THE ROOTS OF THE ARKANSAS QUESTIONER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200900053-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: May 13, 1966
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

~ ,~ F E STATINTL
Sanitized -Approved For Release :CIA-RDP75-00149
' - MAY 13 1966
In the center of the arguments over U.S. foreign policy he has '
he Ro
of the Arbcansas
CPYR'GHT
ues~ioner
by BFiOCK BROWER
is hard any longer to catch the flash of sweet-water ?zark
crik that runs through Senator J. William Fulbright's stony elo-
' quence. Mostly, these days, he's keeping to dry, somber; history-
minded warnings against the "fatal.presumption" that; he fears,
could lead America, via Vietnam; td become "what it is not now
....~ ..., ..,......, . ..... .. ................. ........,.. r., ...,........,...~....,. ,
All this, like as not, in the formal~t;
rhetoric . of white tic and tails. ~:':~ ,'
'' Even when he does take an inci- .':f i
I gdmirP.rR cif Ilia rr~n~cn-.ovrn no I
ucntat turn as a pta~n Arkansas ; ". they put him atop a kind of op- ',
country boy, evcrybody'claims to' ;'
?, n, ?, , posing summit, of American for-
They count him rich enough ~~~ kind of secret burden for him to
,
back home, smart enough. a11;~~
' have come from Arkansas at all.. j
around the rest of the world, and ,~ ' '?Thcy think Arkansas and the -!
~' that he ever had in him. The;;';I~ liberal, who has found out differ- ~ ;
countrification is purely for cm-''!,1 ently since going to work for his
phasic now, just his way of s)loot- ti,'.~ hero on the Foreign Relations
-ing an extra-hard public look over ~ ~;;' Committee staff, "but they're
the top of his tinted glasses at the~.~t wrong. Ile knows his roots."
~ na policies of that other hillbilly, ~, :~ ing parochialism in the senator's
i .Dean Rusk. Otherwise, accord- .~:~ harshest arguments against iho
ing to those who sec him as the ~~ U.S. involvement in Southeast
only tcrnperate and credible pub- Asia. Vietnam to him is "this god-
During aForeign Itclatione I tic .critic of a whole series o[ Ad- '' forsaken, little country" for which
"senator P ulbrlgnL 6Re ny, mmn~ ~ r uwr~gni ueivnge aL Lms criLwai ~ plating some of the dragged-down
stirred up stands Sen. J. William Fulbrlght, an aloof, thorny,
unpredletable Intellectual shaped by Oxford and the Ozarks
and another committee member.. world o~itiion. The sill mistake ~. - e r1~ er tumbled
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 .Page 2
C~YRGI~
MAY
.~l S n~~ltw~e i~~~~A~~~rloA ed
ly about the Vietcong. "Why do
these people do this? flow do they
come by their fanaticism? ~cll,
coming from the South, with all
its memot?ies of Reconstruction, I
think I can unclcrstand. Thcy'vc
been put upon, and it makes them
so fanatical they'll fight down to
the last man."
It's an attitudo he can see pco-
plc taking.down in his own moun-
tain corner of Arkansas, a place
T ~ never so [ar from his mind as some
would hke to have it; a place, m
fact, where he went to live at one
earlier time in his life when he
left a job in Washington, D.C.
and spent seven apolitical years, ,
tcacl~ing law part time and living
on an isolated hill farm called
? ~~Foot Lodge.
,i
[
---..
't was a curious hybrid," he ; At the age of 3%, standing one
admits, robabl the closest thin a chair -for a portrait, Fulbright+,
there'll ever be to an Ozark tea-~ still had long blond curls-and
I house. It was built rustic enough, ~ ebumbined' ilCese an f an a 1 net
out of adzed loge and clay calk- ~ - P
i ing, with lots of wide porches all
around. But whoever put it up
had clearly been to China arid,
from down below the spring, look-
ing back up at the mulcy roofline,
I it didn't take much of an eye to
see it was practically a damn pa-
god~. For a man who hates+ven
i' the noise of his wife's snow tires,
that Oriental log cabin offered .
just about the right amount of '
t peace and quiet. In the midst of
the acrimonious bearings over
Vietnam-with much of tltc lAp-
roar centering around his own vig-
orous dissent from the Adminis-
tration's handling of the war-
Senator Fulbright didn't mind
thinking an occasionafl long
thought about what it used to be.
like clown there, with no politics
"to flake time and energy away
from the substance of things."
"It's very serene country," Inc
says, brooding a little. Ile went
tl~cre to live in 1936, boned with
life in tl~e eapital as a Justice De-
partmen~~ antitrust' lawyer. Clis
wife Betty waswitli him,.very far
from herown Republican upbring-~
ing on Philadelphia's Main Line.
"It was just like taking a squirrel
who's been in a cage all its life
and letting it out in the fresh air. ".
Voce know that Main I_,inc life? '
It's ba-ronial!" "Che squirrel got.
loose with a pot of paint and had
the whole inside of Rabbit's Foot :~.
Lodge done over in Colonial
White inaleadt~f leaving it Moun-
Lain Dark, but other tlyan that .
' and kicking nll the roupy chickens ~
out of the cellar Betty managed
to fit right in with local ways-a I
handsome, sophisticated woman
who could still be "just as plain,;
ns pig tracks" with anybody ahc I.
hal-I-c?ncd to meet.
