"Looking around for a suitable way of serving the community, Ross Perot decided [in 1963] that he would give a Christmas present to every American prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. Accordingly, thousands of parcels

[28 tons] were wrapped and packed, and a fleet of Boeing 707s was chartered to deliver them to Hanoi.

"Then the message came from the government of Vietnam: no such gesture could be considered during the course of the bloody war, which was then at its height. Perot argued. The Vietnamese replied that any charity was impossible while American B-52s were devastating Vietnamese villages.

"'No problem,' Perot replied. He would hire an expert American construction company in order to rebuild anything the Americans had knocked down.

"The puzzled Vietnamese became inscrutable, and declined to continue this dialogue. Christmas drew closer, the parcels remained undelivered. Finally in despair Perot took off in his chartered fleet and flew to Moscow where his aides posted the parcels, one at a time, at the Moscow Central post office. They were delivered intact."

[Perot was once named by Fortune "the fastest richest Texan ever."]