Actually Gepard, its a fact, the NVAF were just plain scared of the F-104C because of its reputation for speed. The NVAF also liked to hit strike packages on the way out and when they found out the F-104's were covering the egress, they wouldn't launch. Instead of having the 104's go in with the packages they would launch later to cover the egress which didn't require loiter time.
Toryu
I am going to have to disagree with you about the long legs, It had extremely short legs and when the 104's would head back due to low fuel from escorting then strikers, the NVAF would launch against the strikers. To remedy that see above on how they got by that little short leg problem. I can site resources that are much more accurate than that website if you like.