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[Ross] Perot 4/12/87 [OA 8483]
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Speech Backup Alphabetical Files
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MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
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Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Speech File Backup Files
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Alpha File, 1987-1991
OA/ID Number:
13845
Folder ID Number:
13845-009
Folder Title:
[Ross] Perot, 4/12/87
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26
23
3
2
The Washington Post Magazine
Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes to
H. ROSS PEROT
Everybody knows about Scouting and the
How the Last
ideals of its action-packed program for red-
blooded boys. That's why the nation admires
Real Texan
the boy in the Boy Scout Uniform.
-The Handbook for Boys
grabbed the
WHEN HENRY ROSS PEROT* WAS BOY
American Dream
growing up in the border town of Texarkana,
by the neck,
his mother tacked a Norman Rockwell print
above his desk-a Boy Scout at prayer. The
wrestled it to
picture was meant to advise and inspire. "It
was part of my mother's continuing effort to
the ground and
keep me straight," Perot says. "Rockwell
made it cry,
painted what I strived to be."
Among his favorite books was the Scout
"Uncle!"
handbook, the primer of citizenship, right-
eousness and trees. Many years later, after
he had become a million-dollar donor to the
BY DAVID REMNICK
Scouts, Perot gave a copy of the handbook to
the third-ranking member of the Chinese
government. The visiting official examined it
with sociological care, paging past the Rockwell illustration of a young man chis-
eling a Scout homily into an obelisk at the foot of Mount Rushmore, past Baden-
Powell's "Knight's Code," past tips on roasting potatoes, sighting bluebirds and
tying tourniquets over spurting wounds. He read the requirements for a "sales-
manship" merit badge: "Explain why Truthfulness about an article is one of the
outstanding requirements of good selling
"
Thinking perhaps of Mao's Little
Red Book, the Chinese official concluded that this must be the central text for the
indoctrination of capitalist youth.
For his part, Ross Perot saw the handbook as something greater still-a code.
Clear, direct, practical, it contained the seeds for an idealized American life, and
no American life could be more idealized than Ross Perot's. Today his battered
boyhood copy can be found under glass-along with his hatchet and beaded
belt-at the Ross Perot Scout Center in Texarkana. The display of Perot's Scout
handbook has a deliberately iconic quality, like a museum case with Zane Grey's
From the Frederic Remington bronzes to Archibald Willard's "The Spirit of '76" behind his desk,
Ross Perot's office at Electronic Data Systems reflects his Image as a pugnacious patriot.
APRIL 12. 1987
25
first-grade grammar or Edison's childhood toys. Perot
sailor on leave lounges in his
ories of
now, in many ways, is Perot then. "He never
parents' backyard hammock.
that mo'
changes"-it is a sentence repeated by nearly everyone
The grass is brilliant green,
Perot
who has known him a long time. His scoutmaster at
the sun high. His hound sleeps
ters bac
Troop 18, Sam Shuman, remembers Perot as "the ul-
by his side. In another, a Ma-
theater
timate self-starter. Being small, he always stood up
rine home from the Great War
go to 1
straight and stuck out his little chest as far as it would
Sometimes
shows his friends at the local
mother
go. He was a born salesman and a born Scout."
garage his captured Japanese
Fort W
This inner direction, this combination of energy and
memories of
flag. They listen with absolute
painted
ego, was so powerful from the start that Ross Perot be-
Texarkana unreel
reverence.
youth it
came much more than the reverent boy above his desk:
"And this here may be my
way the
He became an Eagle Scout, a midshipman, a computer
in his mind like a
favorite," says Perot as he
right.
services entrepreneur worth $2.5 billion, a builder of
stands before a painting called
to scra;
modern Dallas, a patriotic hero. Perot's wealth-which
film. "You ever see
"Breaking Home Ties." A
"We
is surpassed by that of just one other American, Sam
world-weary father, in an old
"The
Walton of Wal-Mart Stores-is only the foundation of
that movie 'Places
set of work clothes, and his
And
his reputation. There are plenty of rich Texans, but
in the Heart"?
fresh-faced son, wearing his
Street,
none like him. To Perot, money is merely an instrument
Sunday suit and argyle socks,
spiky
of his will, financing his sense of risk and the right thing
That's the town I
sit together on the running
trees,
to do. "Now that I've got all this cash, I've got to figure
board of the family car. The
back is
out what to do with it," he says.
knew."
boy's valise has a sticker on it
The Pt
At the very moment when much of the country has
reading "State U" and his collie
"When
become less inclined to worship the once-rosy image of
rests its head on the boy's lap.
Bette
Ronald Reagan, many have found a hero in a businessman.
Father and son seem lost in their own thoughts, but they are
strange
Perot may be the world's first populist billionaire. People meet
close, they understand each other. The father's face says every-
Tex:
him in the street, straighten up and say, "Keep it up!" or "Give
thing in the world to Ross Perot: the pain of the Depression days
was di
'em hell, Ross!"
and the hope that his son will find happiness in the greater world.
Perots
He first jumped from the business page to front page prom-
"Those were my times," says Ross Perot. "That's my life."
vided 1
inence 18 years ago when, at the request of the Nixon White
In a
House, he hired two Braniff jets and tried to airlift 30 tons of
FOR YEARS, PEROT'S COMPANY WAS TYPECAST AS SECRE-
tra mo
supplies to American POWs in North Vietnam. The next mis-
tive, arrogant, military, and his interviews were, like an admi-
magazi
sion was even bolder. During the Iranian revolution, his team of
ral's, rare and remote. No more. Pero long ago abandoned the
Evenin
private commandos freed two of Perot's overseas employes
one-dimensional role of private businessman; without running
month
from a Tehran jail. Perot soon became known as a new sort of
for office, he has become the most public of men. He is not shy
season
corporate raider, the man who succeeded where Jimmy Carter
about discussing his foreign missions, business battles or char-
ado sh.
and the military had failed. At Perot's invitation, novelist Ken
itable deeds. When I first asked to visit, Perot just said, "When?"
Perot
Follett wrote a best-selling account of the Iranian rescue mis-
and orchestrated an itinerary that might be called "This Is My
busine
sion, On Wings of Eagles. Television, sensing a hero on the rise,
Life." One day his son Ross Jr. would fly me around Dallas and
The
made "Wings" into a five-hour mini-series and hagiography.
Fort Worth, Ross Sr. said, "to look at the lands. You can see our
"Dad's
And yet, Perot is such an unextraordinary-looking man that
buffalo and longhorns. I don't have much use for 'em but I sure
Nancy
when the late Filipino opposition leader Benigno Aquino met
love to go look at "em." The next day, I would tour some of his
was 1:
him in Dallas, Aquino was stunned.
civic contributions: a women's hospital, a new symphony hall, an
sell par
"I thought you'd be
huge!" Aquino said.
arboretum. His daughter Nancy would provide "personal stuff.
grown
"Aquino probably thought I'd look like John Wayne or some-
She'll give you the 'Daddy Dearest' angle." Then his sister Bet-
bring
thing," Perot says now. "But there I was, just a Filipino-sized
te would explain all the details of the family's charitable works;
paper
businessman." He is 5-feet-6 and 56 years old. What there is of
since 1969, Perot says, he has given away $100 million to pro-
that be
his hair is shaved close and combed military neat. His nose is an
jects for education, battered women and the homeless.
paperl
unholy affair, a lumpy wreck busted a couple of times when he
"That'll give you the picture," he said. "Show you my inter-
Ross
was breaking horses for his dad. His Texarkana speech is as
ests."
paper
high and twangy as a plucked ukulele. His shirts are always
But part of his essence is the boy-above-the-desk grown up,
people
white, the suits blue or gray, the ties muted. He has worn a
the past that shaped Ross Perot and the ways he has shaped his
Nor
uniform nearly all his life: the Boy Scouts, Annapolis, the Navy,
own history. "Texarkana's just a teeny town," he said. "You sure
better
IBM, then his own company, Electronic Data Systems. Where
you want to go all the way out there?"
