Jesse Helms

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Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr.
United States Senator from North Carolina
In office January 3, 1973 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	B. Everett Jordan
Succeeded by	Elizabeth Dole
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Claiborne Pell
Succeeded by	Joe Biden
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1987
Preceded by	Herman Talmadge
Succeeded by	Patrick Leahy
Born	October 18, 1921(1921-10-18) Monroe, North Carolina
Died	July 4, 2008 (aged 86) Raleigh, North Carolina
Resting place	Historic Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, North Carolina
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic (1950-1970)[1] Republican (1972-2008)
Spouse	Dorothy "Dot" Helms
Children	three
Occupation	Journalist
Religion	Baptist
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1942 – 1945

Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. (October 18, 1921–July 4, 2008) was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001.^[2][3][4] Helms was a leader of the modern conservative movement,^[5] and he helped start the conservative resurgence, rescuing Ronald Reagan's political career before his presidency,^[6][7] but was known for confronting anyone that strayed from his own conservative convictions.^[3]

A journalist by trade, Helms was the longest-serving popularly-elected Senator in North Carolina history and was widely credited with shifting the one-party state dominated by the Democrats into a competitive two-party state. The Helms-controlled National Congressional Club's state-of-the-art direct mail operation raised millions for Helms and other conservative candidates allowing Helms to aim "for the jugular" in his campaigns.^[8] He was praised for his ability to connect complicated ideas on a level that spoke to ordinary people.^[9]

He was perhaps the last unreconstructed Southern conservative who started his political career in the Democratic Party when that party symbolized racial segregation and transitioned in the early 1970s to being a Republican.^[10] Though a Wall Street Journal editorial called him "no racist",^[6] Helms was an outspoken conservative who opposed many progressive policies regarding race such as school integration, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.^[8][11][12] Helms also reminded voters that he tried, with a 16-day filibuster, to stop the Senate from approving a federal holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.^[13][14][15]

Helms was also a "master obstructionist", and a self-described "redneck" who relished his nickname, “Senator No”.^[11][13][16] He opposed, at various times, civil rights, feminism, gay rights, affirmative action, tax increases, abortion, foreign aid, communism, and government support for modern art with nudity.^{[8][16][17][18][19]} Helms brought "an aggressiveness" to his conservatism, like his rhetoric against homosexuality, and employed racially charged language in his campaigns and editorials.^[10][20] He combined this with cultural, social and economic conservatism which often helped his legislation win overwhelming support.^[10] He was an icon of conservatism in the United States respected for his steadfastness of convictions; he "never apologized" for his past views on most of these issues, with the exception of the AIDS pandemic.^{[10][21][22][23][24][25][26]}

Childhood and education (1921 – 1940)

Helms was born in Monroe, North Carolina, where his father, called "Big Jesse", served as both chief of police and fire chief.^[27][28] His mother, Ethel Mae Helms, was a housewife.^[28]

Helms briefly attended Wingate Junior College, now Wingate University, which is near Monroe before leaving for Wake Forest College^[5][27] He dropped out after a year to begin a career as a journalist, working for the next 11 years as a newspaper and radio reporter, first as a sportswriter and news reporter for The News & Observer and also as assistant city editor and city editor for The Raleigh Times.^[5][27] Helms met Dorothy "Dot" Coble, editor of the society page, at the The News & Observer and they married in 1942.^[5][27] Helms first interest in politics came from conversations with his father-in-law, a political conservative.^[5]

Early career (1940 – 1972)

Helms' first full-time job after college was as a sports reporter with The Raleigh Times.^[27] During World War II, Helms served stateside as a recruiter in the United States Navy. In 1945, his first child, Jane, was born. After the war, he pursued his twin interests, journalism and politics (at that time, within the Democratic Party). Helms became the city news editor of The Raleigh Times and later moved to radio and television.

Entry into politics

In 1950, Helms "played a critical role as campaign publicity director for segregationist Willis Smith" in the U.S. Senate campaign against "the most renowned Southern liberal Frank Porter Graham".^[29][30] Graham, who supported school desegregation, was labeled by Smith, a conservative Democratic lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association, as a "dupe of communists" and a proponent of the "mingling of the races" played out on fliers including the phrase WAKE UP WHITE PEOPLE in the virtually all-white Democratic primaries.^[30][31] After winning the election, Smith hired Helms to be his administrative assistant in Washington, D.C..

