Ex-Saigon regime's vice president pledges reconciliation
Almost thirty years after he left the country at the end of a bitter war, an ex-vice president of the old Saigon regime returned home as an overseas Vietnamese and has pledged to act for national reconciliation.
"It's time to put the past behind us, forget the hatred, look towards the future and try for Vietnam to earn a place in the world, ex-general Nguyen Cao Ky said at an interview with the Voice of America on Sunday.
Nguyen Cao Ky was among the 250,000 overseas Vietnamese who returned to Vietnam to welcome the Year of the Monkey. The majority of the overseas Vietnamese, or Viet kieu, as they are called, who came for Tet (lunar New Year), came from France, the US, Germany, Russia, Poland, and Hungary.
Nguyen Cao Ky said he had thought of national reconciliation long ago and that his recent trip to the homeland was a chance for him to carry out his wishes.
He said he went to Vietnam's northern, central and southern regions and was deeply touched at major changes in the country. Authorities in Vietnam have been striving to boost sustainable development and narrow the gap between the rich and the poor,” he said.
He said he planned to return in the future, acting as "a bridge between Vietnamese at home and abroad” and would contribute to helping the poor.
(Vietnam News Agency)