Ross
he is not known, he blends in. Blue suits, he says, are "camou-
"Absolutely."
The p
flage for the corporate jungle."
"Well fine, that's fine. Now I got a bit of business to attend to
"shotg
Dallas is the City on the Hill of American business. Business-
'fore I see you, but I'll send Bette out with you in the helicopter.
subscr
men built the city and they have always run it. Of all the neat,
She can show you where I delivered papers and all that."
read 1.
middle-aged men in blue wool suits driving boxy American cars
Many times in the course of talking, Perot would grow stern
"They
to glass office buildings off the Dallas Toll Road, Ross Perot is
and shoo away a question as if it were a gnat. "That's more
extra I
not only the richest, he is the purest of the breed, reminiscent
philosophical than I like to get," he would say about questions
"Ro:
in bearing and speech of the old wildcatters. He is unembar-
with the slightest hint of psychology. "You like to go deeper
who W
rassed by the sort of rough edges that the Dallas gentry be-
than I do. With me, it's what you see is what you get." Once I
said, Il
lieves it lost years ago. Ross Perot may be one of the last real
asked him about his height, and he just said, "I never spent any
money
Texans.
time thinking about it." If Perot is introspective at all, he saves
Per
The Rockwells that line the walls of his office.suite at EDS in
it for his most intimate friends and moments. Entrepreneurs
made
Dallas are genuine. He bought them at tremendous cost not
make poor Hamlets. What he will admit to, here and there, is
name.
simply because he admires their craftsmanship; they are moral
"that it must all go back to Texarkana," that what he does is
We sh.
emblems, stories of American ideals and optimism. In one, a
rooted in the East Texas of the '30s and '40s. Sometimes mem-
always
26
THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE
unges in his
ories of Texarkana unreel in his mind like a film. "You ever see
Perot learned his "home lessons," too. Ross Perot Sr., who
I hammock.
that movie 'Places in the Heart? That's the town I knew."
made his living selling cotton, was known around town as a
Iliant green,
Perot used to take his wife, Margot, his son and four daugh-
broad-minded man, and when his workers, "guys like Jesse and
hound sleeps
ters back home fairly often. Now he goes rarely-to dedicate a
Uncle Mose," got too old to do their jobs, he took care of them
ther, a Ma-
theater he's restored or to visit an ailing relative. When he does
anyway. Once a year he'd load up the car with friends, black and
e Great War
go to Texarkana, Perot does not care to see it changed. His
white, and visit the country fair. "Dad didn't care what people
at the local
mother, Lulu May, sold the family house in 1958 and moved to
thought." Weekends he'd visit black friends, sitting side by side
ed Japanese
Fort Worth. When Perot discovered the new owners had
with them on the porch, often to the horror of the neighbors.
with absolute
painted the brick on the house, he was not happy. It was as if
The streets near the old Perot place are lined with trees, the
youth itself had been whitewashed. Perot has a firm idea of the
houses are big and well-kept, the cars new and polished. It is a
may be my
way things should be, and frequently money can set things
calm, pleasant place. But during the Depression, scruffy, half-
'erot as he
right. He bought back the house in 1969 and told the workers
starved hobos used to jump the trains and come to the Perot
unting called
to scrape off the offending paint.
house asking for food. They always seemed to come to 29th and
Ties." A
"We can't do that," they told him.
Olive. One day one of the men explained to Lulu May why the
r, in an old
"Then take out all the bricks and turn them around," he said.
Perots were singled out.
Res, and his
And so when his sister Bette and I drive up to 2901 Olive
"You're a mark," he said, showing her a white mark etched
wearing his
Street, the place is just as the Perots left it. Surrounded by
into the curb.
rgyle socks,
spiky St. Augustine grass, holly bushes and spreading pecan
"Momma, do you want me to wash it off?" Ross asked.
the running
trees, the house has a cement porch, a rocker and a swing. Out
"No," she said. "Leave it be."
dy car. The
back is a garage which was once a playroom for Bette and Ross.
sticker on it
The Perots let a tenant family live in the house rent-free now.
and his collie
"When we change tenants, I stay here until I find someone,"
he boy's lap.
Bette says. "I make sure there won't be any dope-smoking or
but they are
strange living."
says every-
Texarkana sits in both Texas and Arkansas-the Texas side
ression days
was dry, the Arkansas side wet. As fate would have it, the
reater world.
Perots lived on the liquor-less side of town. Railroad tracks di-
V life."
vided the haves from the have-nots. Schools were segregated.
In addition to helping his father break horses, Ross made ex-
AS SECRE-
tra money selling garden seeds and pushing subscriptions to the
ake an admi-
magazine that made Norman Rockwell famous, the Saturday
andoned the
Evening Post. His Christmas card business was profitable for a
hout running
month or two, but he soon learned that those profits were only
He is not shy
seasonal. Years later when brokers tried to sell him the Color-
tles or char-
ado ski resort of Vail-an investment he could well afford-
aid, "When?"
Perot recalled his days in Christmas cards. "I don't do seasonal
"This Is My
business anymore," he said, and refused the deal.
d Dallas and
The job that seems to fire Perot's imagination most was
a can see our
"Dad's paper route. We were raised on that story," his daughter
im but I sure
Nancy says. "It was like a childhood myth, a fairy tale." When he
r some of his
was 12, Ross approached the Texarkana Gazette and asked to
hony hall, an
sell papers. No jobs, they told him. Times were so bad that
ersonal stuff.
grown men and women were competing for routes that would
as sister Bet-
bring in just a few dollars a week. Perot offered to deliver the
itable works;
paper in the black slum of New Town. No one had ever done
ullion to pro-
that before. He asked for just one thing in return. While most
less.
paperboys kept about a third of all the money they collected,
ou my inter-
Ross thought he should keep two-thirds. "The people at the
paper said to go right ahead," Perot says, smiling. "They figured
sk grown up,
people out there didn't read and had no use for a newspaper."
as shaped his
Norman Rockwell could not have painted "The Route" any
nd. "You sure
better than Perot lived it. Rising every morning before dawn,
Ross climbed aboard his pony and delivered paper after paper.
The poor black workers and farmers living in their ramshackle
to attend to
"shotgun" houses in New Town badly wanted the Gazette, and
he helicopter.
subscriptions blossomed. Many read the paper, others had it
1 that."
read to them. And almost everyone made use of old copies.
ld grow stern
"They papered their walls with it," Perot says. "They used it for
"That's more
extra blankets. It was a precious thing."
out questions
"Ross always knew where he was going," says J.Q. Mahaffey,
to go deeper
who was a reporter at the Gazette at the time. "In fact. it was
I get." Once I
said, though I never believed it, that Ross was making SO much
ver spent any
money on his route that the paper tried to cut his commissions."
