[MB.]

This topic is a spin-off from a Huntster-MB. flame war, but I wondering if anyone (Huntster included) has read or has access to information about the monetary or material quantities supplied to North Vietnam from the Soviet Union throughout the direct American military intervention and the post-war period and the methods of supply.

I will check CIA and DoD documents but my Russian is non existent, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Huntster]

This topic is a spin-off from a Huntster-MB. flame war

I suspect you wouldn't know a flame if it licked your ass.

I wondering if anyone (Huntster included) has read or has access to information about the monetary or material quantities supplied to North Vietnam from the Soviet Union throughout the direct American military intervention and the post-war period and the methods of supply.

I don't believe quantities are available unless it is obtained from Russian records. But it is clear that nearly all munitions (especially the SAMs and MiGs) were of Russian origin. It was originally believed to nearly all came in by air or through Haiphong, but after Haiphong was mined and blockaded, it became clear that lots of small arms, food, and fuel came in to the North through trails from China, so the Sino-Soviet split did not create a shortage of supplies from the two communist giants.

http://www.foia.cia.gov/CPE/ESAU/esau-37.pdf

[MB.]

Thank you for the .pdf file, Huntster.

[Huntster]

You're welcome. Lots of declassified stuff emerging from the era. Indeed, lots of declassified stuff from the WWII era. It has been 55 years since the end of WWII. Fifty years is a magic number for declassifying much info.

[MB.]

The issue of declassification is one of the reasons I'm writing my PhD thesis on the First World War.

I haven't yet checked any databases with regard to material or monetary numbers of Soviet shipments. I will post in this thread with numbers as they emerge or as I find them!

[Huntster]

The issue of declassification is one of the reasons I'm writing my PhD thesis on the First World War.

That would be an interesting thesis. It was an incredible era.

[MB.]

You can read more and comment about it here, I don't want this thread to get off-topic, however.

[Gletkin]

I thought this part was interesting:

All in all, the evidence suggest that throughout the spring of 1965 the DRV vacillated between yielding to Chinese pressure and thus deferring completion and activization of SAM sites until the fall, when North Vietnamese cadres could complete their training in the USSR to operate them, or flouting Chinese wishes and accepting enough Soviet personnel to put the SAMs into operation more promptly. Finally, under the influence of the mounting U.S. bombing, the DRV seems to have opted for the latter course, and prevailed upon Peking to permit a limited quota of Soviet SAM personnel to pass. It was not until 24 July that the SAMs were fired for the first time, by Soviet crews.

The US taking a harder stance (direct widescale military intervention)didn't soften Russia's activities in North Vietnam...it escalated them.

[Political Interest]

Then did the Russians fly all of the arms and supplies in by plane, or did they ship some of them? How did the Chinese feel about the Russians using their airspace or ports to deliver arms to Vietnam?

[MB.]

I would be very interested to know how the supplies reached North Vietnam.

[ingliz]

I would be very interested to know how the supplies reached North Vietnam.

Rail and truck through China and by sea.

Until recently, while the bulk of Soviet aid still arrived by rail and truck via Communist China, each US raid on the Vietnamese roads leading south from the Chinese border gave Peking one more excuse to halt or slow down the Soviet shipments, then to blame the Soviets for the sluggish trickle. Chief among Peking's aims was to force Moscow to increase its seaborne aid and thus cause a US blockade of tbe Soviet sea traffic as well as US raids on the port of Haiphong.

Nevertheless, despite a few angry notes of diplomatic protest, the Soviets are relieved that the United States has not resorted to anything like the stringent sea-and-air measures of the 1962 Cuban crisis, and they continue to increase supplies to North Vietnam by sea

See; Parry, Soviet Aid to Vietnam

[MB.]

Thank you for the information, Ingliz!