Vietnam War

====Soviet Union====
{{Hatnote|For further reading, see [[Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union]]}}
{{split section|Soviet Union and the Vietnam War|date=May 2023}}
[[File:Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon talks in 1973.png|thumb|[[Leonid Brezhnev]] (left) was the Soviet Union's [[Leaders of the Soviet Union|leader]] during the Vietnam War.]]
[[File:Учителя и ученики. Фото, сделанное весной 1965 г. в зенитно-ракетном учебном центре во Вьетнаме.jpg|thumb|Soviet anti-air instructors and North Vietnamese crewmen in the spring of 1965 at an anti-aircraft training center in Vietnam]]

The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. Soviet crews fired Soviet-made [[surface-to-air missile]]s at U.S. aircraft in 1965.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Russians Acknowledge a Combat Role in Vietnam|date=14 April 1989|page=13|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/world/russians-acknowledge-a-combat-role-in-vietnam.html#:~:text=Soviet%20soldiers%20sent%20to%20the,Soviet%20Army%20newspaper%20reported%20today|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114837/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/world/russians-acknowledge-a-combat-role-in-vietnam.html|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref> Over a dozen Soviet soldiers died in this conflict. Following the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991, [[Russia|Russian Federation]] officials acknowledged that the USSR had stationed up to 3,000 troops in Vietnam during the war.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Soviet Involvement in the Vietnam War |publisher=historicaltextarchive.com |agency=Associated Press |url=http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=180|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222024941/http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=180|archive-date=February 22, 2012}}</ref>

According to Russian sources, between 1953 and 1991, the hardware donated by the Soviet Union included: 2,000 tanks; 1,700 [[Armoured personnel carrier|APCs]]; 7,000 artillery guns; over 5,000 anti-aircraft guns; 158 surface-to-air missile launchers; and 120 helicopters. In total, the Soviets sent North Vietnam annual arms shipments worth $450&nbsp;million.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sarin |first1=Oleg |url=https://archive.org/details/alienwarssovietu00sari |title=Alien Wars: The Soviet Union's Aggressions Against the World, 1919 to 1989 |last2=Dvoretsky |first2=Lev |publisher=Presidio Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-89141-421-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/alienwarssovietu00sari/page/93 93–4] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Hastings" />{{Rp|364–371}} From July 1965 to the end of 1974, fighting in Vietnam was observed by some 6,500 officers and generals, as well as more than 4,500 soldiers and sergeants of the [[Soviet Armed Forces]], amounting to roughly 11,000 military personnel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Soviet rocketeer: After our arrival in Vietnam, American pilots refused to fly |url=http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/01/29/3985810.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117082418/http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/01/29/3985810.html |archive-date=17 January 2013 |access-date=26 May 2010 |publisher=rus.ruvr |language=ru}}</ref> The [[KGB]] had also helped develop the [[signals intelligence]] capabilities of the North Vietnamese, through an operation known as Vostok (named after the [[Vostok 1]]).<ref name="MP">{{Cite web |last=Pribbenow |first=Merle |date=December 2014 |title=The Soviet-Vietnamese Intelligence Relationship during the Vietnam War: Cooperation and Conflict |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_Working_Paper_73_Soviet-Vietnamese_Intelligence_Relationship_Vietnam_War_0.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412060039/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_Working_Paper_73_Soviet-Vietnamese_Intelligence_Relationship_Vietnam_War_0.pdf |archive-date=12 April 2019 |access-date=1 June 2018}}</ref>