Dick Lugar: “I am pleased to join with other Senators in honoring our distinguished colleague, Jesse Helms, who will be returning to…”

“I am pleased to join with other Senators in honoring our distinguished colleague, Jesse Helms, who will be returning to private life at the end of the 107th Congress. For the past 26 years it has been my privilege to serve in the United States Senate with Jesse Helms. During that time, we have shared committee assignments on the Foreign Relations and Agriculture Committees. We have worked together on innumerable issues, and I have witnessed with admiration his strong character and devotion to public service. Senator Helms has played an important role in the primary U.S. foreign policy accomplishment of the second half of the 20th Century-- the collapse of Soviet Communism and transition of most of the world's Communist nations to democracy and market economics. In the Senate, Senator Helms was a steadfast supporter of policies that opposed the evils of the Soviet bloc. He looked forward with confidence to a future in which Russian foreign policy would not be predicated on empire, in which Russia would practice democracy, and in which Eastern Europe and other Soviet-dominated nations would be free. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Senator Helms was an important advocate for embracing the new democracies of Eastern Europe. He was and continues to be a vocal supporter of NATO enlargement within the Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate as a whole.”