Vietnam War

[Norm Braddock]

I was wondering if there were any confirmed reports of Soviet Spetnaz captured during the Vietnam War?

Thanks,

N

[Commissar]

I don't know if any were captured.
But I do know they sent teams of them down to vietnam to test the SVD sniper rifle on American targets.
There are numerous reports of spetsnaz operatives conducting themselves in and around America and western European allies. (During the cold war)
In fact, the supposed body of a drowned spetsnaz trooper washed up on the shores of Alaska, where months before it was reported that an Alaskan eskimo guard was shot dead after stumbling upon a spetsnaz recon team near a pipe line.
I'm not too sure if these statements are true or not.
It has been said that there has never been a defector to the west from the spetsnaz and they have never captured an operative either; considering that they were pretty much impossible to capture due to their training at the hands of the KGB and the GRU I am not surprised in the least.
But then again if they did capture one of them, do you actually think we would know?

[roy]

I recall a painting of an NVA Regular armed with an AK47 standing beside a Soviet advisor armed with an SVD sniper rifle in a jungle setting. According to the text that went along with the print, the image shown was what the artist and his unit saw when they came around a bend. Both the NVA regular and advisor were eliminated, and allegedly this was the first SVD sniper rifle to be captured by US forces.

[Commissar]

Interesting, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the advisor was a spetsnaz operative...or does it?! *shifty eyes*
...I guess we'll never know for sure..

[desantnik]

Although not definitively labelled "spetsnaz", the US special operation task force Son Tay prisoner raiders reported destroying a barracks type complex in habited by "taller" Vietnamese that many of the US raiders believed to be Soviet advisors.

[Commissar]

Very interesting information.
Im kind of surprised that there wasnt a big hubub about it.

[pastfinder]

I have talked with and gotten to know a former U.S. Air Force general who was a POW in Hanoi from around 1968 to 1973. I asked him about his interrogations (if they were always conducted by Vietnamese) and he noted he was always interrogated by Vietnamese, and never Russians, Chinese, or Cubans. Granted, I never really pressed to hear about his interrogation/torture sessions for good reason. Considering I haven't spoken to him in a year, I need to get off my duff and contact the general.

[Commissar]

Wasnt John McCain in the Hanoi Hilton?
I heard him claim he was either interrogated by the Russians or he was shot down by them, maybe both, but I hear thats the reason he doesn't like them.

[pastfinder]

Originally Posted by Commissar

Wasnt John McCain in the Hanoi Hilton?
I heard him claim he was either interrogated by the Russians or he was shot down by them, maybe both, but I hear thats the reason he doesn't like them.

He was in Hoa Lo Prison. There is a book I have, Honor Bound: American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973, that does not mention, if memory serves me right, any indication that Chinese or Soviet nationals interrogated American POWs. The book does mention two possible Cuban nationals who interrogated POWs beginning in 1967 and ending in 1968.

[Commissar]

Interesting.
I do know for a fact that a Russian advisor shot down McCain using Soviet AA guns during a demonstration for his vietnamese comrades.

English Russia � McCain Shooter

Neat little article.