"When the late Senator J. William Fulbright sponsored legislation establishing the prestigious Fulbright Program, which was signed into law by President Truman on August 1, 1946, he saw a world devastated by war and awed by its newly acquired atomic power. Remembering his own overseas experience as a Rhodes Scholar, the young Senator reasoned that people and nations had to learn to think globally if the world was to avoid annihilation. He believed that if large numbers of people lived and studied in other countries, "they might develop a capacity for empathy, a distaste for killing other men, and an inclination for peace."

"In more than 50 years, the Fulbright Program has enabled nearly a quarter of a million people from the United States and 140 other countries to live and study in another country. ...

"What is most unique about this program is that it has established a global system of binational exchanges, each between the United States and a partner nation. There are over 50 Binational Commissions ... administering the Fulbright Program around the world."