In 1952, Helms worked on the segregationist presidential campaign of Georgia Senator Richard Russell.^[5] After Russell dropped out of the presidential race, Helms returned to working for Smith, who died the following year. Helms returned to Raleigh and from 1953 to 1960 was executive director of the North Carolina Bankers Association. He set up a home on Caswell Street in the Hayes Barton Historic District, where he lived until he died.^[5]

In 1957 Helms won his first election for a Raleigh City Council seat and served two terms while earning a reputation as a conservative gadfly who "fought against everything from putting a median strip on Downtown Boulevard to an urban renewal project".^[5] In 1960, Helms worked on the unsuccessful primary gubernatorial campaign of I. Beverly Lake, Sr., who ran on a platform of racial segregation.^[32][33] The U.S Supreme Court had recently handed down the Cooper v. Aaron decision insisting on the dismantling of segregated school systems and that combined with the lunch-counter demonstrations in Greensboro compelled him to run.^[32] Lake lost to Terry Sanford, who ran as a racial moderate willing to implement the federal policy of school integration. Helms felt forced busing and forced racial integration caused animosity on both sides and were "proved to be unwise".^[32]

Capital Broadcasting Company

In 1960 Helms joined the Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) as the executive vice-president, vice chairman of the board, and assistant chief executive officer. His daily CBC editorials on WRAL-TV, given at the end of each night's local news broadcast in Raleigh, made Helms famous as a conservative commentator throughout eastern North Carolina.

Helms' editorials featured folksy anecdotes interwoven with conservative views against, amongst others, "the civil rights movement, the liberal news media, and anti-war churches".^[5] He referred to The News and Observer, his former employer, as the "Nuisance and Disturber" for its promotion of liberal views.^[34] The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which had a reputation for liberalism, was also a frequent target of Helms' criticism. He suggested a wall be erected around the campus to prevent the university's liberal views from "infecting" the rest of the state. Helms said the civil rights movement was infested by communists and “moral degenerates” and described Medicaid as a “step over into the swampy field of socialized medicine.”^[5]

On the 1963 civil rights protests, Helms stated, "The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights."^[35] He later wrote, "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced".^[36]

Although his editorials created controversy, they also made him popular with conservative voters, helping him to win re-election to the Raleigh City Council.^{[citation needed]} He served for four years. He was at Capitol Broadcasting Company until he was elected to the Senate in 1972.

Senate campaign of 1972

Helms celebrating the 1972 victory, the first of five successive Senate wins.

Helms announced his candidacy for a seat in the United States Senate in 1972. His campaign was managed by Thomas F. Ellis who would later be instrumental in Ronald Reagan's 1976 campaign and also become the chair of the National Congressional Club. He won the Republican primary with 60.1 percent of the vote and eliminated two intraparty opponents. Meanwhile, Democrats retired the ailing Senator B. Everett Jordan, who lost his primary to Congressman Nick Galifianakis, a Greek American, who represented the 'new politics' of the young, African-Americans, and the anti-establishment, based around the urban Piedmont Triad^[37] Although Galifianakis was a 'liberal' by North Carolina standards, he opposed busing.^[38]

Polls put Galifianakis well in front of Helms until late in the campaign, but Helms's tactic of associating his opponent with the unpopular Democratic presidential nominee, George McGovern, closed it.^[38] Helms employed the slogans 'McGovernGalifianakis - one and the same' and 'Nixon Needs Helms',^[1] whilst Galifianakis avoided mention of his party's nominee.^[38] Helms secured the active campaigning support of a number of conservative Democrats alienated by Galifianakis's campaign. Galifianakis, for his part, pointed to Helms's earlier open criticism of Nixon for being too left-wing.^[38][39] Controversially, Helms also used the slogan 'Vote for Helms — He's One of Us!', although it is disputed as to whether this referred to Galifianakis's Greek ancestry,^[40] to his putative untrustworthiness,^[1] or to his liberalism.^[41][42]

In a taste of things to come, money poured into the race from outside the state, with Helms outspending Galifianakis 3-to-1 in the last six weeks of the campaign.^[38] In a year marked by Democratic gains in the Senate,^[39] Helms won, polling 54 percent to Galifianakis's 46 percent, and became the first Republican senator from that state since 1903: before senators were directly elected.^[1] Helms was helped by Richard Nixon's gigantic landslide victory in that year's presidential election;^[42] Nixon carried North Carolina by 41 points and won 98 of the state's 100 counties.^{[citation needed]}

First Senate term (1973 – 1979)

Helms was credited even by his most vociferous opponents with providing excellent constituent services through his Senate office.^[43]

In 1974, in the wake of Roe v. Wade, Helms introduced a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited abortion in all circumstances,^[44] by conferring due process rights upon every fetus.^[45] However, the Senate hearing into the proposed amendments heard that neither Helms's, nor James L. Buckley's similar amendment, would achieve their stated goal, shelving them for the session.^[45] However, both Helms and Buckley proposed amendments again in 1975, with Helms's allowing states leeway in their implementation of an enshrined constitutional 'right to life' from the 'moment of fertilization'.^[46]

He proposed an act that authorized the President to grant honorary citizenship to Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.^[47]

In 1977, Helms proposed a successful amendment that allowed United States citizens to sign contracts linked to gold, overturning a 44-year ban on gold-indexed contracts.^[48]

