Major General (Thiếu Tướng) Nguyễn Cao Kỳ was a career officer in the Republic of Viet Nam (South Vietnam) Air Force, which he joined in 1949 and eventually rose to command, until his retirement from active service in 1971. He was one of the many Vietnamese military officers who were involved in politics during the 1960s & 1970s, serving as Prime Minister from June 19, 1965 to October 31, 1967. After the elections held when the new constitution went into effect, he served as Vice President under President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, who was also a military officer. In 1971, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ resigned the Vice Presidency in order to run against Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in the upcoming election, but ultimately pulled out of the race along with all the other candidates when it became clear the elections would be rigged. On the morning of April 30, 1975, when Saigon fell to the communists, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ loaded his personal helicopter with Lieutenant General Ngô Quang Trưởng and several others, and flew out over the South China Sea in search of the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, which was stationed just over the horizon off the Vietnamese coast as part of Operation Frequent Wind. After landing the aircraft on a U.S. Navy ship, he went to the U.S. as a refugee, ultimately settling in California. In 2004 Nguyễn Cao Kỳ became the first former political leader of the Republic of Viet Nam to return to his native country. In what was considered by many a controversial gesture, he called for reconciliation between Vietnamese of all political orientations, both inside Viet Nam and in the diaspora.