FULBRIGHT ADVICE IGNORED BY JFK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200920150-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 5, 1999
• Sequence Number: 150
• Publication Date: April 2, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanitized - Approved For Rele
WASHINGTON POST
A.ND. 'LMES HERALD
-a
H
APR 219&4
0 A, 10
Ignored
By Drew Pearson.,
f During the first few days of
the Kennedy Administration
Sen. William Fulbright' (D-
1:,k.), now in the headlines
over foreign
affairs advice
! to the John-
stration, gave
some less head-
lined, private t4
advice to the
Kennedy Ad-
ministration
.
-lie advised
the , new Presi-/a
Nov. 22, 1963. Immediately
Khrushchev sent his No. 2
man, Anastas Mikoyan, to
Washington for the funeral.
Long lines of Russians filed
through the American Embas-
sy in Moscow to pay tribute to
the dead President. There
were outpourings of genuine
grief all over the Communist
world-except in China-and
it looked as if the tragedy of
Dallas might have forged a
link of sympathy between the
U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. I
A few days after Mr. Ken-
nedy's death, President John-
son received . from the Soviet
dent that then -""?' lously felt he had the whip its confidential file on accused
was the time -the winter oft hand as a result of the Bay of assassin Lee Oswald, who had
1961--to run with the ball on Pigs. The meeting' was a dis' lived in Russia. Mr. Johnson
Berlin. .. aster.. sat down:, and wrote Khru-
Fulbright pointed out that shchev a letter of thanks.
Premier Khrushchev obvious- Near War With U.S.S.R. Thereupon Secretary of State
fly was in a friendly frame of
1mind toward Mr. Kennedy,
had offered to send a special
ambassador to his inaugura-
tion, had released the-Ameri-
can, RB-47 fliers, had sent a
glowing letter of conkiratula-
tions to JFK, was giving
various indications that he
wanted to. get along with the
Fuibright pointed out that
since Berlin had been rank-
ling 'relations between ~ the
United States and Russia for
over a decade, and since Ber-?
lhi was bound to epnte up any-
'way, it was best for M. Ken-
ncdy to grab the ball and, run
with it.
The new - President got
similar advice from- Adlai
Stevenson, Averell Harriman,
former Ambassador to Mos-
cow, and -Chester Bowles, then
Under Secretary of State. But,
busy with a new Congress, and
faced with negative advice
from part of his State Depart-
ment,'Mr; Kennedy delayed.
That delay may have been
.one .of his most serious foreign
policy errors. For with the
delay came the Bay of Pigs
disaster when American pres-
tige :fell to its 'lowest "ebb. It
Yes only after this that Mr.
Kennedy met with Khru-
shchev in Vienna--a Khru-
shchev who was irritated over
being snubbed, and who obvi-
there . followed more 'dis-
astrous events, including the
Berlin Wall, the maneuvering
of U.S. and U.S.S.R. tanks
on both sides of Berlin, to-
gether with the showdown
over Cuban missiles. t h a t
,
brought.the two mostpowerfulthat the United States ' should
nations in. the world closer to acknowledge, this Soviet, ges-
war than at any'othor time initure. He insisted on..'sending
history, the letter. But before, it was
It has taken two 'years of finally sent, the State.Depart-
p a t i e n t, careful diplomacy ment took out all of the
since then, including. the test warmth and' cordiality)
ban treaty, to ease the . tivo
countries back into -d position Castro Woos.1U.S.A.
of better understanding. Much At about this time, --t h e
of this might have been avoid-
ed if the Kennedy Administra-
tion had followed Fulbright's
advice..
Came the advent of. the
Dean Rusk advised him not to
send the letter.
Mr. Johnson argued that the
United States had never'tul-n-
ed.over a confidential file to a
foreign government as'did she
Russians in this case
and felt
nitely, that it was much hettez
for two old friends-Cuba mad
the United States-to make.
up.
This may sound like an
amazing overture from a gov
ernment supposed to be en
gaged,in a cold war with the
United States; but it was true.'.
Furthermore, Sen. Fulbright
had known about these over.'
tures, and this is one reason
he made his dramatic speech'
last week urging the United
States to forget the boycott
and make peace with Castro.
What Fulbright also knew,
was' that Fidc1- Castro himself,
while 'visiting Moscow last
May :. 1, made a surprising
speech that Cuba wanted to
esume relations with the.
United States. -
Simultaneously, Russia' has
continued pulling its troops
out of Cuba until only those
manning the' surface-to-air'
missiles are' left. Simultane-
ously, when the United States'
was. crticized all over Latin;
America for the Panamanian:.
riots, Moscow newspapers
buried the story. There were
no critical editorials accusing
the' United States of bloody
imperialism,
These are some. things the,:
American public. hasn't entire-
ly known about which Sen.
la'ulbright knows in detail and.
Russians began dropping hints which were behind.his historic
that the United States?should speech.; urging, the Johnson
Administration to scrap the
patch things up ' with . Fidel boycott 'and patch-, up relations
Castro, that the Soviet didp't with Cuba.
want to continue t]1 rg defl j.
Hell-MaCiUre Syndicate, Inc
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200920150-6