Good info Bill. My all time favorite airplane movie "The Hunters" with Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner had F-84s posing as MiGs (I'm sure you've seen it several times).
I love that movie
I heard the same thing about the Crusader, AKA "The Last Gunfighter." Those who flew her loved her and touted that she was the true "MiG Master" of the Vietnam War (her record verifies that).
I can remember a 1968 Aces Convention when Billy Kidd USN and Olds/Titus talking about Crusader versus F4 and how much Olds and Titus envied Kidd.. I think Kidd had two or three MiGs - I can't remember what Titus/Olds scores were at the time.
I have heard from several guys who flew with Olds that swear he had 6 or 7 MiGs in Nam but swore everyone to secrecy because he didn't want to go home.
JoeB might pipe in here but I read a Soviet pilot's critique of the F-84 and in aerial combat he thought it was a good aircraft.