June 4, 1992

With opinion polls showing Ross Perot cutting deeply into both Republican and Democratic strength, his embryonic campaign today announced the hiring of two veteran political strategists, one from each party: the engineer of Jimmy Carter's successful run for the White House in 1976, and Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign manager. At a news conference here, the Perot campaign said it was bringing on board Hamilton Jordan, the main strategist behind the only Democratic Presidential victory since 1964, and Edward J. Rollins, who managed Mr. Reagan's landslide re-election.

The Economy A new optimism is taking hold in executive suites across the country. After a steady stream of layoffs last fall and winter, businesses are mapping new hiring and expansion plans. [ D1. ] Some 164,000 more payroll jobs were lost than had previously been thought during the 12 months through February, the Labor Department disclosed. [ D2. ]

Conservative critics were decisively defeated today when the Senate rejected their efforts to reduce proposed Federal spending on public broadcasting by nearly $400 million over three years. By a 75-to-22 vote, Senators rejected a Republican measure to freeze Government financing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which had become enmeshed in a dispute over ideology and sexual expression.

A dollar does not buy much these days -- unless you are in the market for a superbly trained physicist, software designer or materials engineer working in the former Soviet Union. And the opportunity is not being ignored by the masters of capitalism: Last week A.T.& T. and Corning Inc. announced separate deals that would link Russian specialists in glass technology to major producers of fiber-optic cable and other glass materials in the United States.

After going to Hanoi in 1987 to try to free Americans who might have remained in captivity after the Vietnam war, Ross Perot and an associate discussed private business opportunities with top Vietnamese officials, according to a Vietnamese official and Mr. Perot. In a June 1990 letter the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry designated Mr. Perot and his company as a business agent of the Government of Vietnam to help procure American investment after diplomatic and trade relations were normalized, Mr. Perot said today. Those criteria have yet to be met.