888-945-8845 Page 4 The other thing he always tried to do was to get all of us that were around him to look at the other side of an argument. And he would I remember when I was a young man working for him in that campaign, I was driving him around and sometimes I get 80 exasperated arguing with him because I could never win. We just argued all the time. And one day we were in a town and I drove back out the same way I drove in. I was going to take us a 100 miles in the wrong direction until he corrected me, which meant that the professor was not as absent-minded as the student. (Laughter.) But all during this time, it is impossible for me to fully capture for you the impact that he had on young generation after young generation in my state. How he made us believe that education could lift us up and lift this country up. How he made us believe that our obligation was to develop our minds to the maximum of our ability and then to use it -- wherever it took us. He believed in reason and argument, and he believed in the end democracy could only prevail if we knew enough and were thoughtful enough to face the truth and try to search it out. It's still a pretty good prescription for what we ought to do. He also desply believed that the racial, religious and ethnic differences and the political differences that divided the world so deeply during almost all of his public career were vastly less important than the common bonds of humanity which could unite us if only we could take our blinders off. He was among the first Americans to try to get us to think about the people in Russia as people. He was among the first Americans to try to get us to see people in the Islemic world as people. Among the first Americans to try to get us to understand the different and various and rich cultures of Asia, which have now produced some of the most amazing achievements in all of human history. And that is one of the reasons, I think, Mr. Ambassador, that Japan, thankfully, has become the most outstanding supporter of the Fulbright Scholarship Program, something for which we are all very grateful. (Applause.) I close with this thought. About four years ago, Senator Fulbright's hometown of Fayetteville, which is the seat of the University of Arkansas -- (applause) -- where Hillary and I used to teach and where W8 were married -- threw a big party for him and invited me as the Governor to come up and speak. And so I went up there. It was a wonderful day on the square. It was a Saturday. And afterwards the farmer's market was there and I walked around the square and talked to all the farmers. We shot the bull about Bill Fulbright and talked about his career. And then I went up to the hotel room where Senator Fulbright -- believe it or not -- was watching a football game. And when I walked in and sat down with him -- we watched this ball game and this young man kicked a field goal about two 05/07/93 14:22:58 US Newswire-> 282 331 4158 Call 888-945-8845 Page 5 minutes after we sat down. He looked at me and he said, "You know something -- I can't believe it's been 64 years since I did that." (Laughter.) I say that to make my final point. It doesn't take long to live a life. He made the most of his. And I think his enduring legacy to us is trying to help us all to have a better chance to make the most of ours. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Sit down, we're going to do one more thing. (Laughter.) The job I now have, in the eyes of my mentor, is probably not quite as good a job as being a United States senator. Mostly because I have to take all that criticism. But it does give me some prerogatives. In spite of what you may have seen or heard in the last several days, there are some things I can do without anybody agreeing to it. (Laughter and applause.) And tonight, for the first time as President of the United States, I intend to do one of them. And I'd like to enlist the aid of my distinguished military aide, Major Schorsch -- would you please read the proclamation. (The proclamation awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award to Senator Fulbright is read.) (Applause.) END 10:05 P.M. EDT FACTS ABOUT THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM The Fulbright Program, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1996, was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by Senator J. William Fulbright. In 1961, the Fulbright/Hays Act updated and expanded the original legislation. The purpose of the Fulbright Program is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries through educational exchange. Nearly 5,000 Fulbright grants are awarded each year for U.S. students, teachers, professors and professionals to study, teach, lecture and conduct research abroad, and for foreign nationals to do likewise in the U.S. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, which consists of twelve Presidentially-appointed members, supervises the Program, provides policy guidance and makes final selection of all grantees. The Fulbright Program is administered in the United States by the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) through a number of cooperating agencies, the principal of which are the Institute of International Education and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. In addition, a small portion of the Program is administered by the Department of Education. Overseas, the Program is administered in 49 countries by a Binational Commission, and in the remaining countries by USIA overseas staff. The total cost of the Fulbright Program for academic year 1993-94 was about $167 million. Approximately 72% ($121 million) came from Congressional appropriations to USIA and to the Department of Education. In addition, foreign governments contributed approximately $22 million, and $24 million came from donations, endowments and in-kind support from the private sector. The cost to the American taxpayer since the Program began 48 years ago is $1.67 billion. Nearly 200,000 Fulbright alumni, many in positions of authority and prestige, can be found in over 140 countries throughout the world. Examples include U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, Peruvian Minister of Education Alberto Varilla, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Geza Jeszenszky, Romanian Minister of Finance Florin Georgescu, and Librarian of Congress James Billington. 