Feb. 17, 1962 - The Republicans charged again today that President Kennedy was hiding the extent of U.S. involvement in South Vietnam. The Democrats replied that the GOP was playing politics with a touchy foreign problem. Senator Kenneth B. Keating, Republican of New York, following up criticism by his party’s National Committee, charged that in South Vietnam a “made-in-Washington smokescreen obscures what is going on, in terms of American commitment and American involvement.” Senator J.W. Fulbright (pictured second from left), Democrat of Arkansas, responded that the Administration had made clear that it was doing everything it could to prevent a Communist takeover. He said he thought there had been “no lack of adequate briefing” of Congressional committees. Mr. Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Republican National Committee appeared to be playing politics by taking a position that “if you don’t do anything you are soft on communism, but if you do, you are violating the Constitution.”
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