North Vietnam: "White Guys" in Combat WERE Soviets
This is part of a large partial group to a career "advisor" officer of Soviet ground forces who retired as a Colonel. He was born about 1938, and served from the late 1950s to the late 1980s in a variety of places where we knew--but never officially "admitted" that there were Soviet military personnel. I assume, since this group was for sale back at the end of last year, that Colonel Vozhachenko is deceased.
Just in case the FSB or the GRU would like to know, NO official secrets were betrayed by any member of the Colonel's family. Information is derived solely from his award documents themselves. His bizarre Presidium issued 1988 Armed Forces Jubilee Medal document is an example of paranoid secrecy shouting "look at me!"
{{image lost due to image hosting site change: see below in thread March 7, 2003 RL}}
This is an award document for the North Vietnamese "Feat of Arms" Order 1st Class, given solely for heroism IN COMBAT. Issued by decree #289 of 19 October 1989, it came with an embarassingly tawdry decoration of the 3rd type. The award citation calls him "Soviet specialist" and states "For having already publicly helped the people of Viet Nam in the matter of professionally constructing army troops, strengthening national defense."
Leaving aside the Communist double-speak of "publicly," mere training or rear area duty would have gotten Vozhachenko either the NVN Friendship Order or Decoration. (I have a matched pair of Soviet and NVN documents for a 1966 award, to another "specialist.") Unless the statutes for award of this flimsy but supposedly exalted award were seriously distorted, the "already" in the text must indicate a late bestowal DELAYED for SECURITY reasons--not atypical with "undercover" Soviet military operations.
Although the North Vietnamese fought against South Viet Nam until 1975, then had a brief but nasty border war with their erstwhile Red Chinese allies in 1979, then had their very own "Viet Nam" in the jungles of Cambodia through the 1980s, the ONLY service for which a Soviet military presence was recognized ("Warrior Internationalist" badge statutes) was for the period 1 July 1965-31 December 1974, during US and UN involvement in the war. Just as with the Korean War, the supposed "Cold" War was only kept from being "hot" by official U.S. "blindness" and unwillingness to state the obvious military reality for dubious political ends.
From the internal evidence of Vozhachenko's documents, he was involved in combat in Viet Nam sometime after February 1968. He later served in either Angola or Ethiopia before being decorated for the early stages of the war in Afghanistan. He was still involved in undercover military operations in late 1989-- a loyal "secret" servant of what Ronald Reagan called "the Evil Empire."
It is with profound relief that we all hope that the removal of expansionist Communist ideology will restore the traditional and natural friendship between Americans and all the citizens of the former Soviet Republics.
My thanks to "comrade" Mark Schroeder for making posting this scan possible.
Just in case the FSB or the GRU would like to know, NO official secrets were betrayed by any member of the Colonel's family. Information is derived solely from his award documents themselves. His bizarre Presidium issued 1988 Armed Forces Jubilee Medal document is an example of paranoid secrecy shouting "look at me!"
{{image lost due to image hosting site change: see below in thread March 7, 2003 RL}}
This is an award document for the North Vietnamese "Feat of Arms" Order 1st Class, given solely for heroism IN COMBAT. Issued by decree #289 of 19 October 1989, it came with an embarassingly tawdry decoration of the 3rd type. The award citation calls him "Soviet specialist" and states "For having already publicly helped the people of Viet Nam in the matter of professionally constructing army troops, strengthening national defense."
Leaving aside the Communist double-speak of "publicly," mere training or rear area duty would have gotten Vozhachenko either the NVN Friendship Order or Decoration. (I have a matched pair of Soviet and NVN documents for a 1966 award, to another "specialist.") Unless the statutes for award of this flimsy but supposedly exalted award were seriously distorted, the "already" in the text must indicate a late bestowal DELAYED for SECURITY reasons--not atypical with "undercover" Soviet military operations.
Although the North Vietnamese fought against South Viet Nam until 1975, then had a brief but nasty border war with their erstwhile Red Chinese allies in 1979, then had their very own "Viet Nam" in the jungles of Cambodia through the 1980s, the ONLY service for which a Soviet military presence was recognized ("Warrior Internationalist" badge statutes) was for the period 1 July 1965-31 December 1974, during US and UN involvement in the war. Just as with the Korean War, the supposed "Cold" War was only kept from being "hot" by official U.S. "blindness" and unwillingness to state the obvious military reality for dubious political ends.
From the internal evidence of Vozhachenko's documents, he was involved in combat in Viet Nam sometime after February 1968. He later served in either Angola or Ethiopia before being decorated for the early stages of the war in Afghanistan. He was still involved in undercover military operations in late 1989-- a loyal "secret" servant of what Ronald Reagan called "the Evil Empire."
It is with profound relief that we all hope that the removal of expansionist Communist ideology will restore the traditional and natural friendship between Americans and all the citizens of the former Soviet Republics.
My thanks to "comrade" Mark Schroeder for making posting this scan possible.
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