Fiction: Senator Helms’ 1990 campaign TV ad known as “Hands” was an appeal to racism and was used frequently throughout the campaign.
Truth: The ad was created and ran just a few weeks before the close of the campaign. It ran just a few times and was specifically related to an attempted veto override of a bill that would have required employers to hire on the base of pre-set quotas and not specific qualifications.
1. The Senate failed, by one vote, to override President Bush’s veto of legislation to require employers to hire and promote a percentage of their employees because of their minority status.
2. The override was defeated because it was a correctly identified as a “quota” bill by numerous individuals and groups including the United States Chamber of Commerce
3. There was also every reason to believe that such bills are not constitutional. Subsequent court decisions on similar laws have confirmed that to be the case.
4. Senator Helms opposed the bill the first time the Senate considered it and was not in favor of the veto override.
5. In a speech Mr. Gantt gave shortly after that vote, he stated that he strongly supported the legislation and had he been in the Senate, it would have become law.
6.To help voters understand the practical reality of the law Mr. Gantt favored, the Helms campaign staff created an ad explaining how it would work: People who were fully qualified for jobs could be passed over so that jobs could be filled by an individual who satisfied other criteria having nothing to do with the requirements of the job.
The point was that Mr. Gantt was comfortable with government policies requiring employers to hire and promote for the purpose of filling quotas instead of recognizing individual abilities. And, that Mr. Gantt was not bothered by the law's unfairness to those who had been passed over or the constitutional questions it raised about equality under the law.
7. By the time the ad made it to television, there were less than two weeks left to the campaign. There were accusations that this was a planned last-minute attack, but of course that simply was not true since the vote and Mr. Gantt’s comments had happened just a few days earlier.
8. The ad could not in any case be declared “racist” by anyone who knew the issue since minority classifications were not limited to race.
9. The Helms campaign had no more interest in a race-based vote than it did in race-based jobs. The campaign was never about Mr. Gantt being black, it was always and only about him being a liberal.
10. The ad was intended to point out this difference: Senator Helms believed every person is entitled to go as far as he or she can by making the most of every talent and every opportunity and know the satisfaction of personal success. Based on the evidence, it appeared that Mr. Gantt had less confidence in the ability of individual citizens to handle challenges without excess government involvement.
Response to an interview question from Jim Morrill on the Charlotte Observer on August 29, 2005:
Q. Some people have a hard time believing your assertion that race was not at the heart of your opposition to the civil rights movement, a Martin Luther King holiday and ads in your race against Harvey Gantt. What would you say to them?
A. "The truth is the truth whether people choose to accept it or not. Let me be very clear. From my earliest days I was taught to respect all people. It is just that simple. I didn’t need to shift my position because it was always on the side my parents expected me to take and modeled by their example. I never took the time to argue with the nonsense claims that I was a racist because I knew the truth and more importantly every African-American with whom I had ever enjoyed a friendship or who worked with me in any capacity knew the truth, too.
I opposed the Martin Luther King Holiday because I thought it was a 'politically correct' rush to confer an honor that the Federal government had waited more than eighty years to confer on George Washington. There were too many questions about information in sealed files for me in good conscience to agree to the holiday. I would have enthusiastically supported a holiday that honored the progress of African-Americans and their many contributions to our nation.
The well-known 'hands' ad to which you probably refer had nothing to do with race and everything to do with a quota bill that I opposed and Mr. Gantt said he would support if he was elected. That bill was just plain wrong and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed that quotas like those proposed in the bill are unconstitutional. This particular bill was not only unfair to job applicants, it was also unfair to employers who would have been forced to somehow prove that they had no intention of hiring anyone but the best qualified applicant."
(back to top)
Fiction: Helms did not accomplish much as a Senator because he was often alone or on the minority side of an issue.
Truth: Senator Helms’ record demonstrates the effectiveness of his deliberate and principled leadership. He
didn’t seek popularity and he did not seek credit, his goal was to do what he believed was in America’s
best interests.
