Quoted:
Quoted:
Reading books about Vietnam the green was incoming and the red was outgoing....
green=bad guys
red=good guys......
still the same today???
So do they flip a coin before the battle to determine who's going to be the good/bad guys, and divy up the color coded rounds that way?
Edit: I'm not arguing with the designations, it just seems very strange to me that different forces, especially in the setting of Vietnam, would agree on the color of tracers they use.
No. After WW2, the US, our NATO allies, our SEATO allies and countries within the combined sphere of influence of the US, the UK, France, etc, and those that bought arms and ammunition from these sources, standardized on red tracers.
Likewise, the Soviet Union, their Warsaw Pact puppet states, Communist China, North Korea, and all the countries that were influenced by or bought arms and ammunition from, those countries (like Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya, etc.), standardized on green tracers.
Some countries fell into neither camp (officially) and bought arms and ammunition from both and had both colors in their inventories simultaneously.
Today, countries that use NATO standard ammunition (i.e., 5.56x45mm or 7.62x51) generally use green tracers, while tracers for ex-Soviet / Russian / Chinese calibers (like 7.62x39mm and 7.62x54R) generally use green.
There are probably exceptions (like former Warsaw Pact East European countries that are now in NATO
might load 7.62x54R with red tracers while converting over to NATO ammunition - or ammunition specially loaded for one reason or another for international sale to small countries).
When Communist China had their border skirmish with Communist Vietnam there were green tracer flying in both directions.
When Honduras and El Salvador fought the "Soccer War" in 1969, there were red tracers flying in both directions.
During the Second Indochina War, the Communists forces used Soviet / Warsaw Pact / Chicom-supplied Warsaw Pact standard green tracer ammunition in their Soviet / Warsaw Pact / Chicom weapons and the US and our allies used NATO standard / SEATO standard red tracers. When the Communist forces used captured French or US weapons, they used captured French / US ammunition.