08. 29. 94 03:28 PM PO3 The 'Dr. Leo M. Goodman Award' Ceremony of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany Munich, Germany HARRIET FULBRIGHT 29 April 1994 Ambassador Holbrook, Mr. Kiep, Mr. Irwin, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor and a pleasure to be here before you on this happy occasion. My husband, as you may know, has always had a special regard for Germany. His ancestors sailed from here during the early part of last century as the Volbrechts and settled in the United States as the Fulbrights, either because an immigration official couldn't spell or because they felt they needed a name more easily understood in their new country. He has therefore followed events here with particular interest and has marvelled over what has happened within the last five years. No one was more surprised than he by the fall of the Berlin Wall four years ago. That he did not expect during his lifetime, and we both hope that he lives for many more years. He was even more pleased, but no longer surprised to witness Germany's rapid reunification and the sincere effort to treat both the Eastern and Western sectors fairly and with sensitivity. It has furthermore not escaped his attention that Germany has assumed a position of leadership in the formation of the European Economic Community and the discussions on the Monetary Union. He has also applauded her role as the biggest financial supporter in the effort to transform the Russian economy from a communist into a capitalist system. Within the last half century Germany has risen from the ashes of an unspeakable war to become a responsible and humane member of the European community, and Senator Fulbright is prouder than ever of his heritage. He truly regrets that he cannot travel these days but wanted me to assure you that he is here with you in spirit and urged me to convey his gratitude and his greetings. I have thought a good deal about my message to you today and what I might say to compensate for the absence of the man you are honoring with the Dr. Goodman Award. It finally occurred to me that you might enjoy hearing some of his thoughts in his own words and stories of his life which give you a sense of who J. William Fulbright really is, and what is in his character that propelled him to create such an extraordinary legacy of accomplishments. Bill Fulbright was always and still is a practical, energetic and unassuming person, one who likes to get things done without worrying about the credit or the ceremony. Pomposity or posturing has never been in his nature. At one point in the early 1960's on a trip to Costa Rica with President Kennedy and a group of his colleagues, there was a good deal of confusion over who should travel to town in which limousine, and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was inadvertently left behind at the airport. I am sure that there were vehicles with drivers which could have taken him had he put up enough of a fuss, and I strongly suspect that there were airport telephones which he could have used to demand another vehicle from the American Embassy, but no, he quietly asked for directions and walked the four miles to San Juan. It was exceedingly hot and dusty, but in about an hour he entered the U.S. Embassy where he found the pile of baggage belonging to his party. Missing, however, was his briefcase. "Oh," said a young Foreign Service officer when asked about it, "I locked the briefcase with your confidential papers in the top secret safe." "Top secret?" For the first time Fulbright raised his voice. "You locked up my tooth brush and shaving kit?!?" Now practical and unassuming does not mean ordinary; the word ordinary does not in fact fit here at all. He was a man in search of unusual ideas, always trying to push beyond the commonplace, the accepted practice, the habits or traditions of the day. It was a trait he honed to a fine art, first as a professor of law and later as President of the University of Arkansas. Despite its potential for danger, he continued the practice as a Senator. One foreign relations committee staff member remembers that during his first week on the job he picked up the phone and was startled to hear the chairman on the other end demand, "Have you got any ideas?" The poor man was completely tongue-tied until he finally came to understand that new ideas was exactly what his chairman wanted - new, outrageous, untried, unthinkable ideas. In 1964 Senator Fulbright put it this way: We must dare to think "unthinkable" thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about "unthinkable things" because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless. (Senate speech, March 27 1964) This constant stream of "unthinkable thoughts" which he both elicited from colleagues and generated on his own were by no means tossed out to the public hastily or without considerable thought. Fulbright has always had strong feelings about the duties of elected representatives, about what it really means to be a leader in a democracy. It was his opinion that while the people should be heard, the elected leader should use the judgement, knowledge and experience gained from being in a position of leadership to create or influence policy as he or she deems best, regardless of popular opinion. After listening to all sides, a leader should use persuasion to enlighten and educate constituents rather than remain silent or camouflage differing opinions - something he considered a complete abdication of responsibility. His compulsion to think