> In Vietnam, Soviet troops helped manned SAM batteries and were advisors They also provided hundreds of MiG-21s, trained ~40 pilots/yr in the USSR, and,as you

> In Vietnam, Soviet troops helped manned SAM batteries and were advisors They also provided hundreds of MiG-21s, trained ~40 pilots/yr in the USSR, and,as you say, trained North Vietnamese pilots in-country[4][5]. But their direct involvement was minimal compared to the Chinese. China gave the North Vietnamese dozens of MiG-17s[0] and MiG-19 variants and instructors[4], provided air surveillance information directly to Hanoi's Air Situation Center beginning in 1964[1], rotated "over 300,000" troops (180,000 in country at peak[4]) and technical experts through North Vietnam during the war[2], many of them directly manning AAA batteries, and acted as a "safe zone" for North Vietnamese pilots to avoid American attacks[3]. Interestingly, while both the Soviets and the Chinese avoided flying combat missions directly, but the North Koreans were eager to jump into combat. However, it didn't go very well for them... they lost 3 Mig-17s in the first two engagements (against zero American losses), and then four more in the next two. They upgraded to Mig-21s and had more success, downing an F-105, an F-4C, and an F-4D while losing only one MiG-21. But they left in 1969 and don't seem to have played any sort of major role[5]. [0]: Spartans in Darkness: American SIGINT and the Indochina War, 1945 - 1975, p. 240. https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/cryptologic-histories/spartans_in_darkness.pdf https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/decla... [1]: Ibid, p. 236 [2]: Ibid, p. 246 [3]: Ibid, p. 252 [4]: Ibid, p. 261 [5]: Ibid, p. 262