10 July

Ross Perot, a self-made billionaire and two-time independent candidate for US president, has died at the age of 89.Perot was a businessman who made his fortune in computer services.

He entered the 1992 presidential race as a self-funded independent. At one point during the election campaign, he had the highest approval rating.

Perot finished with a respectable 19 percent share of the vote in the election that Democrat Bill Clinton won.Perot started the Reform Party for his 1996 White House run.

Perot was also known as a strong patriot. He headed a campaign to improve the treatment of US prisoners during the Vietnam War. He chartered two jets to fly medical supplies to Southeast Asia.

In 1979, he financed a private commando rescue when two of his employees were detained in Iran just before the Islamic Revolution.

NHK