independently often created controversy, never more than when he began to speak out publicly against President Johnson's actions in Vietnam. This I think was one of the most difficult periods in his public life, and some have commented that the very light in his eyes dimmed. But even then in that bleak and hostile environment, he felt compelled to give voice to what he thought was right, no matter what the consequences. Much later he wrote: Today our elected representatives and the "communications" experts they employ, study and analyze public attitudes by sophisticated new polling techniques. But their purpose has little to do with leadership, still less with education in any area of our national life. Their purpose seems to consist 2 largely in discovering what people want and feel and dislike, and then in associating themselves with those feelings. They seek to discover which issues can be safely emphasized and which are more prudently avoided. This is the opposite of leadership; it is followership, elevated to a science, for the purpose of self-advancement. (from The Price of Empire) Fulbright felt that leadership, on the other hand, requires the ability to find the ways and means to open the eyes of the populace and expand its horizons - the ability to elevate the whole community's critical thinking skills and sense of responsibility so as to feel comfortable with and flourish under that which is the great universal golden ring to societies around the globe: namely, freedom, which he described this way: If ever a universal victory for democratic values comes within reach, it will come, I believe, not through acts of foreign policy, and certainly not through military policy, but rather through the magnetism of freedom itself. The prospects for freedom depend ultimately on how it is practiced in free societies. (from Prospects for the West) Senator Fulbright went on to say whenever he could 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 each 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. His most famous piece of legislation has extended an educational experience beyond national borders for over 200,000 scholars from every part of the earth. It was based on the powerful persuasion of his own firsthand experience as a Rhodes scholar and was created, as most of you know, out of a sense of urgency right after the end of World War II - an urgency derived from the certain knowledge that the invention of the atomic bomb spelled the end of the human race should there be another world war. This international education exchange program which bears his name has in its almost fifty years of existence cost less than two days of our defense program at the present time. Despite the relatively minuscule financial outlay, it is recognized as one of the strongest forces for peace on the planet. As he put it: Education is a slow-moving but powerful force. It may not be fast enough or strong enough to save us from catastrophe, but it is the strongest force available. The success of the Fulbright Program is clear. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Fulbright should be enormously flattered by the rapidly increasing number of international exchange programs which have since then sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain. What also begs for attention is the need in both our countries for a public education system which fosters life-long learning and a sense of community. It is becoming ever clearer that we have a great challenge in our immediate future. Fulbright often said that democracy can 3 only flourish under a thoughtful, responsible and educated citizenry; and he is not referring to the stuffing of students with information and statistics which they spit back during multiple choice tests. He is talking about teaching through all our intelligences so that lifelong learning becomes a universal habit; about honing higher critical thinking skills with which to analyze and evaluate both professional problems and government policy so as to become better voters; about the encouragement of creative thought to focus on and find solutions for such massive problems as environmental pollution and global economic policy; and about leading our young into active participation in community affairs so that it becomes a natural activity during adulthood. He is talking about an interdisciplinary education which must be enjoyed by all children, rich and poor, urban and rural. He is talking about the type of education that needs to spread throughout the world if we are to reach above and beyond mere survival as a goal for the human race. All this talk of leadership, freedom and education may seem simple, self evident, and commonplace to you now, but there was a time when it was considered radical - even dangerous. Thirty years ago Senator Fulbright was called names I wouldn't dream of putting on paper, much less pronouncing before a respectable audience. Emotional letters, full of praise and hate, streamed steadily into his Senate office, some of it painful to him. There was one letter, however, which affected him far more deeply than the rest. After reading it, he closed his office doors, ordered all calls held, and wrote in long hand an answer which he did not copy. I will read it to you: Dear Senator Fulbright: I have never voted for you. I have never missed a chance to belittle you. But, deep inside me there is a nagging suspicion that I have been wrong. As this world plunges headlong toward what may well be its own destruction, it gets increasingly harder to hear lonely voices such as yours calling for common sense, human reason and a respect for the brotherhood of man. But, be of good cheer, my friend. Keep nipping at their heels. This old world has always nailed its prophets to trees, so don't be surprised at those who come at you with hammers and spikes. Know that those multitudes yet unborn will stand on our shoulders. And one among them will stand a little higher because