In April 1969, Ward Just, the perceptive observer of the Washington socio-political scene, penned a lengthy piece in the Washington Post. Subtitled the “path of a high-level defector,” Just's article traced Stuart Symington's evolution from a vociferous anti-Communist to a passionate critic of Cold War foreign policy. “When a major political figure actually changes his mind and shifts a position,” Just realized, “and does so moreover not from outside pressure but from hard thought, it is an event, a high-level defection. A priest leaves the church, and neither is quite the same again.”

South Dakota senator James Abourezk remembered his colleague as “tall and distinguished, with a shock of gray hair … one of the few senators who actually looked like a senator.” Testifying to his Establishment credentials, Stuart Symington adorned the walls of his Senate office with photographs of himself and the preceding generation's key figures in world and U.S. history. During the early 1960s, the Missouri Democrat said that he sacrificed “what might be called Senate authority and power and position in order to get knowledge” on international affairs. Retaining his position on the Armed Services Committee, he obtained slots on the Foreign Relations Committee, the JCAE, and the Jackson Subcommittee, while switching off every assignment he held that dealt with domestic matters – the Public Works, Agriculture, Joint Economic, and Appropriations committees (although he remained an ex oficio member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee).