Feel the love (I)

[U.S. Senator from Arkansas J. William] Fulbright doesn’t make many idle speeches – speeches merely for the record. When he takes the floor it generally is to make some specific point.

Occasionally one of these speeches stirs up the country, if not the Senate.

His latest stir-‘em-up talk came March 25 when he took the senate floor and, in a quiet talk, advocated a re-examination of U.S. foreign policy, especially toward the Communist world, urged that the country abandon “old myths” in the face of new realities and called on people to “think about unthinkable things.”

As has happened in the past, his office was deluged with mail.

In four weeks he received 12,000 letters. He was pleased to note that the writers favored his views about 4 to 1.

Much of the mail opposing the speech, both from Arkansas and elsewhere, was abusive.

Some of the letters from the home state began “You rat fink you,” “You Commie lover,” or “You pinko, why don’t you go to Russia?”

- Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinoisan, May 31, 1964, p. 20