FULBRIGHT'S ROLE AS SOBER CRITIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200910013-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 18, 1999
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: April 4, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

WASH rNGTON POST
AND TIMES HERALD
Sanitized - Approved For Release, A-RDP75-
' APR 4 '19 u
MORE
FOIAb3b
ulbri o'lbt's, Role munism than on Vietnam.
~9 The weakness of the position o[-those,
As Sober Critic who, like Fulbright, seek a de-escalation
of the war is their alternative. They are
I not for scuttle and run despite the. cal
By Marquis Childs culated campaign to pin that label on
TIE SITS HUNCHED over his Mg 'of General Matthew Ridgway and James
desk, stacks of books at either end, his L. Gavin, a holding operation meanin
glasses slipping down the bridge of his eventual disengagement. It would not.
nose. Sen. J.'William Fulbright, look- necessarily be ?a static operation, since
ing rather like a bemused college pro- ; Vietnamese-American units could move
fessor, is the least likely candidate one out from the 'coastal cities to keep the
could imagine for embattled leade- c, Vietcong off balance.
the opposition on the highly,emoconal With this as his' alternative' Fulbright
issue of Vlecnam. realizes that 0,P President Is the.court,
Whatever the pub)i j image, anu from of last appeal. He wants to talk with himi.
time to time Fu):,right. has managed again. But he is aware of how time is
to arouse the ire of almost every or- running out as, the pressure to bomb,'
ganized group in the country, this is Hanoi'and Haiphong, builds up.
not how the Senator sees himself. He i
believes in a sober examination of the
'realities, which is what, as chairman WHAT - profoundly. concerns him, as
of the Senate Foreign Re'l'ations Com- a humanitarian.ahd a scholar, Is the ap-
mittee, he considers the goal of the parent willingness to 'sacrifice civilian
,.hearings on Vietnam and. China. lives in a bombing drive' that' could,. if
The hearings' were 'widely repoi.ted,the war escalates, extend to China's
Sbut Fulbright, who can 'never be millions. And he asks the question:?
charged with being a cheery optimist, 11-row can a supposedly civilized people
shakes his head sadly as he says that fail to'rise up and'demand that such'
he cannot see that they had'much effect, inordinate cruelty stop?
on public opinion. In this he finds him- When Karl Meyer in 1963 brought
self in agreement-with President John- out an' .impressive collection of Ful.
son who noted. that, the stock of Victo bright's speeches and statements, with
nam critics seeking a way out of the,'the subtitle "The Public Positions of
war had not risen in opinion polls. Private Thinker,'! the consistency of'
In the ? course of the same talk the his stand In his more than 20 years in'
'President referred to Fulbright .as a "Congress was clear. Ill his memoran-
scholar, a . more complimentary term 'duet on the Bay of Pigs invasion he
than other Presidents have used.. ':raised the - only major voice against,
For the crisis of the, Vietnam war that hapless Cuban misadventure. Later.
and for the Senator who has been the in 1961 in a speech on Southeast Asia
.most consistent critic of Administra- he' said:
tion policy this is a kind of halfway ' "What these voices (opposing any po-
.point. The China hearings are 'in sus- 'lineal settlement in Laos) are saying is
pension if not concluded as the- pres.that the United States is the strongest.
sures to expand the War are growing. ,'couritry'in the world :and should not'
cn~ ' hesitate to commit its strength to the
:'active defense of its policies anywhere
FULBRIGHT is' frank to admit that,.outside the Communist'empire. This is'
at this stage he sees no way to check dangerous doctrines , nothing would'
the forces set 1r) such seemingly unre; please Communist leaders more than to"
tenting mg lion, The one court of 'ap- draw the United' States into costly, com=?
peal is, the President. So far as John-' mitments of its resources in peripheral'
son and the Stcoator are concerned it struggles in which the'.,principal Com-
looks like the irresistible force meet- munist powers are not themselves in.'
ng the immovable'object. I Volved.?'
They have` talked together, the Presi. I It is hard to put a charge of ambition
dent inj their last meeting urging the against "Fulbright. ' Liberals invariably'.
'Senator to meet with Secretary of State fault, him for failing to take a stand on'
Dean ?tusk. For Fulbright this sounds civil, rights;' which is one reason he,
like a prescription to agree with Rusk. could never be Secretary of State. Yet'
That is, of course, the great divide, with as a private thinker he promisds.to go"
the chairman of the Foreign Relations-1 on. taking public positions. ,'
Committee differing more.sharply over 10G8. vsUUa reatura 'urnaocl'ih '
Ttusk s definition of , :Americas , w o r l d .
a = ....w . = ':.,
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200910013r9