J. William Fulbright

J. William Fulbright (1905-1995), American educator and politician, who, while a United States senator, sponsored the Fulbright Act of 1946, amended in 1961 by the Fulbright-Hays Act, providing funds for the exchange of students, scholars, and teachers between the United States and other countries. He was born in Sumner, Missouri, and educated at the University of Arkansas, the University of Oxford (in England), and George Washington University Law School (in Washington, D.C.). He was admitted to the Washington, D.C., bar in 1934 and served for a year as a special attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice. He taught at George Washington University from 1935 to 1936 and at the University of Arkansas from 1936 to 1939. He served as president of the University of Arkansas from 1939 until 1941. A member of the Democratic Party, Fulbright was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1942 and to the U.S. Senate in 1944.

As a U.S. senator, Fulbright gained much influence during his long tenure (1959-1974) as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He became a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, particularly of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (1959-1975). Running for his sixth term as senator in 1974, Fulbright was defeated in the Arkansas Democratic primary, and he resigned from the U.S. Senate at the end of the year. His writings include Old Myths and New Realities (1964) and The Arrogance of Power (1967).