Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- J. William Fulbright, Vietnam, and the Search for a Cold War Foreign Policy
- 1 Taking the Stage
- 2 Cuba and Camelot
- 3 “Freedom's Judas-Goat”
- 4 Of Myths and Realities
- 5 Avoiding Armageddon
- 6 Escalation
- 7 Texas Hyperbole
- 8 The Hearings
- 9 The Politics of Dissent
- 10 Widening the Credibility Gap
- 11 The Price of Empire
- 12 Denouement
- 13 Nixon and Kissinger
- 14 Of Arms and Men
- 15 Sparta or Athens?
- 16 Cambodia
- 17 A Foreign Affairs Alternative
- 18 Privileges and Immunities
- 19 The Invisible Wars
- 20 Conclusion
- Index
9 - The Politics of Dissent
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- J. William Fulbright, Vietnam, and the Search for a Cold War Foreign Policy
- 1 Taking the Stage
- 2 Cuba and Camelot
- 3 “Freedom's Judas-Goat”
- 4 Of Myths and Realities
- 5 Avoiding Armageddon
- 6 Escalation
- 7 Texas Hyperbole
- 8 The Hearings
- 9 The Politics of Dissent
- 10 Widening the Credibility Gap
- 11 The Price of Empire
- 12 Denouement
- 13 Nixon and Kissinger
- 14 Of Arms and Men
- 15 Sparta or Athens?
- 16 Cambodia
- 17 A Foreign Affairs Alternative
- 18 Privileges and Immunities
- 19 The Invisible Wars
- 20 Conclusion
- Index
Summary
The third week in March 1966 Fulbright traveled to Storrs, Connecticut, to deliver the Brien McMahon lecture. He was glad for the opportunity to honor his late friend and colleague. It was an appropriate occasion, Fulbright decided, to attempt to start a searching national self-examination. He told his audience:
There are two Americas. One is the America of Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson; the other is the America of Teddy Roosevelt and General Mac- Arthur. One is generous and humane, the other narrowly egotistical; one is modest and self-critical, the other arrogant and self-righteous; one is sensible, the other romantic; one is good-humored, the other solemn; one is inquiring, the other pontificating; one is moderate and restrained, the other filled with passionate intensity.
After thirty years as a superpower, America stood at a crossroads, he told the students and faculty. The United States would have to decide which of the two sides of its character would prevail – “the humanism of Lincoln or the aggressive moralism of Theodore Roosevelt.” He was, he said, afraid that America's better half was in eclipse. The nation's aggressive, militaristic spirit had in part been responsible for the Vietnam War, and that conflict was in turn reinforcing the dark side of the American character. The war would destroy Lyndon Johnson's vision of a better America just as surely as it would destroy Vietnam. “The President simply cannot think about implementing the Great Society at home while he is supervising bombing missions over North Vietnam,” Fulbright insisted. Not only was the war consuming the nation's generous, humanitarian instincts; it was eating up the resources necessary to give substance to those instincts.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998