A Dangerous Friend is the title of a book written by Ward Just about the Vietnam Conflict.
The Vietnam conflict had a searing effect on the American psyche - an effect
so intense that today, after nearly a generation after the withdrawal of American
troops from Saigon, literature on the subject of the war keeps growing. One of
the most influential authors of this experience is Tim O'Brien, who writes from
the point of view of infantry men in the midst of battle, not knowing why they
are there. Ward Just is also a very influential author, but he writes from a unique
point of view. Ward Just is well known for his political fiction, including this
novel, A Dangerous Friend, which is not written from the point of view of an Army
grunt in battle, but instead from the viewpoint of a civilian, member of a fictional
group called the Lewellyn Group, whose purpose is to research Vietnam and attempt
to reform Vietnam.
The main character, Sydney Parade, is sent to Vietnam by the Lewellyn Group,
where he meets a French planter named Claude Armand, and his American wife,
Dede. He is to exploit the family's connections and use them to gather insider
information from the enemy. However, Claude and Dede are determined to stay
neutral. A turning point occurs in the story when an American pilot, the son
of a congressman, is kidnapped by the Viet Cong and Parade is pressured by the
Lewellyn Group, who want to increase their position in the White House, by finding
out important information relating to this incident, before the United States
military gets into the matter. So Parade is in an internal struggle between
his loyalties and honors, of whether he can get information from Claude and
Dede, who want to stay neutral through this issue, making him a "dangerous
friend" to Claude and Dede.
This book, though it lacks in plot, is incredibly beautiful and artistic. Just's
characters are very compelling and precise, especially Parade. The real show
of Just's artistic writing style is his ability to write about an ambivalent
character such as Parade, whose intellect, in this book, is detached from his
heart. Such a theme is prevalent in contemporary American literature, emphasizing
the divergence as well as the convergence between the spiritual world and the
intellectual world. The plot, in this book, is second to Just's detail, to literature,
to art.
The bottom line is that this book contains profound insight into not only
political machinations before and during the Vietnam conflict but insight as
well into emotional conflicts, and should be considered one of the best novels
on Vietnam ever written.