Editing Rudy Perpich (section)

==Colorful behavior and international goals==
Perpich had a reputation for colorful behavior. At one point while governor, he donated his $25,000 pay raise to help promote [[bocce]].<ref>1978-04-26. Kinney requests bocce balls. Duluth News Tribune, 5B</ref> He also pitched an idea for a [[chopstick]] factory to be built in northern Minnesota, and proposed selling the [[Minnesota Governor's Mansion|governor's mansion]] in Saint Paul as a cost-saving measure.

''[[Newsweek]]'' brought Perpich national attention by bestowing on him the nickname "Governor Goofy", crystallizing the combination of affection and resentment his habits elicited.<ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/1990/06/17/bad-manners-in-minnesota.html Newsweek – June 17, 1990: "Bad Manners In Minnesota"]</ref> During his last years in office, commentators wondered whether he would shoot to stardom as a [[POTUS|presidential]] hopeful or, as governor, sour Minnesota voters on the DFL party with questionable public relations. But Perpich's activist vision of the governor's role was later cited as an important contribution to the Minnesota economy, even by such unlikely admirers as his 1990 rival and successor [[Arne Carlson]], who said in 2005 that Perpich "was the first person that I was aware of to focus on the international role that states are going to have to play."

Perpich's legacy of projects in Minnesota include the [[Wells Fargo Place|Minnesota World Trade Center]] in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|Saint Paul]], the [[Perpich Center for Arts Education]] in [[Golden Valley, Minnesota|Golden Valley]], the [[Center for Victims of Torture]] in Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota Duluth [[Natural Resources Research Institute]], and the [[Mall of America]] in [[Bloomington, Minnesota|Bloomington]]. Additionally, he worked to promote Minnesota on the international stage by traveling to 17 countries in 1984, and bringing the foreign leaders [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] of the [[Soviet Union]] and Dr. [[Franjo Tudjman|Franjo Tuđman]] of Croatia to the state in 1990.

Perpich opposed the Reagan [[proxy war]] against [[Nicaragua]] in the 1980s and was one of several governors who objected to sending their [[National Guard of the United States|National Guard]] units to train in U.S. bases in [[Honduras]], where the U.S.-backed [[Contras]] were based. The Contras carried out atrocities in Nicaragua to topple the leftist government there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/why-are-we-in-honduras/Content?oid=871883|title = Why Are We in Honduras?|date = March 10, 1988}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.potowmack.org/|title=Potow Mack|website=Potow Mack}}</ref> Perpich was the plaintiff in the 1990 [[U.S. Supreme Court]] case ''[[Perpich v. Department of Defense]],'' which established that the [[U.S. Department of Defense]] could send state National Guard units overseas over the governor's objection.