Fulbright Hearings - The Hearings

The Hearings

Chairman Fulbright opened the hearings with a brief statement summarizing their purpose:

"Under our system Congress, and especially the Senate, shares responsibility with the President for making our Nation's foreign policy. This war, however, started and continues as a Presidential war in which the Congress, since the fraudulent Gulf of Tonkin episode, has not played a significant role. The purpose of these hearings is to develop the best advice and greater public understanding of the policy alternatives available and positive congressional action to end American participation in the war."

Fulbright commented that Congress' predicament had a precedent in the frustration experienced by the French National Assembly during the first Indochina war. That war ended only after the National Assembly responded to growing public concern and brought in a new government pledged to negotiate a settlement in Geneva within a month, resulting in the Geneva accords that ended that war.