had caught on that “what the Fulbright people really representrnis a new and embittered crypto pacifism-isolationism.” This isrnoverheated, but Fulbright did come tantalizingly close to advocatingrnsomething like the paleo-isolationism he had foughtrntwo decades earlier. He was now saying that becoming a “globalrninterventionist power” after World War II was “a mistakenrnideal.” He was weary of the best and brightest: “I think thernworld has endured about all it can of the crusades of highmindedrnmen bent on the regeneration of the human race.”rnThe whole Vietnam episode seemed to him a buriesque ofrnmisguided liberalism: “Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey,rnand others used to say that I was a racist, and that was why Irndidn’t like the war in Vietnam. I didn’t think ‘the little brownrnpeople’ were entitled to democracy. ‘We want to bring themrnthe Great Society,’ Hubert would say. ‘We’re not racists. Wernhave a great interest in those brown people.’ And all the timernbombing them from five miles up.”rnFulbright, like most men who taste power, hung around toornlong. His reputation for aloofness grew—”no man, howeverrnstrong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or senator,rnand remain fit for anything else,” said Henry Adams, whornshould know—and toothless populist Dale Bumpers routed hisrnelder in the 1974 Democratic primary.rnThough it cannot have been the critical factor, given thernmargin of defeat, outside money helped do in the senator. Hernhad committed the capital crime of candor in 1973 when herntold Face the Nation that when it comes to Middle East policy,rn”Israel controls the Senate” and “we should be more concernedrnabout the United States’ interests.” 1 he pro-Israel lobbyrndirected its considerable energy into teaching Fulbright therncost of dissent.rnThe experience made Fulbright, in retirement, a sharp criticrnof “the subservience of our foreign policy to domestic lobbies,”rnand he is not talking about the Burmese-AmericanrnFriendship League. Liberated by age and irrelevance, and insistingrnthat he is “pro-American” and not “anti-Israel,” Fulbrightrndeclares, “We have lost our freedom of action in thernMiddle East and are committed to policies that promote neitherrnour own national interest nor the cause of peace. AIPACrnand its allied organizations have effective working control ofrnCongress. They can elect or defeat nearly any congressman orrnsenator that they wish.”rnThis may be an overstatement, pace Charles Percy and PaulrnFindley, but President Clinton is unlikely to provide us with arntest case. He pledged to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin inrnMarch 1993 that our $5 billion annual subsidy of Israel andrnEgypt shall remain inviolate. Clinton’s extremely tepid budgetcuttersrnwill swipe food from the mouths of destitute childrenrnbefore they will slice a sacred piece of the foreign apple pie.rnFulbright’s row with the Israel lobby probably explains BillrnClinton’s disregard of Arkansas’ towering statesman. If thernnow-ailing Fulbright is half the man I think he is, he doesn’trncare. At an inauguration party, he told a New York Times reporterrnthat the recent Arkansas governor who’d really impressedrnhim was… the left-wing segregationist Orval Faubus.rnWendell Berry counsels:rn1-800rnbyR.S. GwynnrnCredit cards out, pencil and notepad handy.rnThe insomniac sinks deeply in his chair.rnBegging swift needles in his glass of brandyrnTo knit once more the raveled sleeve of care,rnAs with control, remotely, in one hand hernSummons bright visions from the midnight air:rnThe six-way drill! The eight-way folding ladder!rnKnives that pierce coins or thin-slice loaves of bread!rnDevices that will make one’s tummy flatter,rnRout car thieves, and purge household taps of lead!rnAll made of stuff no earthly force can shatter!rnTheir lauds ascend Olympus in his head.rnAnd yet how little will his days be brightenedrnBy Opera Favorites or, if he feels lewd.rnEven THE SWIMSUIT ISSUE. Briefly heightened,rnHis hopes, ephemeral as stir-fried food.rnVanish like screws his six-way drill has tightened,rnLeaving him just like them—completely screwed.rn”Buy houses and apartments with no money!rnDiscover how today! Write this address!”rnSnapping alert and clicking with his gun, hernDraws a bead on the forehead of Success,rnWhose orchid lei is fresh, whose teeth are sunny.rnWhose tapes will soon arrive via UPS.rnBut anger, with succeeding snifters, passesrnAnd soon all softens in an amber hue.rnAs through a pair of UV/blue-block glasses.rnDoubt fades before the testimony—truernAccounts of hair sprouting like jungle grasses!rnOf lifeless penises lifting anew!rnOf bags and wrinkles blotted out! Of dumberrnThan average kids who, spared the wrath and rod.rnHave learned to multiply! He fights off slumberrnThe moment that his head begins to nodrnAnd resolutely punches the first numberrnOf what may be the area code of God.rnAs soon as the generals and the politicos can predict thernmotions of your mind, lose it.rnSenator Fulbright did. His detractors have said so for years. Hisrnadmirers cherish him for the wisdom gained in loss. crnAUGUST 1994/29rnrnrn