Family on Hanoi ‘Hit List,’ Perot Claims : Politics: Potential presidential contender says North Vietnam sought assassinations two decades ago because of his efforts on behalf of POWs.

Ross Perot says North Vietnamese agents put his family on an assassination hit list two decades ago when Perot was conducting a highly-publicized campaign to improve the treatment of American prisoners of war.

The possible presidential contender said the North Vietnamese went to Canada and passed a list of assassination targets to sympathizers in the United States.

“They used to come to Canada and give a list of people to kill--and I was on that list,” says Perot, who flew two planeloads of medicine and food to U.S. POWs on Christmas Eve in 1969. “My whole family’s life was at risk from 1969 to 1973. . . . It really, really impacted my family.”

The Texas billionaire, who says he will probably announce next month whether he will run for President, made the comments in an interview with the C-SPAN cable channel that was taped Thursday. It will be broadcast Sunday.

Perot said the FBI “had infiltrated the group, knew . . . whose life was threatened.” The details were “all public record,” he said.

In Washington, an FBI spokesman said late Friday that he had “never heard of” such an incident, but did not rule it out. He promised the agency would check its records next week to look for details.

James Squires, a Perot spokesman in Dallas, said he could provide no further details, and that Perot himself was not immediately available for elaboration. “You’ve got me at a total loss,” Squires said.

Perot has referred in earlier interviews to a feeling that his life had been threatened because of his activities on behalf of American interests around the world. These activities included a 1979 operation to rescue two EDS employees held in revolutionary Iran, as well as the POW campaign.

Perot’s security-consciousness is evident at his offices in a suburban North Dallas office building. His company is not listed in the first-floor office index; the office’s security features include mirrored doors.

Perot became a hero to many Americans with his Chistmas Eve flight to North Vietnam. The medicine and food did not reach the POWs but some POW-MIA activists say the flight improved the Vietnamese treatment of their American prisoners. The flight was the beginning of a sustained effort by Perot to contact White House aides to pass along information and ideas on how to help the POWs, and to urge officials to work harder on the POWs’ behalf.

Perot’s contacts with the White House recently became an issue with publicity about several internal memos that suggested Perot sometimes used his White House contacts for his own benefit, as well as the POWs’.

But Perot suggested in the interview that the White House was trying to exploit him, rather than the other way around.

“They used me, and I was happy to be used on the POW project,” Perot said.

Perot said a recent series of news stories critically examining his past have not hurt but helped his popularity with voters.

Correspondence publicized in the past several days showed Perot’s father wrote letters to Texas Sens. Lyndon B. Johnson and Price Daniel in 1955 to find out if Perot’s stint in the Navy could be ended after two years.

Such stories “typically produce a huge surge of volunteers,” Perot said. “So I guess I should get up every morning and say, ‘Hit me, please.’ ”

Perot said last week that he would spend much time in the next two months preparing position papers on a number of issues. But in the interview, Perot said many of his supporters did not care if he detailed his policy views.

Referring to his campaign telephone banks, he said, “The switchboard just went into overload, saying, ‘What are you wasting time working on issues for? We’re interested in your principles, and you are making your principles very clear.’ ”

Meanwhile, John B. Connally, the former Texas governor and U.S. Treasury secretary, said in Houston that he has given Perot political advice, and he is likely to support Perot if he runs. Connally predicted the public’s disaffection makes it likely Perot will win.

Lee A. Iacocca, the retiring chairman of Chrysler, disclosed this week that he, too, had talked with Perot. He declined to discuss the content of those conversations.

Perot also Friday filed with the Federal Election Commission a 136-page document spelling out his assets, and those of his wife. The document, which was not immediately released by the agency, showed his wealth at $3.3 billion, his campaign said.

Earlier estimates have put Perot’s wealth at between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion.