Ex-Sen. Helms, icon of right, dies at 86

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By By Ben Conery and Ralph Z. Hallow

Former Sen. Jesse Helms, the polarizing North Carolina Republican who was an icon to conservatives and a demon to liberals, died early Friday in Raleigh, N.C. He was 86.

Mr. Helms served five terms in the Senate, from 1973 to 2003. After suffering poor health in recent years, he died of natural causes at a convalescent home. "He was very comfortable," said former chief of staff Jimmy Broughton.

"Jesse Helms was a kind, decent and humble man and a passionate defender of what he called 'the Miracle of America.' So it is fitting that this great patriot left us on the Fourth of July," President Bush said in a statement. "He was once asked if he had any ambitions beyond the United States Senate. He replied: 'The only thing I am running for is the Kingdom of Heaven.' Today, Jesse Helms has finished the race."

Mr. Helms and his wife, Dorothy, had two daughters and a son and seven grandchildren. Funeral services are planned for Tuesday in Raleigh.

The North Carolina senator was lionized Friday by conservatives for helping revitalize the Republican Party in the wake of the Watergate scandal and for his efforts against communism, particularly on behalf of Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, writer of "The Gulag Archipelago."

"Helms must be remembered as the man who brought Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to America in 1975 when the great dissident was reviled by the Soviets and shunned by Henry Kissinger, Gerald Ford and the rest of the liberal intelligentsia foreign-policy establishment," Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley said.

"Solzhenitsyn had too much sunlight on him for the Evil Empire to exterminate, as they had done with millions of other dissenters, so he was sent into exile," Mr. Shirley said. "But only two men welcomed him to America: Jesse Helms and Ronald Reagan."

From his spot as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Helms made anti-communism a career-defining priority.

"He was a pivotal leader in helping win the Cold War," said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican and chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, which Mr. Helms created in 1974 to promote conservative priorities in the Senate.

Mr. Helms frequently railed against the Soviet Union, China and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. He opposed giving China "most-favored nation" trading status because of human rights violations, and a law bearing his name strengthened the U.S. embargo against Cuba.