Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 1. 1966.
Not The Messiah
Not The Messiah
Arriving in New Zealand he assiduously avoided the press, proclaiming he was not the Messiah and therefore unable to point out the "way." One can only assume that the Senator was under instructions to say nothing of importance, and especially nothing deviating from State Department foreign policy.
by Pat Caughley
This he did until the foreign relations debate at the conference. His lengthy address on Vietnam turned out to be a very compassionate yet scholarly resume of affairs in South East Asia.
True, Fulbright did not in any way contradict his sponsors, he merely made the present military approach look irrelevant.
His speech was supported by historical, economic and cultural analyses which opened up vast areas normally out of the politician's realm.
Fulbright did not offer a cut and dried panacea, but his implied solution of minimal violence and maximum constructive influence was clearly at odds with what the troops are undertaking in Vietnam.
The Senator did not even resort to the State Department's cry of ruthless Chinese aggressiveness.