For example:
1. When he came to Washington in 1973, Senator Helms was a member of the minority party and a part of a small conservative minority within the party. By 1994, when he became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republicans were in the majority and conservatives were the majority of the Republican caucus, and he played a major role in making this happen.
2. As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Helms worked with the Clinton Administration to restructure the State Department, resulting in the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. This act brought the U.S. Arms Control, Information and Foreign Aid agencies under the direction of the Secretary of State, saving the taxpayers millions of dollars, while promoting a more cohesive American foreign policy.
3. Senator Helms partnered with Senator William Frist to introduce the first major legislation to provide US funding for the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The legislation provided more than $500 million in aid and encouraged US pharmaceutical companies to provide medicines to HIV/AIDS patients throughout Africa. Senator Helms leadership role made it acceptable for conservatives to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic and laid the groundwork for the Bush Administration’s efforts that saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
4. Senator Helms had a willingness to take a stand on controversial social issues set a standard for conservatives, leading to important pro-life and pro-family victories, the banning of taxpayer funding for obscene art and other important achievements.
5. He fought the International Criminal Court, and his legislation, the American Service Members Protection Act -- which bars any U.S. cooperation with the court -- became law with overwhelming bipartisan support.
6. Senator Helms led the effort in the Senate to bring former Cold War adversaries Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into the NATO alliance.
7. He fought the "U.N. empowerment" agenda of former secretary general Boutros Boutros Ghali, and the U.N. reform legislation which he insisted upon, known as the "Helms-Biden Law," passed the House and Senate by overwhelming majorities. As a result, he became the first legislator in history to address the U.N. Security Council.
8. Senator Helms played a major role in winning the Cold War. His support for freedom fighters in Eastern Europe and around the world is legendary. Next to Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul, no one did more to bring the Soviet Empire to its knees.
(back to top)
Fiction: Senator Helms statement, "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down
here. He'd better have a bodyguard."
Truth: A Clinton reference that was run without the joke that preceded it.
Excerpt from an interview with the magazine Law and Order
"When Senator Jesse Helms talked with a reporter from the Raleigh News and Observer and mentioned Bill Clinton's unpopularity on military bases in the state, he illustrated his point with an anecdote about a Southern sheriff who had just been defeated in an election. 'He had this big fella with him, about 6 foot 7and 270 pounds,' said Helms. 'Somebody asked, 'Who's that?' The sheriff answered. Any body who can't get more votes than I did better have a bodyguard.' Helms then added: 'Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He better have a bodyguard.' The News and Observer ran just the Clinton reference without the entire joke that preceded it, and the Associated Press picked up the story. Soon the media were reporting that the Secret Service was investigating Helms' comments, and the editorial page of the New York Times called for Helms to step aside as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."
(back to top)
Fiction: Helms is racist and has opposed the progress of African-Americans.
Truth: From his childhood Senator Helms was taught to respect all people and to understand that all
Americans had as their birthright life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In his earliest correspondence, Jesse Helms rejected the doctrine of white supremacy and as manager of WRAL-TV he hired both minorities and women in responsible positions, even proposing to set up a department at WRAL for the sole purpose of training minority candidates for significant career opportunities. As a US Senator he was known and appreciated by the Capitol workforce for his genuine friendship and interest in them. Individuals like James Meredith and Claude Allen have recounted their staff experiences with Senator Helms many times. In fact, Senator Helms was responsible for the hiring of Claude Allen in 1985 as the first African-American to serve on the Republican or Democratic professional staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The archives of WRAL editorials from the 1960s include Jesse Helms’ high praise for African-Americans such as Rev. Leon Sullivan, Asa Spaulding and others whose leadership demonstrated that dreams matched by diligence could offer any American a better future. These editorials make clear the Senator’s respect for those who wanted to better their lives through their own labors and his frustration over those who preferred the free ride of government handouts. That frustration had nothing to do with color and everything to do with a failure to appreciate all that America had to offer anyone who was willing to pursue their goal. An editorial praising the way in which a young architecture student by the name of Harvey Gantt integrated Clemson University illustrates Jesse Helms’ support of progress that was genuine and sustainable.
