Reply #98: Jesse Helms belongs in that "early" bunch... [View All]

[marions ghost]

not only for all his rightwing assaults on basic freedoms, but how about his devastating tenure on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee?

http://www.usvetdsp.com/story45.htm

"It is about money, deceit and betrayal, all of which were epitomized in March 1996, when Helms cozily welcomed Vietnam's charge d'affaires, Le Van Bang, to North Carolina. With Le Bang posed at his side, Helms was photographed telling the press that communist Vietnam is a welcome "economic partner" for North Carolina. The Helms red carpet welcome included a visit to the high-tech Research Triangle Park and a tobacco plant, followed by dinner at the governor's mansion and a visit to Helms' coveted nonprofit Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University near Charlotte, N.C.

When reporters pressed Helms about whether North Carolina might be exporting more jobs than products, he impatiently answered "The more we export, the more people we can employ. We live in this world. We have to participate in the affairs of the world." ...

This uncharacteristic behavior of Helms is a transformation baptized in the ink of contracts which sealed a joint business venture in Vietnam between Helms' most powerful backer and contributor, R.J. Reynolds International, Inc. (RJR) and the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Anticipating more rigid U.S. government regulation of tobacco, RJR has for several years been quietly building cigarette manufacturing capabilities in Vietnam and other countries. ...

Helms has refused to answer written requests from The U.S. Veteran Dispatch for an explanation of how the growing and manufacture of tobacco products in Vietnam helps the embattled tobacco farmers in this country.

Soon after entering the tobacco business in Vietnam, RJR corporate managers realized they could not protect RJR's Vietnam investments without U.S. taxpayer sponsored Overseas Private Corporation Insurance (OPIC). Businesses covered under OPIC would be reimbursed with U.S. tax dollars if, for example, Vietnam's Communist Party decided to confiscate U.S. business investments in Vietnam. ...

Soon after Helms inherited the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1995, mega contributions began pouring into the Helms political machine from a virtual who's who of corporations lobbying to expand and protect their businesses in Vietnam and China.