A pair of Lavochkin S75 Dvina SAMs of the sort provided to the Vietnam People’s Army to defend against American air strikes against Vietnamese urban areas. This type of missile brought down the U2 of Gary Francis Powers (ending American overflights of the USSR) and the Egyptians used it to great effect in 1973, inflicting major losses on the Heyl HaAvir LeYisra’el.
Editor’s Foreword:
Victory Day is a kind of “Veterans’ Day” in Russia, so, here is the story of a Russian veteran of the Vietnam War. Yes, Virginia, Russians took part in the Korean War, and in the Vietnam War, too. In the first, they and the Chinese fought the Americans to a stalemate. In the second, Russians helped Vietnam to withstand everything that America threw at it, and they went on to win.
BMD
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There were thousands of them… but officially, they were not there at all. The participation of Soviet military personnel in the Vietnam War was a secret. Voice of Russia World Service managed to interview one of the men who defended Vietnam from American air raids.
On 30 January, it’s the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Vietnam. One of the brightest pages in the history of relations between the two countries was our military assistance to Vietnam during their war against American aggression in the 1960s and 70s. VOR interviewed a veteran who was deeply involved in the events of the Vietnam War. We spoke to Nikolai Kolesnik, the chairman of an interregional public organisation representing Russian veterans of the Vietnam War, mainly missile troops of the PVO, who participated in the battles against the US Air Force from 1965 onwards.
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Nikolai Kolesnik:
Soviet military aid [to Vietnam] was generous and comprehensive. In monetary terms, it amounted to about two million dollars a day for the duration of the war. We delivered much military materiel to Vietnam. To cite just a few figures, we sent 2,000 tanks, 7,000 guns and mortars, over 5,000 anti-aircraft guns and installations, 158 surface-to-air missile systems, more than 700 combat aircraft, 120 helicopters, and more than 100 naval vessels. All of these supplies were given free of charge. We trained the Vietnamese so that they could use this gear to the utmost of its capability. To do this, Soviet military specialists went to Vietnam. From July 1965 to the end of 1974, some 6,500 officers, as well as more than 4,500 soldiers and NCOs of the Soviet Armed Forces fought in the Vietnam War. In addition, more than 10,000 Vietnamese soldiers went to military schools and academies of the USSR for specialised training.
Voice of Russia:
Some say that the USSR sent obsolescent equipment to Vietnam.
MiG-21 of the Vietnam People’s Army Air Force (ironically, now in the collection of the USAF museum in Ohio)
Kolesnik:
At the time, it was the most up-top-date stuff we had. For example, we sent them MiG-21 jet fighters, Vietnamese pilots flying them shot down F-105 attack planes and B-52 bombers. In all, during the war years, fighters of the Vietnam People’s Army Air Force destroyed 350 enemy aircraft. Vietnamese losses were much smaller, 145 aircraft. The history of the VPAAF includes [six] air aces that shot down 7 to 9 American planes. At the same time, the most successful US pilot in the Vietnam War, DeBellevue, won only six aerial victories. During the war, we delivered Dvina SAM systems that were capable of hitting targets flying as high as 25,000 metres (82,021 feet). At the time, an American magazine, The Journal of Military Technology, stated, “This is the most lethal ground-launched weapon for anti-aircraft use”.
Vietnamese SAM units, which were established and trained by Soviet specialists, shot down over 1,300 American aircraft, including 54 B-52 strategic bombers. Each of these bombers could carry 25 tons of bombs, which could destroy all the buildings on a square equal in size to thirty football pitches and kill everyone there. The Americans flew air strikes against the Ho Chi Minh Trail and urban targets in North Vietnam, flying at a height inaccessible to anti-aircraft guns. After our first victories, they sharply reduced their operational altitude to avoid our missiles, but that meant that they came within range of anti-aircraft artillery. After the appearance of Soviet SAMs, it’s said that US military pilots refused to fly bombing missions over North Vietnam. Their high command had to take urgent action, including raising the payment for each sortie and sending out more replacement crews to the combat zone. During the first battles, Soviet crews operated the SAMs, but the Vietnamese learned from this experience. On 24 July 1965, the first Soviet SAM was fired over the skies of Vietnam. Four American Phantom fighter-bombers were flying to Hanoi, at a height above the effective range of Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns. Soviet crews launched SAMs at these aircraft. Three out of the four planes were shot down. Ever since that day, the date of this victory has been celebrated each year in Vietnam as the Day of the Missile Forces.
US A4C Skyhawk shot down by VPAAF fighter aircraft
VOR:
Do you remember your first time in action? What happened then?
Kolesnik:
It was 11 August 1965. On that day, we were on combat alert 18 times. No matter what we did, nothing worked. Finally, late that night, three of our SAM sites shot down four enemy planes. If you count all the units of First and Third Vietnamese SAM Air Defence Regiments in that battle, in which I participated, we shot down 15 enemy aircraft.
VOR:
Certainly, the Americans must have hunted down your missile sites?
Kolesnik:
Yes. We had to change our location after every battle. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have survived, as the Americans immediately launched missile and bomb strikes on any identified position of our SAM sites. To prevent us from using our equipment, the Americans used radar interference missiles such as the Shrike. Needless to say, our military engineers responded and improved our SAMs.
VOR:
Personally, did you ever see any American pilot POWs?
Kolesnik:
No, I never saw any POWs myself. You see, our presence in Vietnam wasn’t publicised. Suffice it to say, during our entire tour of duty, we were in civvies, without any personal weapons, and even without any documents. They were kept in our embassy.
American F4C (?) Phantom destroyed by a SAM over Vietnam
VOR:
When they told you that you were going to Vietnam, what did you say at home?
Kolesnik:
I served in a PVO regiment based near Moscow. The regimental commander announced that we were going to go on a mission to a country with “a hot tropical climate”. They left it open that anyone who didn’t want to go could apply for a transfer. I talked about it with the folks at home.
VOR:
What most impressed you, as a young guy, in the first place?
Kolesnik:
Everything amazed me, the unusual scenery, people, climate, and, of course, my first experience of being bombed. In fact, Moscow ordered us to focus on the education and training of the Vietnamese crews. We had to train them right in the combat positions, during the daily and unceasing US air raids. However, the Vietnamese are very tenacious people, and they learned very quickly. Of course, I learned basic commands and terms in Vietnamese.
VOR:
What was most difficult thing for you?
Kolesnik:
I’d say it was the unbearable heat and high humidity. For example, after spending 40 minutes refuelling rocket oxidant in a special suit, I lost nearly a kilo of weight.
VOR:
Do the Vietnamese young people remember the war? How do they treat the Soviet veterans such as you?
Kolesnik:
The Vietnamese treat the veterans of that war with great respect. We remember the hard realities of war and our general victory. A younger, more pragmatic, generation asked us with interest about those battles, and they asked about the details of the war, which were unknown to them.
VOR:
Today, many in our country have a very sceptical attitude towards the participation of the Soviet Union in foreign conflicts. What stands out the most for you about your service in the Vietnam War?
Kolesnik:
For me, those battles remain the most vivid events in my life. My comrades, both Soviet and Vietnamese, participated in historic events, and we forged victory in the most literal sense. I am proud that I helped the Vietnamese people to fight for their independence and that I took part in the creation of the SAM Air Defence force in Vietnam.
29 January 2010
Voice of Russia World Service
Voices from Russia 
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