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He did not sulk long. When a congressional seat became vacant the next the year, he personable decided to run— campaigning and, of his aided by wife Betty he won. Two years later, in 1944 Fulbright tried for the senate and won again. His opponent: Homer Adkins.
"Powerful Prejudice." As a freshman Congressman in 1943, Fulbright astonished his House colleagues when he introduced a resolution urging U.S. participation in an international organization to maintain peace — even though peace was not yet in sight. The House adopted it, easing the way for creation of the United Nations.
In his first Senate speech in 1945, in a curious, overstated anticipation of his later Myth and Reality theme, he described fear of Communism as a "powerful prejudice" and added that "as I read history, the Russian experiment in socialism is scarcely more radical under modern conditions than the Declaration of Independence was in the days of Declaration of George III.
This howler was overshadowed by the plan he introduced shortly afterward for exchanging scholars with other nations. The Government-financed scholarships still bear his name and, complains one Senator, "a lot of people think Bill pays for them out of his own pocket."
On the fringe of foreign affairs, Fulbright also went through some exhilarating domestic political battles. Talking to a newsman before the 1946 congressional elections, Fulbright launched out on one of his lectures about the evils of party divisions between the White House and Congress. To prevent a deadlocked Government, he suggested that if Republicans seized Congress, Harry Truman really ought to appoint Republican Arthur Vandenberg Secretary of State, then resign himself and let Vandenberg succeed to the presidency (the vice-presidency was vacant, and in those days the Secretary of State was still next in line). The G.O.P. did win, and after the election the reporter asked Fulbright if he still felt the same way. Sure, he said. "That overeducated Oxford s.o.b.," fumed Harry. "He is the best argument there is for the land-grant college."
At the height of Joe McCarthy's power, Fulbright was one of the first Senators to protest his tactics. In 1954, he cast the lone vote against an appropriation for McCarthy's investigating Committee, blistered him in a speech at the University of Minnesota: "Thoughtful and informed people know that demagogues, who debauch the institutions of representative government, help Moscow." McCarthy thereafter referred to Fulbright as "Senator Halfbright."
Fulbright developed a bitter animosity toward Secretary of State John Foster Dulles over Dulles' brinkmanship policies and his cancellation of funds for Egypt's Aswan dam. "He misleads public opinion," Fulbright said, "confuses it, feeds it pap."