1976 Republican National Convention

Helms supported Ronald Reagan for the presidential nomination in 1976, even before Reagan had announced his candidacy,^[49] and his contribution was crucial in the North Carolina primary victory that paved the way for Reagan's presidential election in 1980. The support of Helms, alongside Raleigh-based campaign operative Tom Ellis, was instrumental in Reagan winning the North Carolina primary and later presenting a major challenge to incumbent President Gerald Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention. According to author Craig Shirley, the two men deserve credit 'for breathing life into the dying Reagan campaign'.^[50] Going into the primary, Reagan had lost all the primaries, including in New Hampshire, where he had been favored, and was two million dollars in debt, with a growing number of Republican leaders calling for his exit.^[7] Going into the North Carolina primary, the Ford campaign was predicting a victory, but assessed Reagan's strength in the state simply: Helms's support.^[51] The grassroots movement formed in North Carolina by Ellis and backed by Helms delivered an upset victory by 53% to 47%.^[52] The momentum generated in North Carolina carried Ronald Reagan to landslide primary wins in Texas, California, and other critical states, evening the contest between Reagan and Ford, and thus forcing undeclared delegates to choose at the 1976 convention.

Later, Helms was not pleased by the announcement that Reagan would ask the 1976 Republican National Convention to, if nominated, make moderate Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker his running mate for the general election, but kept his objections to himself at the time.^[53] According to Helms, after being told by Ronald Reagan of the decision, he noted the hour because, "I wanted to record for posterity the exact time I received the shock of my life."^[53] Helms and Strom Thurmond tried to make Reagan drop Schweiker for a conservative, perhaps either James Buckley^[54] or his brother William F. Buckley, and rumors surfaced that Helms might run for Vice-President himself,^[55] but Schweiker remained. In the end, Reagan lost narrowly to Ford, whilst Helms received only token support at the Convention for the Vice-Presidential nomination, albeit enough to place him second, far behind Ford's choice of Bob Dole. Nonetheless, the platform adopted was a broadly conservative one, and the conservative faction came out acting like the winners: except Jesse Helms.^[56]

Helms vowed to campaign actively for Ford across the South, regarding the conservative platform adopted at the Convention to be a 'mandate' on which Ford was pledging to run. However, he did target Henry Kissinger, demanding that he embrace the platform or resign immediately, after Kissinger issued a statement calling Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn a 'threat to world peace'.^[57] Helms continued to back Reagan, and the two remained close friends and political allies, although not uncritical ones, throughout Reagan's political career.^[3] Despite Reagan's defeat the convention, the intervention of Helms and Ellis arguably led to the most important conservative primary victory in the history of the Republican Party. This victory enabled Reagan to contest the 1976 Republican Presidential nomination, and later to win the next nomination at the 1980 Republican National Convention and ultimately Presidency of the United States. According to Craig Shirley,

1978 re-election campaign

Helms ran for reelection against state Insurance Commissioner John Ingram in 1978. In a low-turnout, off-year election Helms received 619,151 votes (54.5 percent) to Ingram's 516,663 (45.5 percent). The election gave Helms his largest margin of victory in his five Senate campaigns. During the term Helms hired James Meredith, most famous as the first African-American ever admitted to the University of Mississippi, as a domestic policy adviser to his Senate office staff.^[58] This was met by criticism from some civil rights groups, but Helms countered that by saying he wanted "the best people, and it doesn't matter what their color is."^{[verification needed]} Meredith noted that Helms was the only member of the Senate to respond to his offer.^[59]

Second Senate term (1979 – 1985)

Jesse Helms and President Ronald Reagan in the White House's Oval Office circa January 1981.

On 3 January 1979, the first day of the new Congress, Helms once again introduced a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion,^[60] on which he now led the conservative Senators.^[61] Senator Helms was one of several Republican senators who in 1981 called into the White House to express his discontent over the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court; the opposition hinged over the issue of O'Connor's presumed unwillingness to overturn Roe v. Wade.^[62] Helms was also the Senate conservatives' leader on school prayer.^[61] An amendment proposed by Helms allowing voluntary prayer was passed by the Senate,^[63] having been originally surprisingly passed (and then withdrawn) as an amendment to the Department of Education Organization Act. To that act, Helms also proposed an amendment banning sex education without written parental consent.^[64]

He joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, being one of four Carter-critical voices new to the committee.^[65] Outspoken in his opposition to the United States severing ties with the Republic of China, Helms demanded that the People's Republic of China reject the use of force against Taiwan,^[66] but, much to his shock, the Carter administration did not ask them to rule it out.^[67]

