Citizen Perot : His Life and Times

Ross Perot, for all that has been said and written about him, remains something of an enigma. The images presented of his life are often in conflict. Is he a heroic businessman who risked his life to rescue two of his kidnapped workers from revolutionary Iran, or a callous executive who ran roughshod over his employees and investigated the company's senior officers? A brilliant strategist who built a multibillion-dollar empire with an innovative idea in computers, or someone cunning enough to take advantage of government programs and milk an unfair profit? A superpatriot who underwrote his own missions to Southeast Asia to help the plight of the POWs and MIAs, or a secretive billionaire who was engrossed in far-flung conspiracy theories about the CIA and the international narcotics trade?

The result of two years of meticulous research, and based on hundreds  of  new  interviews and documents Citizen Perot strips away the mythology and unmasks the real Ross Perot for the first time. This groundbreaking book discloses the inside story of how Perot made his fortune; uncovers the tremendous influence he wielded with different presidents; presents the complete saga of his rescue mission from Iran; exposes the private wars he waged against government officials and business competitors he considered corrupt; explains the secret battles that created animosity with George Bush; and, finally, reveals what was behind Perot's unusual charges of Republican dirty tricks in the 1992 campaign.

At the heart of this investigation is Perot himself. Based in part on Perot's own unprecedented cooperation with author Gerald Posner, this book narrates a life that is rich in detail and unique for what it has attempted and accomplished. Studying Perot from  his childhood  to his current effort to create a third political party, Posner delivers an exhaustive inspection that cuts through years of misinformation and distortions to lay bare Perot's accumulation and use of power. In the process, it answers the perplexing question of what motivates Perot. It also shows whether he has the temperament and personality to be an effective president. Citizen Perot is an absorbing examination of a man who has become an American icon.

Gerald Posner, a former Wall Street lawyer, is the author of Case Closed (1993), a critically acclaimed reexamination of the JFK assassination. His other books include a 1988 expose of the heroin trade (Warlords of Crime) and a 1991 collection of interviews with the children of Nazi leaders (Hitler's Children). He is also co-author of Mengele: The Complete Story, the definitive biography of Auschwitz's "Angel of Death." His novel, The Bio-Assassins, was published in 1989.

Mr. Posner's articles have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and U.S. News & World Report. He lives in New York City with his wife Trisha.