bro, it is an undeniable fact: there were more vietnamese aces than the of US airforce, despite American superior air power.
Vietnamese Aces - MiG-17 and MiG-21 pilots
but you are right. vietnamese pilots today should not have problem to handle the chinese airforce.
This is where your ignorance about military affairs is revealing, and I say 'ignorance' kindly.
In order to have 'aces', there must be available enemy fighters. In the air war over Viet Nam, how many North Vietnamese fighters versus how many US fighters ? The undeniable fact here is that there was a lopsided availability of air combatants: There were more US fighters -- vastly more -- than there were North Vietnamese fighters. Further, US pilots were in country for only one yr before they are sent home. So given the lack of available North Vietnamese fighters and the short time US pilots were in country, it is no surprise that there would be less US aces than their North Vietnamese opponents.
Here are the truth from Operation Bolo:
- The North Vietnamese pilots were used to attacking heavily laden fighter-bombers, not fighters.
- The North Vietnamese pilots used hit and run tactic and once a few US fighter-bombers were hit, the rest would naturally dump their bombs so they could maneuver to defend themselves. By causing the fighter-bombers to dump their bombs, the North Vietnamese pilots accomplished their mission, so they left. There were no Hollywood style 'Top Gun' dogfighting like you imagined there were in order to exalt the North Vietnamese pilots and exaggerate their airmanship.
- But once the North Vietnamese pilots encountered real fighters like in Operation Bolo, the NVAF lost half of its MIG-21 fleet in that single day. The NVAF then grounded the rest of its MIG-21 for months in order to reevaluate its tactics.
- After Operation Bolo, the NVAF never regained its previous rate of shooting down US fighter-bombers simply because there were less MIG-21s and the North Vietnamese pilots became more cautious.
You got suckered by that 'aces' quantity. You need to believe the myth.