he is standing on yours. So this is, as best as I can describe him, the man you have chosen to honor: unassuming, ever searching and thoughtful, concerned about the nature of freedom and leadership, obsessed with expanding educational opportunities around the globe, unafraid of criticism. I hope that I have reminded you of what he stands for and why you have honored him so. I hope that you find yourselves even prouder of your choice today and are willing to help carry on his work. 4 WASH. DOST SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1992 A21 In his Senate years, and especially when Colman McCarthy he chaired the foreign relations commit- tee, Fulbright often led the search party for alternatives. If obstacles were in the Fulbright: way, he learned eventually who put thems there. During the Vietnam War, that was Lyndon Johnson. Seven years after voting for the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution: Still Fulbright said he was lied to: "The fault of the Congress, including this speaker, was in believing the president of the United States, in having too much confidence in a Searching for man and in neglecting to insist upon the full exercise of the constitutional powers of Congress." With stunning prescience, much of what Alternatives Fulbright was saying 20 years ago reads as if it were taken off this morning's front page. "I shouldn't try to give a lecture today in This could apply to Bill Clinton, whom my condition," said the Arkansas politician worked in Fulbright's office in the mid- although he had just spoken for 10 minutes 1970s: "What I do deplore, and with all with eloquence and wit. As for his "condi- possible emphasis, is the shift of the attack tion," it was nothing noticed, except may [by the news media] from policies to per be that he didn't bound up to the podium, sonalities; from matters of tangible consem only walked. quence to the nation as a whole to matters At 86, J. William Fulbright, out of the of personal morality of uncertain relevance Senate since 1974 after 29 years of ser: to the national interest.' (1974) vice there and one term in the House has This about the S&Ls: "We're going to slowed only a half-pace physically and not have the worst of both worlds if we're at all intellectually. A few days ago, when going to start bailing people out of mis much of the country was looking at anoth managed private enterprise. It is utterly er Arkansas politician having down-home inexcusable for the government to rescue mud slung at him, Fulbright was being private investors who took a risk in the honored for his lifelong zeal for both inter: first place." (1970) national peace and global education. On the pack in New Hampshire: "Now Anyone whose spirits have been cast our leaders are asking for sacrifice, but low by the miasmic state of current poli- their trumpet blows so feebly as to leave tics can look at Fulbright's life and ideals one in doubt that they expect or really and be revived. Some monumental figures want it. Fearing political retaliation if they do rise from time to time. They make our ask for real austerity, they ask for no more disenchantment with politics akin to"a than token self-denial. They are asking the lingering cold, not a fatal illness. least of people, and that, to their dismay, is' The former senator, who lives in Wash what they are getting." (1975) ington on a street near Rock Creek Park, And this on the Middle East and Israeli was honored with the Corita Kent Peace intransigence: "Israel, I am convinced can Award, presented by officials of the Im and should survive as a peaceful, prosper- maculate Heart College Center of Los ous society-but within the essential bor- Angeles who came east for the ceremony ders of 1967. That much we owe Fulbright hadn't planned to speak, but the them, but no more. We do not owe them warmth of those honoring him brought our support of their continued occupation forth a few thoughts. He recalled the of Arab lands. The Palestinian people origins of the scholars program named have as much right to a homeland as do after him and funded by Congress in 1946. the Jewish people." (1974) Some 35 other countries now contribute Fulbright, blessed with physical longevi- to it. Eighty-nine thousand U.S. scholars ty, now turns out to have had also the gift have studied abroad, and 118,000 interna- of speaking long-lasting truths. What! be tional students have come to U.S. schools said 20 and 25 years ago is as sound today In 46 years of opening minds, the scholar as the scholars program he launched in the ships have cost about $1.3 billion, equal-to 1940s. And just as needed. the Pentagon budget for a day and a half. on The philosophy of the program, Fulds bright said, was always to offer alternates tives to military force. Referring to the closeness of the Senate vote before the invasion of Iraq, he argued, "Many people recognized that we shouldn't [go to war for the reason that we should follow a system in which you don't resort to force to get your own way, that you have to resort to negotiations. That's the rationate way There's an alternative that yould can take 60103 The Honorable J. W. Fulbright llogan & Hartson 555 - 13th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20004 6-26-91 Dear Senator: last Wednesday, Senate Ethics Committee Special Counsel Rob Bennett, who investigated the Keating Five, spoke to the Exchequer Club of Washington on the subject of ethics standards for public officials. In his search for what public conduct should be all about, Bennett said that the most important statement he has found to capture the essence of the matter is something you said in 1951, and he then read your statement, which is quoted in the enclosed letter from Bennett. It occurs to me that Bennett's opinion of the current relevance of your view is significant, and I wanted to share this with you. Warm regards, Dear Mr. Lambert: I enjoyed meeting you yesterday. You asked me for the citation