William Fulbright and the Vietnam War

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Arkansas Sen. William Fulbright, longtime chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is remembered as perhaps the most thoughtful, scholarly and eloquent congressional critic of U.S. policy in Vietnam. Reminding us that Fulbright initially supported the use of American troops in Southeast Asia, Berman traces the deterioration of the senator's confidence in President Johnson's Vietnam policy, his skepticism about President Nixon's ``Vietnamization'' of the war, his eventual emergence as a central figure in the struggle to end the bombing in Cambodia and his role in the passage of a war powers resolution. Although the study provides a full account of Fulbright's opposition to the war, public and private, it is concerned in an overall sense with the senator's search for a more constructive American role in world affairs, ``one which placed greater emphasis on political and diplomatic means and less on military force to uphold world order.'' Berman teaches history at the University of Toronto. (March)

Library Journal

Berman (University of Toronto) examines Fulbright's years as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Making judicious use of available data and interviews with Fulbright, Berman chronicles the evolution in the senator's thinking from supporting President Johnson's initiatives and the Tonkin Gulf Resolution to criticism of a policy he felt lacked clear goals and successful tactics. Instructive in how Fulbright tried to reach the public via the media and his books and articles. Recommended for public libraries and professionals. Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph