Perot, Ross (1930-)

HENRY ROSS PEROT was a presidential candidate in 1992 and 1996, and founded the Reform Party, a third party that emerged from his 1992 Independent candidacy. Perot first came to public attention in 1969, when President Richard Nixon asked him to help get aid to American prisoners of war (POWs) being held in North Vietnam. Perot chartered two Braniff jets and sent them to Hanoi with 30 tons of Christmas presents and medical supplies for the POWs. Most of the supplies were not allowed off the plane, but Perot's effort did attract public attention to the poor treatment that American POWs were receiving in North Vietnam, North Vietnamese captors began to treat POWs better in response to world opinion.

In 1979, the Iranian government imprisoned two of Perot's employees, Paul Chiapparone and Bill Gay-lord, over a contractual dispute. Perot assembled a commando team of employees from his company EDS (Electronic Data Systems) led by a retired U.S. Army Special Forces Officer, Arthur D. “Bull” Simons, to free the men. Simons and his group, concluding that they could not free the men from the maximum security prison where they were being held, waited for supporters of the Ayatollah Khomeni to attack the prison. This attack freed all 10,000 inmates, and the commando team was able to retrieve Chiapparone and Gaylord, and get them out of Iran.

During the late 1970s and 1980s, Perot began working on a number of public policy problems in Texas. In 1979, he was appointed head of the Texas War on Drugs Committee by Republican Governor Bill Clements. In 1983, he was appointed by Democratic Governor Mark White to lead an effort to reform public education in the state. One of the better-known Perot-initiated reforms was the “No Pass, No Play” rule, which required students to have passing grades in order to participate in high school sports. From 1981 to 1983, Perot served on President Ronald Reagan's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. In the late 1980s, Perot started speaking out on national issues. Perot opposed the first Persian Gulf War (1990–91), urging members of Congress to oppose the resolution authorizing American involvement.

On February 20, 1992, Perot appeared on CNN's Larry King Live show, and announced that he would run for president if his supporters could get his name [Page 498]on the ballot in all 50 states. Perot also laid out a number of policy positions: he favored balancing the federal budget, was pro-choice on abortion, favored expanding the war on drugs, opposed gun control, and proposed “expanding democracy” by initiating “electronic town halls.” By June 1992, Perot was actually leading President George H.W. Bush and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in a number of national surveys. Perot hired two nationally prominent political operatives: Democrat Hamilton Jordan (who managed Jimmy Carter's presidential campaigns) and Republican Ed Rollins (the national campaign director of President Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign).

Perot received 18.9 percent of the popular vote in 1992—more than any third-party candidate since 1912.

Perot's standing in the polls invited greater scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal reported that Perot had often used private investigators to obtain negative information about business rivals. Stories began appearing that suggested that Perot had received special favors from the Nixon administration. Questions were raised about his management style, which some characterized as authoritarian. He was also criticized for his July 11, 1992, appearance at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) National Convention, when he addressed the audience at one point as “you people.” Days later, Rollins resigned.

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