WHITE HOUSE, SENATE CLASH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200930025-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 4, 2000
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: March 26, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

STATINTL
Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP75-0
NEW YORK MAR Z 6 1964
HERALD TRIBUNE
1 It also seems likely to raise
some questions about the po-
r litical relationship between
President Johnson and Sen
.
??6-1i Fulbright, sometimes
men- tioned as a possible Secretary
By Tom L,ainberi
of the Ileral5 Tribune S[a7
WASHINGTON.
A new Senate-White House
c':as I on foreign policy erupted
here yesterday when Sen. J.
William Fulbright urged the
Administration to meet Pan-
atiia's canal-treaty `qe;;otia-
tions" demand r and acknowl-
edge that T. 'lei Castro's Corn-
mitni.;t Cuu.s i.iight survive
indefinitely.
of State.' But yesterday he
was the voice of disgruntle-
ment and dissatisfaction with
some of Mr. Johnson's foreign
policies.
Speaking slowlyand softly,
his hands in his pockets, Sen.
Fulbright in his 13-page
speech, said:
"We are confronted with a
complex and fluid world sit-
uation and we are not adapt-
ing ourselves to it." He
added: "We are c:it:
old myths in the face of new
realities" and trying to re-
This country has three
options on policy for Cuba,
Sen. Fulbright continued: It
can invade the island, block-
ade it tightly or accept the
Communist Castro regime "as
a disagreeable reality and
annoyance but one which is
not likely to be removed in
the near future through the
'first tv, o choices.
Invasion can be ruled out,
lie said, and the American
attempt to blockade Cuba in-
to collapse "has been a
failure."
In recent years, this coun-
try has become "transfixed"
with Cuba, "making it far
more I important both in our
foreign relations and In our
domestic life that its size and
influence warrant," Sen. Ful-
bright went on.
"I think we are bound to
conclude that Castro is a
nuisance . . . a noisy minor
demagogue (but no) Napo-
(Tlie United States should
.sot. recognize Communist
China. or help it into the
United Nations, but, this
country "should, introduce an
element of flexibility, or more
precisely of the capacity to
be flexible, into our relations"
with Poking.
However the United States
should not enter into re-
lations with fled China un-
less it abandons its "intention
to conquer and incorporate"
Formosa:
(.The United States should
acknowledge that Russia "has
ceased to be totally and im-
pl cahi:r hostile to the West"
and deal with it as "a great
power, quite apart from
differences of ideology."
4 There is a ^ "pressing
need" to reevaluates American
policy in South Viet Nam, and
he saw "only two realistic
options: enlarge the conflict
or make a new effort to help
the South Vietnamese fight
the war as at present. He
supported the second option.
Sen. Fulbright's speech
came one day after President
Johnson declared that "rea-
soned agreement instead of
rash retaliation" would
characterize his foreign
policy.
Mr. Johnson said patient
American negotiation is prov-
ing successful in Panama,
Cyprus and Cuba.
The Senator's speech came
under sharp and immediate
attack from the Republican
National Committee as "a
trial balloon which the John-
son administration is sending
up to prepare public opinion
for the acceptance of a for-
eign policy that could lead
only to disaster for the United
States and other free nations.,
"The course Sen. Fulbright
advocates is the same road
which Neville Chamberlain
traveled in the 1930s" when
Sen. Fulbright, D., Ark., solve such --s-.. cts by
chairman of the Senate For- branding other ideas and
eign Relations Committee and viewpoints as "unthinkable
a long-time student of inter- thoughts."
national affairs, caused the The United States, he went
Adininistratio nto writhe fur- on, should state "positively
ther when he suggested this and clearly it is prepared to
country relax its restrictions licentiate revisions" in its
on trade ? with Communist 1903 canal treaty with Pan-
nations, . assay rather than ama, "oven though this tnay
assail French recognition of necessitate unpopular deci-
Communist China, and re- sinus." .
survey American policy it is: rtnreasonable for this
toward that Asian country. country to regard its canal
A White House spokesman dispute with Panama as "a
said stiffly that Se l-,. 1- test of our course end re-
bright had delivered a. "very solve . N our brrvel v and
interesting speech, with many ;will to deieud our interests,"
items worth of consideration." lie continued.
"But specifically on Cuba "The real te,t in Panama
and Panama, it does not is not ox our valor, but of our
represent the policy of this M,,sdnm 'and judgment and
Administration. common sense," the Senator
Asked if Sen. Fulbright's said.
Inc Administration has
remarks and other criticisms insisted since the Panama
of foreign policy lately in the crisis flared in January that
Senate were viewed as a con- it would discuss but not ne-
certed attack on the
Adints- gotiate the canal treatry. All
of
p
man replied: "There is
nothing unusual or improper
about a Senator saying ally-
thing he wishes on foreign
1colic
y."
The 38-year-old Sen. Ful-
brh:h~'s speech, delivered to
:11: -:lost empty Senate
chamber but to attentive gal-
leries pricked with students
and tourists, seems certain to
spark wide dismission in the
White House and State Do- tie Castro regime as a dis-
partment, especially since he testeful nuisance but not as
a, serted "the executive an intolerable danger so long
branch, and uarticularly the the nations of the hem-
Department of State, is sub- ispherc are prepared to meet
jest to the malady of chronic I their obligations of collective
and excessive caution" about 11 defense tinder the Rio treaty
iconic menace . and that
he cannot be gotten rid of
except by means that are
wholly disproportionate to the
objective," he declared.
The Senator made these
other points:
C[ The United Stater should
relax its restrictions o_ trade
with Communist rcuiitries
because it cannot p':c:s.ure i;
allies to uphold such barriers-
and because "a moderate
volume of trade in non-
strategic items (can be) an
instrument for reducing
world tensions and strength
ening the foundations of
peace."
Q'French recognition of
Red China was "untimely and
carried out in a way that can
hardly be considered friendly
to the United States." But
t,te have broken up over , President de Gaulle's estab-
this semantic problem. There ' lishrnent of diplomatic re-
is. Sen., Fulbright, "no reason lations with Peking "may
why the United States can- nonetheless serve a con-
riot put an er~d to the seman structive purpose by un-
tic debate... freezing a situation in which
Turning to Cuba in his ; many countries, none more
which lie . entitled than the United States, are
speech
,
"old Myths and New Real- committed to inflexible ? pol-- i,
ities, Sen. Fulbright said the icics by long-established com-
United States should ack- mitntetits and the pressures
no,xledge "the acceptance of, of domestic public opinion."
Britain followed an appease-
n;cnt policy, the National -
Committee said in a stc.te-
ment.
Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200930025-4