Word has come from Malaysia that Nguyen Cao Ky, the former president of South Vietnam who spent years in Orange County after the Vietnam War, has passed away.
The story first appeared in the English-language media via Bolsavik, the English-language blog of Nguoi Viet editor Hao-Nhien Vu. He beat the mainstream media by hours, getting confirmation by sources close to Ky's family.
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Ky spent most of his years here in Orange County, owning a home in Huntington Beach, formerly running a Garden Grove liquor store, and largely living life as a revered figure until 2004, when he outraged the refugee community by deciding to travel to Communist Vietnam and live there, urging business ties between the country and its exiles. This didn't sit well with anti-Communist activists, who infamously hung Ky in effigy during many protests in 2007 and beyond.
Services are pending, as are any planned memorial services in Orange County.