Ilill L' ulbright wasn't doing '
much besides teaching at the ~
University of Arkansas, scene of '
hie former glory as a Razorback ,
halfback, a few milts away in
a little Ozark town called Fay-
ettevillethat hie family a-quarter- .
to-a-half owned. He loved teach- ,
ing and the life at the university;
and when the trustees suddenly
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1 3 1966 Continued
-ulbright'smatcrnal grandpur-
ants, the James (.. ~C'aughs, pose
with their daughter liobertu
(fop); the senator's mother, and
"the eldest of his sisters, Lucile.
 O
~ the: tender age of 34, he felt pretty I the floods were as yet 1,700 feet
welll settled. lIc could even stay ;:below them and still 300 miles .
badge because the university.~~ struck New England later that .
t .didln't have any official tnansc tai ,year, they telegraphed her moth- ;
. hottsc its president back then. i er: hadn't she better come down
i
.
~ 'The only one who thought to ' to Arkansas to avoid being hit by
Worry aDOUL Lnel~l way Vu~ ~ucic
was Betty's mother. When she
opened tlp her Philadelphia In- i
quirer one morning and saw pie- i
lures of bales of cotton floatingI
d in the Arkansas floods of I
aroun
1938, she wired her daughter:
hadn't she "better come north
imtmediately a~~r~li`~e~e
That's the way they go about
k 'n ever bod u -to-date
t
Rabbit's Foot bodge, on a ridge .
near Fayetteville; still stands
tnueh ae it did when the Fu4
hrightslived there.'Chey sold the
`: place after he went to the Senate.
In 192~9~, as a senior at the Uni-
versity of Arkansas, halfback
Fulbright won liis third varsity
letter.' Ile kicked the field goal
eep
g Y Y P ~+
and informed down in Arkansas. ~'!~ horn oI hie long curls and
With a needling kind of courtesy. ,'L dressed in sensible long pants,
In fact, nobody's ever going to ~' Fulbright, at about 5 years old,
~~~~~~a~
awer tie ona as t ere a tube. ~ o
MAY--I~ i:wa . _ .. .
~.?
~1tti ;~~'h4~4
'_;r,~:~a,~'~~+*~ acs,.
Continued
 Page 4
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elaborative shape. The senator ~ ~ao~a~l Piero anc~
often goes to work in that same ,
:lit ly needlingcthc witness in or:'~.. Rhodes scholar, he goes
' 'der to elicit the fullest sort of dis- _ tt ~ __ __ a i _,_ - l _ ~_ _t _ -, `t i
closure. lie doesn't, for instance, ~
~ jticst want to find out what pros-
pects were for free elections in ~
Vietnam in 1956. "Now [the
chances] have always been poor,
and will be for a hundred years,
won't tlccy?" he gently prods
" Dean Rusk. "That was not news
' io you.... IIave they ever had
:them in 2,000 years of history?"
` i And possibly one of the senator's
' annoyancca with Dean Rusk is
that the Secretary keeps giving
him the same, simple, straight any
.! swer3-which somehow fail to sat-
isfy Fulbrigldt's own deep doubts
' ~ about the nature of the war-and
.PY~'fievcn try to put his replies
mto any more instructive form.
Wi'ru Ncw Honors
1-But the senator can sympathize
with the Secretary of State: "It's
a Idcll of a job."
In late 1960, when there was
loose talk around that Fulbright
-might be picked for Secretary of
State in Kennedy's cabinet, the
possibility thoroughly distressed
him: ``It's not my dish of tea.
~' I'd hate the protocol, and I'd
~ be damned uncomfortable get-
ting up and giving speeches with
which I didn't agree. The poor
~' fella in that job never has time'
ArkaeAae Quartlrbork. Awarded
Rhodes tleholurehlp.
to think for himself."
None of the kind of time for re-
liection that existed out at Rab-
?~ bit's Foot Lodge, where the steps
f down to the spring are too steep
to be taken any more than one
on Iht Rler club to Nptalnln
rarelly tennis tear? taut .ease
aerend aA a member. ills
arengr /n all rOUrare U 1#
ar l+. a..rl.se n.~
DTI LLWATI%R Ok. Dam
IMnr.IA L Rodger of Je4 Olt.
Hedger le a Junior In lho
of sgrlcultun and hu
Guard two aeanone. 8e L
the College beeeball team,
TFKMS OODRT IltOld;
ar TLt AaMehtN P?ea
tennb players et thb eount.~f;;_
ahnrlee redd~rle Aeaehllm!
r?h?welw rA -. .. ~.. . ~~
during rho Olympln ,~~it ?i
ThcY wilt the at CannFa -
YI/~YIP~e tV~' ~~'
Do Your C
When he welt a Rhodes ec+hol-
arship in 1924, Fulbright made
headlines on bi g-city sports pages.
ac w sous.. 1rrU4 wawa. woo ov ~~
clear and cold," he likes to re- ,i 'u plus fours, Fulbright stands ~
~
. member. 1Ie didn't have a single near OxCord's Pembroke College,
,political connection, beyond the 1 where he studied in 1925-28.
