Nguyen Cao Ky - Life in Exile

Life in Exile

After the defeat of South Vietnam by North Vietnam, on the last day of the fall of Saigon in 1975, Kỳ left Vietnam aboard the USS Blue Ridge and fled to the United States and settled in Westminster, California, where he ran a liquor store. Kỳ wrote two autobiographies, How We Lost the Vietnam War and Buddha's Child: My Fight to Save Vietnam.

Historian James McAllister openly questioned Kỳ's honesty, saying that Buddha's Child, as Kỳ called himself, “is filled with unverifiable conversations and arguments that do not at all correspond with the historical record. Like his earlier memoir, it is often a self-serving attempt to continue his ongoing feud with the late president Nguyễn Văn Thiệu.” He said “with everything Ky writes about Vietnam . . . skepticism is in order.”

Kỳ made headlines in 2004 by being the first South Vietnamese leader to return to Vietnam after the reunification, a move that was seen as a shameful one by many anticommunist groups in the Vietnamese American community. Kỳ had previously been critical of the Vietnam government while in exile and had been denied a visa on several occasions. Upon setting foot on Vietnam, Kỳ defended his actions by saying that the Vietnam War was “instigated by foreigners, it was brothers killing each other under the arrangements by foreign countries.”

He added, “In another 100 years, the Vietnamese will look back at the war and feel shameful. We should not dwell on it as it will not do any good for Vietnam’s future. My main concern at the moment is Vietnam's position on the world map.” Kỳ said that he only wanted to help build up Vietnam and promote national harmony, and assailed critics of his return, saying that “those who bear grudges only care about themselves.”

Kỳ later returned to Vietnam permanently and campaigned for increased foreign investment. Kỳ was involved in organizing trips to Vietnam for potential U.S. investors.