In his memoir Here's Where I Stand, Senator Helms said:
“It has always been my belief that people of goodwill on all sides of an issue can resolve their differences without the intervention of the government. We will never know how integration might have been achieved in neighborhoods across our land, because the opportunity was snatched away by outside agitators who had their own agendas to advance. We certainly do know the price paid by the stirring of hatred, the encouragement of violence, the rise of suspicion and distrust. We do know that too many lives were lost, that businesses were destroyed, and millions of dollars were diverted from books and teachers to support the cost of buses and gasoline. We do know that turning our public schools into social laboratories almost destroyed them.”
Upon the Senator’s retirement Walter Russell Mead wrote in the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section:
“… If Mr. Helms can be seen as one of the great conservative figures of American history, calling the nation to remain faithful to traditional values in the midst of rapid social change, he also deserves to be remembered as one of a handful of men who brought white Southern conservatives into a new era of race relations.
This was not my initial impression of Mr. Helms, when as a young boy in North Carolina during the civil rights movement I listened to his anti-integration, anti-Martin Luther King commentaries on WRAL-TV. But once the civil-rights legislation of the 1960s was enacted, Mr. Helms--along with some of his erstwhile segregationist colleagues like South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond--did something very revolutionary for Southern white populists.
He accepted the laws and obeyed them.
This is not how Southern politicians responded in the 1870s and 1880s. Populists like South Carolina's "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman did not just fulminate against civil rights laws. They led movements of armed, organized resistance, intimidating black voters at the polls, defending racial lynchings and, in Tillman's case, being directly and openly involved in the murder of black political leaders.
Even as the passions of the civil-rights movement were at their height, Messrs. Helms and Thurmond (whose father was Ben Tillman's lawyer) shunned violence. Without ever losing their credentials as hard-core defenders of Southern values, they hired African-American staffers and gave African-Americans the same level of constituency service they gave whites. Even their opposition to affirmative action is based on their claim that these principles violate what ought to be a color-blind stance on the part of the government.
That is something no white Southern politician, and especially one representing Mr. Helms' core supporters of farmers and small-town whites, would have ever said before Jesse Helms came along. It is something they all say now.
Mr. Helms could have followed the Tillman path and led the white South into violent resistance; he also could have failed to carry his supporters with him into grudging acceptance of the new racial order. He disciplined and tamed the segregationist South even as he represented it to a hostile nation. We are all better off because he managed this difficult high- wire act.”
(back to top)
Fiction: Helms was a part of a ‘vast rightwing conspiracy’ to harm President Clinton.
Truth: There never was a conspiracy. History has shown that President Clinton created his own problems.
In his memoir, Here's Where I Stand, Senator Helms said:
“And it made me laugh (before it made me mad) to hear that three old friends from North Carolina (Lauch Faircloth, David Sentelle, and I) having lunch together, catching up on the news, telling stories, and swapping medical advice were assumed to be plotting the ouster of the President of the United States. As the saying goes these days, “Please!”
There is, of course, no proof that there was a plot or conspiracy because, of course, there was not one. Unfortunately, because I couldn’t imagine that anyone would ever care, I didn’t think to jot down notes on our unremarkable lunch conversation – or even the punch lines to Lauch’s usual collection of good jokes. All people have to do is choose whether to trust in the word of one highly respected federal judge and two United States Senators, or the opinion of theorists like James Carville and company.
Whenever I hear this baseless conspiracy charge or see it written about as if it were fact, I remember an old proverb: ‘The wicked flee when no man pursueth.’ “
(back to top)
Fiction: Helms refused to change his opinions even when presented with the facts.
