Editing Ross Perot (section)

=== Early political activities ===

[[File:Ross Perot Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Perot with a portrait of [[George Washington]] in his office in 1986]]
After a visit to [[Kingdom of Laos|Laos]] in 1969, made at the request of the [[White House]],<ref name=Jackson /> in which he met with senior [[North Vietnam]]ese officials, Perot became heavily involved in the [[Vietnam War POW/MIA issue]]. He believed that hundreds of American servicemen were left behind in Southeast Asia at the end of the U.S. involvement in the war,<ref name="nyt062092">{{Cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1DC133FF933A15755C0A964958260 |title=Perot and Senators Seem Headed for a Fight on P.O.W.'s-M.I.A.'s |author=Patrick E. Tyler |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 20, 1992 |access-date=January 5, 2008}}</ref> and that government officials were covering up POW/MIA investigations to avoid revealing a drug-smuggling operation used to finance a secret war in Laos.<ref name="time062992">{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975891-6,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080214004511/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975891-6,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 14, 2008 |title=The Other Side of Perot |author=George J. Church |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=June 29, 1992 |access-date=January 24, 2008}}</ref> Perot engaged in unauthorized back-channel discussions with Vietnamese officials in the late 1980s, which led to fractured relations between Perot and the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] and [[Presidency of George H. W. Bush|George H. W. Bush administrations]].<ref name="nyt062092" /><ref name="time062992" /> In 1990, Perot reached an agreement with Vietnam's Foreign Ministry to become its business agent if diplomatic relations were normalized.<ref name="nyt060592">{{Cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7DC1F31F936A35755C0A964958260 |title=Perot to Testify in Senate on Americans Missing in Southeast Asia |author=Patrick E. Tyler |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 5, 1992 |access-date=January 24, 2008}}</ref> Perot also launched private investigations of, and attacks upon, [[United States Department of Defense]] official [[Richard Armitage (naval officer)|Richard Armitage]].<ref name="nyt062092" /><ref name="time062992" />

In Florida in 1990, retired financial planner [[Jack Gargan (politician)|Jack Gargan]], employing a famous quotation from the 1976 movie ''[[Network (1976 film)|Network]]'', funded a series of "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" newspaper advertisements denouncing Congress for voting to give legislators pay raises at a time when average wages nationwide were not increasing. Gargan later founded "Throw the Hypocritical Rascals Out" (THRO), which Perot supported.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Isikoff|first1=Michael|title=Unlikely Suitors Pushed Perot Bid|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/archive/politics/1992/05/31/unlikely-suitors-pushed-perot-bid/bc22e3e3-16b5-4d87-a852-2277c6d26952/?resType=accessibility&nid=menu_nav_accessibilityforscreenreader|access-date=December 28, 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 31, 1992}}</ref>

Perot did not support President [[George H. W. Bush]], and vigorously opposed the United States' involvement in the 1990–1991 [[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]]. He unsuccessfully urged Senators to vote against the war resolution, and began to consider a presidential run.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 1992 Run For The Presidency |url=http://cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/long.beach/perot/political.fray.shtml |publisher=Reform Party |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140131132826/http://cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/long.beach/perot/political.fray.shtml |archive-date=January 31, 2014}}</ref><ref name=wait>{{Cite news |last=Quindlen |first=Anna |title=Public & Private; Waiting for Perot |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/03/opinion/public-private-waiting-for-perot.html |newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=November 13, 2012 |date=June 3, 1992}}</ref>