Dec. 9, 1964 - Senator J.W. Fulbright (pictured) said today that stepping up the war in Vietnam would be senseless and indicated that United States involvement was a mistake in the first place.
The Arkansas Democrat, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, addressed 2,000 students at Southern Methodist University and then said at a news conference that he agreed with the late Gen. Douglas MacArthur that the United States should not get into a land war in Asia.
“I do not advocate getting out, however,” Fulbright said. “On the other hand, I would not advocate escalating the war.”
He said throwing hundreds of thousands of Americans into the war would be a “senseless effort.”
Fulbright said American involvement in South Vietnam began in 1954 with an aid program “we should never have undertaken.”
He said he thought President Eisenhower was right in refusing military involvement in South Vietnam and that President Johnson is right in attempting to stabilize the country’s government.
“There is some degree of American responsibility in Southeast Asia. I don’t know why,” he said.
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