Scope and Contents

70 cassette tapes containing recorded phone conversations, lectures, and news programs dated 1967 through 1978. The tapes were recorded by Murphy Martin, who was an ABC news anchor in Dallas, Texas before he began working for H. Ross Perot in 1969, where he served as the president of United We Stand, a non profit organization created by Perot to help the POWs of the Vietnam War. During the war, Perot and Martin worked behind the scenes to try and get letters, packages, food and clothing to the POWs in the prison camps. They also sent POW/MIA families to Paris on several occasions to talk to North Vietnamese officials to get information about their family members. Many of the discussions on the tapes show Perot and Martin’s efforts to free the POWs through various behind the scenes methods. They sent various agents around the world talking to government officials in Stockholm, Madrid, Cambodia, Bangkok, Paris, etc. to try and get an audience with North Vietnamese officials to negotiate the return of the American POWs, offering money, aid, food, equipment and training as incentives to release the prisoners. They also tried to contract several entities to rescue the POWs from the camps. After the war, the cassettes cover Perot and Murphy’s efforts to honor General Robbie Risner during his retirement from the military.

The personalities mentioned or recorded on the cassettes include: Murphy Martin, H. Ross Perot, Tom Meurer, Diana O’Grady (wife of John F. O’Grady), Mai Van Bo, Ken Sweeney (brother to Sergeant Jon M. Sweeney), Jeannie G. Schrump (wife of Raymond C. Schrump), Pop Buell, Cora Weiss (Committee of Liaison with Families of Servicemen Detained in North Vietnam), Noam Chomsky, Dick Fernandez, Douglas Dowd, Douglas Hegbahl, Dr. Ralph Chandler, Admiral Ira E. McMillian, Le Duc Tho, General Robbie Risner

Biographical / Historical

Murphy Martin was a longtime television and radio personality and former ABC-TV Anchorman. Murphy began his broadcasting career in his native town of Lufkin, Texas and was anchorman at WFAA-TV in Dallas before moving in 1963 to the ABC-TV late night news slot in New York. While at ABC, he co-anchored radio network coverage of both the Democratic and Republican National political conventions in 1964. In 1969, he took a three year leave from radio and television news and began serving as president of United We Stand formed by Ross Perot. He traveled worldwide in search of information about POW-MIA serviceman. He formed a Communications Consulting firm in Dallas. It was about this time that he also began serving as the stadium voice for the Dallas Cowboys, handling pre-game and half-time announcing chores. Later he became the sole announcer for Cowboy games in Texas Stadium until he retired in 1998. In 1992, Perot hired him as a Media-Advisor for his Presidential Campaign. He also did extensive work for EDS from 1969 through 1995. In 2003, Murphy's book, Front Row Seat was published covering the four decades that changed America, as he saw it as a journalist. He passed away in 2008.

Information for this note was taken from his Dallas Morning News obituairy.https://obits.dallasnews.com/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/obituary.aspx?n=murphy-martin&pid=112861572