Where Is The Mecca Of Amer-ican foreign policy? It's not in Washington's Foggy Bottom neighborhood, where the gray monolith of the State Department gazes out onto the Potomac, or in the trendy salons of Georgetown or the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. No, to get to mecca, you have to drive east on U.S. 74 to the. village of Wingate, N.C. There you will find mecca on the right side of the road, just across from a Hardee's. It's the Jesse Helms Center, set up nine years ago as a shrine for the North Carolina Senator in an old white neoclassical home with a wide portico and fluted columns. Inside, Helms has a replica of his Washington Senate office. On walls hang hundreds of photos of him pumping hands with Presidents and foreign leaders. There's also a framed copy of his floor speech during Bill Clinton's impeachment trial and a letter from Spiro Agnew: Thanks for being "a truly wonderful friend."
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