?' ~ coincidental fact that his local "Old, I don't mean I ponder
'
': congressman, Clyde T. Ellis, had
?vcr it ell that much," he says,
bccn coming to hie classes to pick, quickly dismissing that kind of
up a little constitutional law. "I' bootless speculation. Nobody e1He
' had no idea I'd ever be in pelt-~ should give it too much thought
tics," he insists. "I sometimes, ,E1ther, except'just enough to keep
' wonder what would've happened; in mind that, despite a quarter '
' if 11Rother hadn't written that; century in public .life, Senator
editorial. .. ~ , , ....,?,...... .~ 1F'ttlbright is essentially a private
MAY i 31966
CPIFRGH
~~
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? .'~~~~ ~ ~,... C atinued
AR1f~ANSAS GRID STAR
er.rw IA r+. ra.-r,
1?'AY Y7Tli~'ILI,L, Ark., bet tt.
-DIII 1'ulbrleht of 1?byetlevllle.
senior nl Ihn Unh~ernlly o[ Arkan?
sea ^nA three-year football man,
has bccn awarded the Arkaeeaa
Ithodee ecboWreh~p, which pro-
rldee for Lhrwe yon' allendann
at the Unlverolly et Oxford, Sing-
Iantl, brgluning oral Uclobcr.
ills aVpolnunent come as the
ethos: 1u r brllllant urcer at the
unlrlrslly. llurdly a Lleld o[ alu-
dent activity par not Lclt UI11'a In-
flucnco at on6 time ur another. Vn
lho Loolbalt Lleld ha dl tlugulehrd
^Ily bordered on the acnmilooal,
more because. et as uncanny ae-
euraef than beuues of height or
dlelaaow
f'ulbtlght did not report fee
pnctlcaduring rho tut season un-
111 a[lcrllho second game because
of othcr~~dutfu In school and In
business. Dlnu the dtalll o[ file
Lather Io.JWIy, I!2 ], D111 hoe 4ken
over the anagemeot of the 4rge
Nulbrlght estate, o[ which fib
mother, litre, Hoberla Fltlbrlghq b
rgeculrla, aM with Icgal Jlnnblll-
llce rembred when he wu ]tl he
hm become an of8crr and director
of elYCral large CO11ClMe. IIQ
dent of a n hsd le th~leLnlted
tllnles, holding that Pesltlon whh a
~ehort Ilne In IPorlhweel Arknnene.
llln Lrllow?etuACnle have henned
I numerous horses upon film, llcrt-
(ing film prceldenl of the nludrnt
Ludy In 7f:d-2~ and namin6 film
for other ltudenl govrrnmenC of-
NS APPOINTMENT TO
RHODES SCHOLARS.
 CPYRGHT
man nt ~
? other senator; he comes forward
to address himself to issues from
the privacy of his own thoughts,
and promptly returns there as
goon AR his opinion has been of-
fcred. Not that he doesn't enjoy-
thc measure of political promi-~
nonce that is his as chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee
-always much in the headlines'
. after another mumbled, seminal
speech on the Senate floor, and
nd social Washin -
u
Pegs 5
o ten seen aro
ton with his wife, who dutifully ; y~~ k ~ ~;~ ~ ~ ~.~ ~
.. ,
But, as one of his aides explains ~ F.:
the diffcrcncc between him and ulbright in his room at Pem?
mast senators: "When he's busy, broke immersed himself in his-
" tory,eeonomics,politicalscience.
~
'
s busy behind a closed door.
-
he
lle is an anomaly, especially
~ in gregarious Southern politica,`a
' man of intellect, almost asemi-
~5t rsuing an aloof career
P ~s~~bn dissident public coun-
selor-he's been called "the Wal-
ter Lippmann of the Senate"-
with no more real political bane
~ than perhaps those few capricious
jottings in his mother's newspa-
'' per long ago. .
1 V Irs. Roberta Fulbright, an
old schoolteacher herself, was
the kind of woman who makes
('the local Rotarians wonder how
far she might've gone if she'd
. ~ ever been amen-only they won-
der right out loud and proudly,
~~ pleased to see the local library
~'. family off the farm in Missouri plant, a lot of real estate and a ~, a sorry investment, mostly use- .:~
by setting up his first little, two- few other Fulbright Enterprises ~ ful for printing t-te columns
. i person bank in Arkansas and -incfluding a newspaper. Even- ~ Mother Fulbright scribbled to-'
thereafter pusltecl the Fulbrights' ; tually she accumulated enough i gether after nobody in tlic family ,
'~ fortunes to an estimable point. ;leverage- to clean up the whole ~ was left awake to talk to her any-
But, in 1923, he died suddenly, ;county once-but good, throw I more. ("She loved to talk. i~od, .i'
I leaving Mrs. Fulbright with six' ing out a corrupt courthouse ~ she loved to talk! She'd wear tts
offspring; Bill Fulbright, their ~ gang and dragging her own man,' out, staying up at night.") She'd'
fourth child, was 18 at the time.' Buck Lewis, with his big horse. write until 3 o'clock in the morn-
"We camp very damn close ta' pistol, down to Little Rock to ing about anything from cooking .
