LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
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LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Program intro. COKIE ROBERTS - BUDGET STALEMATE continues. PAUL DUKE -a REPUBLICAN SENATOR tries to remake FOREIGN POLICY "his way".
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
LAWMAKERS title sequence
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Paul Duke - intro to internal relations segment. Focus on Falkland Island Crisis. Jesse Helms a leader of the conservative faction that wants a hardline stance on Latin America believes that Argentina has a good case in Falkland dispute.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Jesse Helms (R - North Carolina) seated in office for interview by an Argentine journalist. Argentine Journalist. Senator Jesse Helms, what is your impression of Argentina? Jesse Helms. First of all, I would say that the people of Argentina are delightful people. They recognize that they have problems, economic problems, which they are trying to solve. But, one of the many things I like about your country and your people, is that you are anti-Communist. And you are trying to prevent a takeover of this hemisphere by the Communists. Paul Duke voiceover "The Communist menace is what concerns Jesse helms and that s the big reason he tells Argentine reporters their country has a rightful claim to sovereignty over the Falklands. Argentine Journalist. Senator, thank you very, very much. Jesse Helms. Gracias.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Jesse Helms with colleagues exiting Capitol building. Jesse Helms voiceover I think our very survival and I think the survival of freedom of the world depends on what we do in Latin America.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Senate committee room. Jesse Helms voiceover, I think we are at that point in history that we ve got to be willing to rock the boat saying we stand for freedom. Jesse Helms (R - North Carolina), in a Western Hemisphere subcommittee meeting. Jesse Helms, We re hearing a lot of orchestrated propaganda, and some of it may be true, about the situation in Central America. The purpose of this subcommittee is to get at the truth, realizing that there s scarcely any nation in the world that meets the standard of perfection. But we ve got to decide whether we are going to defend this hemisphere against the aggression of Communism. John Lofton voiceover, I would say that Jesse Helms is a traditional conservative in terms of foreign policy, nationalistic, anti-communist.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
John Lofton, journalist for Conservative Digest. I look upon Jesse Helms as an unreconstructed Reaganite, as a person whose job it is to hold Ronald Reagan s feet to the fire, that Ronald Reagan lighted.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Jesse Helms (R - North Carolina) interrogating Ernest LeFevre, head of State Department's Human Rights division. Helms, Do you consider your views on foreign policy in general and on human rights in particular, to be in-line with those of President Reagan? That s the bottom line question. Paul Duke voiceover, Jesse Helms put that question to Ernest LeFevre, a man he fervently backed to head the State Department s Human Rights office. But the nomination was rejected on the grounds that LeFevre didn t really care about human rights.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Victor Kamber, a Liberal PROPAC leader, I view the right of Conservatives to have a voice in the United States Senate, the same way I want Liberals to have a voice in the United States Senate. But I want responsible people, people that are not bigots, people that are not Fascist, people that are not anti-Semitic, people that care about other people s concerns and human dignity. I don t think that Jesse Helms cares about anything, but what Jesse Helms cares about. Shots of the offices of Progressive PAC (PROPAC), with mailing materials targeting Jesse Helms. Victor Kamber voiceover, I view Jesse Helms as really an evil force in the United States Senate. In another time, another place, you might call him a fascist. I don t call him that, but if there is another description for it he might best fit that.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Paul Duke interviewing Jesse Helms (R - North Carolina). Paul Duke, Some of your critics say Jesse Helms is really a bad guy. He s a pal of dictators. He doesn t care about human rights. And he has fascist tendencies. How do you respond to those accusations? Jesse Helms, Well, I don t know anybody who has said that. I doubt that anyone who said it knows me. I m not a pal of dictators . I d like to know what they mean by fascist . Sometimes I think they re fascists. Everyone to their own tastes as the lady said who kissed the cow. All I want is for this nation of ours not to throw away this heritage by engaging in absurd exercises of trying to tell everybody else what to do.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
March 19, 1982. Jesse Helms at news conference. Let me talk specifically about Central America. You re hearing every night El Salvador is another Vietnam. But don t you be deceived. Bare in mind that Vietnam was over there and El Salvador is over here. It s our front door.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Senator Alan Cranston (D - California), I think that Jesse Helms is taken very seriously by members of the Senate because he works hard, he understands the rules. And he knows how to press a point to the ultimate limit. But he is certainly not a significant factor in the making and shaping of American foreign policy.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Reporter Norman Ornstein, Helms consciously has staked out a different role for himself. He s not interested in building a majority on a lot of issues. He s not interested in working inside, behind the scenes in the process to get legislation through. He s interested in being a gadfly. He wants to continually apply pressure from the Right.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Jesse Helms (R - North Carolina) pouring pots of coffee, serving coffee to lunch table of Orrin Hatch and Arlen Specter.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
John Lofton, journalist for Conservative Digest, I think Jesse Helms, within the conservative movement, has enormous clout. He is our Horatius at the bridge . He s the man who always seems to catch the falling flag. He s the man who truly has the courage of Ronald Reagan's convictions. Unfortunately, and it saddens me to say it, Helms does not have near the influence I would like to see him have within the administration or with the President personally.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Jesse Helms (R - North Carolina) says REAGAN always keeps an open door to him. Helms, Any time I want to.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
DO NOT USE Still photo of Jesse Helms and Ronald Reagan.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Jesse Helms (R - North Carolina), I told him (President Reagan) when he was elected President, I was going to stay out from under his feet. But when I really need to see him, I call up and they ve never said he s too busy yet.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Reporter Norman Ornstein, The administration is pursuing a policy which I think is distinctly different and much closer to the center that Helms would do, or that Helms would like, or that Helms has pushed for. But no doubt Helms puts his own coloration on that policy. He s constantly applying pressure form the right and it pushes the administration, at lease in rhetoric and often in policy terms, a little bit further in that direction than they would probably take otherwise.
LAWMAKERS - Jesse Helms and his Foreign Policy
Jesse Helms (R - North Carolina), A very good friend of mine came up and he said, Jesse I agree with everything you do and say but I feel that you may come through as too conservative. You ought to vote with the liberals every once and a while. I said fine, which one of my principals would you have me violate first?