# Do most militaries think "blue=friendly" and "red=hostile?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709 "2017-11-15T20:03:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GinoC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f4b2a3/32.png) [@GinoC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GinoC)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709/21 "2017-11-17T02:19:11Z")
During the Cold War, NATO militaries used “orange” as the designation for the notional enemy in conducting exercises. It was always explained to me that this was so that it wasn’t quite so blatant that it was the Soviets we were planning for. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709/22 "2017-11-18T00:34:13Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > … > > And if red is used for the enemy, our side would be a cooler, opposite color, like […] green. Perhaps unless we/our enemy is specifically Ireland or Libya. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709/23 "2017-11-18T01:28:29Z")
Or parts of Islam; although ISIS hoisted the Black Standard, in earlier days some muslims used a green flag as symbolizing Islam, notably the Madhi, Chinese Gordon’s foe, following the use of the armies of the Prophet sweeping through Christiandom and the Middle East at the start of Conquest. Mahdi actually being an office, of redeemer, one of those believing themselves to be the hidden imam in this present Occultation. Conan Doyle wrote a short story [**The Green Flag**](https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Green_Flag) about a battle prior to Omdurmanwherein rebellious Irish reluctantly fight in the Sudan and rally around their _own_ green flag which the Arabs capture and consider like their own. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709/24 "2017-11-18T02:40:33Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > … > > And if red is used for the enemy, our side would be a cooler, opposite color, like[…] green. > > > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > > > Perhaps unless we/our enemy is specifically Ireland or Libya. > > > [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > > > Or parts of Islam […] > > Conan Doyle wrote a short story [**The Green Flag**](https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Green_Flag) about a battle prior to Omdurmanwherein rebellious Irish reluctantly fight in the Sudan and rally around their _own_ green flag which the Arabs capture and consider like their own. Damn, **Leo** , you’re good! Neat, never read it (or much of anything by Doyle). Thnx. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709/25 "2017-11-18T20:57:54Z")
Green is currently used for non-coalition allies. For example, The Afghan National Army. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709/26 "2017-11-18T22:46:06Z")
I don’t know if it ties in, but there were also color coded war plans used by the US Army in the early 1900s, notably “Red” contemplated a war with Britain, “Orange” war with Japan, and “Black” with Germany. As planning started to expect something more like WW2 they changed to a variety of “Rainbow” plans dealing with multi-theater wars possibly with Allies, of which Rainbow 5 was closest to what happened in the war. I’m not sure exactly how they were discussed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the enemy in each colored plan was referred to as that color force (that is, Japan would be “orange” when discussing plan Orange) > **[United States color-coded war plans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_color-coded_war_plans)** > > During the 1920s and 1930s, the United States Armed Forces developed a number of color-coded war plans that outlined potential U.S. strategies for a variety of hypothetical war scenarios. The plans, developed by the Joint Planning Committee (which later became the Joint Chiefs of Staff), were officially withdrawn in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II in favor of five Rainbow Plans developed to meet the threat of a two-ocean war against multiple enemies. > The desire for the Army and Navy to util... ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709/27 "2017-11-18T23:02:53Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > Like the White Army ( no doubt named from White being the Royalist colour: although only half the Whites in the Civil War were monarchists: most of those commanders who were disloyal fancying their own chances as ruler of a new democratic state or in other words Supreme Leader ) the Red Army was based on inherited parts of the Russian Army owned by the Czars. For westerners, white is the color of purity and red that of blood and violence, so the White Army would indicate the good guys and the Red Army the bad guys. I’ve heard it said that for Russians it was the opposite: white was the color of snow and cold, while red was the color of fire and warmth, so the White Army signified something bad and the Red Army good. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709/28 "2017-11-18T23:26:05Z")
White is also the colour of death in China; however White as the Royalist colour has too many instances, not simply in the Great War ( including the Russian bit of their revolution and the expeditionary forces most of us sent to help crush it after ) but in France from Henri’s famous White Plume to the legitimist cockade right down to Charles X and the Comte de Chambord; the Yorkist White Rose and it’s Stuartist successor; Mary I of Scotland, her grandson the White King, who also had a regiment of Whitecoats; to Carlist White sashes… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-most-militaries-think-blue-friendly-and-red-hostile/801709.md?page=1)