(2 of 5)
The most spectacular example of Helms' clout has been the way he has held up confirmation of no fewer than seven of Haig's top assistants at the State Department. Helms has nothing against Haig himself and helped Reagan when the Secretary's own nomination seemed in trouble. The President was being warned that Haig could not be confirmed by the Senate. Worried, Reagan asked that Helms be called at home on a Saturday morning and put to work. Helms immediately called Richard Nixon to ask if Haig's Watergate involvement would be a problem. This inquiry produced a cataract of facts and anecdotes, as if Nixon had been waiting for the call, and Helms was reassured. He spent the next two days calling Senators, checking their views, urging Haig's confirmation. When he reached 51 votes, Helms called the President to tell him that enough support was there. Reagan was gratified.
But later, when Haig announced his choices of Assistant Secretaries— men like Lawrence Eagleburger, who had worked for the conservatives' particular hate object, Henry Kissinger—Helms was furious, since Haig had assured him that he would pick hard-line conservatives. At one Senate hearing, Helms showed his distaste for another nominee, Chester Crocker, whom Haig wants for African affairs. Helms considers Crocker too partial to the frontline black states on South Africa's borders, too vague about the role of the Cubans in Angola. Leaning into the microphone, fixing his owlish eyes on the witness, Helms slipped into his country-boy sarcasm: "Dr. Crocker," he said slowly, "I'm sure your dog runs out and wags his tail when you come home, but I want to know where you stand."
The President's senior aides have uncomfortably followed Helms' maneuvers, and last week they invited him to the a White House to try to work out a solution. Armed with a long memo, Helms warned that the backgrounds and views of men like John Holdridge, whom Haig wants as Assistant Secretary for East Asian Affairs, and Thomas Enders, who is up for Inter-American Affairs, made it impossible for them to carry out Reagan's declared policies. Helms insisted on briefing the President himself, and the staff agreed to set up a meeting. Pledged Helms: "If the President looks at the records of these men, and still wants them, I won't block anybody." But he repeated his opposition. Said Helms: "I'll question them all hard. And I'll probably vote against them."
Helms hopes that Reagan will reject at least some Haig choices. A more probable outcome to this week's hearings is that the President will install as deputies to Haig's men some of the Senator's own candidates like Arizona State University History Professor Lewis Tambs, who is Helms' proposed replacement for Enders.
Strictly speaking, Helms is not so much a conservative as a right-wing radical, out to reshape the world in his image. No politician today is more unbending in his zeal. He will never compromise, and that is why admiring conservatives say that they will walk out of windows for him. His dogma is that the have-nots must bootstrap it virtually on their own. In essence he shuts out a whole segment of the population, blacks and other minorities. Helms does not have a single black on his staff.