going to the poorhouse," Ful- r~get him appointed sheriff. to politics, or sometimes both at i
bright says, exaggerating some, ! "'But her one big love, besides i sues: "Our politics -remind me ~
' "but she managed to salvage ~ her family," says 1Fulbright, ~ of the pies the mountain girl had. '
' enough of a nest egg to stare oger ~ "was that newspaper." Yt's now .She asked the guests, 'Will you
a am. That is, she let the i the Northwest Arkansas Ttmea, ;
g . .- ._B? ._ . ~.._~,._...,.~~...~. .. - _.. _....:,, have kivered, unki~etod or cross- .
r1t Oxford Fulbright's sport
was lacrosse. He site, croselegged
at right, with Pembroke team.
named for her. Back in 1906 her I bank stock but kept the lumber !,and turning a tidy penny. But ~~
::.and a university dormitory ~~,,,~,~.,,;, ~ _
Y 13 1g~anitized -Approved For Release :CIA-RDP75-00149R0~02009A0i1~88>dl6d
 Page 6
bar?' All apple. Now that's what
~. ewe have-kivered, unkivered and'
~~}}~~ politics, all Democrats." ~
P,'~!S`r-~~~Mothcr Fulbright wrote
-" a thing or two about aDemo- i
' t named Ilomer Adkins. In'
-
ra
CPYRGHT
.
'
sas, but he's never been a mein-
~
Fnlbr;ght's mother traveled up
to Washington in January, 1945
and with her daughter-in-law
$etty (right) watched the new '
senator from Arkansas sworn in. .
"homer Adkins,"
~
, wrote ae her final word a amat t~ ++
g ~ All I did at Oxford, he claims,
f t ri ht after Adkins tri-
ac
,
umphant election as governor iri her old enemy, imitating his bad "is have a hell of a good time- ~~
~ 1940, she wrote that the people grammar, "has came and went." i .played games and studied the ,.
of Arkansas had just ,traded a~ And her son has now been an~_lj minimum")-led to his command-
statesman, Governor Carl Bailcy,~ gone to the Scna to for four :.ing interest in foreign affairs.:
Y __ 7 L__1_ ?....-.... v~+ on mnnt? a nn~i FlnS,~ I` eat , 7, 1 L__~ .~
i ~~compliment by stacking the uni ~ state of Arkansas feels it cast Fork or San Francisco or Wash-
versity board of trustees high humbly take a worldwide bow ington or any of those places. And a
elappcr, ;success as an outsized -civic 'ianywhere to speak of," .he ex-
~' Governor Adkins returned the: achievement for which the whole ]sins "I'd never been to New ~i
- -
enough to have her son fired ae "IIe's dust as smart as $700. here I'm picked up out of a little
president. So then Congressman "IIc's known in every corner of ~ village at an early age ."
Ellis came u~ to his ex-law pro-, the world." "Who the hell'd've ,{ 1-e was pushed in his studies by .
~? acoavy w.,.,...o- ...... .- .. -.~ --_.---.
1i~e ium.c. a wuu, .,a, ..
?~ class, and said since hc, Ellis; national scholar from Arkansas?" ; summer: "Go to school, or go to
? was going to .announce for U.S. "he's an institution. People,'; work"; and washing Cokc bottles
.~ ought to rtrn for my place." "~'ou can heat trim, an aa-
"I'd have never dreamed of~ wiser once told Governor Orval
~, it," says Fulbright. "I hadn't; Faubus, who was eager do try in
? even been in three of the 10 coon-; 19G2, and might be even more
tres in all my life." But he was ready in 1968, "if you can ge?
I pretty much at loose ends, so hey him down o11F that cloud tlrey;l Grand Tour and hie reading of'~
"
senator next Saturday, "you don't vote against mstrtuttons. < ~
bored Trim- .and suddenly '.i
? got around to those last three got him on.
~ counties before Satttrdsay and;
carried all l0 in ,the fall of 1942' (~
to win the house seat. And when Hc's lucky, too, to have that
Governor Adkins decided to run, cloud under him, because he real-
; for U.S. senator in 1944, so did: ly has little taste for the gritty,
' Congressman l!ulbright; and hel down-to-earth politicking. it
y
candidates-kivered, unkipet~edj home 'and conquer in Washing-'. ' p ?
Of course, it probably has.to be
and crossbar. ? ~. .:::. 1. ton:.. He ~ doesn"t chew cut :with ~,~np?.eadnble.:if he ie going" to make
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M~9Y 13 1966. ontin~l~
beat Adkins, and three btheri .normally takes to survive atl_-able racticall
.
bcr of the -inner "chrb" in the
Senate-nor mu~?h wanted to be ; ,
~ -despite his preyt~fge and senior- " ??
ity. In fact, not a few of IriH rul-,~?
?, leagues in the Sertaie view him ae~;; ,
' a cold and scornful figure, a bit of`:
f a cynic, a lot of "a loner," dourly~l
impatient with most lesser mor-
tals-or, in Ilatry Truman's sue- ?
cinct phfasing, an "overeducated
Oxford s.o.b."