1 all, he saves
Perot says the story IS true -as do many others- and he
Entrepreneurs
made an appeal to the publisher. "Mr. C.E. Palmer was his
and there, is
name. I said to him, 'Sir, we made a deal on my commissions.
at he does is
We should keep to it, 1 believe.' And he did. From then on, I
netimes mem-
Breaking horses for his father in lexarkana 40 years ago, Perot
always went straight to the top with a problem."
broke his nose. Twice.
APRIL 12 1957
27
Once, during a conversation about Wall Street, Perot said, "I
"Father was up at six," she says. "He ate breakfast standing
wate
up at the kitchen counter. He came home every day at noon or
don't
think greed is human nature."
"But not your nature?" I asked him.
so to eat lunch with the family and at six for dinner. There was
thro
"We're all what we were taught to be," he said, shaking his
always a blessing: 'Gracious Father, make us thankful for all
$4,0
these blessings we humbly ask, for Christ's sake, Amen.' At din-
"I
head no. "You sit there in that little house in Texarkana and see
your mother doing things like that when you're a child, that's
ner he'd talk about business, or my mother would talk about
fruit
the greatest lesson in the world. She didn't have to go and share
church or the garden club. But mostly they were interested in
Chr
wou
it with other people or make a lecture of it. She just did it."
what we were doing.
Perot's parents lost their first child. Ross Jr. was born in
"Mother believed in reading to us by the hour. Ross was ab-
peas
sorbed in Grimm's Fairy Tales, the Hardy Boys stories, Boys'
cake
1924 and died three years later of spinal meningitis. "They al-
ways said that made their marriage stronger," Bette Perot says
Life, the Horatio Alger stories. We had the World Book, the
and
as she pulls up to the rusted, crumbling gates of the Stateline
Book of Life, Gone With the Wind, The Life of Will Rogers, and
don
Cemetery. "Mother always said that not a day goes by that you
always the Bible. At night we listened to a big old radio we had.
I
forget a child you've lost. The doctors told her she couldn't
You know the kind-rounded at the top, made of wood. My fa-
mas
have any more without risk, so of course she went out and had
ther controlled what station we listened to. We all loved Red
Boy
Skelton, 'Fibber McGee and Molly,' 'Amos and Andy.' Gabriel
fatl
two. First me, then Ross."
The graveyard is badly kept except for a few plots. The
Heatter gave the news. 'There's bad news tonight,' he'd say
mo
when the war broke out. I can hear him now.
Th
Perot plot-G. Ross Perot 1899-1955, Lulu May 1897-1979,
Ross Jr. 1924-1927-is trimmed and strewn with flowers. Bet-
"Dad made it through the Depression pretty well. But it
lov
wasn't easy, I can tell you. He paid cash for everything. He
lov
te stares a while at the names.
IF
and
ing
are
Sta
and
of
be
'7
su
Ja
tic
le
he
co
la
he
'H
of
M
ve
de
C
as
th
re
A
in
00
qu
be
"I
pr
W
SQ
le
y
ao
le
a
Perot's family joined him for his graduation from Annapolis in 1953-from left, sister Bette, father Gabriel Ross, mother Lulu May, and
n
wife-to-be Margot.
W
28
THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE
ling
watched money very carefully, and so does Ross. You
There is a wry cockiness
don't break the habits of a lifetime. I think it must have
about Perot, and he was that
n or
was
thrown Father to have to borrow a little to pay the
way long before the riches
$4,000 for our house, but he paid it off in a year.
came. Questions and meander-
all
din-
"At Christmas we got one present-a toy, clothes,
ing contemplation, he seems to
fruit was always big. When we got older, we got a bike.
think, are for lesser, more hes-
out
Christmas was the finest time in our family. Mother
"We're all what we
itant, souls. He tells the story
d in
would make the same meal every time. Turkey, English
peas and carrots, cranberries, combread dressing, fruit-
were taught to be.
of being the chairman of the
honor committee and being
ab-
bys'
cake and a Christmas ambrosia of coconut, pineapple
You sit there in
appalled when "the son of
the
and oranges. It was the greatest feast in all the world,
someone real famous, I can't
and
don't you know?"
that little house in
tell you who," was on the verge
had.
Later, Ross Perot would remember another Christ-
of getting away with a bit of
fa-
mas, a holiday story that sounds like nothing less than a
Texarkana and see
campus burglary. Perot would
Red
Boys' Life tale-at once true and mythic: "One year my
have none of it. "I went
riel
father sold one of his horses in order to have enough
your mother doing
straight to the top and de-
money for Christmas presents and Christmas dinner.
That really bothered me because I knew how much he
things like [feeding
manded justice," he says with a
say
sharp smile. "Got it, too." It is
it
loved that horse. But it also showed us how much he
the hungry] when
an early, yet classic, Perot an-
He
loved us."
ecdote: He saw a wrong and
you're a child,
acted quickly, simple as that. "I
IF THE ROCKWELLS SPEAK TO HIS SENSE OF ORDER
don't worry about the way
and affection, the Wild West bronzes by Frederic Rem-
that's the greatest
things look," he says. "I see
ington speak to his image as a pugnacious patriot. They
what's right and I act."
are everywhere in Perot's office. Cowboys firing Colts.
lesson in the
When Perot was sent to sea
Stallions rearing on the plain. There are also battle flags
in 1953 on the destroyer U.S.S.
and gifts from the families of POWs. On one wall is one
world. She didn't
Sigourney, he was made assist-
of Gilbert Stuart's portraits of George Washington, and
have to go and
ant fire control officer "and just
behind his desk hangs Archibald Willard's "The Spirit of
about every other dang thing,"
'76." Perot is a man given to national verities, and his
share it with other
including Protestant chaplain.
surroundings reflect him. He is unlikely to buy one of
The ship sailed around the
Jackson Pollock's drip paintings any time soon. Abstrac-
people or make a
world, a broadening voyage for
tions do not become him.
"a simple Texas boy, but fie'
"I bought 'em, because I like 'em," he says of his col-
lecture of it. She
soon felt bored, hemmed in by
lections. Apparently, he likes the Magna Carta, too, for
the Navy's system of lock-step
he spent $1.5 million to buy one of the four original
just did it."
promotions. By 1956 he was
copies. "My lawyer Tom Luce found it for me in Eng-
looking for a way out, for a
land. When he was getting ready to come home with it,
"top-flight outfit" where he
he asked me if I wanted security guards on it and all that. I said,
could make some money and start a family with his new wife.
'Hell, stick it in your briefcase.' When he was at Heathrow, one
He settled on IBM. And IBM-as if in cooperation with the
of the guards said, 'What have you got there?' Tom said, 'The
fast-developing Legend of Ross Perot-sent him to the City of
Magna Carta.' Guard never missed a beat. He just said, 'That's
Businessmen: Dallas, Texas.
very well. Have a nice flight.'
His transition from the military to IBM was nearly seamless.
The patriotic part of Perot's "myth" (as he so cheerily calls it)
The uniform of white shirts and blue suits, the code of behavior,
developed after high school. While he was at Texarkana Junior
the terrific work load-it was all Christmas ambrosia to him.
