Fulbright.org.cy
Title
Cyprus Fulbright Commission Home
Description
Though now deceased, former Senator J. William Fulbright will live on in the minds and hearts of the hundreds of thousands who have had the honor to be know as "Fulbright Scholars". It was he who conceived the idea of the post-World War II educational exchange program, and brought it to a reality in 1948.
Fulbright himself had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and president of the University of Arkansas at age 34. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives at age 35, and at 39 he became a Senator. For 16 of his 30 years in the Senate, he chaired the Foreign Relations Committee. Politically, he fought hard for peace initiatives and non-military solutions. He was an advocate of mutual understanding between cultures and détente long before they were in vogue.
The Fulbright Act of 1945 was an amendment to the Surplus Property Act of 1944. That act appointed the Department of State to be the agency responsible for disposal of surplus war property not on U.S. soil. The resulting funds were to be used by Americans to study in Lend Lease countries and Lend Lease country students to study in the United States.