~? There may be a touch or two
~ of truth in that indictment, but ;
the only part of it that could sol-
idly be called a fact is Oxford. IIe
l`did go there for three years as a ,
Rhodes scholar, from 1925 to
~ 1928, though he prefers to think of
that experience as a eort of per-
sonal liberation rather than any.
detriment tohischaracter.Itfreed j
him of the local countryside and provided that grounding in the
- greater world which ultimately-
his mother ~ if not exactly at that moment
'.I go to Oxford. It has a trcmcn-'
dolts impact on your attitude."
~? up to the roaming hill boy within ?~
him, and he came away from this;u
''.Modern history and Political Sci?>
j ence at Oxford with awide-eyed ~~
'internationalist outlook that, go-~
ing right over the top of his squin-
? ty mountain conservatism, gave c
him a very odd expression indeed,
especially in later polities: Unread-'
 Pace T
CPYRGH
With John McClellan, who was
then and still is senior senator
from Arkansas, Fulhright spent
a summer's day in 1949 visiting
with voters of town of Piggott.
~variousintereatsthat ~'
own peop a up ~n t e zar s- poht~ca are pretty roue a stan - i correctly, that his heart isn't real-
~ who control huge .cotton allot- ~, off, and his public countenance `'?ly; in his racialposture and who
?' merits and lar evoting blocks and ~. unreadable
? k~~QQ9 49~~12Ai09~453-6
`~ sion of U.S. foreign aid programs
throughout Onc World. But he
has since popped up as one of the
sharpest critics of"the arrogance" .
with which he believes the U.S.
has handled the whole business of
helping other countries, too often
forcing anti-Communist military
tics upon smaller nations, thereby ,
blunting the positive effects of
the aid and creating dangers oI"
j U.S. entanglement that need nev-
. j er have existed. e.a.. in Vietnam.
On domestic issues he pops up
;moat often as'a southern conaerv- ~
'I ative, willing to filibuster against '
~ the repeal of the so-called right-~
`~ to-work law and able to vote
-
against civil rights legislation even
after President Kennedy's call to ,
conscience in 1963-to the chagrin
~ of his liberal friends who will nev-
{ er convince labor that he isn't a '
Bourbon, or the NAACP that he ,
isn't a bigot. Yet the worst politi- '
cal attacks upon him come from .
'
sas-far less liberal than even his{ voting record is crazy-quilt, his ~ -.-- ~?-`-~ `~~----- -
1 h O k II h d , ~ right wing, , wlto suspect, quite tiI
comprise now ms arxa~san ~~..- I
stituency and his worldwide fol- ~
!,lowing. Atone extreme are those
rich planters from eastern Arkan-
g + ? ? ? know that h~a deeper convict~ona ~
`~ often truck "their" Negroes to ~ "Nobody knows where to put ' Include ?,,..thorough disapproval
`~1 the polls to swell a highly deliver-i Fulbright," says Jack Yingling, .of "our national obsession with'
'
med toI ?in nn th
tat ve to the Brit eh par ~ bn'ght Scholarships. He ee
'~~kepresen
he eereatly
nth r
hand~
and he ~s well aware of that ex- and lasting peace after the war. ~
guage and power to say tl~nt
~ pcctation. So he is trapped, rep.:Two years later he offered, as a' strongly enough. I've made every
.resenting east Arkansas at the ~ kind of "economy measure," a
,effort to cut [the epaceJ appro?
same time he is trying to function ~ plan to use counterpart funds from
priation down. I don t care about
j in somewhat the same intellectual the sale of war surplus overseas ~ a mild, gentle program. But this
manner as the M.P. whom Oxford' to finance a student exchange. pro- I thing just blossomed from noth-
fi
'
h
l
l
.but they expect a lot from him, United Natoons-to kec a ust ~ ,
? p D ~ couldn t possib-y have the lan-. j ..
p
r
1 sas supporters can't vote for him ~ ?'thc creation of appropriate in-.~ 4uree forgthe space program. ("It's .~
-some are foreign nationals- ternational machinery"-i.e., the I
~P ~ one of our greatest mistakes. I-~
Bates, past president of the Ar- seems to annoy so many roufine- ~,`` - '
~ ~.:,1s to keep that mind at? ease {
kansas NAACP. "They used to minded politicos. "1;Ie paps up
with its grim,, strategic thoughts.
didn't even. truck 'cm. They'd be here, he pops up there." l ~'lIc's shocked as a kid by the
to the cotton fields when they I I expense of the military," an aide ;
!voted 'em.") But at the other ex- I ~~ obscrveq. He has a gut reaction ';
~tremc is that widespread and ad- - He popped up first in 1943 with' against the amount of monc~?