Helms also criticised the government over Zimbabwe Rhodesia, leading support for the Internal Settlement government in Zimbabwe Rhodesia, under Abel Muzorewa, and campaigned along with Samuel Hayakawa for the lifting of sanctions on his government^[68] and complaining of the inconsistency of lifting them on Uganda immediately after Idi Amin's departure, but not Zimbabwe Rhodesia after Ian Smith's.^[69] Helms hosted Muzorewa when he visited Washington and met with Carter in July 1979,^[70] and sent two aides to the Lancaster House Conference because he didn't 'trust the State Department on this issue',^[71] thereby provoking British diplomatic complaints.^[72] One of the aides was accused of encouraging Smith to 'hang on' and take a harder line and implying that there was enough support in the Senate to lift sanctions without a settlement.^[71][72] Helms introduced legislation that demanded immediate lifting of the sanctions;^[73] as negotiations progressed, Helms complied more with the adminstration's line, although Ted Kennedy accused Carter of conceding the construction of a new aircraft carrier in return for Helms's acquiesence on Zimbabwe Rhodesia, which both parties denied.^[74]

Helms was an advocate of the tobacco industry since much of North Carolina's rural economy relies on tobacco; Hubert Humphrey once said, "I'll trade Jesse Helms his tobacco vote for my wheat support any day."^{[citation needed]} Tobacco companies such as R. J. Reynolds and Philip Morris had supported him, both directly and through donations to the Jesse Helms Center.^{[citation needed]} Helms's support for lifting sanctions on Zimbabwe Rhodesia may have been grounded in North Carolina's tobacco traders, who would have been the main group benefitting from unilaterally lifting sanctions on tobacco-exporting Zimbabwe Rhodesia.^[75]

Helms supported, along with Democrat Patrick Leahy, a federal Taxpayer Bill of Rights.^[76]

In 1979, Helms was touted as a potential contender for the Republican nomination for the 1980 presidential election,^[77] but had poor voter recognition and the he lagged far behind the front-runners.^[77][78] He was the only candidate to file for the New Hampshire Vice-Presidential primary.^[79] Going into 1980, he was suggested as a potential running mate for Reagan, and he said he'd accept if he could 'be his own man'.^[80] However, his ideological agreement with Reagan risked losing moderates' votes, particularly due to the independent candidacy of John B. Anderson,^[80][81] and the Reagan camp was split:^[82] eventually designating George H. W. Bush as his preferred candidate. At the convention, Helms toyed with the idea of running for Vice-President despite Reagan's choice, but let it go in exchange for Bush endorsing the party platform and an address to the convention.^[83][84] Nonetheless, Helms was the 'spiritual leader of the conservative convention',^[83] and led the movement that successfully reversed the Republican Party's 36-year platform support for an Equal Rights Amendment.^[85][86][87]

In the fall of 1980, Helms proposed another bill denying the Supreme Court jurisdiction over school prayer, but this found little support in committee, under the weight of opposition from mainline Protestant churches,^[88][89] and its counterpart was defeated in the House.^[90] Senators Helms and James A. McClure blocked Ted Kennedy's comprehensive criminal code that did not relax federal firearms restrictions, inserted capital punishment procedures, and reinstated current statutory law on pornography, prostitution, and drug possession.^[91] Helms and Strom Thurmond sponsored a Senate amendment to a Department of Justice appropriations bill denying the department the power to participate in busing, due to objections over federal involvement, but, although passed by Congress, was vetoed by a lame duck Carter.^[92][93]

Republicans take the Senate

Helms became chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee in 1981. An opponent of the Food Stamp Program, Helms had already voted to reduce its scope,^[94] and was determined to follow this through as chairman,^[95] proposing a 40% cut in their funding.^[96]

Though a chairman of a major Senate committee, he regularly eschewed invitations to go on Sunday interview programs, claiming his constituents did not watch them.^{[citation needed]} He also advised a young press aide not to write a letter to The New York Times after one of its editorials condemned Helms: again, since most of the constituency did not subscribe to the paper, there was no need for him to engage the paper in a dispute.^{[citation needed]}

With the new Congress, Helms once again proposed an amendment banning abortion in all circumstances, along with Robert Dornan,^[97] and also proposed a bill defining fetuses as human beings, along with Henry Hyde and Romano Mazzoli.^[98]

Helms opposed the Martin Luther King Day bill in 1983. Helms claimed that his opposition was because King had two associates with communist ties, Stanley Levison and Jack O'Dell. ^[99] Helms led the Senatorial opposition to the bill, embarked on a 16-day filibuster, and raised the issue of deceased civil rights leader King's alleged philandering as part of his opposition to establishing the national holiday. Writing in the Washington Post several years later, David Broder attributed Helms opposition to the MLK holiday to Helms' racism.^[100]

Latin America

Upon the Republican takeover of the Senate, Helms also became chairman of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, promising to 'review all our policies on Latin America', of which he had been severely critical under Carter.^[101] He immediately focused on El Salvador, and particularly preventing Nicaraguan support for guerrillas in El Salvador. Within hours, the subcommittee approved military aid to El Salvador,^[101] and later led the push to cut aid to Nicaragua.^[102]

In 1982, Helms was the only senator who opposed a Senate resolution endorsing a pro-British policy during the Falklands War.^[103] Nonetheless, Helms was a supporter of the late Chilean President Augusto Pinochet,^[104] who supported the United Kingdom in the Falklands conflict.

