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I'm still unclear on whether or not there is any documented evidence that the North used any form of their air power over the South during the time the Americans were involved.

If you mean tac-air,it never happened. I'm not even sure the north HAD fighter-bombers. They did have fighters though,and they did scramble them early in the war to try and defend the north from bombing attacks. There are two SF guys I know who participated in the very first "Bright Light" insertion into North Viet Nam (within sight of the Hanoi lights)to try to rescue a shot-down pilot,and as they were inserting,one turned to the other and asked him,"What would you do if you saw a MIG now?" When the second one answered "Shit",the first one pointed out a MIG coming after them. The MIG saw their fighter escort though,and ran away.

There were also reports of Soviet helicopters seeing limited use in Laos and Cambodia. Mostly for ferrying advisors and NVA brass,though.

Thanks. That "Bright Light" story reminds me of a few seconds of terror I had. In early 70 I was flying the 24th Corps Arty CG in the tri-border area just south of Khe Sanh near the northern end of the Ashau Valley. He liked to personnaly survey things and this day we were looking at the overnight progress the NVA was making with a spur of the HCM Trail into the South. Later, 175 and 8" rounds would be arriving from places like FSB Barbara southwest of Quang Tri. Out of no where I spotted a 'fast mover' at about our altitude (1500-2000') near the Laotian border and a couple of miles away. The five or so seconds it took to determine it was an F4 tooling through the area made me almost wish I was wearing a diaper.

"If you mean tac-air,it never happened. I'm not even sure the north HAD fighter-bombers. They did have fighters though,and they did scramble them early in the war to try and defend the north from bombing attacks. There are two SF guys I know who participated in the very first "Bright Light" insertion into North Viet Nam (within sight of the Hanoi lights)to try to rescue a shot-down pilot,and as they were inserting,one turned to the other and asked him,"What would you do if you saw a MIG now?" When the second one answered "Shit",the first one pointed out a MIG coming after them. The MIG saw their fighter escort though,and ran away. "

In '67 - '68, the NVN air force had a few Mig 15's, many -17's, a few -19's and a growing number of Mig 21's although they were mostly antiquated versions. But as the late 1960's went on, they received more late model Mig 21's. Nonetheless, the U.S. pilots could usually bust their asses.. no wonder that jerk ran rather than fight.