Fulbright, [James] William(J. William Fulbright)

US Democratic politician

president of University of Arkansas 1939-1941

Representative from Arkansas 1943-1945

Senator from Arkansas 1945-1974

chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee 1959-1974

sponsor and eponym of Fulbright scholarship

opposed McCarthyism and Vietnam War

• "The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements. I had no idea until then that you could not rely on [them]."
• "I'm sure that President Johnson would never have pursued the war in Vietnam if he'd ever had a Fulbright to Japan, or say Bangkok, or had any feeling for what these people are like and why they acted the way they did. He was completely ignorant."
• "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."
• "The junior senator from Wisconsin, by his reckless charges, has so preyed upon the fears and hatreds and prejudices of the American people that he has started a prairie fire which neither he nor anyone else may be able to control."
• "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."