The Arrogance of Power, by Senator J. William Fulbright
Goldstein, Walter
This long-awaited volume by the Chairman of the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations is intensely disappointing. It provides an eloquent but rambling sample of the Senator's rhetoric on...
...Strangely, considering his new attitude, the Senator expresses no regrets about the wider issues raised by the Tonkin Gulf resolution...
...This long-awaited volume by the Chairman of the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations is intensely disappointing...
...Because there is no convincing answer to the first question raised, a feeling of unreality pervades his book...
...If he does, it is incredible that he can resign himself to such an impotent role...
...Hence, it is astonishing that Fulbright should now be identified as a leading critic of Cold War orthodoxies and that he should even be named by those urging a KennedyFulbright ticket for 1968...
...Unfortunately, it gives no answer to the two questions that are most frequently asked about this laconic Southern dissident: 1) How did so characteristic a conserv ative Dixiecrat come to be identified as the leader of the liberal and "peace" groups in Congress...
...It tells the reader nothing about the fundamental change of political values which its author evidently experienced...
...It appears that the Senator is too reserved to discuss his own position in public and too disdainful of political debate to reveal his own aspirations and grievances...
...Unhappily, the striking factor about this book is its political irrelevance...
...Moreover, by humbling the Senate's "watchdog" function over foreign policy, his Committee was able to confirm without criticism the nomination of all the top office holders in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations...
...His position on the Dixon-Yates attack on TVA was as illiberal as his position on the racial conflicts in Little Rock...
...To put it even more bluntly, the Chairman's passivity and lack of curiosity are partly responsible for the "credibility gap" attributed to the present Administration...
...The unreality of the Senator's book must be ascribed, therefore, to the constant discrepancy between his public actions and his published statements...
...It provides an eloquent but rambling sample of the Senator's rhetoric on a number of subjects...
...Many of them had earned their credentials as propagandists for Cold War strategies in the 1950's...
...As a policy critic, he is eloquent but unexplained...
...As a political leader, he remains a chameleon...
...2) Is he truly concerned that his pol tical leadership should be effective— after all these years—to influence the formation of American foreign policy...
...By emphasizing Legislature self-restraint, Fulbright permitted many of the developments to occur which he now decries...
...And it gives no clue to the Chairman's desire or ability to translate his new visions into effective political action...
...He was an elite counsellor and an eminence grise...
...We will have to wait until a biography appears which can coolly evaluate the complex motives that have moved this Whiggish politician...
...Given his position of skepticism about the Administration's policy, he has done remarkably little to investigate its premises...
...Dulles or the Manichean belief that the Sino-Soviet bloc remained united for the cause of world revolution...
...Two of them intervened vigorously in Vietnamese politics and helped the political generals stifle rural development and land reform, but neither was called to account by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations...
...It eventually dawned upon him, during the Bay of Pigs fiasco of 1961, that his cautious dissent could be easily ignored...
...Yet it was at this very time that he said, in a speech at the University of Virginia (in April 19d1), that the Senate should not criticize the policy choices of the Executive too harshly...
...The rhetoric in this book demonstrates that even though opposed to the arrogant power and zealous manipulation practiced by the United States in its role as world policeman, he yet refuses to give leadership to any political factions intent upon challenging the President's policy leadership...
...He voted for the Mundt-Nixon draft of the Internal Security Act, for the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, and for the Taft-Hartley restrictions on labor unions...
...The second question, concerning the Senator's effectiveness as a critic, must revive discussion about the proper relationship between the Legislative and the Executive...
...To cite one brief example: not one witness has been called before the Committee and asked to explain the crass meddling by recent U.S...
...During the Eisenhower and Kennedy years, Fulbright aired his criticisms discreetly...
...This reversal on the uses of public debate, it is assumed, appeared after the White House had ignored his warnings against invading at the Bay of Pigs and in Santo Domingo...
...But in this present volume, he insists that the Senate should be "an institution in which the great issues of American politics are contested," presumably in public...
...Working covertly in the Senate cloakrooms, or during his informal visits with President Kennedy in the White House, Fulbright took quiet but decisive action over the right-wing indoctrination programs (given by Major General Walker and others) in the armed services...
...Nonetheless, this former Rhodes scholar has occasionally indulged in more liberal activity...
...As a loyal Southerner, he reflected Arkansas opinion on civil rights and on the boodling interests of the natural gas lobby...
...In his own quiet way he expressed opposition to the Dulles formula of brinkmanship at Dienbienphu in 1954, over the Aswan Dam in 1956, and during the Lebanon invasion in 1958...
...He fails to mention that the press unearthed better information than the Senate about the dubious naval activities that occurred in the Gulf at that time...
...ambassadors in Saigon...
...As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee since 1945, and as its chairman since 1958, his contributions to debate rarely challenged (until 1965) the Cold War stereotypes that passed for thought in the State Department...
...It could not "substitute its judgment" for that of the President "without confusing the image and purpose of this country in the eyes of others...
...If it is true that his reticence stems from the reflective rather than combative bent of his personality, we still do not know whether he yearns to be personally effective at last in checking the rush to disaster in Vietnam...
...Nevertheless, his privately circulated memos failed to gain attention or mobilize support...
...practically none had disavowed the pact-building absurdities of Mr...
...This book is replete with condemnations (but not investigations) of the objectives of our foreign policy and his phraseology is pleasantly caustic...
...Nor does lie admit ''that the Senate had seriously defaulted in gathering data and questioning officials during the seven years in which the French fought in Vietnam—or during the next 10 years, while American preparations helped pave the way for the contemporary massacre...
...He was supposedly embittered, too, by the limitless authority which President Johnson drew from a short resolution that he had helped rush through the Senate in 1964...
...Even if it is assumed that he experienced a religious conversion at some point, which allowed him to shrug aside (without explanation) the beliefs he previously held, it is still necessary to inquire into the drift of his current activities...
...Though he had shown courage in opposing the assaults of McCarthy, his record on other domestic issues revealed a depressing consistency...
...One might never suspect from its liberal sentiments that the Senator had voted for nearly 20 years with the most conservative bloc in Congress...
Vol. 14 • November 1967 • No. 6
