At the beginning of the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese People's Air Force
(VPAF) was equipped with slow, old Korean War-generation fighters--a
combination of MiG-17s and MiG-19s, types that should have offered
little opposition to the cutting-edge fighter-bombers such as the F-4
Phantom II, F-105 Thunderchief, and the F-8 Crusader. Yet when the USAF
and US Navy unleashed their aircraft on North Vietnam in 1965, the
inexperienced pilots of the VPAF were able to shatter the illusion of
U.S. air superiority.
Taking advantage of its jet's unequaled low-speed maneuverability, small
size, and powerful cannon armament, the VPAF was able to take the fight
to its missile-guided opponents, with a number of Vietnamese pilots
racking up ace scores. Packed with information previously unavailable in
the West and only recently released from archives in Vietnam, this is
the first major analysis of the exploits of Vietnamese pilots in the
David and Goliath contest with the U.S. over the skies of Vietnam.