WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2004�Former South Vietnamese vice president Nguyen CaoKy says he will return to his native country for the first time since theend of the Vietnam War with a message of reconciliation, Radio Free Asia(RFA) reports.
Ky, now a resident of southern California, said Vietnamese Ambassador toFrance Nguyen Dinh Bin proposed the trip in July 2003. �Bin told me thatnow is the time to put the past behind us, to not make an issue of thepast, and bring Vietnam together for the future,� Ky said in an interview.�And I answered� let�s put the past behind us and bring the countrytogether. And I am ready to accept that. So I will go home and visit myhomeland.�
Former General Nguyen Cao Ky speaks to the 2000 Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. Hanoi on Jan. 8 granted Ky permission to visit in what will be his firsthomecoming since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. Ky will arrive in Ho ChiMinh City on Jan. 14 to visit relatives and friends for the VietnameseLunar New Year, or Tet, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said. Officialsalso said Ky would visit Hanoi and his hometown of Son Tay, approximately40 kms northwest of Hanoi.
�Some overseas people, and even some people in Vietnam are against mygoing home and I don�t know why,� Ky said, referring to anger among someVietnamese that his visit will signal acquiescence to the Communistleadership in Hanoi.
�I know there are people who agree with me and those who oppose mydecision, and I just have to accept that. But I still want to go because Iam thinking for the people. I don�t care about this party or that party, Ijust care about the country.�
�The war ended 30 years ago, but it still divides us into two camps. So Iwant to put aside the past hatred, and just sit together and talk to oneanother face to face. And I believe if everybody loves the country andloves its people, we will sit together as one,� he said.
�If we continue to say �you are a republican� and �you are a communist�and argue, everyone will think we�re ridiculous. If we are talking aboutthe younger generation, they don�t think like us, they don�t carry thesame hatred. And they�re are the ones who are serving the country well,�Ky said.
Ky, 73, led the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government from 1965-67 andserved as vice president from 1967-71. He fled to the United States aftercommunist forces defeated his government in 1975. Ky now writes andlectures in Southern California.
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