Red Flags is a book that I was interested in because it took place during the time of the Vietnam War. Though it takes place in the war, it is mostly about a drug ring that some US special forces are trying to take down while the war goes on around them. I don't want this to sound as if the war isn't well represented, because I felt as if it was, but there were times when my attention wandered while reading because I didn't quite have enough to hold my mind to the book. I wasn't disappointed, but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting either. What I did get about the war, when we had to take a break from drug hunting, really helped me to experience and understand what it was like to have lived through that time. If I had been in the mood for a focus on drug take down missions I would have enjoyed the book very much, I think. I just couldn't get into that mood while I was reading. Still, this was a good book for me, even if I had different expectations. ( )

"We kill for peace," could be the motto of the US Army.

The story is a nice mix of mystery, espionage, and social criticism. Eric Rider is a CID agent on his second tour of Vietnam who is sent to the Montagnard area to interfere with the flow of money into VC and NVA coffers from the production and sale of drugs. His ostensible cover is that of an intelligence officer sent there to collect information. This provides the perfect mechanism for the author to reveal one of his themes: the ignoble treatment of the Montagnards.

The Montagnards were miserably treated by everyone: the French, the Vietnamese, everyone, but were considered more trustworthy than the South Vietnamese by the U.S., especially the Special Forces, and the Montagnards cooperated, partly because of their hatred for the Vietnamese and partly because of the promises of future independence (unrealistic) made by the Americans. The author clearly has a great deal of empathy for the Montagnards. The scene where Rider assists in the delivery of a breech baby in a Montagnard village is quite extraordinary. That he must later kill the child's father, a VC, makes it all the more poignant.

One very interesting tidbit is that foreign civilian contractors were essentially immune from prosecution for any crimes they might commit. Because Congress had not declared war, they were not subject to military courts or the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and because they were often American citizens they were immune from Vietnamese justice. This situation led to some foreigners taking advantage of smuggling, black marketeering, virtually anything to enrich themselves. NVA camps were found with piles of USAID rice.

American soldiers were often placed in untenable positions, unable to trust the ARVN, who had been fighting foreign invaders for centuries and knew Americans were simply just a more recent variety of invader, nor American contractors and AID employees who were making piles of cash by playing off both sides, not to mention their own superiors who cared more about rotating in and out of combat zones just long enough to accumulate medals and "combat" time to help their careers. Just why many Americans re-upped for second and third tours in Vietnam has puzzled many. Rider and Roberta, a USAID doctor talk about it. "People who don't know who they are," is what the Vietnamese called American soldiers. Normality becomes ill-defined as soldiers returned to a society that didn't value them and was totally unreal compared to the super adrenaline flow overseas.

There's quite a shocking (sorry) scene where Rider happens to see an extra wire running off one of the field telephones in the compound and realizes his phone has been booby-trapped. They discover other electronic devices (tape recorders and such) set to blow up in the user's face. This was retribution by the local ARVN Colonel angry they had interfered with his profitable opium trade.

The verisimilitude of the novel was lauded by many reviewers on Amazon who actually served in Vietnam and the area around Pleiku where it takes place. I am completely baffled by a few reviewers who thought the book was boring. I could not stop listening and resented interruptions. The audiobook was very ably read by Joe Barrett, one of my favorite narrators. ( )

Jurjevics certainly succeeded in presenting the horrible futility of the Vietnam Nam War and all of its corruption.....right down to the realistic ending. The bottom line of all wars is the destruction and suffering of the innocents! ( )

Red Flags hooked me in the opening and then quickly lost me again for quite a while. The premise of the girl wanting to learn about the father she never knew was compelling, particularly given Rider's hesitancy to speak. Knowing all the awful things that occur in any war, and the especially unique and terrible things that transpired in the Vietnam conflict, it set my mind spinning and prepared me for serious drama.

Instead, the novel is not propelled forward by any real plot or constant action. There is some action, of course, but there's also a lot of boredom. Soldiers spend a lot of time standing around or watching for attackers only to have none come. There were also some places where the story seemed to jump awkwardly, which could be due to Rider's own memory of the events. All of this combines to make Red Flags a better novel, I expect, but did not always make it incredibly readable.

What I really liked about Red Flags was that it focused on some elements of the war that I never previously learned much about. For one thing, I never knew about the Montagnards, the tribes in the highlands of Vietnam, and the way they were used by every side. Additionally, I knew quite a bit about the corruption of the South Vietnamese government, but the corruption within the ARVN was completely eye-opening. Some of the stuff they were doing was just...well, awful and dumb. Why would you help the enemy kill your side?

Red Flags is a slow burner, but really makes you think. While not my favorite Vietnam War book, this is a solid read with an interesting focus. ( )

Good read. It is a slightly different approach to the Vietnam war taking an earlier period than is usually written about. It was very interesting to read about the aboriginal highland tribes there- a subject I knew nothing of before. ( )