Helms had close ties with the right-wing Salvadoran Nationalist Republican Alliance and its leader and death squad founder Roberto D'Aubuisson.^{[105][106][107]} When confronted with evidence that D'Aubuisson ran death squads that systematically murdered civilians, he replied that "[a]ll I know, is that D'Aubuisson is a free enterprise man and deeply religious."^[108]

Helms opposed Fidel Castro, arms control treaties and supported the contras in Nicaragua as well as the right-wing government of El Salvador.^{[109][dead link]} In 1980, he opposed a treaty with Cuba on sea boundary delimitation unless it included withdrawal of the Soviet brigade stationed in Cuba.^[91]

1984 re-election campaign

In 1984, in the most expensive Senate campaign up to that time, Helms narrowly defeated powerful two-term Governor Jim Hunt, taking 1,156,768 (51.7 percent) to Hunt's 1,070,488 (47.8 percent). Helms might not have won had it not been for Ronald Reagan's popularity in the state; Reagan carried North Carolina by 24 points that year.

Third Senate term (1985 – 1991)

In early 1986, Panamanian dissident Winston Spadafora visited Helms and requested that the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs hold hearings on Panama. Ignoring Elliott Abrams's request for a softer line towards Panama, Helms – a long-time Noriega critic – agreed, and the hearings uncovered the large degree of leeway that the US government, and particularly the Central Intelligence Agency, was giving Noriega.^[110] After the Drug Enforcement Administration encountered opposition from Oliver North in investigating Noriega's role in drugs trafficking, Helms teamed up with John Kerry to introduce an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act demanding that the CIA investigate the Panama Defense Forces' potential involvement.^[111] In 1988, after Noriega was indicted on charges including drugs trafficking,^[112] a former Panamanian consul general and chief of political intelligence testified to the subcommittee, detailing Panama's compiling of evidence on its political opponents in the United States, including Senators Helms and Ted Kennedy, with the assistance of the CIA and National Security Council.^[112][113] Helms proposed that the government suspend the Carter-Torrijos treaties unless Noriega were extradited within thirty days.^[114]

HIV legislation and opposition to AIDS funding 1987 – 1990

In 1987 Helms added the "Helms Amendment" to the Supplemental Appropriations Act, which directed the president to use executive authority to add HIV infection to the list of excludable diseases which prevent both travel and immigration to the United States.^[115] The ban passed over objections from international public health officials and organizations who noted that this policy runs counter to established World Health Organization and International Red Cross policies. The action was also opposed by the U.S. Public Health Service. Congress restored the executive authority to remove HIV from the list of excludable conditions in the 1990 Immigration Reform Act, and in January 1991, Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan announced he would delete HIV from the list of excludable conditions. A letter-writing campaign headed by Helms ultimately convinced President Bush not to lift the ban, and left the United States the only industrialized nation in the world to prohibit travel based on HIV status.^[116] The ban remains in effect as of 2008. The travel ban caused the cancellation of the 1992 International AIDS Conference in Boston.^[117]

Helms was "bitterly opposed to federal financing of AIDS research and treatment".^[118] Opposing the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS bill in 1988, Helms stated, "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy."^[119] When Ryan White died in 1990, his mother went to Congress to speak to politicians on behalf of people with AIDS. She spoke to 23 representatives: Helms refused to speak to Jeanne White even when she was alone with him in an elevator.^[120] Despite opposition by Helms, the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Care (CARE) Act passed in 1990.

1990 reelection campaign

Helms ran for reelection in a nationally publicized and rancorous campaign against the former mayor of Charlotte, Harvey Gantt, in his "bid to become the nation's only black Senator" and "the first black elected to the Senate from the South since Reconstruction".^[121][122] Helms aired a late-running television commercial^[123] which showed a white man's hands ripping up a rejection notice from a company that gave the job to a "less qualified minority"; critics claimed the ad utilized subliminal racist themes.^{[122][124][125][126][127]} The advert was produced by Alex Castellanos, whom Helms would employ until his company was dropped in April 1996 after running an unusually hard-hitting ad.^[128] Helms won the election with 1,087,331 votes (52.5 percent) to Gantt's 981,573 (47.4 percent). In his victory statement, Helms noted the unhappiness of some media outlets over his victory, quoting a line from "Casey at the Bat": "There's no joy in Mudville tonight. The mighty ultraliberal establishment, and the liberal politicians and editors and commentators and columnists have struck out."^[121]

Fourth Senate term (1991 – 1997)

Republicans regained control of Congress after the 1994 elections and Helms became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In that role, he pushed for reform of the United Nations and blocked payment of the United States' dues. As he gained seniority and clout, Helms became known as "Senator No", a nickname he reportedly delighted in, because he obstructed Democratic bills and presidential appointments. Helms passed few laws of his own in part because of this bridge-burning style. Hedrik Smith's The Power Game depicts several senators specifically blocking Helms' goals as result of his intransigence,^{[clarification needed]} but nonetheless portrays Helms as a 'devastatingly effective power broker'.^[129] Helms vehemently opposed granting Most favoured nation status to China, citing human rights concerns.