miring conclave of liberal Intel- a mere five lints of legislation that i that must go into building an i
lectuals who, also for possessive `quickly became famous as "the aircraft carrier-money that can- j
reasons, embrace ~'ulbright as Fulbright Resolution," a historic ! not then be used to build roads ,
amore "their" senator than any- gesture that put the House of ltep- ~ and schools in such places as Ar= '
body they ever helped elect from resentativca on record, even alit- kansas-and he is appalled ? on ~
'their own state. lIisout-of-Arkan- tlc before the Senate, as 'favoring ; ?I
cndi- ~'~
rounds at the cx
(bright. (Even this is an improve- ants,' trying to explain why the ~ of the military mind, along. with ~ _
merit, according to Mrs. L. C. senators independent manner ~ -considerable bog ling at wltat it
;able part of the total vote ~lor t'
ut-I one of his past legislative assist- I Communism" and a large distrust
IiamenL~~NlI[,-.p~!a~a ~s>cr~e~el?~!~~r~-rra~r~~!~~(~~~?t~~ ~d~1~~~~Ad~-s
~ttnu~iq
 Page 8
f~ fcrin~~f~+~IR~rrg ~>~-cl>Inon "seem . almost etreattti of abuse 'a ainst .'..`Sena- man and, Fulbright are .friends
aChole~'1~ion:1'~1/R6~ ~04?~-1~~~;:1~~./q'til~~ 114~.RgQ.0~0~09A6I~59~,
i Vietnam aid approprrat~on that nay that was cast agamat the ap? ~ been slow m getting around to ,
would have dissociated the Sen-; propriations -for McCarthy's in- i crossing Johnson, and he has been'
i`,ate from any incplicd approval of veetigations in 1954. The Ozark l" criticized for that. If he was so+
j .Johnson's present course of action. part of it was that Fulbright ! opposed to U.S. involvement in
;they're afraid to expose them-, survival; and when the majority: at least once: Truman over RFC
selves. They know they can bo' of senators didn't at first seem tot scandals, Eisenhower over Dulles'
..gutted." Fulbright uncomfort- rod this true, he vigorously die-; Middle East policies and Kennc-
ably ]acked committee support sensed. It is still the vote in which dy over the Bay of Pigs invasion. ,
even for an amendment to the he takes 'the most pride, the only Indeed, Fulbright may have
sunning the show. lIe has control supposes." Fulbright has always ; United States, which have al-
of this Congress, including my believed that decent conduct ~ most become a habit with him.
committee. I have a lot of the within the Senate, one member i 'So far, hr has crossed every Chief .
'younger members with me,' but toward another, is needful for rts: Executive of the last two decades
tinued
 CPYRGHT
Pe~ge 11
gnt ng ic~~i ~~I~p~c~ling~~~>~V~Fi~d~Ri~ l~tl~t~te r ~ ~ ~i~~~L~difsQils'i~61f?9ttt`Qr)fi~3"~
NAY 13
g g y,
vention in the Dominican Repub-; policy, Fulbright threw a heavy i most apologizing for his pcrsc- + `
~ bright's dissent over U.S. inter-~ nam and understand our China ~ to ive a oddam " he sa s al- ~:,
j The issue turned out to be Ful-~'n the attempt to debate Viet-~ I've been here long enough not `;
_
~ tween the rnan interested in sub-' '~ much about that kind o_f danger
! stance and the man of politics.: ;anyhow. "Maybe you can say
- ----'--- ----__--- - - - __ - D G~lpll L~QIlO~Ltl-ua ~ql .. as~a~a uoa, uv vue meu w oust m ~u ai~ua ^aa sous- i
"for Chrissakes, settle it" in time : ,allowed the Vietnam hearings ~ toy combat.
to get home for supper. to develop in a much freer style h Besides, it's nearly impossible'
A split was bound to come be- than is normally his custom..
. to bring Bill Fulbright to care
;and in Johnson's impatience with ; at one particularly low point, he :next couple of years to keep them
Fulbright's~ inability at Foreign; had thought of resigning from his~~, well apart, despite Faubus' obvi-~
Pl~tHt~icy are really antipodal "That cursed thing took up three 11 seem to be equally proud of both
human beings, and even back in quarters of our time. No member.I; Faubus and Fulbright these days,
their days together in the Senate,~really liked it. They were bored'' and nobody back home wants to
there was fatal indication of what ~, with it. It about destroyed the ~ sec a confrontation that would,
would eventually happen in Ful= spirit of the committee." ~ lose Arkansas either one or the
bright's realization that "John- But from the beginning the pot- ~ other. Fulbright can pretty much
', son just wants to pass bills-he ~ icy hearings revived everybody's ! depend upon their many mutual
doesn't care what's in them" ;spirits, including Fulbright's- ~~; backers doing everything over the .I
"We were always so plagued by! bright's hampering the war effort.
the foreign aid bill," he explains. i But Arkansans, for some reason,
paigned strongly for him in Ar- gethcr again after several frustrat-', up back home, what with Faubus,
kansas against insurgent Gold- ing years of chronic absenteeism ~ ;his eye on '68, trying to fan it ~~
waterism two years ago. and foundering morale. ~ down with outbursts against Ful- ~`
t .nomination ~n 1960 and cam- sign Relations Committee to- ~ stituents have him on would hold
on foreign policy mattersc "See greys for an open airing of the ~ $ousc, where his intransigence is
Bill. IIc's my Secretary of State."; whole range of U.S. foreign pot- ~ .being met with a policy of con-
In return, Fulbright looked upon' icy-pressure that has come par- i tainment and isolation. Also,
Johnson as "a political genius," titularly from younger mcrx~bers i there has been some speculation .
backed him for the presidential, of both houses-to pull the For-.. as to how well that cloud his con-
was ma orit whi ,and Johnson p Y~
j y p far more significant than that. IIe ~ deliberate coldness with which he
,invariably deferred to Fulbright has used the pressure within Con-.+. is being treated by the White ! `
,~ ys, rca y- is c never gotten to Ilousc mccung of the congres- much in Ime with his dcs~re to ,
know; they struck him as a cold Rional leadership. ~ substitute "new realities" for "old
lot. Stevenson was much more "I have to defend my position I ~mytha" which he believes Ameri-
his candidate; and then, for rea- ' whether I like doing it or not," .cans learned too well during their,
sons of long friendship and some Fulbright said just before begin- , Cold War childhood-but it has '
mutual understanding, Johnson., ning the public hearings on Vict-; notbeenwithoutitapoliticalhard- .
