The RVN Navy used American equipment until the RVN's demise at the hands of the DRV in 1975. The RVN account of the battle indicates that the Wikipedia entry may have exaggerated the equipment used by the RVN Navy against PLAN (possibly the result of commentary entered by English-savvy Chinese Wikipedia contributors). PLAN appears to have had the advantage of missile boats (vs the RVN Navy's guns-only ships), as well as air support from bases on Hainan. Bottom line is that China's superior equipment was lined up against the WWII cast-offs that the RVN inherited from the US, at a time when the US was determined to not only abandon its erstwhile ally, but ensure its demise. The battle was lost way back in 1973, when Kissinger arranged for the end of American financial and military aid to RVN, even as the Soviets and the Chinese ramped up aid to the DRV.
Re: The RVN Navy used American equipment until the RVN’s demise at the hands of the DRV in 1975.
Well... The F-5’s and some of the armors left behind was American. But the recollection I have for those frigates was that they are second hand Soviet clunkers just as those of the PRC’s of the day. Both are crude tin foil bath bubs with a Soviet stencil stamped in it that comes attached with limited functionability with one exception: the Chinese had fiddled with theirs and as a result, it conforms to the requirements that the PLA-N had set out. I do not recall any mentioning of air power and/or missiles deployments in that incident. Only guns aboard both navies were used.
Regarding Wikipedia” I never take what’s printed in the site with more than a grain of salt. Wiki is still western by nature and the contents in it still have this smell of western trickery and bad after taste to it. I use my own judgement and I use logic to arrive at a conclusion rather than reading up on what western medias had printed time and time again.
I mean after haviing been force fed these implants of an information, like all the “lose lips sinks ships of this board” who doesn’t have a mind of their own, one starts to live in these tales and in due course, get poisoned and hypnotized by it.