Gen. Nguyen Cao Ky (left) and Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu (center) at the first anniversary of their 1965 military coup, a day they made into South Vietnam's Armed Forces Day.

The military coup that ended the last civilian government of South Vietnam was honored by the Costa Mesa City Council at their regular meeting last Tuesday night.

The date, June 19, was the Armed Forces Day of South Vietnam, so named to honor the anniversary of the installation of the military government of the Republic of Vietnam, headed by Gen. Nguyen Cao Ky and Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu.

The previous civilian government was under Head of State Phan Khac Suu and Prime Minister Phan Huy Quat, who had been installed by the military in the first place. In 1965, when the military imposed a new charter in place of the Constitution, Head of State Suu resigned in protest.

That protest didn’t quite work out as planned. Claiming the resignation was voluntary, Generals Ky and Thieu took over the government.

Photo by Nguoi Viet

On June 19, 1965, the new military government was sworn in, with Ky holding real power as Premier and Thieu as figurehead President. (That would later change, when outmaneuvered Ky to gather power into his hands.)

Starting the next year, 1966, the day was named the Armed Forces Day (“Ngày Quân Lực” in Vietnamese). In the top photo above are Ky and Thieu at the 1966 parade honoring the first anniversary of their rule.

And by the way, Ky is now accused by some of being a commie and a turncoat, after he returned to live the rest of his old age in Vietnam.

And in the photo to the left are former members of the South Vietnamese military who came to the Costa Mesa City Council meeting to hear their coup anniversary honored as a Remembrance Day by the council. They may or may not have been involved with the coup, but who probably fondly remember the days when the country was in military hands.

(Photo by Chitose Suzuki, AP)

When the USS Lassen made its official port call to Da Nang, Vietnam, earlier today, it marked the first time that a Vietnamese-American U.S. warship commander came back on Vietnamese shore.

Cmdr. Hung Le (in Vietnamese: Lê Bá Hùng) was just 5 years old when communist forces overran South Vietnam. The commander’s father, himself an officer in the South Vietnamese navy, took his family on a boat and headed out to sea. They were picked up by the USS Barbour County, a tank landing ship of approximately the same size as the destroyer Cmdr. Le now helms.

Cmdr. Le is a native of Huế in central Vietnam. A friend of the family told the Bolsavik that the commander’s grandfather was Lê Bá Hà, ward chief of Phú Cát in the city. The family friend confirmed that the commander comes from the city’s illustrious ”Lê Bá” family.

A few hours before entering Vietnam, Cmdr. Le corresponded by email with a reporter of Nguoi Viet Daily News. (No, not the Bolsavik.) The interview is published here, in Vietnamese.

Some excerpts:

* “I was born in Huế and left Vietnam with my family in 1975. I grew up in northern Viriginia and attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1992.”

* “I am very proud to be an American and also proud of my Vietnamese heritage. As a U.S. Navy Commander, I have the privilege and honor of serving my country as my father đi when he was a commander in the South Vietnamese Navy.”

* “(My father) never pushed me into a naval career.”

* “The U.S. and Vietnam have a growing friendship, and this visit is a tangible symbol of that. I am very pleased to be a part of that growing friendship, as is every member of my crew.”