They used to sit next to each nam late in January. But he has . ships. Despite his penchant for
other in the Scnatc when Johnson managed to accomplish something rivac he is not immune to the
RFC. Kennedy-or the Kenne-"his views on Vietnam at a White ~ plishmcnt for Fulbright-and ~
tl? 11 1 '1
speech of last September as a crit-; their questions. They were extra- when told something isn't good '~
h
point of view. ' of his collcagucs. "I was surprised giving me political advice!" The
Fulbright tried to couch his; by the intclligcncc of some of senator doesn't .want it. Often,
;body ought to give the other into it so deftly," Fulbright says 'snaps back at him: "But you're':
ica wondering about us. Some-; "I've never seen them enter ' stcggcstion he offers if Fulbright
i tion was,~here's all of Latin Amer-;`informed contributions. ~ tee, can tell if he's off base in any,,
all for him. My final considers- most of them came forward with ! of the Foreign Relations Commit- ~'
,lie: "1 was reluctant to ao ~t? ' burden upon other senators dur- ~' verenc~ in the hearings. But the
I'd have preferred.that an~oppo- ing their allotted 10 minutes of ;matter goes much deeper than
(cccsm of bad advice gcven t
e ordinarily good." The whole cxcr- I politics, he'll reply, "Wait two oe
President, but it still made John- Oise brought the Foreign Rcla- three years. It will bc."
_~ son furious. Afterward, besides tions Committee out of its inlet- ~ "Ills is the approach of rca-
' delivering a series of petty so- ~ lcctual doldrums to serve once l Ron;" 'a long-titrie aeso~iato con-`
cial snubs, Johnson lessened any ~` more as the classic Amcrican~ eludes, "and if it doesn't appeal
meaningful communication with forum for probing-and
indced
it doesn't appeal
I to his reason
,
,
,
Fulbright on fcireien ~policv down rlouht.ina-nrpairlr,ntial ee~tnin.~ 'fn t,;..e of elt_"
to a point where he conferred in ; ties about foreign polic ,whether But that does not mean that
whisperi~l~1~~,8~dR+4~I~Dtb~!2f~cTq@ie1~818~~ttir~~lP~i J~l~'~~,QQj~3 6~onti
 Page 12
CPYRGH
dAY 19
'`ly cerebral kind of instrument.'
It ~is actually just the opposite:
a bit old-fashioned, the kind of
rnnann naanrintr?.rl with T:rlmimrl
-
?"".~ "?: " "-V "?--6 """"? Y`' l'1?- 1118 nC$Q ann HAI(1 LO Ot1C OI IIIH ,
t' ry about scratching the paint. ;being involved."' '~ stall', "Those fcllas ust don"t ~
CCQCR lpr 1V yCarB al1U WVII ,. g-a~nl. ~ a problem simply because 'No-.1 of the cultural center, he shook''' -,,
s o
s
c
oe
sml cs. c a ~ man observes. "He'll often op,.1 politely put oll' the congressmen ''
wives." IIc's had the same Mer-' nose some particular annrnrarh to i ~..a ....,?,..t L,....1. :-. al-.. _I:.._...:__' d
tradltlon an Imrtc uman clr- i
d
cumatAnce. "I dct have a habit 1t increasingly diiCicult to under-j of simply hearing eacll,other out,.?
stand thcec grandiose abstrac-~ muc11 the way he himself once.
of liking old things," Fulbright tions about society," one staff; did at Orford. Finally, after he'd,''
s old
'1 "Ol1
r
ld
h
^a~n;a, arYcw,o ,.v, ..ua,. a.) ~OURI raCCIC9f3 WOCId. "11C finds!
h y g carry on the important business ;!
d 1'
Bnrke's great 18th Century p0-,~?~Vl ---- t-.. _; nr.cac =~auu wuu rwua,~u1D
inrrvr!r' nnaaihlr_ in n runnnr_I _.~__~ ~.~_ v._u__ _ __-i___. '~
1 laR A gram o sense, and Ic
~~g~o~sr~ao~aae~c~loeos~-s
cordingly. IIc can be tight as a
. burr with money. "I'll tell you
~
' something," one Arkansas mil-
~ lionaire says
"if both Iris le
s
,
g
;were cut off at the knee and you
i offered 11im yours for a nickel, he
wouldn't have no use for 'cm." .
And he has his petty moments- j
even during public hearings when ,
.his dislike of generals sometimes ~;
escapes his taut courtesy. Yct,'
with all these pcrsonal?quirke, he
retains a remarkable simplicity-"
[ "the kind of simplicityj" ? as one ?'