College, he wrote repeatedly to his senators and congressman
Being a young executive in the early computer industry was not
asking for an appointment to the Naval Academy. It seemed
unlike signing up with NASA a few years later. "Things were so
that would never happen. But in 1949, a retiring senator was
good in those days at IBM that a salesman could get rich as long
reminded that he had yet to send anyone to Annapolis that year.
as he didn't get drunk during the day," Perot says. "It didn't
An aide remembered that a boy in Texarkana had been badger-
take a miracle worker to get somewhere."
ing them for an appointment for several years.
Wanting as much action as possible, he approached his
"Well, then, give it to him," the senator said.
branch manager in Dallas, Henry Wendler, and asked to make a
When Perot arrived at Annapolis, he had never seen an
name for himself. "How could I forget him?" says Wendler.
ocean, never been on a ship. His hair was so short that the re-
"Practically on Day One, Ross marched in and said, 'Sir, I know
quired military buzz-cut was redundant. Lyle Armel, who would
you pay higher commissions for new business and tough ac-
be his roommate for four years, was not in the least impressed.
counts. So give me your toughest accounts." Perot took on a
"Who is this little fella?" he asked himself.
number of accounts, including Southwestern Life Insurance and
It didn't take forever to find out. Perot ran for junior class
Blue Cross-Blue Shield. "They gave him the dogs and he made a
president with the bulldog vigor of a Chicago alderman. "He
fortune," says Thomas Marquez, a colleague at IBM and now
went out and saw everybody," says Armel. "He visited every
one of Perot's closest associates. "Ross was the most creative
square inch of that place. Once he won, he aspired to every
guy they'd ever had."
leadership position that was available." Perot's reelection senior
"Ross made what we called 'The Hundred Percent Club' and
year came at the expense of Carlisle A.H. Trost, who is now an
had very high earnings for those days," Wendler says. "A lot of
admiral and chief of naval operations. "I think Ross was born a
the other salesmen were envious. They thought I'd given him
leader and a straight-arrow," says Armel, who joined EDS after
the cream of the crop. But 1 hadn't." Perot built up his territory
a career in the Navy. "He was always neat, always fit. It never
to such a degree that he was filling his yearly sales quota faster
made sense for him to get drunk, but he wasn't prudish about it
every year. In his final year at IBM he filled it by January 19th.
when someone else did."
But IBM would not let him earn more commissions. "They cut
APRIL 12. 1987
29
my territory and I had nothing to do," says Perot. "I fig-
your personal life and out-
Perot
ured I'd go to the YMCA and swim a little during the
look-if you could accept that,
day. A few times I had my trunks rolled up in a towel on
you can be part of it. To a lot of
part of the
ber is in 1
my desk. The boys in the office thought that was some-
people, EDS means uniformity,
tified. If S4
a stifling life. But to a lot of
thing."
One en
To keep busy. Perot offered, "like a fool," to cut his
technical people, it's the cat's
meow." Tom Peters, author of
to be put
commissions. "I was just bluffing," he says, "but they
"I've' always
surance.
took me up on it." In the meantime, Perot tried to sell
In Search of Excellence, a best-
IBM on the idea of a service branch. In those days,
figured there
Sharek W
selling book on corporate cul-
dent and
many companies bought huge computer systems with-
tures, once remarked of EDS:
must be some
facility po
out the slightest clue of how to use them or of how long
"You say the 'Pledge of Alle-
Recently,
the technology would last. They just knew that to get
secretary there at
giance' every three minutes,
culture of
ahead, they needed hardware. Perot proposed that IBM
then charge up the hill.
not only sell hardware, but also provide the customized
the White House
They're like the Marine Corps.
probably
been a GN
software and a staff to help operate the new, mysterious
Heck, they are the Marine
In the
machines. IBM-blue, gray and getting a bit fat-said
who stays from
Corps."
the feder
Even while Perot dismisses
no.
1965, Pe
Perot was looking for the door. "It was the old story,"
administration to
the idea of a military, dictato-
states to
he says. "If I had stayed in the Navy, I probably would
rial shop-"You should see the
administration,
breakthr
have retired as a captain because I would have been too
fights we have!"-he has sure-
ica's firs
controversial. I would have been too direct. If I'd stayed
and when someone
ly cultivated a homogeneous,
$68,000
at IBM, I'd be somewhere in middle management get-
Spartan environment. The
ing to has
ting in trouble and being asked to take early retirement.
says, 'Where are
EDS buildings are guarded by
now had
When I got up to the bite-your-tongue level, that's when
fences and barbed wire and sit
ployes, a
I would have gotten in trouble."
we going to get
in the middle of a nine-hole golf
$1.5 mill
At about that time, Perot went to get his hair cut.
course. When you drive to the
ment ban
While waiting for the barber, he found wisdom in the
money in the
gates of EDS on Forest Lane in
On Se
Reader's Digest. His eyes fell on a line from Thoreau's
north Dallas, an armed guard
middle of the
Perot Wa
paean to ascetic self-reliance, Walden: "The mass of
wearing sunglasses, a white
down: "It
men lead lives of quiet desperation." In school, Perot
night?' she says,
button-down shirt, rep tie,
"Ross su
had been drilled in American literature "by the beauti-
gray slacks and a pistol waves
wedding
fully educated women" who taught him. But no line, he
'Call Perot.' I'm
you over to the side of the
road. In the lobby, a carved
single gr
says, had ever struck him so deeply. There it was, a
Scout."
little filler quote on the bottom of a page, a revelation in
not sure, but I
eagle holds dominion. There
fastest II
agate type. Vintage Perot: at once grand (Thoreau) and
are eagles all over the place; it
populist (Reader's Digest).
think it's Fawn
bought I
is the company bird.
joints. T
"At that moment," Perot says, "I got the idea for
Behind all the trappings and
Hall's mother.
only a pir
EDS."
symbolism, there is a definite
he belon
substance to Perot's culture. If
North D
DOUBT-THE SORT OF DOUBT THAT PLAGUED HIM IN
you work for it, it works for
system
the weeks preceding his trip to the barber - was hardly part of
you. In the early days, Perot worried that his people were not
Perot ch
his makeup. Not for long, anyway. When he began writing out
seeing their families enough; he gave each family stock now
not be a
the plans for EDS in 1962 (on a legal pad, at the kitchen table),
worth $250,000. Unions never took root at EDS. "I'm all for
Indee
he did it with rapid assurance. Drawing on the institutions that
unions, but we don't need 'em," says Perot. End of discussion.
