Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 – July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001, he had a major voice in foreign policy. Helms helped organize and fund the conservative resurgence in the 1970s, focusing on Ronald Reagan's quest for the White House as well as helping many local and regional candidates.
Jesse Helms
Joe Biden
Joe Biden
July 4, 2008 (aged 86)
Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.
Democratic (before 1970)[1][2]
Republican (1970–2008)
3
1942–1945
On domestic social issues, Helms opposed civil rights, disability rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, affirmative action, access to abortions, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the National Endowment for the Arts.[3] He brought an "aggressiveness" to his conservatism, as in his rhetoric against homosexuality.[4][5] The Almanac of American Politics wrote that "no American politician is more controversial, beloved in some quarters and hated in others, than Jesse Helms".[6]
As chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he demanded an anti-communist foreign policy. His relations with the State Department were often acrimonious, and he blocked numerous presidential appointees.
Helms was the longest-serving popularly elected Senator in North Carolina's history. He was widely credited with shifting the one-party state into a competitive two-party state. He advocated the movement of conservatives from the Democratic Party – which he deemed too liberal – to the Republican Party. The Helms-controlled National Congressional Club's state-of-the-art direct mail operation raised millions of dollars for Helms and other conservative candidates, allowing Helms to outspend his opponents in most of his campaigns.[7] Helms was considered the most stridently conservative American politician of the post-1960s era,[8] especially in opposition to federal intervention into what he considered state affairs (including legislating integration via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and enforcing suffrage through the Voting Rights Act of 1965).
Marriage and family[edit]
Helms met Dorothy "Dot" Coble, editor of the society page at The News & Observer, and they married in 1942. Helms's first interest in politics came from conversations with his conservative father-in-law.[9] In 1945, his and Dot's first child Jane was born.
Second Senate term (1979–1985)[edit]
New Senate term[edit]
On January 3, 1979, the first day of the new Congress, Helms introduced a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion,[92] on which he led the conservative Senators.[93] 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 US Supreme Court; their opposition hinged over the issue of O'Connor's presumed unwillingness to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling.[94] Helms was also the Senate conservatives' leader on school prayer.[93] An amendment proposed by Helms allowing voluntary prayer was passed by the Senate,[95] but died in the House committee.[96] To that act, Helms also proposed an amendment banning sex education without written parental consent.[97] In 1979, Helms and Democrat Patrick Leahy supported a federal Taxpayer Bill of Rights.[98]
He joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, being one of four men critical of Carter who were new to the committee.[99] Leader of the pro-Taiwan congressional lobby,[100] Helms demanded that the People's Republic of China reject the use of force against the Republic of China,[101] but, much to his shock, the Carter administration did not ask them to rule it out.[102]
Helms also criticized the government over Zimbabwe Rhodesia, leading support for the Internal Settlement government[103] under Abel Muzorewa, and campaigned along with Samuel Hayakawa for the immediate lifting of sanctions on Muzorewa's government.[104] Helms complained that it was inconsistent to lift sanctions on Uganda immediately after Idi Amin's departure, but not Zimbabwe Rhodesia after Ian Smith's.[105] Helms hosted Muzorewa when he visited Washington and met with Carter in July 1979.[106] He sent two aides to the Lancaster House Conference because he did not "trust the State Department on this issue",[107] thereby provoking British diplomatic complaints.[108] His aide John Carbaugh was accused of encouraging Smith to "hang on" and take a harder line, implying that there was enough support in the US Senate to lift sanctions without a settlement.[107][108] Helms introduced legislation that demanded immediate lifting of the sanctions;[109] as negotiations progressed, Helms complied more with the administration's line, although Senator Ted Kennedy accused Carter of conceding the construction of a new aircraft carrier in return for Helms's acquiescence on Zimbabwe Rhodesia, which both parties denied.[110] 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 benefiting from unilaterally lifting sanctions on tobacco-exporting Zimbabwe Rhodesia.[111]
1980 presidential election[edit]
In 1979, Helms was touted as a potential contender for the Republican nomination for the 1980 presidential election,[112] but had poor voter recognition, and he lagged far behind the front-runners.[112][113] He was the only candidate to file for the New Hampshire Vice-Presidential primary.[114] Going into 1980, he was suggested as a potential running mate for Reagan, and said he'd accept if he could "be his own man".[115] He was one of three conservative candidates running for the nomination.[116] However, his ideological agreement with Reagan risked losing moderates' votes, particularly due to the independent candidacy of Rep. John B. Anderson,[115][117] and the Reagan camp was split:[118] 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's endorsing the party platform and allowing Helms to address the convention.[119][120] As expected,[121] Helms was drafted by conservatives anyway, and won 54 votes, coming second. Helms was the "spiritual leader of the conservative convention",[119] and led the movement that successfully reversed the Republican Party's 36-year platform support for an Equal Rights Amendment.[122][123][124]
In the fall of 1980, Helms proposed another bill denying the Supreme Court jurisdiction over school prayer, but this found little support in committee. It was strongly opposed by mainline Protestant churches,[125][126] and its counterpart was defeated in the House.[127] 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.[128] Following from his success at reintroducing gold-indexed contracts in 1977, in October 1980, Helms proposed a return to the gold standard,[129] and successfully passed an amendment setting up a commission to look into gold-backed currency.[130] After the presidential election, 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.[131][132] Helms pledged to introduce an even stronger anti-busing bill as soon as Reagan took office.[133]
Republicans take the Senate[edit]
In the 1980 Senate election, the Republicans unexpectedly won a majority,[134] their first in twenty-six years, including John Porter East, a social conservative and a Helms protégé soon dubbed "Helms on Wheels",[135] winning the other North Carolina seat. Howard Baker was set to become Majority Leader, but conservatives, angered by Baker's support for the Panama treaty, SALT II, and the Equal Rights Amendment, had sought to replace him with Helms until Reagan gave Baker his backing.[136] Although, it was thought they'd put Helms in charge of the Foreign Relations Committee instead of the liberal Charles H. Percy,[136] he instead became chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee in the new Congress.
