As is apparent in both “Red Flags” and “Play the Red Queen,” Juris knew from his own experience that the American relationship with our nominal allies was far more complex than our relationship with the enemy: “Ostensibly we were there to advise the South Vietnamese military presence, which was one battalion across the street from us, only four hundred strong, who were not very interested in us and very resentful, which was true throughout the country – there was tremendous resentment between the Vietnamese and the Americans. The Americans were critical of the South Vietnamese for not listening to the advice, for not engaging the enemy, not being bold warriors and not sticking it to the Viet Cong. We were ostensibly advising them but of course they didn’t listen to us at all. We’d say, “The North Vietnamese are over there,” and they’d say “Thank you“ – and go in the other direction. Or if they went – reluctantly—with your suggestion, they were very noisy about it, very slow about it, so by the time they got there, there was nothing. In all fairness, they had orders from their central command to avoid contact, to keep their casualties low.
“I was there in ’67. In ’65, they had gotten really hit and suffered 300 casualties in a single day, and the memory of that kept them close to home, close to their barracks. They did have some artillery pieces they would fire every night, firing H&I: harassment and interdiction. That never seemed to hit anybody. Which was also very odd. But at a hundred bucks a shell, they were laying those out there.”