Date of Graduation
5-2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in History (MA)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
History
Advisor/Mentor
Alessandro Brogi
Committee Member
Randall B. Woods
Second Committee Member
Patrick Williams
Keywords
Social sciences, Arkansas politics, Foreign policy, William J. Fulbright, Middle East, Orientalism
Abstract
Contemporary scholarship has shown that J. William Fulbright's defeat in 1974 was due to a plethora of reasons including his opposition to America's involvement in Vietnam, lackadaisical attitude towards the monolithic threat of Communism, connection to the Washington establishment amidst the Watergate scandal, and old age. Scholars, however, have not paid enough attention to the role Fulbright's Middle Eastern stances played in his final election campaign. I seek to place the voice of Arkansans in the national and international political discussions and show that, despite their relatively unfocused interest in Middle Eastern affairs (and perhaps because of that lack of interest or willingness to learn) their political choices were considerably determined by their perception of a liberal internationalist candidate as Senator Fulbright. Arkansas voters successfully placed themselves in the international and national conversations, showing that local politics influenced the larger global narrative during the Cold War.
Citation
Smith, M. (2013). Woes of the Arkansas Internationalist: J. William Fulbright, the Middle East, and the Death of American Liberalism. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/773
Included in
International Relations Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, United States History Commons