The Arrogance of Power

by J. William Fulbright, Bill Clinton

Overview

“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 Clinton

J. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682260692
Publisher:	University of Arkansas Press
Publication date:	09/28/2018
Edition description:	1
Pages:	284
Sales rank:	654,133
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

J. William Fulbright was, at the time he wrote The Arrogance of Power, serving his fourth term in the Senate and was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Under Fulbright’s leadership the committee conducted extensive inquiries into American policy in Vietnam, America’s relations with China, and America’s relations with North Atlantic allies. The Arrogance of Power is based on ideas Fulbright put forth famously at a series of lectures at Johns Hopkins University in the spring of 1966.

Read an Excerpt

1
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "The Arrogance of Power"
by .
Copyright © 1967 J. William Fulbright.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Foreword Bill Clinton ix

Preface Francis O. Wilcox xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction: The Arrogance of Power 1

The Power Drive of Nations

Innocents Abroad

The Fatal Impact

American Empire or American Example?

Part I The Higher Patriotism 23

1 The Citizen and the University 25

The Fear of Dissent

Criticism and Consensus

The Vietnam Protest Movement

The University and the Government

2 The Senate and the Senator 44

Decline of the Senate

The Senate as a Forum of Debate

The Committee on Foreign Relations

The Individual Senator

Part II Revolution Abroad 67

3 America and Revolution 69

Unrevolutionary America

The Anatomy of Revolution

Nationalism and Communism in the American View of Revolution

Communism as a Revolutionary ideology

4 Revolution in Latin America 82

The Dominican Intervention

Law and Revolution

Two Revolutions: Cuba and Mexico

5 The Vietnamese Revolution 106

The Asian Doctrine

National Communism in Vietnam

America in Vietnam

6 The Vietnam Fallout 120

The Fallout in the East

The Fallout in the West

The Fallout at Home

7 The Chinese Revolution 139

China and the West: The Fatal Impact

China, in Revolution

The Theory and Practice of Chinese Foreign Policy

America and China

Part III Reconciling Hostile Worlds 157

8 Human Nature and International Relations 159

Civilizing the Competitive Instinct

Psychology, Ideology, and Political Behavior

Practicing Psychology in International Relations

Perception and Perspective

9 Toward Peace in Asia 178

Why Is an Alternative Needed?

Accommodation and Neutralization in History

An Alternative for Vietnam

On Greatness and Magnanimity

10 Rebuilding Bridges 201

Reconciling with the East

Reuniting Europe

Putting Our Own House in Order

11 A New Concept of Foreign Aid 223

The Consequences of Bilateralism

Military Assistance

Foreign Aid and American Overcommitment

The New Concept

Conclusion: The Two Americas 243

Humanism and Puritanism

An Idea Mankind Can Hold to

Notes 259

About the Author Randall Bennett Woods 265