for the following remark by former Sena- tor Fulbright: One of the most disturbing aspects of this problem of moral conduct is the revelation that among so many influ- ential people, morality has become identical with legality. We are certainly in a tragic plight if the accepted standard by which we measure the integrity of a man in public life is that he keeps within the letter of the law. This quotation comes from a 1951 speech by Senator Fulbright on the Senate floor entitled "The Moral Deterioration of American Democracy." The speech can be found in Volume 97 of the Congressional Record at pages 2904-06. The particular paragraph I quoted is on page 2905. Sincerely, Bob Bennett Robert S. Bennett Reflections of a Conservative Optimist THE PRICE OF EMPIRE By J. William Fulbright with Seth P. Tillman 243 pp. New York: Pantheon Books. $17.95. By Gaddis Smith HERE have been more politically powerful Unit- ed States senators in this century, but none more intellectually distinguished or historically inter- esting than J. William Fulbright. After one term in the House of Representatives, he served from 1945 to 1974 as Senator from Arkansas and was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee between 1959 and 1974. He converted that sometimes passive committee into a restless center of skepticism and critical inquiry Irritating to Presidents but of profound benefit to the nation. Mr. Fulbright, who is 83 years old, will also be remembered and honored for the program of interna- tional scholarships that he introduced and that bears his name. The essays in "The Price of Empire," written with his longtime aide Seth P. Tillman, now a research professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University, are a distillation of Mr. Fulbright's critical reflections on American behavior in the world. Many of his argu- ments are familiar, but by no means stale: the impera- ITMANN , tive for fresh thinking about nuclear weapons, the J. William Fulbright, center, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with Senators Everett Dirksen moral and pragmatic folly of most interventions into (left) and Lyndon B. Johnson, Washington, 1960. the affairs of other nations (Soviet intervention in Alghanistan and American intervention in Vietnam being comparably reprehensible), the arrogance of than he could have been while he was in office. He system respond to the crisis of 1914, the rise of Hitler, believing that the American way is best for all, the deserves to be taken seriously. Political scientists, the 1956 Suez affair, Northern Ireland in recent years? dangers of a militarized economy and culture, the constitutional lawyers, historians and politicians might, Mr. Fulbright says that under a parliamentary Inordinate power of the Israeli lobby over United States for example, collaborate on some what-if case studies system he "might well" have accepted appointment as policy in the Middle East. One of the author's reiterated of past crises: the confrontations with Germany and Secretary of State had President John F. Kennedy laments is fortunately outdated. During most of the Japan in 1939-41, the Korean War, the 1965 American made the offer. He would have retained his Senate seat period since 1945, many Americans have had an obses- Invasion of the Dominican Republic (the event that, and thus would not have been forced to leave Govern- sive fear and hatred of Russians. But no longer, thanks even more than the Vietnam War, pushed Mr. Fulbright ment when his tenure as Secretary of State was over. in large measure to Mikhail S. Gorbachev. into dissent), current United States policy toward Cen- Noting his own independent temperament, be writes: Mr. Fulbright's historical significance lies in the tral America. What evidence is there that the outcomes "If you really wish to be independent and make your evolution of his thinking - from an articulate support- of such crises would have been different had the United own judgments about everything Important, it is diffi- er of American imperial activism during the cold war States been operating under a parliamentary system? cult to be a good team player - because a team has to an influential critic after 1965. This book deals On the domestic side, would a parliamentary system different criteria for making judgments about an is- entirely with his role and ideas as critic. One wishes for have improved on the New Deal, or could it effectively sue." But is not cabinet government under a parliamen- more detailed comment on his other positions: on the confront today's deficit, poverty, racial inequality, envi- tary system even more a team process than the system Truman Doctrine of 1947, the decision in 1950 to develop ronmental degradation? And how well did the British of checks and balances? Would not Mr. Fulbright and the hydrogen bomb, the Korean War, the so-called others like him be disqualified by temperament from missile gap of 1960. But his early views are a matter of high positions in such a system? And as a backbencher, public record and are documented in the enormous not on the Government's team, could he have dissented archive of his papers that he gave to the University of Vietnam: 'That Awful Mess' as effectively as he did as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee? Arkansas. That archive is not the least of his contribu- WASHINGTON tions to American history. If I am remembered, I suppose it will be as a NDER a parliamentary system there would be dissenter." Such is the self-judgment rendered by J. William Fulbright in the very first sentence of U no popular vote for President (or Prime Minis- Mr. Fulbright has never been a radical; he does not ter). The nation's leader would be selected by The Price of Empire." But the former Dem- attribute American conduct to racism, the class struc- the political party in power from among vet- ocratic Senator made a different guess at lunch ture or the domination of corporate power. He