ABC7 News interviewed Ly Tong in 2008 during his hunger strike to protest plans to rename San Jose's Little Saigon.
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Tong flew for South Vietnam's Air Force, fighting alongside Americans, during the Vietnam War.
A Vietnamese-language newspaper reports he's been in a coma in San Diego since Tuesday. Tong is suffering from lung failure.
Many Vietnamese refugees consider Tong to be a freedom fighter.
Tong gained fame for a series of stunts to oppose communism in his native Vietnam and other places around the world.
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During the war, Tong escaped from North Vietnamese captors after being shot down in his fighter plane.
In 1992, Tong hijacked a plane in Thailand and ordered its pilot to fly over Vietnam.
Tong then dropped 50,000 fliers urging the overthrow of Vietnam's government.
He also flew a small plane over Cuba in 2000 to distribute political newspapers.