In 1994, Helms created a sensation when he told broadcasters Rowland Evans and Robert Novak that Clinton was 'not up' to the tasks of being commander-in-chief, and suggested two days later, on the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, that Clinton 'better not show up around here [Fort Bragg] without a bodyguard'.^[130] Helms said Clinton was so unpopular and said he hadn't meant it as a threat.

In a widely publicized and controversial incident, Helms deeply offended Carol Moseley Braun, the first black woman in the Senate and the only black Senator at the time.^{[131][132][133][134][135]} Soon after the Senate vote on the Confederate flag insignia, which opponents saw as an overt symbol of racism - both for the history of racial slavery in the United States and for establishment of Jim Crow laws, Helms ran into Moseley Braun in an elevator.^[135] Helms turned to his friend, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), and said, "Watch me make her cry. I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing 'Dixie' until she cries."^[136] He then proceeded to sing the song about "the good life" during slavery to Moseley Braun.^[137][138] Helms later blocked Moseley Braun's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to New Zealand.^[135] {Braun served as in New Zealand as US ambassador from 1999 to 2001}

Having attempted, and failed, to block passage of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Care (CARE) Act passed in 1990, Helms tried to block its refunding in 1995, saying that those with AIDS were responsible for the disease, because they had contracted it because of their "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct", and claiming that more federal dollars were spent on AIDS than heart disease or cancer, despite this not being borne out by the Public Health Service statistics.^[139]

Helms-Burton Act

Soon after becoming the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in February 1995, Helms announced that he wished to strengthen the spirit of the 1992 Torricelli Act with new legislation.^[140] Its companion sponsored through the House by Dan Burton of Indiana,^[140] it would strengthen the embargo against Cuba: further codifying the embargo, instructing United States diplomats to vote in favour of sanctions on Cuba, stripping the President of the option of ending the embargo by executive order until Fidel and Raúl Castro leave power and a prescribed course of transition is followed.^[141] The bill also, controversially explicitly overruling the Act of State Doctrine,^[141] allowed foreign companies to be sued in American courts if, in dealings with the regime of Fidel Castro, they acquired assets formerly owned by Americans.

Passing the House comfortably, the Senate was far more cautious, under pressure from the Clinton administration. The debate was filibustered, with a motion of cloture falling four votes short.^[141] Helms reintroduced the bill without Titles III and IV, which detailed the penalties on investors, and it passed by 74 to 24 on 19 October 1995.^[142] A conference committee was scheduled to convene, but didn't until 28 February 1996, by which time external events had taken over. On 24 February, Cuba shot down two small Brothers to the Rescue planes piloted by anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. When the conference committee met, the tougher House version, with all four titles, won out on most substantive points.^[141] It was passed by the Senate 74-22 and the House 336-86, and President Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Act into law on 12 March 1996.^[143] For years after its passing, Helms criticised the corporate interests that sought to lift the sanctions on Cuba, writing an article in 1999 for Foreign Affairs, at whose publisher, the Council on Foreign Relations, also drew Helms's ire for its softer approach to Cuba.^[144]

1996 reelection campaign

In 1996, Helms drew 1,345,833 (52.6 percent) to Gantt's 1,173,875 (45.9 percent). Helms supported his former Senate colleague Bob Dole for president, while Gantt endorsed Bill Clinton. Gantt said several years later, "The tension that he creates, the fear he creates in people, is how he's won campaigns." Although Helms is generally credited with being the most successful Republican politician in North Carolina history, his largest proportion of the vote in any of his five elections was 54.5 percent. In North Carolina Helms was a polarizing figure, and he freely admitted that many people in the state strongly disliked him: "They (the Democrats) could nominate Mortimer Snerd and he'd automatically get 45 percent of the vote." Helms was particularly popular among older, conservative constituents and was considered one of the last 'Old South' politicians to have served in the Senate. However, he also considered himself a voice of conservative youth, whom he hailed in the dedication of his autobiography. Under Helms' banner, many conservative Democrats in eastern North Carolina switched parties and began to vote increasingly Republican.

Fifth Senate term (1997 – 2003)

The summer of 1997 saw Helms engage in a protracted, high-profile battle to block the nomination of William Weld, Republican Governor of Massachusetts,^[145] as Ambassador to Mexico: refusing to hold a committee meeting to schedule a confirmation hearing. Although he didn't make a formal statement of his reason,^[145] Helms did criticise Weld's support for medical marijuana,^[146][147] which Senate conservatives saw as incompatible with Mexico's key role in the War on Drugs.^[148] Weld attacked Helms's politics, saying, "I am not Senator Helms's kind of Republican. I do not pass his litmus test on social policy. Nor do I want to."^[149] This opened Helms to counter on Weld's positions on abortion, gay rights, and other issues on which he had a liberal position.^[146] Other factors, such as Weld's noncommittal position on Helms's chairmanship during his 1996 Senate campaign and Weld's wife's donation to the Gantt campaign,^[150] made the nomination personal and less cooperative.^[151] Held up in the committee by Helms, despite Weld resigning his governorship to concentrate on the nomination and a petition signed by most senators,^[147][152] his nomination died.

