Ross Perot on War & Peace 1992 & 1996 Reform Party Nominee for President

Orchestrated rescue mission to free EDS staff jailed in Iran

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.

Tried for 20 years to find MIAs and POWs in Vietnam

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.

Surgical strikes against tyrants

No troops to Bosnia until America is more committed

BUSH: I vowed something, because I learned something from Vietnam: I am not going to commit US forces until I know what the mission is, until I know how they can come out. When you go to put somebody else's son or daughter into war, I think you've got to be careful.

PEROT: If we learned anything in Vietnam, it's you first commit this Nation before you commit the troops to the battlefield. This is basically a problem that is a primary concern to the European Community. But it is inappropriate for us, just because there's a problem somewhere around the world, to take the sons and daughters of working people that send their sons and daughters to war--our all-volunteer armed force is not made up of the sons and daughters of the beautiful people. It's very important that we not just, without thinking it through, just rush to every problem in the world and have our people torn to pieces.