Senator Jesse Helms and Conservative Foreign Policy in Central America, 1972-‐1992

Senator Jesse Helms and Conservative Foreign Policy in Central America, 1972-1992 Andrew Ian Stead PhD University of York History September, 2014 Abstract This thesis examines the policies of Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) toward Central America between 1972 and 1992, focusing on El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama. It places the senator within the context of several historiographies, including the rise of modern American conservatism, Latin America’s Cold War, and the role of Congress and congressional entrepreneurs in the formulation of foreign policy. In doing so, it rejects the idea of a uniform conservative foreign policy in the late Cold War, and adds to literature that points out the often-fractious relationships among conservatives over how to reconcile principle and the realities of government. Helms emerges as a resolute protector of a principled conservative international agenda, doing so through a campaign of entrepreneurship that enjoyed considerable successes while also suffering notable failures. Chapter one examines Jesse Helms’ policies in Panama, and, specifically, the Panama Canal Treaties. It illustrates how he shaped a conservative opposition that rejected any transfer of the waterway to the Panamanian government. Chapter two focuses on Helms and Nicaragua between 1979 and 1984, as he worked to build an anti-communist strategy that later became known as the Reagan Doctrine. Chapter three looks at the senator’s work in El Salvador, where his relationship with the Reagan administration was almost non-existent. Chapter four returns to Nicaragua, looking at how Helms coped with the dramatic collapse of Contra policy in the wake of the Iran-Contra scandals, the Esquipulas peace accords, and the 1990 election defeat for the Sandinistas. Chapter five considers Helms’ efforts to force the United States to reconsider its alliance with Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, and how this effort led the senator to an unlikely but effective alliance with liberal and moderate foes in Congress. 2 Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………….2 Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………………………..5 Author’s Declaration……………………………………………………………………………….6 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………...7 i. Mapping Modern American Conservatism…………………………..9 ii. Jesse Helms and Conservative Foreign Policy……………………13 iii. Methodology and Sources 34 iv. Chapter Outline……………………………………………………………….38 Chapter 1: Panama, 1972-1981……………………………………………………………..42 i. The Canal and First Wave Opposition, 1972-1975…………… 45 ii. Helms, Reagan and Second Wave Opposition, 1976…………..60 iii. The Panama Canal Treaties, 1977-1978……………………………75 Chapter 2: Nicaragua, 1979-1984……………………………………………………… 103 i. Somoza and the Sandinistas, 1979………………………………… 105 ii. The Helms-Reagan Doctrine, 1980-1984……………………… 123 Chapter 3: El Salvador, 1979-1992………………………………………………………153 i. ‘A torch tossed in a pool of oil’: El Salvador, 1979-1981… 155 ii. Helms and Reagan the Pragmatist, 1981-1988……………… 169 iii. ‘The fight is not yet over’: Resisting Peace, 1989-1992…… 201 Chapter 4: Nicaragua, 1985-1992……………………………………………………… 215 i. ‘Jesse Helms’ boys’: Lew Tambs and the Contras, 1985 216 ii. The Iran-Contra Scandal……………………………………………...…227 iii. Reinvigorating the Network, 1989-1992……………………… 249 Chapter 5: Panama, 1981-1992……………………………………………………….. 265 3 i. A Disappearing Cause? The Panama Canal, 1981-1986……268 ii. Their Man in Panama: Manuel Noriega, 1986-1988…………271 iii. A Just Cold War Cause: Removing Noriega, 1989-1992… .302 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….. .321 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………….329 4 Acknowledgements My supervisor, Alex Goodall, has been a constant source of support and encouragement in my five years of postgraduate study at York. I am indebted to him for the time and effort he has put in to helping me, not just in approaching this thesis, but also in every part of postgraduate life. Nick Guyatt and Richard bessel were incredibly supportive throughout the four years as members of my advisory panel, and their comments, suggestions, and questions were invaluable. Several organisations helped with my research. The University of York’s Santander International Connections Award provided funds for my trip to the United States, as did a grant from the Political Studies Association’s American Politics Group. Staff and archivists at the Ronald Reagan, George H. W. bush, and Jimmy Carter Presidential Libraries were incredibly helpful during my visits. The reading room staff at the british Library, in St. Pancras and especially at the Document Supply Centre in boston Spa, helped enormously with my endless trips and requests. I simply could not have reached this point without a group of friends who mean the world to me – those from Leeds and St. Andrews, and my fellow HRC-ers from over the years at the Humanities Research Centre in York. Thanks especially to Laura, Huw, Graeme, and Sarah, for taking the time to read through various chapters. Finally, I want to thank my family – mum, dad, and sister. They have supported me without reservation through four years of PhD life, and everything else. I cannot thank them enough, for everything. 