Truth: To the contrary, he insisted on having the facts before he offered an opinion and when new facts came to
light he reviewed them and made changes when appropriate. The most well known change was on his
position on expanded funding to stop the devastation caused by AIDS in Africa. He credits Franklin
Graham of Samaritan’s Purse and the singer and activist Bono for presenting those facts to him.
In his memoir Here's Where I Stand, Senator Helms said:
"It had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior, and that it would probably be confined to those in high risk populations. I was wrong."
(back to top)
Fiction: Jesse Helms opposed black nominees for federal posts.
Truth: Senator Helms opposed liberal nominees. Among the many African-Americans whose nominations he
supported were Claude Allen, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice. These people
had in common, not their race which was irrelevant to Senator Helms, their proven fitness for the
assignments for which they were nominated and their commitment to the conservative principles set
forth in the Constitution.
In his memoir, Here's Where I Stand, Senator Helms said:
“The Clinton Administration might also be known in history for its unapologetic nominations of some of the most unsuitable people in America to make and carry out government policies. Actions really do speak louder than words.”
(back to top)
Fiction: Helms was on the staff of the 1950 Willis Smith campaign for Senate and the staff was responsible for inflammatory campaign flyers.
Truth: Jesse Helms was a newsman on WRAL radio and was never employed by the Smith campaign or a
part of its operations. Neither Jesse Helms nor the Smith for Senate campaign ever had a part in
producing the inflammatory materials that were circulated during that time. Unregulated and
unmonitored small groups and individuals who were strongly opposed to Senator Graham did produce
such materials. Willis Smith made it abundantly clear to his own staff that he would leave the campaign
if any of them were ever to be involved in that sort of campaign.
Sources – Hoover Adams, member of the Smith for Senate staff and political historian Dr. Jonathan Gentry*.
*Source: The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. LXXXII, Published January 2005 All That’s Not Fit to Print: Anti-Communist and White Supremacist Campaign Literature in the 1952 North Carolina Democratic Senate Primary by Jonathan Gentry
(back to top)
Fiction: When Senator Helms appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live program with Robert Novak on September 15, 1995, he agreed with a caller who made a racist remark.
Truth: Following a candid interview with CNN’s Robert Novak, telephone lines were opened. These calls were not
properly screened or on the seven second delay now common in such programming. Because of his long standing and well documented hearing difficulties, first identified when he was a U.S. Navy recruit, the Senator’s ability to clearly understand callers would have been compromised in the best of circumstances and that difficulty is obvious to those who have seen the program.
Among the callers was an individual who identified himself as a resident of Alabama. He began by saying he was thankful for Senator Helms’ good work and then uttered a derogatory comment about black people, which CNN did not block as they should have. Senator Helms, who clearly did not at first understand what the man said beyond his thank you, paused and said, “thank you, I think.” Novak, who was aware of the Senator’s hearing problems, including the fact that he was wearing a hearing aid, quickly jumped in and said “We don’t believe what that caller just said do we?” It was only after Novak spoke that Senator Helms realized something that the caller said was not right and Senator Helms firmly said, “No, we don’t.”
Eye witnesses in the studio that night also were aware that the Senator was having a particularly difficult time with the earpiece the studio crew provided because it was interfering with his hearing aid. During commercial breaks, the crew repeatedly tried to adjust the ear piece and they were unable to get it right throughout the whole show. Mr. Novak took the lead in helping the Senator respond to questions by restating them. He most certainly did not re-state the caller's comments and, those in the studio knew for a fact that the Senator had never heard them. He did not know what the caller said until after the show and he immediately repudiated the comments, as he would have at once if, in fact, he had heard them when they were spoken.
(back to top)
Fiction: Senator Helms was a "homophobe."
Truth: The universally accepted definition of this pejorative term is a person characterized by homophobia, i.e. an irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. An honest review of the facts of Senator Helms' record reveals the falseness of this label.
Senator Helms had no fear of homosexual individuals. He believed that laws against physical violence should protect all members of our society and should be enforced justly by those who serve in law enforcement and the justice system. He believed that brutality was no less egregious when victims were members of any particular segment of our society; it was always wrong and should not be tolerated.
