|name=Jesse Helms
|image=JesseHelms.jpg
|party=[[Republican]]
|spouse=Dorothy "Dot" Helms
|religion=[[Baptist]]
|serviceyears=1942-1945
}}
'''Jesse Helms''' (born Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr., October 18, 1921, d. July 4, 2008) was a five-time [[Republican]] [[U.S. Senator|senator]] from [[North Carolina]].<ref name="bioguide.congress.gov">http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000463</ref> Helms, throughout his tenure as United States Senator was known for his [[conservative]] principles, including his support for a strong defense, individual rights, the oppressed, and support for freedom. Like most conservative politicians who eschew political correctness, Helms was frequently the target of mainstream [[media bias]], despite his former career in the media.<ref name="jessehelmscenter.org">http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/biography.asp</ref> Helms was a staunch advocate for equality under law, but due to his Southern background and incorrect party affiliation, his positions were misrepresented through typically biased reporting.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080609062721/http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp Fiction or Truth: Correcting myths about Senator Helms]</ref> However, Helms opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.<ref>[http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-07-04-3453838024_x.htm Jesse Helms: Polarizer, not a compromiser], [[USA Today]]</ref> Helms also opposed extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Reagan called Helms a "lionhearted leader of a great and growing army."<ref>[http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/1755723/ Conservative icon Jesse Helms dead at 86]</ref>
=== WRAL Radio and AA to Senator Willis Smith ===
In 1948, became a radio news director at WRAL in Raleigh, NC. Helms reported on the heated 1950 Democratic primary for the Senate. Another An ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. <ref name=jessehelmscenter>https://jessehelmscenter.org/setting-the-record-straight</ref> The winner of this race, Senator Willis Smith, took him to Washington as his administrative assistant a post at which he served until 1953 staying on to become Senator Alton Lennon's assistant after Smith's untimely demise.<ref name="bioguide.congress.gov"/> Willis, like Helms was a conservative Southern Democrat.<ref name="answers.com">http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref> Willis's defeated opponent, the liberal Frank Porter Graham was appointed by his supporter President Harry Truman as Ambassador to the United Nations.<ref>http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=g000353</ref> Helms also worked on the unsuccessful Democratic primary presidential campaign of Richard B. Russell, Jr., in 1952.
=== Bankers Association to Capital Broadcasting ===
== Senate career ==
[[File:Senator Jesse helmsHelms and Biden.jpg|Jesse Helmsright|150px300px|thumb|Sen. Helms with Joe Biden of Delaware.]]=== Democrat to Republican ===In 1970, Years before entering the Senate Helms left the Democratic party for the Republican party, which had long been unpopular outside the Carolina mountain districts. His shift reflected the movement of young white conservatives into leaving the GOP across the South[[New Left|communist infiltrated Democrat party]]. In 1972 he ran for the Senate as a supporter of Republican presidential candidate [[Richard M. Nixon]]. Helms faced liberal Democrat Nick Galifianakis. Helms's successful tactic was to associate Galifiankis with the highly unpopular liberal presidential candidate [[George McGovern]]. He won the Senate seat with 54% of the vote. He was reelected in 1978 (with 55%), 1984 (with 52%), 1990 (with 53%), and 1996 (with 53%). His margins were never large and his campaigns were always intensely fought. Although repeatedly targeted for defeat by national Democrats, he always pulled off narrow victories, and helped his allies win statewide office as well. On the controversial issue of school busing, Helms voted with Democrat [[segregation]]ist Sen. [[Joe Biden]] of [[Delaware]] for the [[Joe_Biden_early_life_and_career#Biden_Amendment|1975 Biden Amendment]] that repealed portions of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] on the issue of using school busing to achieve racial integration.<ref>https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/04/joe-biden-integration-school-busing-120968/</ref>
=== Senator No ===
=== Foreign Policy ===
Helms believed that America should stand against dictators [[dictator]]s and [[human rights]] abusers and help bring its values of freedom and democracy to the world. This belief caused Helms to stand against "[[Most Favored Nation]]" status for China (which the Reagan and Nixon Administrations supported). At the same time, Helms stood for a strong national defense and strongly opposed Communism and would occasionally compromise on the humanitarian part of his policy when it suited those aims, such was the case in his support for the dictator Augusto Pinochet.<ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/principles/default.asp</ref> Helms opposed arms control and nuclear test-ban treaties even when some of these measures were supported by Reagan himself.<ref name=freep />
=== Liberal opposition ===
In 1996, Helms caused controversy by seeming to threaten then president [[Bill Clinton]] when he said 'Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here (North Carolina). He'd better have a bodyguard'.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/66/41/27741.html The Columbia World of Quotations]</ref>
The following day, he said:
{{Cquote|I made a mistake last evening which I shall not repeat. In an informal telephone interview with a local reporter I made an offhand remark…Of course I didn’t expect to be taken literally when, to emphasize the cost and concerns I am hearing, I far too casually suggested that the President might need a bodyguard, or words to that effect.<ref name=jessehelmscenter/>}}
== Humanitarian ==
*[[KAL 007: Soviet stalk, shoot down, and rescue mission orders transcripts]]
*[[Moneron Island]]
*[[Kate Smith]], 1982 [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]]
*[[The Soviet/ U.S naval confrontation]]
*[[The Soviet's Deception of the Location of KAL 007's Water Landing]]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/lawrence-patton-mcdonald-b_15.html A Forgotten Man: Congressman Larry McDonald] the Sen. Helms/Cong. McDonald link
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-crossing-of-jesse-helms-larry.html#!/2012/11/the-crossing-of-jesse-helms-larry.html The Crossing of Jesse Helms, Larry McDonald, Noelle Anne, and Little Stacy Marie]
*[https://jessehelmscenter.org/ The Jesse Helms Center]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Helms, Jesse}}
{{Conservatism}}
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:KAL007]]
[[Category:Former Democrats]]