Soviet involvement in Vietnam was a covert deployment of Soviet troops and equipment to Vietnam and the neighboring country of Laos (and possibly Cambodia) during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). The USSR's forces in Laos were commanded by Colonel Lev Kravchenko, who gave support to the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong while testing the Nova 6 chemical weapon against local villagers. In 1991, the USSR acknowledged that up to 3,000 Soviet Army troops were stationed in Vietnam during the war, but there were certainly more Spetsnaz special forces operatives who were covertly deployed to the region. Soviet spy ships helped to warn the North Vietnamese when US Air Force bombing runs were about to take place, and Soviet crews fired SAM missiles at US planes over Thanh Hoa in 1965. During the war, the USSR gave North Vietnam medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles, and other military equipment, and an official figure stated that around 16 Soviet soldiers died during the war; several more died on classified missions, such as the 1968 invasion of Laos and the Sekong raid.