5 Author’s Declaration The work contained in this thesis is the author’s, and the author’s alone. All supporting work and evidence has been referenced accordingly. This work has not previously been presented for an award at this, or any other, University. Material in the Nicaragua chapters is expanded from an article titled “What You Know and Who You Know: Senator Jesse Helms, the Reagan Doctrine and the Nicaraguan Contras”, which was published in the universities of birmingham and Nottingham’s 49th Parallel journal (Volume 33, Winter 2014). I am grateful to the journal’s editors for their permission to use the material here. 6 Introduction When Senator Jesse Helms passed away on 4 July, 2008, Phyllis Schlafly, the godmother of modern American conservatism, fondly remembered the senator as ‘the authentic voice of conservatism for three decades.’ Helms, she said, ‘was a role model of an incorruptible public official who adhered to principle despite the pressures that surround those with political power, and he gave us a standard by which others can be measured.’ The title of Schlafly’s eulogy, printed in the pages of the ultra- conservative magazine Human Events, was simple but powerful: ‘The Most Important Senator of Our Times’.1 Helms’ reputation among post-war conservatives was forged on the back of a passionate commitment to a modern American conservative movement that reshaped the political landscape of the United States in the second half of the twentieth century. In his pre-Senate career as congressional aide, banking lobbyist, and media commentator, and over thirty years representing his home state of North Carolina in the Senate, Helms worked to deconstruct the liberal New Deal-Great Society state that had dominated the middle years of the twentieth century. In its place, Helms sought a United States in which the role of government was significantly reduced, religion and traditionalism defined social norms, and foreign policy was predicated upon a commitment to expanding the forces of ‘freedom’ around the world. In a sign of appreciation for the consistency 1 Phyliss Schlafly, “The Most Important Senator of Our Times,” Human Events, 8 July, 2008 accessed 21 June, 2014, http://www.humanevents.com/2008/07/08/jesse-helms-the-most- important-senator-of-our-times. 7 and vigour of his efforts, the American Conservative Union awarded Helms a one hundred per cent rating every year from 1974 onwards.2 Though modern conservatives attached great importance to Helms’ contributions to their movement, it was only toward the end of his life that scholars began to pay close attention to his influence. Ernest Fergurson’s 1986 biography was a richly detailed account of Helms’ life and political career to that date, but its journalist author never fully asked questions of where the senator fitted into a conservative movement that was enjoying a period of national prominence.3 It took until the early 2000s, and Bryan Hardin Thrift’s doctoral thesis, “Jesse Helms, the New Right, and American Freedom” for a serious scholarly assessment of Helms’ relationship with the post-war right. Thrift argued that Helms constructed a new form of conservative politics, ‘a deft combination of populist and elitist conservatism.’ Harnessing southern conservatism, but expanding upon it with ‘ideological rigor, media savvy, and Republican Party connections’, Helms helped construct a national New Right.4 Thrift’s work was followed by William Link’s full-length biography, Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism, before Tom Packer added further academic rigour to the study of Helms with his recent doctoral work on the senator and North Carolina politics in the 1970s and early 1980s.5 Packer astutely pointed out the largely non- 2 The only exception was 1973, when the ACU gave the senator 96, due to three missed votes. See ACU Ratings, American Conservative Union, accessed 1 July, 2014, http://www.conservative.org/legislative-ratings. 3 See Ernest B. Furgurson, Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986). 4 See bryan Hardin Thrift, “Jesse Helms, the New Right, and American Freedom” (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 2005), 1. 5 William A. Link, Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008), and Tom Packer, “Jesse Helms and North Carolina

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