The first six months of 1981 were consumed by numerous Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearings, which were held up by Helms, who believed many of the appointees too liberal or too tainted by association with Kissinger,[137][138] and not dedicated enough to his definition of the "Reagan program": support for South Africa, Taiwan, and Latin American right-wing regimes (as opposed to Black Africa and "Red" China).[139] These nominations included Alexander Haig,[140] Chester Crocker,[138] John J. Louis Jr., and Lawrence Eagleburger,[141] all of whom were confirmed regardless,[142] while all of Helms's candidates were rejected.[140][143] Helms also, unsuccessfully, opposed the nominations of Caspar Weinberger, Donald Regan,[140] and Frank Carlucci.[141] However, he did score a notable coup two years later when he led a small group of conservatives to block the nomination of Robert T. Grey for nine months,[144] and thus causing the firing of Eugene V. Rostow.[145]
Food stamp program[edit]
An opponent of the Food Stamp Program, Helms had already voted to reduce its scope,[146] and was determined to follow this through as Agriculture Committee chairman.[147] At one point, he proposed a 40% cut in their funding.[148] Instead, Helms supported the replacement of food stamps with workfare.[149]
Economic policies[edit]
Helms supported the gold standard through his role as the Agriculture Committee chairman, which exercises wide powers over commodity markets.[41] During the budget crisis of 1981, He restored $200 million for school lunches by instead cutting foreign aid,[150] and against increases in grain and milk price support,[151][152] despite the importance of the dairy industry to North Carolina. He warned repeatedly against costly farm subsidies as chairman.[153] However, in 1983, he used his position to lobby to use the country's strategic dairy and wheat stocks to subsidize food exports as part of a trade war with the European Union.[154][155] Helms heavily opposed cutting food aid to Poland after martial law was declared,[156] and called for the end of grain exports to (and arms limitation talks with) the Soviet Union instead.[157]
In 1982, Helms authored a bill to introduce a federal flat tax of 10% with a personal allowance of $2,000.[158] He voted against the 1983 budget: the only conservative Senator to have done so,[159] and was a leading voice for a balanced budget amendment.[160] With Charlie Rose, he proposed a bill that would limit tobacco price supports, but would allow the transfer of subsidy credits from non-farmers to farmers.[161] He co-sponsored the bi-partisan move in 1982 to extend drug patent duration.[162] Helms continued to pose obstacles to Reagan's budget plans. At the end of the 97th Congress, Helms led a filibuster against Reagan's increase of federal gasoline tax by 5-cents per gallon:[163] mirroring his opposition to Governor Jim Hunt's 3-cent increase in the North Carolina gasoline tax, but alienating the White House from Helms.[163]
Social issues[edit]
Although Helms recognized budget concerns and nominations as predominant, he rejected calls by Baker to move debate on social issues to 1982,[164] with conservatives seeking to discuss abortion, school prayer, the minimum wage, and the "fair housing" policy.[165] With the new Congress, Helms and Robert K. Dornan again proposed an amendment banning abortion in all circumstances,[166] and also proposed a bill defining fetuses as human beings, thereby taking it out of the hands of the federal courts,[167] along with Illinois Republican Henry Hyde and Kentucky Democrat Romano Mazzoli.[168] More successfully, Helms passed an amendment banning federal funds from being used for abortion unless the woman's life is in danger.[169][170] His support was key to the nomination of C. Everett Koop as Surgeon General, by proposing lifting the age limit that would otherwise have ruled out Koop.[171] He proposed an amendment taking school prayer out of the remit of the Supreme Court, which was criticized for being unconstitutional; despite Reagan's endorsement, the bill was eventually rejected, after twenty months of dispute and numerous filibusters, in September 1982, by 51–48.[172] Helms and Strom Thurmond sponsored another amendment to prevent the Department of Justice filing suits in defence of federal busing, which he contended wasted taxpayer money without improving education;[173] this was filibustered by Lowell Weicker for eight months, but passed in March 1982.[174] However, Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill blocked the measure from being considered by the House of Representatives.[175][176]