$16.50
made him, Perot created not only a company, but a culture. His
When a delegation of Japanese executives visited a number of
holding
men would dress like IBMers, behave like the finest Midship-
American corporations, they told Perot that his was by far the
$1.5 bill
men, treat one another like members of a big Texarkana family.
most Japanese. Perot took it as high praise. "There's a sign over
"The pri
"Simple and straight," he says. "We clearly codified what EDS
the gate of Toyota City and it says, 'Every worker is a broth-
Perot. "I
is, what an EDSer is. Everything is just nailed down as succinct-
er,' says Perot. "That's EDS."
stock ph
ly as possible. I want people who are smart, tough, self-reliant,
Mort Meyerson, who is Perot's closest associate and now
million 0
have a history of success since childhood, a history of being the
reportedly worth more than $100 million, left his job as a com-
New You
best at what they've done, people who love to win."
puter programmer for Bell Helicopter in 1966 to come to EDS
"Peop
Image was important because Perot was no longer selling the
as a trainee. Soon he discovered what a strange place he had
sorry for
most famous equipment in the world. In fact, he was not selling
joined.
what did
equipment at all. Ross Perot was selling his people. Soon
"I was practically living in the computer center working on
By 19
EDSers would be described as the blue-suited shock troops of
some Medicare and Medicaid accounts," Meyerson says. "My
by both
the industry. Green Berets, Delta Force, computer commandos.
wife and I had an infant boy and I happened to have off one Sat-
millions
The military analogy is appropriate. In the years to come, Perot
urday. My wife was doing some work in the kitchen and, some-
the bigg
hired dozens of veterans. As EDS grew, as its burgeoning staff
how, she managed to get a little bit of Drano in her eye. It was
"A gigan
took root in the computer rooms of more and more companies,
horrible. Her eye was actually foaming it was so bad. I put the
losing $:
its image became law. Strict rules of dress. No beards, no mus-
baby under one arm and took my wife to the hospital. Ross was
"Perot n
taches. Employes were given a "code of conduct." Follow it, or
there in an instant. The next day he found out who the best
pen but
be gone. Perot's "clones" his people were called.
ophthalmologist in the country was for that sort of injury, he
Quist. "R
So encompassing was Perot's EDS that Esquire would later
rented a Lear jet and flew her to Johns Hopkins. It probably
it."
call it "the New Feudal Future." Osman Eralp, an analyst at
saved her eye. Remember, I wasn't an executive, just a begin-
the investment bank of Hambrecht & Quist, says, "If you play
ner, and here he was, going to the limit for me and my wife.
LIKE AN
by Ross' rules you could be happy in EDS. Long hours, total
Imagine what I felt for that man. Imagine the loyalty. I would
road. And
commitment, making sure your professional life became part of
have walked through a wall for him."
and polit
30
THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE
PHOTOGRAPH
and out-
cept that,
Perot made that sort of loyalty almost official, an intrinsic
investment bankers as kids "who think they're God's chosen
To a lot of
part of the culture. "Any time an EDSer or an EDS family mem-
people." He describes the entrepreneurial life as a "mission, and
informity,
ber is in trouble, 24 hours a day. seven days a week, we're no-
the mission is to create jobs." Of the Japanese electronics rev-
) a lot of
tified. If something happens, it's a five-alarm alert."
olution, he says, "It used to be that if your parents gave you an
the cat's
One employe, a product manager, was in a car crash and had
orange for Christmas, you knew they still loved you. But if they
author of
to be put in a body cast. His medical bills far exceeded his in-
gave you a Japanese toy, you wondered. Now they make the
re, a best-
surance. EDS paid the difference. An employe named Steve
best stuff in the world. Just take a look around your house." The
Sharek was on vacation in the Mediterranean. He had an acci-
crowd loves it.
orate cul-
I of EDS:
dent and is now a paraplegic. Perot got him to the best medical
After the applause dies, he walks down a concrete tunnel to a
facility possible, and made sure his finances were taken care of.
press conference. In a brief session, he compares the "cowboy
e of Alle-
minutes,
Recently, Sharek heard about Perot's battle with the corporate
operations" of the National Security Council to the behavior "of
the hill.
culture of General Motors. In a letter to Perot, he wrote, "I'd
a banana republic." Outside the door, the autograph seekers
ne Corps.
probably be lying on or six feet under that Cypriot beach if I'd
wait for him. Three women wearing identical blue business
Marine
been a GM employe."
suits, white blouses and flouncy red ribbons press their copies
In the meantime, the company's value skyrocketed. When
of On Wings of Eagles into Perot's hands.
dismisses
the federal government passed medical insurance legislation in
"You gals want 'em inscribed?" he says.
dictato-
1965, Perot won contracts with state Medicaid programs in 11
"Sher doovou!"
Id see the
states to develop a computerized oilling system. "That was the
Perot signs his name (with no "H.") in broad, bulgy strokes:
has sure-
breakthrough," he says. Ramparts magazine called him "Amer-
Before he can get to the door, a horsy-looking man presses
ica's first welfare billionaire." Perot kept his own salary at
his card into Perot's hand and asks a favor so obscure and so
geneous,
nt. The
$68,000 but his holdings in EDS were obviously a fortune wait-
rushed that no one can possibly understand it. Perot shrugs: "I
arded by
ing to happen. As John Brooks WIULE in The vote Years, "Perot
don't know what it is, but people have this compulsion to talk to
re and sit
now had 23 contracts for computer systems. 323 full-time till*
me. What is it? You got any ideas?"
ployes, about $10 million in assets, annual net protits of over
He knows. Perot knows it's his role as rescuer-Perot as
-hole golf
ive to the
$1.5 million, and a growth curve so fantastic as to make invest-
Liberator.
ment bankers' mouths water."
He first earned the reputation in 1969 when Henry Kissinger
st Lane in
ed guard
On September 12, 1968, EDS wellt public Overnight, Ross
called him to the White House and, according to Perot, said,
"Ross, our intelligence reports say that half our POWs in Viet-
a white
Perot was worth $350 million. And yet no nakes sure " Play it
rep tie,
down: "It was like getting by a comet HIS sister Belle says.
name will die of brutality or neglect before the war is over. We
tol waves
"Ross sure didn't mind getting rich, out you Know, after ms
le of the
wedding or the birth of his children, 1 think I know what WaS the
a carved
single greatest day in Ross' life. Simple. The day he made Eagle
Scout." Almost from the moment Perol became known as the
n. There
e place; it
fastest richest Texan," myths grew up amound nis modesty He
bought his suits at K mail. He ate all nis meals M. barbecue
pings and
joints. The family had, no servants. His chilaren would inherit
a definite
only a pittance. To the contrary, his suits are of the finest cloth,
culture. If
he belongs to some of the toniest clubs in Dallas, the house in
works for
North Dallas is well-staffed and possessed of a tight security
were not
system and a full gymnasium, and no one should expect the
tock now
Perot children to know anything other than wealth. Perol may
'm all for
not be a glutton, but he is no monk, either.
iscussion.
Indeed, his wealth kept growing. EDS stock had opened at
number of
$16.50 a share. By 1970, it was selling for $160. Perot was
by far the
holding more than nine million shares, making him worth nearly
sign over
$1.5 billion. The numbers on the market were going crazy.
a broth-
"The price was way higher than it should have been," says
Perot. "It was a fool's game." Suddenly the game ended. EDS
and now
stock plunged, and in seven hours, Ross Perot had lost $450
million on paper, the largest single-day loss in the history of the
as a com-
e to EDS
New York Stock Exchange.
ce he had
"People ask me what 1 felt," he says. "Money is strange. I felt
sorry for the little investors who got taken to the cleaners. But
orking on
what did I feel for myself? I felt nothing."
says. "My
By 1971, Perot felt he could do almost anything. Motivated
if one Sat-
by both good will and the chance of big protits, Perot invested
nd, some-
millions in an attempt to save DuPont Glore Forgan Inc., one of
ye. It was
the biggest brokerage houses on Wall Street from bankruptcy.
I put the
"A gigantic gamble," he says. He rolled the dice and ended up
Ross was
losing $70 million, an awful failure. It was his biggest failure.
