SOUTH VIETNAM--1965--INITIAL MILITARY BUILDUP Lieutenant David Jeffries is deployed with a company of army engineers to a backward country where foreign combatants have invaded rural areas and insurgents threaten urban centers. There, faced with conflicting goals of supporting allied combat units and befriending local civilians, he struggles to identify and deal with the principles of right and wrong conduct.
Jeffries wants to be a good soldier, but he finds that difficult because of puzzling ethical choices he has to make. He unwittingly faces life-threatening combat situations with conditioned courage when called upon to support the 101st Airborne and the 1st Air Cavalry Division. He reluctantly becomes embroiled in political struggles over policies regarding civilians. Influenced by people with diametrically opposed philosophies--Captain John Slaughter, an Airborne Ranger, and Lieutenant Joe Goodrich, a self-declared peacenik--Jeffries tries to find acceptable common ground through a passed-over major who is due to retire and two trusted but misguided sergeants.
From the battlefields to the brothels, from the tents to the temples, "Noble Conflict" gives a unique perspective of unconventional war through the eyes of a trained soldier trying to do his ethical best under unusual circumstances and preconditions established not by him, but by others.