Fulbright hearings
The 22 hearings, titled "Legislative Proposals Relating to the War in Southeast Asia", were held on eleven different days between April 20, 1971, and May 27, 1971.
S. 974 — To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to prohibit any involvement of U.S. Armed Forces in an invasion of North Vietnam without prior and explicit congressional authorization.
62 — Resolving that the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Appropriations, and Armed Services should examine and report on the requirements and consequences of the orderly withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Southeast (SE) Asia including the safe return of American POWs.
Testimony given by Senators George McGovern (D-South Dakota) and Mark O. Hatfield (R-Oregon) on the desirability of Senate Resolution 376; differences in intention and likely consequences of Administration policy and S. 376, including constitutionality of the two approaches; relative merits of proposal by Sen. John Sherman Cooper (R-Ky) to make a firm commitment of withdrawal but without setting a definite date.
on the need for Senate Resolution 66; summary of conversations with each of the four delegations to the Paris peace talks; and the necessity of a fixed date for U.S. military withdrawal from Vietnam.
Testimony by Senator Adlai Stevenson (D-Ill) on support for announced date of withdrawal of all American forces; desirability and practicability of S. Con.
Testimony by Senator Walter Mondale on support for S. 376; summary of and need for S. 974, including feasibility of adding an amendment to an appropriation bill to achieve purpose.
Kerry was the only representative of Vietnam Veterans Against the War who testified on April 22, but others in VVAW were in the audience and at times supported his remarks with applause.
During the 2004 United States presidential campaign, as Kerry was running for President, some critics focused media attention on his participation in the hearings and alleged that parts of his testimony portrayed American war veterans of that era in an unduly harsh light.
Other critics went farther and claimed that Kerry's testimony about US atrocities emboldened the North Vietnamese to torment the Americans POWs who were still imprisoned at the time.
Testimony given by Jay Craven, Susan Gregory, John Scagliotti, Chip Marshall and Kathy Sister (all representatives of Students and Youth for a People's Peace) on the devastation of war in Indochina; genesis of People's Peace Treaty; charged fallacy of President's policy and failure of Congress and democratic system; necessity of new tactics to end the war.
Discussion and debate followed regarding the intent, tactics and effects of planned civil disobedience; South and North Vietnamese treatment of POWs and likelihood of mutual exchange without conditions.
Testimony by Melville L. Stephens (former Navy Lt.) on the weaknesses of arguments for setting definite withdrawal date; U.S. responsibility to South Vietnamese people.
Testimony by Senator Thomas F. Eagleton on the probability and implications of continuing involvement in Vietnam if definite withdrawal date not set; support for S. 376.
Testimony by Edward Gelsthorpe (President of Hunt-Wesson Foods, Inc.) on the destructive effects of Vietnam war on domestic and international situations; need for an announced date for complete U.S. military withdrawal.
), Robert Shaplen (Far Eastern Correspondent, New Yorker Magazine) and Don Luce (former freelance journalist in Vietnam) on U.S. withdrawal policy as it relates to possibilities of a political settlement in Vietnam; value and supervision of South Vietnamese elections; current situation in SE Asia as a whole and probable immediate and long range consequences of various policy alternatives.
Testimony by Representative Paul N. McCloskey (R-Calif) on alleged deceptive briefings regarding relocation and bombing of Laotian and Vietnamese villages and the Phoenix Program; support for S. 376; congressional power over appropriations as means to force Executive Branch cooperation.
