Note 139 — Chapter VI · THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE PRINCIPLE PROBLEM?

Speech of Senator Fulbright before the 1961 Summer Cubberly Conference at Stanford University, Stanford, California, July 28, 1961, pp. 7-8. When he was a Senator, Kennedy made it clear that the Presidency conferred no wisdom in his criticism of Eisenhower. (Congressional Record, June 14, 1960, p. 11630, col. 3,t.) The question is raised in my mind as to whether or not Senator Kennedy, who spoke of the “missile gap” and other “gaps” in our defenses during the campaign for President, was really that ignorant of our defense posture? Yet, within a few months after he became president—and certainly before anything that his administration did could have changed the picture basically—we “learned” that there was no “missile gap” and that our defense posture was strong. (See the article by David Lawrence in the Congressional Record, Jan. 16, 1962, p. A241, cols. 2 and 3.)

Senator Fulbright himself said “In a democratic system, such as ours, the people do have much to say about policy, and they decide who shall govern them. How, may I ask, can our people be expected to discharge their duty as citizens of a self-governing republic, if they are not told the truth about their affairs? It would be easier, more pleasant, and I am sure more popular, to join those who pretend that all is well, that the summit meeting was a triumph for the West and that the Japanese fiasco only demonstrates once again the viciousness of the Communists.” (Ibid., June 28, 1960, p. 13672, col. 2,m.)