He Runs Shrimp-Processing Plant in Bayou : Ex-Premier Ky Tries Ruling the Seas

When Nguyen Cao Ky moved to this remote Cajun fishing village, it caused hardly a ripple among folks along Bayou Caillou.

In fact, many of the 3,500 residents didn’t realize that the newcomer was a former general and one-time ruler of South Vietnam.

“We have a lot of Vietnamese in this area and we saw this fellow as just another Vietnamese fisherman,” said volunteer fireman Sonny Parfait. “Tell you the truth, I myself didn’t know who he was, until you say so.”

Parfait, who is also Dulac’s constable, said Ky--South Vietnam’s premier from 1965 to 1968--can be seen around town almost any day as he goes about the business of running the shrimp-processing plant he leased in May.

“Everybody seems to like him all right,” Parfait said. “At least I haven’t heard any complaints, and his plant is providing jobs for local people.”

One of those people, Jean Fairchild of nearby Houma, acknowledged that she had some reservations about staying on as a secretary when Ky took over the then-failing processing plant.

“I decided to give him a chance. I had no idea what to expect, working for a Vietnamese, but it has turned out very well. He’s a good boss, and I’m not just saying that, either.”

Next door in his paneled office, the slender, dark-haired president of Southern Gulf Seafood Processors Inc. quietly acknowledged that he has worked hard to fit in here. Dulac is located 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, deep in the heart of Cajun country where alligators prowl dark bayou waters and strangers are often regarded with suspicion by the locals, who speak a distinctive Cajun patois.

Ky doesn’t dwell on the days when, he says, he had “absolute power” as premier. “I was a soldier and a politician. Now I am a businessman and a fisherman. When I’m with Vietnamese fishermen now, I think they see me now as a fisherman, instead of as a fighter pilot who used to be their premier.”

Ky, who looks much younger than his 59 years, usually wears jeans, sneakers and a sports shirt and limits his socializing outside the Vietnamese community to an occasional game of tennis.

He hires local workers.

“Seven of our eight full-time employees are local Americans. And our part-time packing crew is largely made up of local residents,” he said.

“It’s only fair. Employment opportunities are very scarce in this area and it wouldn’t have been right not to have given the local people the first chance at these jobs.”

Ky buys most of his shrimp from the Vietnamese fishermen who ply the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Texas. It was they who brought Ky to Louisiana two years ago, after his Southern California liquor store went bankrupt.

“I was traveling around the country, visiting Vietnamese refugees,” he said. “I came down here and got interested in the fishing industry. I found I liked it and decided maybe I could make a living and also help my people.”

Ky said he thinks the Vietnamese, now thought to make up more than 60% of the shrimpers in the Gulf, should form a co-op with the other fishermen. A co-op, he said, would market their catches and help with their business affairs.

“Things are getting more and more complicated for the Vietnamese fishermen,” Ky said. “At first, when they just had small boats, they could keep everything they made from their catch. Now, however, many of them own large boats costing several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“They’re getting more and more like Americans,” he added, smiling. “They’ve got to make $4,000-a-month loan payments to the bank, they’ve got insurance premiums to pay.”