As a matter of personal faith, Senator Helms did not believe that God intended men or women to adopt a homosexual lifestyle. His views were entirely compatible with the tenants of the Manhattan Declaration and shared by a majority of Americans, as indicated by the support for laws reserving marriage as a union of one man and one woman.
Senator Helms was known and respected by all who recognized his concern for people. He was known for his kindness and personal efforts to help those in distress. How telling that those who choose to portray him as something he never was exhibit no more conscience in repeating lies about him after his death than they did in expressing their hatred of him, defacing his home, insulting his staff or invading his offices when he was alive.
His detractors persist in their vilification even though it was Senator Helms who worked most tirelessly to protect the very principles of freedom that homosexuals are denied in many other nations, including the seven Muslim nations where they would be subject to the death penalty simply because of their presumed sexual orientation.
John Dodd Answers Guardian Newspaper Attack
January 13, 2010
In response to an editorial in The Guardian (London, United Kingdom) on January 6, 2010:
To The Guardian:
Recently an editorial published in your paper was brought to my attention. As president of the Jesse Helms Center Foundation, I could not, in good conscience, allow your prejudicial and inaccurate commentary to go unchallenged.
Your editorial was wrong in three important points concerning the late Senator Helms. First, you refer to him as a “purveyor of hate.” In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Those who hold a view opposing his well-known conservative political philosophy often find it easier to call him names than debate the facts about issues. Those who knew Senator Helms remember his kindness and respect for everyone. Any fair reading of his record would show his deep-seated concern for all human beings, including the most vulnerable.
Second, you claim that the medical community unanimously supported U.S. entry of visitors and immigrants with HIV/AIDS into the U.S. In fact, at the time, the AIDS issue had been hijacked by a militant lobby which fought to block efforts to treat HIV/AIDS as a public health crisis and, instead, use the AIDS issue to promote their civil rights agenda. Believing that millions of lives were at stake following this reckless path, the Senator attempted to turn the tide. He introduced comprehensive legislation which included common sense initiatives such as confidential testing and tracking, testing of patients entering Veterans Hospitals, testing of health care workers, criminalizing the knowing donation of tainted blood, prohibiting AIDS education funds from being used to promote homosexuality, and, yes, adding the HIV/AIDS virus to a list of contagious diseases already used by the INS to block entry into the United States. Many of these initiatives are now commonplace today. Also, until the recent action by President Obama, this ban was reviewed regularly and found to be an appropriate regulation.
Third, and most important, you say that now that the President “has scrapped the ban, so America can at last play its full part in the fight against AIDS. After the disappointments of Copenhagen and the diluted healthcare reforms, here at last is a little change we can believe in.” In fact it is the United States, and specifically Senator Jesse Helms who orchestrated the first significant United States government monetary contribution to fight the AIDS epidemic on the continent of Africa. Using the power of his position as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Helms arranged for Senator Bill Frist and members of the Bush Administration to tour Africa with Bono, one of the world’s most outspoken workers in AIDS relief work. Following this trip, Senator Helms worked with Senator Frist to cosponsor a bill to provide $500 million for an initiative that would focus on combating mother-to-child transmission of HIV by providing adequate supplies of proven therapies to Africa and other parts of the developing world.
At the time of Senator Helms’ death in July of 2008, Bono stated that more than 2 million Africans were alive because Senator Helms “did the right thing.” In November 2005, Senator Helms made his last public appeal. The video titled “Make a Difference” pointed out the enormity of this world-wide challenge and urged individuals and groups throughout the United States to get personally involved in support of the victims of AIDS because every single life matters.
To view this video and learn more about the facts of Senator Helms' life, I invite your readers to visit www.jessehelms.com or to contact the Jesse Helms Center at www.jessehelmscenter.org with specific questions. We will be happy to provide information.
John Dodd
President
Jesse Helms Center Foundation
(back to top)
|