In 1981, Helms started secret negotiations to end an 11-year impasse and pave the way for desegregation of historically white and historically black colleges in North Carolina.[177] In response to a rival anti-discrimination bill in 1982, he proposed a bill outlawing granting tax-free status to schools that discriminated racially, but allowing schools that discriminate on the grounds of religion to avoid taxes.[178] When the Voting Rights Act came up for amendment in 1982, Helms and Thurmond criticized it for bias against the South, arguing that it made Carolinians "second-class citizens" by treating their states differently,[179] and proposed an amendment that extended its terms to the whole country, which they knew would bury it.[180][181] However, it was extended anyway, despite Helms's filibuster, which he promised to lead "until the cows come home".[182] In 1983, Helms hired Claude Allen, an African American, as his press secretary. Despite his publicly aired belief that he was one of the best-liked senators amongst black staff in Congress, it was pointed out that he did not have any African-American staff of his own, prompting the hiring of the twenty-two-year-old,[183] who had switched parties when he was press secretary to Bill Cobey in the previous year's campaign.[184]
In 1983, Helms led the 16-day filibuster in the Senate opposing the proposed establishment of Martin Luther King Day as a federal holiday. Helms and others claimed, "another federal holiday would be costly for the economy." Although the Congressional Budget Office cited a cost of $18 million, Helms claimed it would cost $12 billion a year.[185][186][187] Helms "distributed a 300-page packet claiming that the civil rights leader was a political radical who adopted "action-oriented Marxism"[185] and detailing Dr. King's supposed treachery"[188] in which he accused King of "appear[ing] to have welcomed collaboration with Communists",[188] Stanley Levison and Jack O'Dell.[185] Helms ended the filibuster in exchange for a new tobacco bill. President Reagan signed the bill on October 19, 1983.[187][188] Helms then demanded that FBI surveillance tapes allegedly detailing philandering on King's part be released, although Reagan and the courts refused. The conservatives attempted to rename the day "National Equality Day" or "National Civil Rights Day", but failed, and the bill was passed.[187] Writing in The Washington Post several years later, David Broder attributed Helms' opposition to the MLK holiday to racism on Helms's part.[189]
Latin America[edit]
Upon the Republican takeover of the Senate, Helms 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.[190] He immediately focused on escalating aid to the Salvadoran government in its civil war, and particularly preventing Nicaraguan and Cuban support for guerrillas in El Salvador.[191] Within hours, the subcommittee approved military aid to El Salvador,[190] and later led the push to cut aid to Nicaragua.[192] Helms was assisted in pursuing the foreign policy realignment by John Carbaugh, whose influence The New York Times reported "[rivalled] many of [the Senate's] more visible elected members".[193][194]
In El Salvador, Helms had close ties with the right-wing Salvadoran Nationalist Republican Alliance and its leader and death squad founder Roberto D'Aubuisson.[195][196][197] Helms opposed the appointment of Thomas R. Pickering as Ambassador to El Salvador.[198] Helms alleged that the CIA had interfered in the Salvadoran election March and May 1984, in favor of the incumbent centre-left José Napoleón Duarte instead of D'Aubuisson,[199] claiming that Pickering had "used the cloak of diplomacy to strangle freedom in the night".[198] A CIA operative testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee was alleged by Helms to have admitted rigging the election, but senators that attended have stated that, whilst the CIA operative admitted involvement, they did not make such an admission.[199] Helms disclosed details of CIA financial support for Duarte, earning a rebuke from Barry Goldwater, but Helms replied that his information came from sources in El Salvador, not the Senate committee.[200]
In 1982, Helms was the only senator who opposed a Senate resolution endorsing a pro-British policy during the Falklands War,[201] citing the Monroe Doctrine,[202] although he did manage to weaken the resolution's language.[203] Nonetheless, Helms was a supporter of the Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet,[204] who supported the United Kingdom in the Falklands conflict. Helms was steadfastly opposed to the Castro regime in Cuba, and spent much of his time campaigning against the lifting of sanctions. In 1980, he opposed a treaty with Cuba on sea boundary delimitation unless it included withdrawal of the Soviet brigade stationed on the island.[128] The following year, he proposed legislation establishing Radio Free Cuba,[205] which would later become known as Radio Martí.
Personal life[edit]
Family[edit]
Jesse and Dot had two daughters, Jane and Nancy, and adopted a nine-year-old orphan with cerebral palsy named Charles after reading in a newspaper that Charles wanted a mother and father for Christmas.[19] The couple had seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.[19] One of his grandchildren, Jennifer Knox, later became a judge in Wake County, North Carolina.[345]