Background
Ross Perot had never been elected to public office, but he ran several successful corporations and was involved in public affairs for decades. After serving in the United States Navy in the 1950s, Perot joined IBM as a salesman. He surpassed his one-year sales quota in just two weeks. After the company ignored his idea for electronic storage, he founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962, which was then contracted by the United States Government to store Medicare records. Perot earned a fortune with the company, and by 1968 was named by Fortune as the "fastest, richest Texan." Perot was known to run the company in a militaristic fashion, built on loyalty and duty. His best known venture with the company was in 1979, when he sent a private militia into Iran in the midst of the Iranian Revolution to rescue two of his employees who had been imprisoned. The episode inspired the 1983 novel, On Wings of Eagles. Perot eventually sold his company to General Motors in 1984 for $2.55 billion, and founded Perot Systems in 1988. By 1992, his fortune was judged to be $3 billion.
Perot was a hawk on the Vietnam War, an advocate for Americans held as prisoner of war and a supporter for their families. During the war, he aided soldiers by providing supplies and holding rallies for those returning home. In public affairs, he led the Texas War on Drugs Committee in 1979 at the behest of Republican Governor Bill Clements, and was put in charge of the Select Committee on Public Education in 1983 by Democratic Governor Mark White. Perot's most dear political effort involved the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. He worked extensively to free soldiers that he believed had been left behind, and even engaged in secret diplomatic talks with the Vietnamese government, to the chagrin of the Reagan White House. Perot had been supportive of President Ronald Reagan and labeled him as a "great president" in 1986. He even pledged $2.5 million to support his presidential library, but the relationship soured after Perot was sent on a trip to Hanoi, and determined afterwards that the administration was not taking the POW/MIA issue seriously. He revoked his pledge to the library in 1987, based on the POW/MIA issue as well as his disillusionment from the administration's actions during the Iran–Contra affair. He became a critic of the George H. W. Bush administration, and opposed the 1991 Gulf War.
Read more about this topic: Ross Perot Presidential Campaign, 1992
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