, the best
"Perot moved in, saw the opportunity to make big things hap-
injury, he
pen but it turned bad," says analyst Eralp of Hambrecht &
1 probably
Quist. "But it was just too big and it bombed. He found his lim-
it."
st a begin-
1 my wife.
y. I would
LIKE ANY ROCK 'N' ROLLER, PERO1 AKES THE SHOW ON THE
road. And a marvelous show it is. In a speech to business people
Perot tried to embarrass the North Vietnamese with his Christmas
and politicos at North Carolina State University, he rips young
mission for the POWs.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DENNIS BRACK/BLACK STAR
APRIL 12, 1987
31
have to do something about it, but we can't do it ourselves. Can
my wife and the second to call you.' Perot's critics said that
any charges
you help us?" Perot said he would. His contact at the White
the mission had done at least as much for him as for the PQWs.
Haig; he call
House for the project was Alexander Haig. "We knew he was
The following year, Perot read about the exploits of Army
every agenc
passionate about what was happening to the boys," says Haig.
Col. Arthur (Bull) Simons. Simons and a team of commandos
but precious
had raided the Son Tay prison camp outside Hanoi hoping to
Once mor
"We knew he had something to offer more than just money."
The specific plan was left to Perot. "I spent a lot of time with
rescue POWs. Although the mission failed-the camp had been
would assen
an EDS trainee named Tom Neurer reading stacks of Commu-
abandoned-Perot went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to con-
a rescue. Ja
nist literature," he says. "Communists write a lot of literature,
gratulate Simons anyway.
hardly refus
When the POWs returned home from Vietnam, Perot fi-
son was dy
you know." Perot's guileless sense of symbol and myth and
nanced a ticker tape parade for the Son Tay raiders in San
ferred to a
emotion served him-well. This time Christmas was his tool, his
wedge. For $1.5 million, Perot rented two Braniff 707s and
Francisco. Nixon's chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, wanted the
after, Cobu
crammed them with letters from home, medicine and 1,400
parade to wait until after a White House reception. "That guy
needed him
canned yule dinners. Although the North Vietnamese would
was your classic instance of someone who got to where he was
shine Boys,
never accept such a shipment, Perot managed a remarkable
because he was good at-blowing up balloons in the campaign,"
at Perot's
Perot says. "I told him, 'Look, the guys want this. I'm just pay-
vine in Dall
public relations victory, arranging public confrontations and
press conferences all over Southeast Asia. In Laos, Perot stood
ing for it.' He said if we went through with it there could be no
Later Pt
outside the North Vietnamese embassy shouting into a bull-
military bands. Imagine! I told him, 'Fine, we'll get every high
security m:
horn: "Let us have our men!" He was either a surprisingly ef-
school band we can find. But when the subject of why we didn't
of foreign P
fective Quixote or a masterful self-promoter, depending on your
have military bands comes up, I'll let them know about our little
comes pret
point of view. "He was amazing," says Haig.
conversation.' Guess what? We got the military bands."
state Cyru
The prisoners never had their Christmas dinner, of course,
Simons could not have been more impressed with this little
quite frank
"But wh:
but after the war many POWS reported that in the camps they
computer jock from Dallas. In 1973, Perot says, he sent Simons
had heard about Perot's mission. Eventually, the North Viet-
back to Laos to look for POWs. "Simons said they were there,"
tried the
namese allowed more mail, and some POWs reported that their
Perot says, "but there wasn't much he could do about it."
through the
overall treatment had improved. They finally felt they had not
Perot and Simons would next work together in 1979. Two
bail, which
been forgotten, at least not by a Dallas billionaire. "When one
EDS executives working in Tehran, Paul Chiapparone and Bill
and they fill
POW got back, I heard from him right away," says Perot. "He
Gaylord, were arrested by Iranian police and thrown in jail-
to lose the
said, "They told me I've got two phone calls. I used one to call
making them the revolution's first hostages. There were never
obey the 1
Where we:
here and S:
rules, but
we felt it
that simple
Chiappa
imum-secu
Their cell
of the ma:
heard sou:
Once in
Gaylord at
to hang ti;
parone, wi
officials let
shocked th
tell two et
cancer at
might nev
lord, Perot
To get
"That was
Simons
Bastille du
now. "In a
and an Ira
the mobs
leaders, at
leader. WI
lice to ope
one and ye
prisoners.
out. The g
In the
ran out on
Hyatt hote
them.
Once ev
was treme
Americans
Last year In Dallas, Prince Charles awarded Perot the Churchill medal.
32
THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE
PHOTOGRAPH BY DALLAS MORNING NEWS/DAVID W00
at
any charges. Perot called his old contacts Kissinger and
November 4, 1979. He met
Haig: he called on the State Department; he called on
with Pentagon and CIA officials
ny
every agency he could think of. He got promises, advice,
to offer his advice on a rescue
os
but precious little help.
attempt. "Ross and a whole
Once more, Perot came up with his own plan: Simons
team of his men came down to
to
would assemble a voluntary, private commando team for
see me on the Sunday after the
a rescue. Jay Coburn was one EDS executive who could
Perot may be the
hostages were taken," says
hardly refuse the mission. Years before, when his infant
world's first
Stansfield Turner, the CIA di-
son was dying, Perot made sure the child was trans-
rector during the Carter ad-
an
ferred to a better hospital. The boy lived, and, for years
populist billionaire.
ministration. "He encouraged
after, Coburn said he would be there any time Perot
us to look at a rescue as a clan-
uy
needed him. He joined the team. Known as "The Sun-
People meet him
destine operation rather than a
as
shine Boys," they trained for their adventure in Tehran
brute, military one." Perot says
at Perot's weekend house on the shores of Lake Grape-
in the street,
he sent two of his business as-
sociates back to Tehran: "We
vine in Dallas.
Later Perot would be criticized for taking national
straighten up and
put the intelligence on the
no
security matters into his own hands. "The privatization
say, "Keep it up!"
ground. But by the end of De-
of foreign policy is a dangerous matter, and I think Perot
cember we felt so strongly that
comes pretty close to the line," says former secretary of
Or "Give 'em hell,
the rescue plan wouldn't work,
state Cyrus Vance. "I was troubled by that mission,
that we pulled out." Perot says
quite frankly."
Ross!"
he also tried to talk directly to
"But what else were we left with?" Perot insists. "We
President Carter, but he could
tried the government. No luck. We tried to work
never get through. "I was told
through the Iranian legal system. Hah! We even tried to pay
by two senior guys in the administration that he was in no shape
bail, which was nothing more than a ransom. It was $12 million
to talk to me. I wanted to tell him that this thing wasn't being
vo
and they finally refused it. Everything failed. I was either going
planned with the right intensity."
to lose the guys or try something. Now they say you should
After Carter's rescue attempt failed dismally in the desert,
obey the law. Whose laws? The law of Iran in a revolution?
the public could not help comparing images: Perot's triumphant
Where were the laws? There were none. Everybody sits over
"Sunshine Boys" and Carter's twisted helicopters. But Zbigniew
here and says why don't we go by the Marquess of Queensberry
Brzezinski, who was assistant to the president for national
rules, but it didn't play over there
We
took
the
risk
because
security affairs during the Carter administration, finds the
we felt it was wrong to leave two innocent men behind. It was
comparisons specious. "I don't remember him sending intelli-
that simple. It was the principle."
gence people to Iran, but I know we spoke to him, and it was
Chiapparone and Gaylord were locked up in a forbidding max-
clear to everyone that the two situations were completely dif-
imum-security prison, a fortress with steel doors and towers.
ferent."
