America would escalate the already strained effects of the Cold War, and believed it would invite retaliation by the Soviet Union. USSR veterans The Soviet Union deployed roughly 4,500 soldiers, technicians, and pilots to Vietnam, surreptitiously, to help turn the war in favour of the North. Whilst their presence was never acknowledged by the USSR or any of her successor nations, Soviet involvement was an open secret. The Soviet Union's policy on the units deployed was to label them "military consultants." This deployment resulted in the development of the North Vietnamese air force, then it was formed against the United States' involvement in the war. From 1975 to 2002, forty-four Soviet servicemen were killed in Vietnam, mainly in aviation accidents. The military collaboration at Cam Ranh Base was continued by the later government of Russia until 2002. Stereotypes There are persistent stereotypes about Vietnam veterans as psychologically devastated, bitter, homeless, drug-addicted people, who had a hard time readjusting to society, primarily because of the uniquely divisive nature of the Vietnam War in the context of U.S. history. That social division has expressed itself by the lack both of public and institutional support for the former servicemen that would be expected by returning combatants of most conflicts in most nations. In a material sense also, veterans benefits for Vietnam-era veterans were dramatically less than those enjoyed after World War II. The Vietnam-Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended, , was meant to try to help the veterans overcome the issues. In 1979, Public Law 96-22 established the first Vet Centers, after a decade of effort by combat vets and others who realized that Vietnam veterans in America and elsewhere (including Australia) were facing specific kinds of readjustment problems, later identified as post-traumatic stress (PTS). In the early days, most Vet Center staffers were Vietnam veterans themselves, many of them combat veterans. Some representatives of organisations, like the Disabled American Veterans, started advocating for combat veterans to receive benefits for their war-related psychological trauma. Some U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital personnel also encouraged the veterans working at the Vet Centers to research and expand treatment options for veterans who were suffering the particular symptoms of the newly recognized syndrome. It was a controversial time, but eventually, the Department of Veterans Affairs opened Vet Centers nationwide. They helped develop many of the debriefing techniques that are now used for traumatized