J.
William Fulbright was born on April 9, 1905 in Sumner, Missouri. He was
educated at the University of Arkansas where he was awarded the B.A. degree
in Political Science in 1925. He then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes
Scholar where he received an M.A. degree.
When Fulbright returned to the United States, he studied law at George
Washington University in Washington, DC. During the 1930's, he served in the
Justice Department and was an instructor at the George Washington University
Law School. In 1936 he returned to Arkansas where he was a lecturer in law
and, from 1939 to 1941, president of the University of Arkansas, at the time
the youngest university president in the country.
He
entered politics in 1942 and was elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives, entering Congress in January 1943 and becoming a member of
the Foreign Affairs Committee. In September of that year the House adopted
the Fulbright Resolution supporting an international peace-keeping machinery
encouraging United States participation in what became the United Nations,
and this brought national attention to Fulbright.
In
November 1944 he was elected to the U.S. Senate and served there from 1945
through 1974 becoming one of the most influential and best-known members of
the Senate. His legislation establishing the Fulbright Program slipped
through the Senate without debate in 1946. Its first participants went
overseas in 1948, funded by war reparations and foreign loan repayments to
the United States. This program has had extraordinary impact around the
world. There have been more than 250,000 Fulbright grantees and many of them
have made significant contributions within their countries as well as to the
overall goal of advancing mutual understanding.
In
1949 Fulbright became a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
From 1959-1974 he served as chairman, the longest serving chairman of that
committee in history. His Senate career was
marked by some notable cases of dissent. In 1954 he was the only Senator to
vote against an appropriation for the Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations, which was chaired by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. He also
lodged serious objections to President Kennedy in advance of the Bay of Pigs
invasion in 1961.
He was particularly in
the spotlight as a powerful voice in the chaotic times of the war in
Vietnam, when he chaired the Senate hearings on United States policy and the
conduct of the war. In 1963 Walter Lippman wrote of Fulbright: "The role he
plays in Washington is an indispensable role. There is no one else who is so
powerful and also so wise, and if there were any question of removing him
from public life, it would be a national calamity."
After leaving the Senate, he was of counsel to the Washington law firm of
Hogan & Hartson and remained active in support of the international exchange
program that bears his name.
He received numerous awards from governments, universities, and educational
organizations around the world for his efforts on behalf of education and
international understanding. In 1993 he was presented the Presidential Medal
of Freedom by President Clinton.
Senator J. William Fulbright died on February 9, 1995 at the age of 89 at
his home in Washington, DC.
