Sen. Jesse Helms Dead at 86

"The paramount thing is whether a man believes in the principles of America and whether he is willing to stand up for them, win or lose," Helms once said.

The former five-term senator, Jesse Helms, died in North Carolina. He was 86.

(AP/ABC News)

Jesse Helms was born Oct. 18, 1921, in Monroe, N.C. He went to public schools and attended Wake Forest College before quitting to work briefly as a newspaper and radio journalist. In 1942, he entered the U.S. Navy and served during World War II.

After the war, Helms returned to radio work, held a directorship with the North Carolina Bankers Association and then returned back to radio. In the 1960s, he developed a reputation as an outspoken critic of what he believed was unfair coverage of the South, particularly concerning the struggle for civil rights.

He used his position with the radio station as a forum to air his views on national and international issues. He became an outspoken critic of federal policies, including welfare, and often denounced judicial decisions in which he considered the punishment not suitable enough for the crime.

In 1972, Helms ran for the Senate and won by a large margin. He quickly established himself as one of the party's more solid conservatives and continued to win re-election.

He did not enjoy widespread support in Congress, in part because of his tendency to overstep boundaries when speaking out on a subject. He was widely derided in 1994 when he called President Clinton an "incompetent commander" of the nation's armed forces. He also suggested that because of a disgruntled electorate, the president might need a bodyguard with him on visits to North Carolina.

Yet Helms managed to have an impact in U.S. foreign affairs, largely through his six-year chairmanship in the 1990s of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Helms opposed most internationalist efforts.