Office of the Historian

153. Memorandum From the Staff Assistant to the President (Gergen) to the Counsel to the President for Congressional Relations (MacGregor) and the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig)1

Washington, December 13, 1971

SUBJECT

  • Presidential Involvement in Fulbright Scholarship Program

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Fulbright Scholarship program, the leaders of the Board of Foreign Scholarships—a Presidentially-appointed group—have recently proposed that the President recognize the co-authors of the original legislation, Senator Fulbright and Representative Hays.2 They suggest that “honorary Fulbrights” be presented in the Oval Office, a recommendation prompted in part by the Senator’s own interest.

John Richardson, Jr., assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, is supporting the idea and in-house, Fred Malek, who was first running a check on it, has now swung from opposition to support. Before proceeding with a schedule request, however, it has been requested that I solicit your opinions.

Here are the pros and cons as seen by the proponents:

Advantages

1. Gesture of good will by the President, showing gracious and generous character to those who are known to oppose him.

2. Identification of President with the major U.S. program for cultural and educational exchange. The Fulbright budget was badly slashed under LBJ but has been increased each year under this Administration. This support is an important inroad to the university community, and would be well-highlighted by a ceremony.

3. Identification of President with members of the academic community who are Republicans, such as board chairman, Jim Billington, [Page 402] a young professor of history at Princeton, and vice-chairman, Lyle Nelson, head of the Stanford Communication Department. Other prominent scholars who are associated with the board could also be brought in if appropriate.

4. Possible points with Fulbright and Hays. The whole idea originated when the Senator told the board that he was prouder of this program than any other in which he had participated, and that he only regretted never being a recipient.

Disadvantages

1. The differences between the President and Fulbright are sufficiently deep and long-standing that the President might not wish to honor him in any way.

2. The timing is awkward: this is the 25th anniversary year so that a brief ceremony would be better now, but the White House schedule is very tight and Fulbright will soon be going home. It might be better in that sense to wait until January when the President could more easily do it in the spirit of “fresh starts” with the Congress.

Background materials are attached.3 Any advice you could give on this project would certainly be appreciated.4

Dave Gergen
  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 815, Name Files, Senator Fulbright [1 of 3]. Administratively Confidential.↩
  2. On September 23, the Board of Foreign Scholarships (BFS), in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the Fulbright Program, hosted a luncheon meeting, at which Fulbright was honored. That day, the BFS released a statement entitled “Educational Exchanges in the Seventies,” which contained new guidelines for educational exchanges, developed by the BFS, Department of State, the American academic community, and the binational Fulbright Commissions. For the text of the Department announcement regarding the luncheon and the BFS statement, see Department of State Bulletin, October 11, 1971, pp. 386–390.↩
  3. Attached but not printed are a December 1 memorandum from Richardson to Malek, a November 29 memorandum from Gergen to Malek, and a November 24 covering memorandum from Malek to Richardson. The covering memorandum transmitted a copy of a November 15 letter from Nelson to Haldeman, which was not found attached.↩
  4. There is no indication that the President awarded “honorary Fulbrights” to either Fulbright or Hays during the last weeks of 1971.↩