2. Biography and Influences
Born into a southern patrician family
Graduate of University of Arkansas (political
science major; halfback for the Razorbacks)
Rhodes Scholar (Oxford): 1924-28
6 months in Vienna
3. Education and Political Office
Oxford, Pembroke College, 1924-1928
Vienna (6 months)
JD, George Washington U Law School, 1934
Adjunct, U of Arkansas, 1936-39
President of U of Arkansas, 1939-41
8. Fulbright and Foreign Relations
U.S. House of Representatives (1942-44) - Fulbright
Resolution 1943
U.S. Senate (1945-75) – Fulbright Act 1946
On Senate Foreign Relations Committee as of 1949
Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1959-1974
(longest serving chair)
Fulbright-Hays Act, 1961
“Internationalist” (= Wilsonian tradition) and “Southern
Democrat” (= segregationist)
Proponent then opponent of Vietnam War (Arrogance of
Power, 1966)
9. What event inspired Fulbright to
come up with the idea of a
cultural and educational
exchange program?
11. Fulbright Act, August 1, 1946
Amendment of a piece of legislation that had
nothing to do with educational exchange:
Surplus Property Act of 1944
„ . . . the Department of State may dispose of
surplus property located outside of the
continental United States for foreign
currencies or credits . . . „ AND
„ . . . enter executive agreements with foreign
goverments for the use of these currrencies . .
. „ (Fulbright commissions)
13. “for the purpose of providing . . . for financing
studies, research, instruction, and other
educational activities of or for American
citizens . . . . in such foreign country, . . . ”
(travel and maintenance awards)
“furnishing transportation for citizens of such
foreign country who desire to attend American
schools and institutions of higher learning. . .”
(travel grants only)
14. Historical Structure of the Program I
Oversight by Department of State (DOS): United
States Information Agency (USIA or E-Bureau), 1953-
1999
Establishes Board of Foreign Scholarships (= FSB)
Contracts with Institute of International Education (IIE)
to manage student program: recruit U.S. grantees;
orientation and placement for foreign students (with
NAFSA founded 1948)
Leads to the establishment of CIES to manage the
Scholars Program
Leads to the conclusion of „executive agreements“
with foreign states and the establishment of „U.S.
Educational Commissions“ with binational boards
15. Historical Structure II
The Fulbright Program did not cost the U.S. taxpayers
a penny
Funded abroad with foreign currencies acquired by
the sale of wartime surplus overseas to fund travel
grants (both ways) and maintenance grants for U.S.
citizens abroad
Funded in the U.S. by institutions of higher education
that waived all tuition and fees and provided grants –
along with other organizations of American civil
society
(foundations, associations, clubs, fraternities, etc.) –
to cover maintenance costs
Limited funding (authorized up to $ 20 M per country
and $ 1 M per year)
16. Historical Context of the Program I
Related to the great phase of U.S. internationalism at
the end of WW II: United Nations, Bretton Woods -
International Monetary Fund, World Bank
Antedates the beginning of the Cold War = Truman
Doctrine and „containment“ (1947); Marshall Plan
(European Recovery Program) (1948); North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (1949)
Becomes an important part of the cultural and
information policy of the USG (United States
Information Agency, 1953-1999, as an independent
executive agency)
17. Historical Context of the Program II
1st = Burma on Dec. 22, 1947; 17th = U.S.
Educational Commission for Austria on June 6, 1950
Post WW II context: Austria (1950), Germany
(1952), and Japane (1951): „education“ was part of
the US policy of „re-education“: identifying future
elites, understanding U.S. institutions (democracy
plus market capitalism), (re)building nations
Post-1989: Fulbright as a post (cold) war program in
(former) Eastern Europe
Post-9/11: NEA, Afghanistan, Iraq („critical
languages“)
18. If you needed to identify one
individual responsible for influencing
USG spending on higher education,
research, and technology since the
end of World War II,
who would that be?
20. Space (& Arms) Race
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) (DoD)
National Defense Education Act (NDEA)
DoD “exchange programs”
22. Objective of the Fulbright Program
Public Law 87-256, 1961
“ increase mutual understanding between the
people of the United States and the people of
other countries by means of educational and
cultural exchange; to strengthen the ties
which unite us with other nations,…… and
thus to assist in the development of
friendly, sympathetic, and peaceful relations, .
..”
23. Fulbright-Hays Act, Sept. 21, 1961
Pulls together various pieces of educational and
exchange legislation
Provides for „the creation or continuation of binational
or multinational educational and cultural foundations
and commissions“ (second generation = Austrian-
American Educational Commission)
„ . . . may provide for equitable U.S. participation in
and support for, including a reasonable share of the
cost of, educational and cultural programs to be
administered by such organizations, . . . .“
Funding Fulbright becomes a line item in the US
Federal Budget
24. JWF (far left): U.S. President John F. Kennedy
signs the Fulbright-Hays Act, 1961
25.
26. Fulbright-Hays II
„Foreign governments, international organizations and
private firms, associations, agencies, and other
groups shall be encouraged to particpate to the
maximum extent feasible in carrying out this Act and
to make contributions of funds, properties, and
services, which the President is hereby authorized to
accept, to carry out the purpose of this Act.“
Annual reporting requirements and two-year home
residency requirement for Fulbright Program grantees
on J-1 exchange visas
U.S. federal funding is subject to U.S. federal
regulations = Office of Budget and Management
(OMB) and U.S. Inspector General (auditor for waste,
fraud, or abuse). See Manual for Binatioanal
Commissions.
27. Institutional Framework
U.S. Federal legislation and regulations
USG funding for Fulbright Program
Managed by binational commissions
Based on „executive agreements“ (legal status
different = foundations, associations, extraterritorial
enties) . . .
that may (or may not) entail details on the funding
commitments of Parter Governments;
outline the structure and reporting requirements of the
commission, whose operations . . .
. . . may be subject to national reporting and
accounting standards, too.
28.
29. "Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go
forth into battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit --
we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides
to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to
bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling
fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to
drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their
wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble
homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of
their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn
them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended
in the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and
thirst, sports of the sun flames in summer and the icy winds of
winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring thee for the
refuge of the grave and denied it --
For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight
their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimmage, make heavy their
steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow
with the blood of their wounded feet!
We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of
Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that
are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite
hearts. Amen.
30. unseen women and children with napalm as valiant fighters for freedom.”
31.
32.
33. Breakdown of direct funding for Norwegian Fulbright program
is app. 30/70 U.S./Norway
36. Recent History: 11/9 to 9/11
Berlin Wall goes down on November 11, 1989
= End of Cold War
FY 1996 = 18% cut in Fulbright funding for old
EUR (mid-term elections: Newt Gingrich)
Establishment of new “Eastern European”
commissions: NATO & EU enlargement
1999 = “consolidation” of USIA into State:
changes in public information posture of US
(e.g. closing of “America Houses,” shift from
print to e-format, “virtual” PD)
September 11, 2001 = GWOT
39. Sen. Fulbright (r.) with a talented and aspiring junior in high
school from Arkansas: Bill Clinton in an American Legion
„Boys Nation“ T-shirt (1963) . . .
40. JWF.staff late 60s.jpg
. . . who also subsequently interned on Fulbright„s staff as an
undergraduate student from Georgetown University in the
summer of 1967 and was a Rhodes Scholar from Arkansas in
1969, too.
