Helms vowed to campaign actively for Ford across the South , regarding the conservative platform adopted at the Convention to be a " mandate " on which Ford was pledging to run . However , he targeted Henry Kissinger after the latter issued a statement calling Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn a " threat to world peace , " and Helms demanded that Kissinger embrace the platform or resign immediately . Helms continued to back Reagan , and the two remained close friends and political allies throughout Reagan 's political career , although sometimes critical of each other . Despite Reagan 's defeat at the convention , the intervention of Helms and Ellis arguably led to the most important conservative primary victory in the history of the Republican Party . This victory enabled Reagan to contest the 1976 Republican Presidential nomination , and to win the next nomination at the 1980 Republican National Convention and ultimately the Presidency of the United States
1980 Republican National Convention
1980 Republican National Convention
Jesse Helms