is a eran members of parliament. Leaders would probably the other day, suggesting that he might be re- be people with decades of experience. Elections would conservative optimist, arguing that American mis- membered, among other things, for the first Con- be shorter and would focus on local candidates. As Mr. takes are the result of poor thinking and inadequate gressional resolution after World War II propos- political institutions. Like Woodrow Wilson, whom he Fulbright argues, the idiocy of early Presidential pri- Ing what became the United Nations, for the maries and caucuses might well disappear. But at what greatly admires, Mr. Fulbright has a tendency to look Fulbright scholarships and for the legislation that cost? Certainly the pool of leaders would be severely to constitutions as panaceas. The longest and most made Washington's Kennedy Center possible. restricted The chance of anyone who was not a veteran provocative essay in the book is a call for the United Not for his opposition to the Vietnam War? member of parliament becoming the head of govern- States to abandon its Constitution, based on the princi- "Naw," he said, twang intact a half-century ment would be almost nil. ple of separation of powers, in favor of the parliamenta- after he left Fayetteville, Ark., "people don't want Mr. Fulbright implies that he would favor a single ry system in which the chief executive and the cabinet to remember anything about that awful mess." legislature - just as the House of Commons is, in are simultaneously members of the legislature. He Defeated for re-election in 1974, Mr. Fulbright effect, England's sole legislature. But an American claims that the Constitution has produced delay, im- still goes most days to the office he maintains at Government with only a single legislature, presumably passe, even paralysis in our leaders' dealing with the one of Washington's blue-ribbon law firms, Hogan with constituencies based on population, would funda- nation's most serious problems. Furthermore, the sys- & Hartson. He still manages a few nights a month mentally alter the relationship of the states to the tem yields Presidential candidates and Presidents out on the town, where his courtly manners Federal Government in ways that require extensive without appropriate experience and of dubious quality. and his charm, if not always his forthright exposi- study. No one would say that our Government is a And Presidents once elected cannot be removed with- tion of his views, have long made him a prized model of perfection. Huge problems are not being out disrupting the nation's political life. guest at Georgetown's dinner tables. handled well, and many are being ignored. Mr. Ful- The author deplores the fact that the Constitution is And despite a slight stroke not long ago, which bright may be right that a new constitution would make held in such superstitious reverence that serious criti- left the right side of his body a little weak, he still a positive difference - or he may be wrong. The cism is taboo. And now he is more direct in his attack talks well and listens hard. He said that he found it question deserves serious and sustained debate. It "almost impossible to accept the fact that I'm should not be dismissed or relegated to cocktail party Gaddis Smith has taught the history of American an old man." R. W. APPLE JR. speculation, and "The Price of Empire" will help to foreign policy at Yale University since 1961. insure that it won't be. THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 7 PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM -- 50TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER THE WHITE HOUSE JUNE 5, 1996 Acknowledgments: Mrs. (Harriet) Fulbright; the Fulbright family; Dr. Duffey; friends Fifty years ago, in the aftermath of World War II, a man and his dream opened vast new horizons for a generation of young Americans who were hungry for greater cooperation and understanding in their world. Since the beginning of the Fulbright Program in 1946, more than 70,000 Americans have gone overseas to study, learn and grow; and more than 130,000 students from other countries have come here. Some of the world's finest leaders, thinkers and artists have benefitted from this special experience -- some of them are here tonight. No matter what their native tongue, all of them are now known by the same proud name -- Fulbrights. No one in my lifetime was more influential both personally and globally than my friend and mentor, Senator J. William Fulbright. He understood, better than anyone I have known, that the only way to lasting peace between people from different countries and cultures is through the simple act of giving and receiving the best that each has to offer. Senator Fulbright once said, "The essence of intercultural education is the acquisition of empathy -- the ability to see the world as others see it, and to allow for the possibility that others may see something we have failed to see, or may see it more accurately. The simple purpose of the exchange program is to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another. It is not a panacea, but an avenue of hope " As we celebrate 50 years of bipartisan support for the Fulbright Program, let us rededicate ourselves to this ideal and let us pledge to do all we can to keep the Fulbright Program alive for future generations. Thank you and God bless you all. you're here because you have perticulated - O. but you Can imagine poer State -smalltown- J. W. Fultright - ideals, brillience, workhard 2 you meant can achieve to schulars greatest here of world to be cemented for Has generations what America's values lessons mission life pregan Fulbright Col Clinton Presidential Records Digital Records Marker This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff. This marker identifies the place of a publication. Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.

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