 In October 1969, at the urging of Laird, the American Red Cross began "Write Hanoi" campaign, urging the American people to send letters to POWs.In November 1969, at Laird's instigation, the lead story in "Reader's Digest" was about the POWs together with detachable Christmas cards to be mailed to North Vietnam.At the same time, Laird recruited an eccentric Texas millionaire, H. Ross Perot, to start a fundraising campaign to send Christmas presents to the POWs languishing in the "Hanoi Hilton" prison.