In 2000, Bono sought out Jesse Helms to discuss increasing U.S. aid to Africa. In Africa, AIDS is a disease that is primarily transmitted heterosexually, and Helms sympathized with Bono's description of "the pain it is bringing to infants and children and their families".^[153] Helms insisted that Bono involve the international community and private sector, so that relief efforts would not be paid for by "just Americans".^[154] Helms coauthored a bill authorizing $600 million for international AIDS relief efforts. In 2002, Helms announced that he was ashamed to have done so little during his Senate career to fight the worldwide spread of AIDS and pledged to do more during his last few months in the Senate. Helms spoke with special appreciation of the efforts of Janet Museveni, first lady of Uganda, for her efforts to stop the spread of AIDS through a campaign based on "biblical values and sexual purity."^[155]

Because of recurring health problems, including bone disorders, prostate cancer, and heart disease, Helms did not seek re-election in 2002. His Senate seat was won by Elizabeth Dole, a former Johnson, Nixon, and Ford Presidential advisor who served as Reagan's Transportation Secretary (which at that time included the Coast Guard), Bush's Labor Secretary, and a former Presidential candidate, who also happened to be the wife of long-time colleague and former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas.

Post-Senate life (2003 – 2008)

In 2004, he spoke out for the election of Republican U.S. Representative Richard Burr, who, like Elizabeth Dole two years earlier, defeated Democrat Erskine Bowles to win the other North Carolina Senate seat. In September 2005, Random House published his memoir Here's Where I Stand. In his memoirs, he likened abortion to the Holocaust and the September 11 terrorist attacks stating, "I will never be silent about the death of those who cannot speak for themselves." Helms had also been recruited by pop star Bono for charity work.

In 1994, after turning down requests for his papers to be left to an Ivy League university, he designated Wingate University as the repository of the official papers and historical items from his Senate career, where the Jesse Helms Center is based to promote his legacy.^[156] In 2005, Liberty University opened the Jesse Helms School of Government with Helms present at the dedication.

Helms' health remained poor after he retired from the Senate in 2003. In April 2006 news reports disclosed that Helms had multi-infarct dementia, which leads to failing memory and diminished cognitive function, as well as a number of physical difficulties. He was later moved into a convalescent center near his home.^[157] Helms died of vascular dementia during the early morning hours of July 4, 2008, at the age of 86.^[2][158] He is buried in Historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Social and political views

Helms was known as an ardent conservative, especially on social issues. He was respected for his steadfastness of convictions.^{[9][10][24][25]} He "never apologized" for his past views on most of these issues, with the exception of AIDS, unlike other Southern politicians from the same time like Strom Thurmond, Jerry Falwell, George Wallace or Robert Byrd.^{[10][21][22][23][26]} Helms was also a "master obstructionist" and self-described "redneck" who relished his nickname, “Senator No”.^[159][160] He opposed, at various times, civil rights, feminism, gay rights, affirmative action, tax increases, abortion, foreign aid, communism, and government support for modern art with nudity (although opposition to all these but civil rights and feminism were and still are standard conservative positions).^{[11][161][162]} Helms brought "an aggressiveness" to his conservatism, like his rhetoric against homosexuality, and employed racially charged language in his campaigns and editorials.^[10][20] He combined this with cultural, social and economic conservatism which often helped his legislation win overwhelming support.^[10]

Racism

Helms opposed many progressive policies regarding race such as school integration, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.^{[163][164][165]} Race was always an issue in Helms' campaigns, "[h]e was a master at using fear … whether it was communism or gay and lesbian groups or African Americans. He won elections that way and never lost."^[166] Helms called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress."^[11] Helms reminded voters that he tried, with a 16-day filibuster, to stop the Senate from approving Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to honor African-American civil-rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.^[21] He has been accused of being a segregationist by liberals and political scholars including USA Today's DeWayne Wickham who wrote Helms "subtly carried the torch of white supremacy" from Ben Tillman.^{[167][168][169][170]} In 1996 the US Justice department admonished Helms' campaign for civil rights violations, "after it mailed 125,000 fliers to heavily African-American precincts warning that voters risked imprisonment if they cast ballots."^[16] Helms opposed "every piece of civil rights and affirmative action legislation" and blocked "Black judges from being considered for the federal bench."^[171] In 1982, he voted against the extension of the Voting Rights Act.^[171] Helms opposed busing, supported the "racist apartheid regime of South Africa", and "for years blocked attempts by President Bill Clinton to appoint a Black judge to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals".^[171] Only when Helms' own judicial choices were threatened with blocking did attorney Roger Gregory of Richmond, Virginia get confirmed.^[171] Helms tried to block the nomination of Carol Moseley Braun, the first African-American female senator, as ambassador to New Zealand.^[171]

Views on Homosexuality

Helms had a negative view of LGBT people and LGBT rights in the United States.^{[11][172][173]} Throughout his five terms in the Senate, Helms consistently spoke out against any and all LGBT-friendly legislation without hesitation.^[172] Helms called homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches" and tried to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts for supporting the "gay-oriented artwork of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe".^[16] In 1993, when then-president Bill Clinton wanted to appoint "out" lesbian Roberta Achtenberg to assistant secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Helms famously held up the confirmation "because she's a damn lesbian", adding "[s]he's not your garden-variety lesbian. She's a militant-activist-mean lesbian".^[173][174] Helms also stated "I’m not going to put a lesbian in a position like that. If you want to call me a bigot, fine."^[172] When Clinton urged that gays be allowed to serve openly in the armed forces Helms said the president "better have a bodyguard" if he visited North Carolina.^[16] His views on gay and lesbian citizens were depicted in the 1998 documentary film Dear Jesse.

Helms "fought bitterly against federal financing for AIDS research and treatment, saying the disease resulted from 'unnatural' and 'disgusting' homosexual behavior."^[3] "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy," he said in 1988.^[175] In his final senate year he supported AIDS measures in Africa, where heterosexual transmission of the disease is most common yet still held the belief that the "homosexual lifestyle" is the cause of the spread of the epidemic in America.^[3][176]

Personal life

Family

Jesse and Dot had three children: Jane, Nancy of Raleigh, and Charles Helms of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Charles was a nine-year-old orphan with cerebral palsy who they adopted after reading in a newspaper that Charles wanted a mother and father for Christmas.^[27] The couple had seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.^[27]

Religious views

Helms was well known for his fervent religious views,^[178] and he played a leading role in the development of the Christian right.^[177] Although a Southern Baptist from his upbringing in a strictly literalist environment, when in Raleigh, Helms worshipped at the moderate Hayes-Barton Baptist Church,^[177] where he had served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher before his election to the Senate.^[178] Helms was close to fellow North Carolinian Billy Graham, Pat Robertson,^[179] as well as Jerry Falwell, whose Liberty University dedicated its Jesse Helms School of Government to Helms. Helms helped found Camp Willow Run, an interdenominational Christian summer camp, sitting on its board of directors until his death, and was a Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of freemasons in North Carolina.^[178]

Equating leftism and atheism, Helms argued that the downfall of the USA was due to loss of Christian faith,^[178] and often stated, "I think God is giving this country one more chance to save itself".^[177][180] He believed that the morality of capitalism was assured in the Bible, through the Parable of the Talents.^[177] He believed, writing in When Free Men Shall Stand, that 'such utopian slogans as Peace with Honor, Minimum Wage, Racial Equality, Women's Liberation, National Health Insurance, Civil Liberty' are ploys by which to divide humanity 'as sons of God'.^[177]

Awards

He held honorary degrees from several universities including Bob Jones University, Campbell University, Grove City College, and Wingate University.

Bibliography

• When Free Men Shall Stand (1976); Zondervan Pub. House.
• Empire for Liberty: A Sovereign America and Her Moral Mission (2001); by National Book Network.
• Here’s Where I Stand: A Memoir (2005); New York: Random House.

Footnotes

References

• Roy, Joaquín (2000). Cuba, the United States, and the Helms-Burton Doctrine. Gainsville: University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0813017600. 
• Shirley, Craig (2005-01-20). Reagan's Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All. Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-0785260493. 
• Link, William A. (2008). Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312356005. http://books.google.com/books?id=Q7CrGwAACAAJ. 
• Kinzer, Stephen (2006). Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. New York: Times Books. ISBN 978-0805078619. 

Further reading

• Clarke, Patsy; Eloise Vaughn, Nicole Brodeur, Allan Gurganus (2001). Keep Singing: Two Mothers, Two Sons, and Their Fight Against Jesse Helms. Alyson Books. ISBN 1555835724. http://books.google.com/books?id=nD8EAAAACAAJ. 
• Furgurson, Ernest B. (1986). Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms. Norton. ISBN 0393023257. http://books.google.com/books?id=jy49HgAACAAJ. 
• Levy, Alan Howard (1987). Government and the Arts: Debates Over Federal Support of the Arts in America from George Washington to Jesse Helms. University Press of America. ISBN 0761806741. http://books.google.com/books?id=AP4MAAAACAAJ. 

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jesse Helms

• Jesse Helms at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Jesse Helms Center
• Liberty University's Helms School of Government
• Senator No: Jesse Helms—UNC-TV biographical documentary by independent filmmaker John Wilson
• Oral History Interview with Jesse Helms from Oral Histories of the American South

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