Their cell was near a mental ward, and they heard the screams
At EDS, employes understood the rescue mission as an ex-
of the mad in the middle of the night. From the streets they
tension of the culture, almost a given. "After everything you've
heard sounds of gunfire and revolution.
heard about Ross and EDS and the loyalty there, well, hell, I
Once in Tehran, Perot managed to get permission to see
could have told you he would have gone to Iran," says Mort
Gaylord and Chiapparone. "The key thing then was to tell them
Meyerson. Over the next two years, the public relations depart-
to hang tight and that we'd get them out," says Perot. Chiap-
ment at EDS got many proposals from authors wanting to write
parone, who is still with EDS, remembers the day that Iranian
about the rescue mission. Perot arranged to meet the best-sell-
officials let Perot visit him and Gaylord in jail. "I was absolutely
ing spy novelist Ken Follett.
shocked that Ross would travel halfway around the world just to
At first Follett found it "a bit difficult to get over Perot's per-
tell two employes that he cared. What's more, his mother had
sonal magnetism." And, after he began researching the book, he
cancer at the time and he came to Tehran knowing that he
soon discovered what it was to doubt his subject. "If Ross is
might never see her again." After sèeing Chiapparone and Gay-
telling a funny story, he'll cheerfully alter the facts to make it
lord, Perot flew back to Dallas, leaving Simons to improvise.
funnier," says Follett from his estate in Surrey. "I made it clear
"To get us out, Simons needed a trick," says Chiapparone.
that I wanted the plain facts. I was checking a story on the
"That was the only way."
phone with someone and I said, 'Well, you know how Ross ex-
Simons had read how the French opened the gates of the
aggerates A passing remark, but it got back to him, and he
Bastille during the Revolution. "We figured on it," says Perot
said, "I don't want you going around this town telling people I
now. "In a revolution, someone always opens the jails. Simons
exaggerate. I have a relationship with the people of Dallas and
and an Iranian employe of ours named Rashid spent time with
this country and it means more than this book.' Well. It was
the mobs outside the jail. They discovered that the mobs had
rather like a blast of icy wind that blows into the room when
leaders, and so Rashid formed a mob of his own and became a
someone opens the door. We are very good friends but I did see
leader. When the right moment came, he paid off the local po-
a glimpse of that tough side of him."
lice to open up the magazine. Rashid threw weapons to every-
Not everyone adored On Wings of Eagles. "From what I
one and yelled, 'It's up to us revolutionaries to free the political
know of it, it's a bit of an exaggeration," says Cyrus Vance.
prisoners.' Rashid got the key and everyone started streaming
"The Sunshine Boys" say it was fact. One way or another, On
out. The guards refused to shoot at their own people."
Wings of Eagles made millions for Follett. It codified the legend
In the chaos, Gaylord and Chiapparone jumped the wall and
of H. Ross Perot.
ran out onto the streets of Tehran. They hitched a ride to the
Hyatt hotel where Perot had said Simons would be waiting for
THE FIRST TIME HE EVER HEARD THE NAME OLIVER NORTH,
them.
Perot says, he was eating dinner at the Old Warsaw restaurant
Once everyone was safely back in Dallas, the news coverage
in Dallas. It was December 1981. North called him there and
was tremendous. The story got even more attention when 52
asked if Perot would be willing to help the government in a
Americans were imprisoned in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on
continued on page 62
APRIL 12, 1987
33
W00
Free Travel Brochures
H. ROSS PEROT
VIRGINIA
Lewis
continued from page 33
matter of grave importance. For the time
does it all.
being, he kept the matter vague. "Ollie
just called me up out of the blue," says
Perot. "I've always figured there must be
some secretary there at the White House
who stays from administration to admin-
istration, and when someone says, 'Where
are we going to get money in the middle
of the night?' she says, 'Call Perot.' I'm
not sure, but I think it's Fawn Hall's
mother. She's been there since the days
of Kissinger."
CLASSIC POOL
Days later, Perot got a call at three in
36
the morning from one of the Joint Chiefs
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WILLAMSBURGVA
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WATER
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he remembers thinking, 'I don't even
know who he is.' It could have been any-
COUNTRY
one on the phone saying he was an assist-
NATURAL POOL
USA
ant secretary. I often think of that. I say,
'These guys ought to have some kind of
ID or something.'
"Anyway, the guy said, 'Look, noth-
ing's working. Could you put together a
team to break him out?' I said, 'I'll think
Herbeley
about it. I'm flying to Dallas, and I'll call
West Virginia
you when I get there.' For three hours, I
sat on the plane and thought, 'How am I
going to tell him what a terrible idea it
38
39
was?' When he landed in Dallas, Perot
Water Country USA-Wd.
ALMOST HEAVEN
turned on his car radio and heard the
hamsburg Virginia This Fa.
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may Water Park features 40
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news: Italian police had freed Dozier. He
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was relieved, but remembers thinking
mountain lake tennis mas.
sages.hiking
how "squirrelly things get sometimes."
"I was just getting ready to call the guy
in Washington and say it doesn't make
any sense for a bunch of computer guys to
get involved. You say to yourself, 'Why
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aren't we better than this?'
Bobby Ray Inman, former deputy di-
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private people, and Perot has demon-
strated a willingness to respond and act."
TRADITIONAL POOL
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Perot had established himself as a kind
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of conservative Jesse Jackson. They both
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had agendas and they both acted on them.
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with the power of his constituency and his
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WASHINGTON AREA'S OLDEST POOL BUILDER
Others call it hubris. "You know how it
H. ROSS PEROT
Speaker] Jim Wright clear it.' If you were
is," Brzezinski says of Perot. "There are
in my situation and someone called you up
at three in the morning and you could
all sorts of people who like to see them-
selves as actors on the great world stage.
save a guy's life by writing a check that
Armand Hammer, for example. They're
the Credit Suisse Bank of Switzerland.
didn't mean anything to you, you'd do it,
often self-promoters. Usually they're not
North then changed his mind, directing
right? Sure you would. If someone said,
harmful or pains in the neck, so long as
Perot to bring the money instead by cou-
well, go outside and pick a flower and you
they don't do any damage. They're never
rier to Cyprus. "I sent one of my most
can save someone's life, you'd say sure.
shy. I'm always more impressed by peo-
trusted EDS associates," Perot says.
Now I say if these guys ever call me again
ple who are praised by others rather than
"There was supposed to be a rendezvous
for anything, I'm going to want a joint
somewhere at sea-cash for hostages-
resolution from Congress, a note from the
praise themselves. I've seen [Perot] on
TV. He's no wallflower, that's for sure."
but after five days, no one showed up. It
president and a legal opinion from the
Others, such as Stansfield Turner, view
came to nothing."
chief justice. Then I'll start to think about
Perot's involvement in foreign policy as
Before the Iran-contra scandal hit the
it."
"having nothing at all to do with self-
papers, Perot took each request "on the
Perot acknowledges the arguments
interest: In my experience, he acts as a
merits," acting on some, rejecting others.
against ransoming hostages, but he
patriot."
