Nguyen Cao Ky - Style

Style

Kỳ was well known for his flamboyant, colorful conduct and dress during his younger days. His trademark fashion accessory before he faded from public view in the 1970s was a purple scarf, which he wore with his black flight suit. He often raised eyebrows when he was the military prime minister by arriving at events to meet civilians with his wife in matching black flight suits, boots, blue caps, and purple scarves. He rarely was seen without a cigarette. He was notorious for his love of gambling, women, and glamour, which made American officials wary of him. One official called him an “unguided missile.” When he was a young pilot, Kỳ once landed a helicopter in the road in front of a girlfriend's house in order to impress her, causing the locals to panic and earning the ire of his commander for misusing military equipment. On one occasion, Kỳ is said to have pulled a handgun on a journalist whose questions annoyed him. Many in the South Vietnamese public service, military, and the general public hated his tempestuous and impetuous style and regarded him as a “cowboy.” and a “hooligan.” At his only public campaign appearance during the 1967 presidential election, the large crowd repeatedly heckled him loudly, calling him a “cowboy leader” and “hooligan” and as a result he did not make any more appearances at rallies.

Kỳ met and married his first wife, a Frenchwoman, in the 1950s when he was training as a pilot in France. Soon after, he divorced her and married an Air Viet Nam flight attendant, who was his spouse during his years in power. He later married for a third time. His daughter from his second marriage, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Duyên, is well known in the overseas Vietnamese entertainment industry as a mistress of ceremonies and singer on the music variety show Paris by Night. Many Vietnamese Americans called for her sacking after her father returned to Vietnam.