The Arrogance of Power

Fulbright, J. William

Pelican Book

Senator J. William Fulbright discusses the arrogance of power.

Arrogance of Power

Random House]

The distinguished former senator speaks out on the life-threatening situation created by the arms race, and the decay and trivialization of the American electoral system

THE PRICE OF EMPIRE

History

Pantheon

Review: The Pentagon propaganda machineEditorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsSenator Fulbright's fight against the military industrial complex is on. Round one: The Arrogance of Power. Round two: The Pentagon Propaganda Machine. Here the Arkansan asserts that the war and the military have become part of our environment, like pollution. The once limited technical functions of the armed forces have expanded to a political role for which their parochial training has not prepared them. Fulbright discusses the dangerously vast and powerful communications network by which the Defense Department propagandizes its own policies and represses dissemination of opposing views. Through pro-war speeches by high ranking officers to community groups at taxpayers' expense, by controlled extension of research grants, and by pseudo-accurate depictions of military activities in Pentagon-prepared news clips, the military has become the Big Brother enforcer of U.S. foreign policy opinion. Fulbright cites the inordinate emphasis of the government news coverage on the combat contributions of South Vietnamese troops to convince the public of the success of Nixon's Vietnamization plan. He reveals a Defense Department memorandum which offered ""all practical assistance"" to any civilian scientist who would support the ABM proposal. Equally chilling was the Pentagon's refusal to authorize assistance (essential for production) to a film based on the Palomares incident, reasoning that ""no positive value seemed to be inherent in dramatizing and publicizing worldwide such accidents."" Contrast with this the generous support of John Wayne's hawkish flick, The Green Berets Fulbright's argument is articulately stated, and will add considerable leverage to the position of those who fear the encroachments the military have made on our civilian system.

The Pentagon propaganda machine

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Vintage Books

“The Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has suddenly become the most celebrated public critic of the nation’s foreign politics. . . . His new book, The Arrogance of Power, is remarkable because it . . . transforms mere criticism into bitter condemnation. It portends, or perhaps already speaks, the alienation of a great many thoughtful citizens from their government. . . . From disagreement with the national policy, the Senator has escalated to an indictment of the national character. Where once he blamed ignorance, he now finds also arrogance. And he offers psychological as well as political judgment and testimony to make the point. “Nor is [Senator Fulbright] merely quarreling with Lyndon Johnson’s conduct of affairs. He objects to the whole postwar habit of intervention. . . . We have set out to police the world and to rescue mankind, he argues, neglecting our duty to put our own house in order and dissipating the chance to inspire others by our example. . . . The Senator has much else to say, of course. His book is a very specific protest against the war in Vietnam and a plea that we get out, even if it hurts. It is an angry cry against all war. It is an articulate statement of the duty to dissent. . . . “True to himself, Mr. Fulbright conveys his outrage in calm, often elegant prose. He entertains even as he alarms. . . . It is an invaluable antidote to the official rhetoric of government.” – Max Frankel, The New York Times Book Review

Military

The price of empire

Biographies & Memoirs

Pantheon Books

“Fulbright was erudite and eloquent in all the books he wrote, but this one is his masterpiece. Within its pages lie his now historic remonstrations against a great nation’s overreach, his powerful argument for dissent, and his thoughtful propositions for a new way forward . . . lessons and cautions that resonate just as strongly today.” —From the foreword by Bill ClintonJ. William Fulbright (1905–1995), a Rhodes scholar and lawyer, began his long career in public service when he was elected to serve Arkansas’s Third District in Congress in 1942. He quickly became a prominent member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he introduced the Fulbright Resolution calling for participation in an organization that became the United Nations. Elected to the Senate in 1944, he promoted the passage of legislation establishing the Fulbright exchange program, and he served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1959 to 1974, longer than any senator in American history. Fulbright drew on his extensive experience in international relations to write The Arrogance of Power, a sweeping critique of American foreign policy, in particular the justification for the Vietnam War, Congress’s failure to set limits on it, and the impulses that gave rise to it. This book—with its solid underpinning the idea that “the most valuable public servant, like the true patriot, is one who gives a higher loyalty to his country’s ideals than to its current policy,”—was published in 1966 and sold four hundred thousand copies. The book remains “an invaluable antidote to the official rhetoric of government,” as the New York Times called it, fifty years after its first publication.

Clinton, Bill.

University of Arkansas Press

“Fulbright was erudite and eloquent in all the books he wrote, but this one is his masterpiece. Within its pages lie his now historic remonstrations against a great nation’s overreach, his powerful argument for dissent, and his thoughtful propositions for a new way forward . . . lessons and cautions that resonate just as strongly today.” —From the foreword by Bill ClintonJ. William Fulbright (1905–1995), a Rhodes scholar and lawyer, began his long career in public service when he was elected to serve Arkansas’s Third District in Congress in 1942. He quickly became a prominent member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he introduced the Fulbright Resolution calling for participation in an organization that became the United Nations. Elected to the Senate in 1944, he promoted the passage of legislation establishing the Fulbright exchange program, and he served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1959 to 1974, longer than any senator in American history. Fulbright drew on his extensive experience in international relations to write The Arrogance of Power, a sweeping critique of American foreign policy, in particular the justification for the Vietnam War, Congress’s failure to set limits on it, and the impulses that gave rise to it. This book—with its solid underpinning the idea that “the most valuable public servant, like the true patriot, is one who gives a higher loyalty to his country’s ideals than to its current policy,”—was published in 1966 and sold four hundred thousand copies. The book remains “an invaluable antidote to the official rhetoric of government,” as the New York Times called it, fifty years after its first publication.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fulbright, J. William. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fulbright, J. William

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fulbright, J. William. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Arrogance of Power

Arrogance of Power

THE PRICE OF EMPIRE

The Pentagon propaganda machine

The Arrogance of Power

The price of empire

The Arrogance of Power

The Arrogance of Power