On a recent trip to Israel, I had an opportunity to visit a Soviet-built Syrian base in the Golan Heights. Amid the stone and concrete fortifications, my guide explained that during the 1967 Six-Day War, many of the Arab armies had panicked and abandoned their posts. They left their Soviet-supplied equipment behind.

Consequently, the Israelis were able to capture the most state-of-the-art Soviet military technology intact — the very same equipment that American soldiers were facing in Vietnam. And Israel was more than happy to share what they had with the United States.