LookAtVietnam – Nguyen Cao Ky, who served as Chief of the Vietnam Air
Force in the 1960s before becoming premier of South Vietnam in mid-1960s, will
be buried in Vietnam, as his wish, according to Tien Phong newspaper.
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Ky was reported dead of respiratory complication on July 23, in Malaysia at the
age of 80.
In an interview with VietNamNet in late 2004, Ky expressed his wish to spend his
last days in Vietnam.
Ky was born in Son Tay province, a town west of Hanoi back then, in 1930. He
served as premier of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1967. He had been commander of
South Vietnam’s air force in 1965 when the US involvement in the Vietnam War
escalated. From 1967 to 1971, he was vice president under Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu.
When Thieu’s government in Saigon collapsed in 1975, Ky and his family fled
Vietnam to the US, where he led a quiet life away from politics.
His controversial visit back to his homeland in 2004 after 29 years in exile.
Since then he returned to Vietnam three times.
His ex-wife Dang Tuyet Mai and his daughter Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen, a renowned MC
in the Vietnamese community in the US, have returned home many times. Tuyet Mai
opened a Vietnamese noodle restaurant in HCM City while Ky Duyen owns a big
coffee shop in Da Nang.
Ky, who married three times, has six children and 14 grandchildren. He had five
children by his first wife, a French woman and had a daughter, Nguyen Cao Ky
Duyen, with the second wife.
Huyen My