The cartoon version of Perot is, he ad-
elects, as usual, to act. "It's kind of hard
In 1984, Perot says, North called him
mits, "as some kind of right-wing nut,"
to get up in the middle of the night and
to help ransom the captured Beirut CIA
and yet his decisions often break out of
cough up some money for these preach-
station chief, William Buckley. That mis-
the hard-right mold. When North asked
ers and college professors who just won't
sion failed, too, and it was learned later
Perot for money for the contras, Perot
come home. But, in the final analysis,
that the terrorists had killed Buckley. "It's
says he balked, citing the "lessons of Viet-
they're human beings
I don't spend a
like fishing," Perot says. "You try and try
nam: You first commit the nation before
lot of time brooding over the philosophical
and try and you're either lucky or you're
you commit the troops."
meanings of this whole thing. I guess
not."
At first, he says, the calls from North
we're back to you are what you're taught
The White House called again. On De-
seemed to be simply an extension of pre-
to be. I really may know better, and yet, I
cember 2, 1986, the day after General
vious calls from the White House. "Ollie
feel, by God, this is my government."
Motors paid Perot $700 million to give up
was just a nice guy from the NSC," says
Perot says "we haven't seen the tip of
the rest of his GM stock and stop criti-
Perot. "In my mind it was just like Haig or
the iceberg on this thing." To him, the
cizing them, The Washington Post re-
Brzezinski a few years earlier, just anoth-
Iran-contra scandal is the ultimate "squir-
vealed that North, in an effort to free oth-
er nice guy, handpicked, carefully chosen.
relly" affair: "See I think Ollie is almost
er American hostages in Beirut, had
A guy calls you at three in the morning,
an amateur in all this. When the dust set-
asked Perot last May to put $1 million in
you don't say, 'Well, have the president
tles on this thing and we can put it into
an account labeled Lake Resources Inc. in
call me in the morning and have [House
perspective, I think we'll conclude that
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H. ROSS PEROT
Sponsored by the Dallas Press Club,
were bit players, and the major charac-
the affair is huge. Nearly 1,000 guests
ters were people who were in the weap-
take their seats at tables with odd dec-
ons business for years, some of whom had
orations. The centerpieces are small
CIA connections.
ple," he said. Inside, he met with Don
brown boxes stamped "SECRET." On one
"Those characters are all patriots in
Regan on the POW-MIA issue. The issue
side of the box, a toy soldier shoots his
their own minds. The True Path is in
has been Perot's obsession since 1969.
submachine gun; on the other, an Amer-
their heads. Their purpose in life is to
With full security clearance, he has spent
ican flag flutters in the air-conditioned
save the country from the rest of us.
days with Pentagon and CIA files. Perot is
wind. The house lights dim. Perot walks
Now, once a guy gets that in his head, get
convinced there are still American pris-
down the center aisle flanked by two uni-
out of the way. If you went into covert
oners in Vietnam. He doesn't know how
formed combat soldiers. The guests
activity and went into the field for years,
many, and, in a sense, doesn't care. Once
stand, cheer and rattle their bangles.
well, you have no family life, no friends,
more, Ross Perot is on a rescue mission.
With the spotlight shining in his face,
the only people you had contact with were
Once more he is the Liberator. "I don't
Perot waves to the crowd like MacArthur
on the other side. You're an old man as a
care if it's one guy. One guy. You don't
come ashore at Inchon. In homage to
young man in that business. Talk about a
sell your people out. You save them."
Perot's controversial $700 million split
recipe for instability. There it is. What do
with GM, the band plays a furious version
you do with these guys once you get them
JEFF, A HOTEL CLERK, SITS ON THE
of "Take This Job and Shove It."
wound up and programmed? How do you
hors d'oeuvres table handcuffed to a jail
The soldiers escort him to a makeshift
shut them up in a free society? I guess in
door. He's shucked his Dallas Hyatt hotel
throne on the stage. The theme is simple:
a totalitarian society you'd just put them
uniform for prisoner's fatigues and jungle
Perot as Liberator. The set decorations
away."
paint to be a centerpiece, a military vari-
are a dark dungeon cell and an angry-
Perot resigned from the President's
ation on the chopped-liver Bible or the
looking banner behind him written in Ara-
Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board last
carved-ice swan. "It's a job," Jeff says,
bic. The applause gets louder and louder.
year, sources say, out of sheer frustration
eyeing the distant celery stalks. "I do
In Perot the audience sees not merely
and boredom, and he has been deeply crit-
what they tell me to do." He hardly
money beyond reckoning, but also inde-
ical of the Reagan administration's han-
moves, the better not to slip a jackboot
pendence, patriotism, a Will Rogers sort
dling of the Iran-contra scandal, but he
into the radish bowl. Only a few of the
of wisdom. At one table a woman can no
can hardly avoid politics and the issues
hundreds of guests who approach the ta-
longer contain herself. "Run, Ross! Run
that engage him most. One afternoon dur-
ble to dunk their carrots in the dip stop to
for president!" she shouts.
ing our interviews, Perot flew north in his
ask Jeff just what he is doing in such a
And at that moment the band invites a
Learjet to Washington. A limousine
pose. "I'm here honoring H. Ross Perot,"
local singer to lead the crowd iha chorus
dropped him off at the northwest gate of
he says. "If I were real, he'd set me free, I
of the crowd's favorite Carter-era an-
the White House. "Got to see some peo-
guess. That's what they tell me."
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H. ROSS PEROT
Getsetfor summer
Appeasement's an art form, and Rem-
brandt's at the helm,
There are no heroes in this wretched
realm.
Where are you now when we need you,
Ross Perot?
Who else can we turn to, where else can
we go?
Where are you now when we need you,
Ross Perot?
Speaker after speaker takes gentle jabs
at Perot, at his ears (large), at his ego
(somewhat larger), at his fortune (almost
the largest). The jokes are roses dis-
guised as raspberries. He'll never run for
president, they say-he's already king.
They note that W magazine put him on
this year's "in" list, along with Boris Beck-
er, Barcelona and spinach. They say Ross
just had an accident-a speedboat hit him
while he was walking on the water. Too
bad the job Perot really wants-the
speaker rolls his eyes heavenward-is
already filled. Perot laughs and laughs and
the crowd laughs, too.
There are dinners in Perot's honor all
Your pool interest is still tax deductible
the time. Last year, Prince Charles and
Financing is available
Nancy Reagan awarded him the Churchill
medal in Dallas. Last month in New York
Listed on the New York Stock Exchange
he was given a medal named for Raoul
Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who
ANTHONY POOLS
saved thousands of Jews during World
War II. Wallenberg's sister said her
WORLD'S LARGEST
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brother would "recognize a kindred spirit"
in Perot. The dinner at the Hyatt was
Member
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Finally it is time for the legend his own
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self. The band pumps out "Hail to the
Chief," a gigantic American flag unfurls
above the stage and Perot rises from his
throne. Presently, last year's Miss USA,
Maryland Pools, Inc.
Christie Fichtner, races to the stage and
hugs him tight.
"Oh, Mr. Perot," she sighs. "You're
such a hunk of man."
Perot surveys his admirer, an endlessly
tall blond who seems bred on tablespoons
of saccharine, Oil of Olay and apple pie.
She is preternaturally beautiful. "I don't
think we have to worry about the Japanese
producing one of these," says Ross Perot.
The crowd, as they say, goes wild.
Next week: a clash of cultures as Ross Perot
Washington 982-1570
takes his ways and will into Roger Smith's
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boardroom at General Motors.
66
THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE