What is almost never mentioned is the role the Soviet Union played in helping North Vietnam...and the mistaken belief of most people that they never played an active part at all.... Starting in 1964, North Vietnamese fighter pilots and anti-aircraft gunners were being trained in the Soviet Union, with Soviet advisors also being stationed in North Vietnam... Soviet archives opened after the fall of the USSR indicate that these anti-aircraft crews, mainly Ukrainian, served for much of the war... Early on, when the North Vietnamese troops were still unfamiliar with the new Soviet anti-aircraft batteries, Soviet crews manned the guns...