Ross Perot on War & Peace

Orchestrated rescue mission to free EDS staff jailed in Iran

On Dec. 28, 1978, two top EDS executives were arrested in Iran, and their bail was set at a staggering $12.75 million. Not only did Perot judge the official efforts in the State Department and the US Embassy in Iran as inadequate, but he became convinced that his employees had been criminally kidnapped, while the State Department the Embassy considered they may have been detained as part of an aggressive Iranian inquiry into possible corruption. By Dec. 31, Perot decided to take things into his own hands. He started to gather a team that could rescue his executives.

On Jan. 16, the shah and his personal entourage fled the country. The EDS executives were moved to the more secure Gasr prison. On February 11, Gasr, as well as every other prison in Tehran, had been stormed by revolutionary crowds. The prisoners walked out after the crowds moved in, and the guards fofered no resistance. The EDS rescue team met the EDS executives and [smuggled and bribed their way] out of the country.

Source: Citizen Perot, by Gerald Posner, p.100-114 Jul 2, 1996

Tried for 20 years to find MIAs and POWs in Vietnam

In 1986, Perot again became involved with one of his favorite public policy issues: questions over the fate of POWs and MIAs. A 1984 article in The Wall Street Journal said [that one released prisoner] had seen other Americans in Vietnam; Perot considered that proof that MIAs were still alive. He offered $1 million for each POW returned.

On Capitol Hill, Perot [teamed up with] congressman Bill Hendon, who proposed a “Perot Commission on Americans Missing in Southeast Asia,” despite six previous government inquiries that had concluded there was no evidence of live prisoners.

In March 1987 Perot traveled to Vietnam as a private citizen, [but the controversial trip resulted in a] fight with the Reagan administration. By 1990, Perot’s fallout with the North Vietnamese, coupled with the disregard in which the Bush administration held him, left Perot with virtually no allies for his efforts on POWs and MIAs> after 20 years, his quest to find live prisoners ground to a halt.

Source: Citizen Perot, by Gerald Posner, p.191-217 Jul 2, 1996

Surgical strikes against tyrants

We sent a few F-111s into Libya and turned Qaddafi into a choir boy overnight. We haven’t heard from Qaddafi since. That didn’t take 430,000 people. If you want to get rid of Hussein, you’ve got to be sure that there’s not somebody worse in the Number Two position, right? If you give me the choice of having some fine young American die on the battlefield or get rid of a tyrant surgically, that’s the easiest decision I’ll ever make. Source: Strong-Man Politics, by George Grant, p.125 Nov 7, 1992

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