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Migs Over North Vietnam: The Vietnamese People's Air Force in Combat 1965-1975 | 
 enlarge | Author: Roger Boniface
Publisher: Hikoki Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $54.95
Buy New: $39.16
You Save: $15.79 (29%)
New (3) Used (1) from $39.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 399780
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 11.8 x 8.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1902109058
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.704348
EAN: 9781902109053
ASIN: 1902109058
Publication Date: July 15, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Until now, the day-to-day working and opinions of the Vietnamese People's Air Force (VPAF) has remained relatively unknown. For the first time, this book focuses on the pilots and, using rare first-hand accounts and many new photographs, analyzes their fighter operations over North Vietnam between 1965 and 1975.
Frank opinions are voiced on how the North Vietnamese viewed the gradual escalation of the aerial conflict over their country, including details on key operations and VPAF tactics against USAF F-4s, F-105s, F-8s, and B-52s.
Details of the Black Friday Massacre, America's heaviest aerial defeat, are related in the words of Nguyen Van Coc (the highest-scoring pilot of the Vietnam conflict) who tells of his first kill, and Dong Van De, who recalls how he achieved the first-ever double kill over American-flown aircraft, events which have never, until now, been released into the public domain.
Leading VPAF pilots, including Major General Pham Ngoc Lan, discuss their aerial engagements and tactics, and Nguyen Tiem Sam recollects his kills of F-4 Phantoms using only ATOLL air-to-air missiles.
Following exhaustive research, the author reveals much new data, which challenges previous reports. Three kills claimed by Lt. 'Duke' Cunningham, later a U.S. Senator, and the success of Operation Bolo, America's response to the Black Friday Massacre, are discussed. Also for the first time outside Vietnam, details of the Christmas bombings are released, including the controversial first night-fighter kill of a B-52 by Vu Xuan Thieu a fact which the U.S. military has never accepted.
Comprehensive appendices reveal the first complete loss list of all VPAF personnel and a victory table with a breakdown of all known kills and shared kills and types. The book includes 24 intricate profiles of extremely rare aircraft, including the VPAF Soviet-supplied MiG 15, MiG 17F, and Chinese MiG 19 (Shenyang F-6); combined with the text they offer a unique insight into the aerial war from the Vietnamese viewpoint.
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| Customer Reviews:
 In One Word: Disappointing November 2, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I routinely order any titles released by Hokoki Publications as they are usually of exceptional quality and contain new, interesting material for
the Aviation Historian.
This title seriously damages their reputation as it has many typo errors (Example: Page 47 has a nice profile of a Mig 17 which is identified as
being a Mig 21F) and the author's obvious political bias quickly sours the reader's interest.
The serious reader would do well to invest in Osprey Combat Aircraft #25,
"Mig-17 and Mig-19 Units Of The Vietnam War"MiG 17 and MiG 19 Units of the Vietnam War (Osprey Combat Aircraft 25) and the companion title, #29 "Mig-21 Units Of The Vietnam War",MiG-21 Units of the Vietnam War (Osprey Combat Aircraft 29) as these titles present a much more balanced and professional review of this period in history.
I won't be purchasing any more material authored by Mr. Boniface - certainly not any aviation books at this price!
 Interesting But Biased October 5, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
This book provides an interesting, although highly biased, overview of the activities of the North Vientamese People's Air Force from the point of view of the North Vietnamese. There are so many books of the air war over North Vietnam published by American pilots and authors on the subject, but this is the first I've seen written from the viewpoint of the North Vietnamese pilots who flew against the American pilots.
What could have been considered an historically important tome that provides a balanced account of the actions over the North is lost, and spoiled, by the author's obviously strongly anti-American viewpoint. A thrid-person account of the action, the tone of the writing throughout the book is of the kind that one would perhaps expect to find in an anti-American "Yankee Air Pirate" museum in Hanoi.
Throughout the history of air combat, pilots on all sides of air conflicts have been known to exxagerate or misstate the number of aircraft shot down or lost due to the fog of war, high adrenaline of the action, multiple pilots seeing the same action and reporting the incidents as two or more individual actions, records lost over time or not collected at the moment, etc. But author Roger Boniface takes everything that has been told to him by the North Vietnamese at face value. A typical example of this is found on page 73 of this book as follows: "...Major Lodge claims the MiG went down about 50 miles southwest of Ha Noi. The Vietnamese records do not confirm this kill and no pilots were lost in action on that day." There is no qualifying statement here that the records of either side may possibly have been in error, including those of the North Vietnamese. The incident is taken as fact that "....no pilots were lost in action on that day."
There are many, many examples of this kind throughout the entire book. This is not to mention the overall strong feeling upon reading this book that it appears to have been written as an anti-American propaganda piece rather than as a serious, historically-accurate account of the air war over the North as could best be confirmed by the author. There is no attempt to compare any of the NVPAP accounts with those of the American air forces to try to arrive at the truth of really may have happened.
The photographs and aircraft line-drawings in particular throughout the book are excellent, and the access that this author had to the North Vietnamese pilots who flew agains the Americans is truly unprecedented.
This book could have been an extremely important book in the annals of the air war over North Vietnam, contributing a balanced, if opposing view, of many of the air actions that took place. Instead, it's steeped in the wallowing of anti-American sentiment, and, as such, in my opinion, was a big disappointment. I expected much more out of this book than I received in reading it. It's greatest value lies in the superb illustrations of North Vietnamese MiG aircraft in use at the time - and should prove invaluable for the MiG model maker - as well as for the rare photographs of the North Vietnamese pilots who took part in the air war. But it fails miserably in being a truly historical piece as it's overshadowed by its strong and obvious political bent.
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