Nguyen Cao Ky Liquor Store

Nguyen Cao Ky, who served as prime minister of South Vietnam in the mid-1960s, fled his country after its defeat in 1975 and eventually settled in Orange County, California, where he opened and ran a liquor store. Once a flamboyant wartime leader at the center of Saigon politics, he spent his later years quietly behind the counter selling bottles and lottery tickets to local customers. His modest life in the United States became a striking footnote to the distant war he had once helped to lead.

Previous Fact Next Fact