The characters of Ward Just's novel A Dangerous Friend (1999) are caught up in a tragic conflict between their ideals and the blindness that idealism can sometimes create. Set in the Vietnam of 1965, the critical moment when American involvement was about to pass the point of no return, the novel tells a specific story that is representative of the whole sorry history of the war.

The main character is Sidney Parade, who joins a government-subsidized, foreign-aid group in Vietnam, determined to "win the hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese. Unfortunately, the members of the group operate under two fatal illusions. They see their task as "re-forming" Vietnam, showing its people that what they really want is "to live like a Californian." Their other illusion is that they have enough power to offset the power of the military, although this illusion is not shared by their leader, Rostok, a man who "sees around corners."

The plot turns on the effort to rescue a captured air force pilot, the relative of an important congressman. In bringing about the rescue, Parade inadvertently triggers a military retaliation that wipes out an entire village of neutral civilians and endangers the lives of two friends, a French planter and his American wife, two people whom Parade has come to respect and value. As the title suggests, America proves to be a dangerous friend to Vietnam, all the more dangerous when its intervention is clouded over in a haze of good intentions.

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