the CCCP was the world's greatest paper tiger, ever. I'm sure some of the old guys that did big deck emcon right off their coast and flew simulated SIOP strikes will attest to that. They were scared absolutely shitless of CVBGs taking out Vlad, Petr, Sayda Guba and Severodvinsk before they even knew we were there. Maybe USN should start practicing that lost art again.
The Ruskies were always paranoid (perhaps with some reason, given their history). But they were not even remotely a "paper tiger" during the Cold War.
At the time of their breakup, they had nearly 1500 ICBM's, and even more threatening 960 SLBM's that could wipe out every major city in the US several times over, not to mention their massive bomber fleet capabilities.
Without getting into details, they also had a good ability to track battle groups through long-range surveillance aircraft, satellite, subsurface and other assets, despite our long periods of EMCON and other special measures. To be sure, they had a few vulnerabilities, but they were indeed a formidable opponent that could have – as we could they – easily erased us from this earth.
The SAM's in the video also were not "paper tigers" either, as they shot down many of our finest men and equipment despite our countermeasures of the time. Furthermore, they (Russians/North Vietnamese) quickly adapted tactics to counter our countermeasures on a monthly if not weekly basis. It was a quick learning curve on both sides, a cat and mouse game, but it was a valuable RDT&E laboratory for the Soviets with little risk.
Though Soviet equipment had success in Vietnam, it was still with their least sophisticated equipment. They kept the best for the defense of the "Motherland." Vietnam was like single-A or AA- baseball compared to striking the "big league" of the USSR. And we came close to having the balloon go up on more than one occasion, and probably closer than most will ever know.