:~'I staff man puts it, "that is beyond ~,
sophistication." -
Astory is told of Fulbright's ';
trip to Naples in 1962 to par-,?
ticipate in sornc ceremonies of
' I acclaim for his student-exchange
~ program, during a time when the
U~S.S. Forrestal happened to be '
gaudily and ~ mightily in port:
'The aircraft carrier seemed to ,
attract any number oC junket-
! ing congressmen that spring-
mostly those concerned with mil-
itary appropriations-and Ful- ,
bright happened to run into a .i
party of them in a Neapolitan
I.~square one day. '.Choy tried to ~
j drag him along to visit thin vast
~ tonnage of floating American
glory, but he insisted his own ',
~ business lay down a different '
sue 1 ltt e. matancea o uman ~ ++
~ ~- s of tune}. ,~
feelin~l~j~~lltt~gdfi/Q 1'fi~~~~~ar ~i~~~~ib~eax~~~~ ~ ed
i nc wurc wr vv ycru
n, auu a self, rlgllt down t0 1118 fOIb1CS. ~'
mean," says one Arkansan N'l10 ? I;VCr sInCC 111s fatllCr's CArI ' ~'O COmC OUt wlill a statement ?1'
greatly admired thcln, "they j death, his own mortalit has wor--~ llke that, Fulbright had to put a
were nll cracks." And Betty, the ~~ried him, and at 61 he follows lot oP what normally passes foe,
'senator says, is part of that feel- '' a ~ strict rc imen that includes l sopWstication ~ far behind him.
g But he is rnorc than willing to do'
ing oP scctlrity he's ahvays had, 'constitutionals before breakfast ~ go. Indeed, he anxiously searches ~
so that "It never bothered me ?~ d bloodlettin ames of olf. ~ '
~ g 11 g g g for ways in which "the real pow- ?'
that I mi ht be defeated. Rea- ; E?"Sinking that putt," says his ~ er" can be. brought to hear upon ,
~ son, he feels, is the force by wltich ' ~vifc, ~?is a passionate thing with i problems that so far have not .
1 D' 1 f h
F16right talks with Defense
Secretary McNamara before the
Secretary was questioned on the
Vietnam war by Fulbright's Sen-
wta ti nrainn Ratntinnc ('n>imiffan
 Page 13 CPYRGHT
i~~ec~-~-~4
e
~~t the end of a longeeeeion of
' hie committee, ~'ulbright returns
to hie office, where he can close
the~door and 8nd needed quiet
I tee pursue his solitary .studies,.
ani ize - pprove w,r a ease : tnued
 Page 14
and the manufacturer," an aide ~ i't's bad taste to bother people. If '
says. h'ulbright helped invent the; they like what he says, they'll say
M
C
h
c
art
y censure, for instance, ! eo." But this same aide admits ,
but he was only minimally in-' that he himself is worried some- i
volved in its eventual manufac- .times by the senator's political {
turc. "It's the machinery that quietude and has pressed him on '
rune the Senate," Fulbright in- occasion about the I-ossiblc dis-
sists, and he wants never to be a' appointment he may give his loy- ,~
part of a machine. In fact, there al adherents everywhere in the
is an inherent repulsion within .world
Should h
ibl
.
e not poss
y tats
- the fact that there are going to i him against the whole modern` up to the inevitable obligations ..
' be local wars and then try to be ~ mechanization of human affairs, ; of his clear private thinkin to
very discriminating about them." ~ ~ such as to lead him to protesti leadership? "When you talk to '
Even that, however, will take ' ..against something as big as a, ? him about that, he squirms," the ',
mnrn nef:nnnn th..., 1... ... ..? ../1 ,,,.,.,.. el.,.t .... ..,. -...-"-- -- '~-- ---
MAY 13
CPYRGHT
~ the 'unthinkable,"' to search ~
! among what he terms realistic, if ;
unKCttling, alternatives-and not '
solely among soothing myths- 1
"to find some rational way other
than war to settle problems."
"I don't for a moment think
that we'll get rid of all wars," he
cautions. "We'll have to accept
sure-following De Tocqueville'a
+ ancient doubts about a democra-
' cy'e handling of foreign policy-
Americana can summon up.
"Fulbright has a pretty modest
conception of what you can do," .
aaya another aide, "but he wilt ,
~ take great satisfaction in a mod-'
~~~ient." And he does;
m ce to a great satisfaction in..
~ the modest achievements of the
-past few months, during which
he feels committee witnesses have
helped Americana become a lot .~
more "discriminating" about "a
local war" in Southeast Asia.
the question, then, naturally
arises whether g'ulbright should
be satisfied with this modest..
. achievement. Should he perhaps
i'attempt to become more than a
thoughtful critic: a forceful critie
and, for once, go after support for:
his position instead of waiting, as
he always has, for interested par-
~ ties to come to him?
j That would go against his
whole nature. It is hard to imag-
ins him at the head of anything
so formal-sounding ae a Loyal':
I` Opposition, even if its objectives ,
were the embodiment of his own:
thinking. Ilia impress, on the con-
trary, continues to depend upon
hie utter independence, which al-
lows him to raise a voice that car-
rie~'great influence, if little--or'
no-power in the deliber~tione oi`
the Senate. ;,
"It's sort of like' the inventor
~~~ Sanitized -Approved For Release :CIA-RDP75-00149ROOp200900053-6