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How Israel Saved American Lives in Vietnam

(Washington Examiner) Spyridon Mitsotakis - During the 1967 Six-Day War, the Syrian army in the Golan Heights abandoned its posts and left Soviet-supplied equipment behind. Consequently, the Israelis captured state-of-the-art Soviet military technology intact - the very same equipment that American soldiers were facing in Vietnam. Israel captured nine Soviet SA-2 surface-to-air missiles, along with their blueprints and operating instructions. Israel was more than happy to share what they had with the U.S. In 1969, an Israeli commando team crossed the Suez Canal and captured an intact P-12 radar system used in conjunction with the SA-2s. These systems had wreaked havoc on American air operations for years. In 1965, North Vietnam's SA-2 hit-per-launch ratio was 1 to 15. In 1972, the hit-per-launch ratio was 1 to 50. The ability to jam North Vietnamese SAM radars had to have come from somewhere. In 1978, former U.S. Air Force intelligence chief Gen. George Keegan spoke about the intelligence the U.S. gains from Israel: "I could not have procured the intelligence on the Soviet air forces, their combat capabilities, their new weapons, their jamming and their electronics and their SAMs, with five CIAs."
2020-02-25 00:00:00
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