Douglas Valentine, a journalist, is best known for his
two non-fiction works The Phoenix Program and The CIA as Organized Crime, both
excellent pieces of investigative reporting.
Being familiar with these two works and finding them credible, I was
intrigued when I learned that he has now published a novella that is presented
as a work of fiction “based on a true story.”
Anyone
who has read either The Phoenix Program or The CIA as Organized Crime cannot
help but notice that Mr. Valentine does not have kind feelings towards the
CIA. Having myself been involved in
attempts to investigate the CIA I am naturally sympathetic to him while finding
most of his work very reliable. So, I
approached the new novella, titled TDY, with interest.
The
premise is that it is based on a true story which may be Mr. Valentine’s story
or it may be something once told to him by someone else. He creates just enough ambiguity in that
regard to make certain you cannot say beyond doubt that he is telling his own
story. The story, including the
introduction, is told in the first person.
The book’s back cover blurb states that it is “based on a true story
told to [Valentine] by a Vietnam veteran.
The protagonist of the novella is a journalist who identifies himself as
“Pete.”
The
book gets off to a slow start with Pete, an Air Force Information Office
enlisted man, a photographer, being enticed to volunteer for overseas temporary
duty assignments (called “TDY” assignments in military jargon) by boredom at
his U.S. desert posting and by the possibility of earning extra money. While the story is not written with the
flourish, finesse, pacing or character development of a fully developed novel
of Viet Nam, such as Matterhorn by Karl Malantes, it stands on its own merits
as a book worth reading. Early on, Pete apologizes for not being able to
provide better character development of the other people in his story due to
the secrecy rules imposed on the mission that forms the core of the story. In spite of that early apologia, as the story
progresses you feel that you do come to know, and care about, the people in
this story. It really is a very good
piece of writing and a fine example that even minimalist detail in the hands of
a good storyteller, which Mr. Valentine is, can be used very effectively.
Pete
volunteers for a mission that will take him overseas in his role as a
photographer. His recruitment for the
operation is low-key and Valentine does an excellent job of showing how the
secrecy of a clandestine operation ensnares the “assets” who are drawn into it
by the intelligence professionals in such a manner to know as little as
possible and to be fully immersed before they have any chance of backing
out. The mission, in this case, involves
the Air Force sending a team of four photographers, under the protection of a
hard-bitten security crew, into the jungles of Laos to obtain evidence of the
Laotian opium trade. Pete is only
incrementally advised of the mission as each step – training, deployment, implementation
– unfolds.
The
heart of the novella is the action-packed execution of the secret mission. As an action/adventure story, there isn’t
anything really too outstanding about the book and if that was all it was, just
an action adventure set in Viet Nam, I wouldn’t recommend it. But I think the book is a must read for
another reason. It is a dynamic,
excellent depiction of how clandestine activities are undertaken and, maybe
more importantly, how the secrecy that surrounds those activities is maintained
and enforced.
This
book also provides an excellent illustration of the reality that the government
is not monolithic in its secret operations.
In this case, one agency of the U.S. government appears to be
investigating the activities of another.
The reasons why one agency may appear to be working against another are
not always clear or even easily discerned.
The central mystery in this novella – why one agency was investigating
another one and why – remains unanswered.
Read
the book for yourself and see if you can figure it out. The bottom line may well be that life is
cheap when power is on the line. That
is, at least, if power is what you live for, or if you are a true believer in
your cause. After all, God is on our
side, right?
