TDY

by Douglas Valentine, Bob Dylan (Afterword)

Based on fact, TDY is an action adventure story told by Pete, a young Air Force photojournalist. In early 1967, Pete is tricked into volunteering for a secret and very dangerous mission into Southeast Asia. During the mission he learns the true meaning of good and evil, while nearly losing his life in the process. Thirty years after the event that changed his life, Pete steps forward to describe the powerful forces that deceived him, and continue to deceive the American public. A crescendo of action, suspense, and awakening, TDY reveals the harsh reality of the US Government's complicity in international drug trafficking."TDY is a fantastic read," says Michael Levine, former DEA agent and author of the New York Times bestseller Deep Cover. "From Page 1 it took control of me, and dragged me back to that shadow world where wrong is right, and violent death lurks in every corner. Every page evoked memories of pain and terror, but I could not stop reading.""This is a well-told, intriguing, unique tale. It illuminates an aspect of the Vietnam War that is too often neglected, the not-so-secret "Secret War" in Laos."-Marc Leepson, editor, The Veteran magazine.

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 14, 2000

About the author

Douglas Valentine is the author of four books of historical nonfiction: The Hotel Tacloban, The Phoenix Program, The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs, and The Strength of the Pack: The Personalities, Politics and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA. He is the author of the novel TDY, and a book of poems, A Crow's Dream. He is also the editor of the poetry anthology With Our Eyes Wide Open: Poems of the New American Century (West End Press, 2014). He lives with his wife, Alice, in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Flick Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an amateur naturalist and natural history painter I lean toward gaining a holistic understanding of an organism’s behavior in its environment so I can visualize it accurately. Likewise I look to historical accounts to gain knowledge based on primary source experiences, observations and factual evidence. Valentine’s telling of Pete’s story in TDY delivers all the goods with impact.
I think we need to let the psychological damage and sacrifice the book’s anti-hero endured and endures to this day sink in. It’s too easy to encamp on an ideological island (without empathy) when we face the harsh realities of the Vietnam War and its lingering effects. The defining disparaging truth about the war has been revealed in TDY and it’s a blockbuster.
This novella grabs you and doesn’t let go; it’s impossible to put down so make some time for it. Fortunately it’s short duty but while you’ll be breathless at the end you’ll also be ready for more. Adrenaline works on you like that. So read it again, it’s based on a true story and it’s forbidden fruit. You just don’t find books like this very often, and that’s what makes Pete’s Temporary Duty experience in ‘67 so important today. His mission has been over for 53 years but its legacy lives on as an endemic rapidly spreading plague of surveillance, corruption, coercion, abuse and murder. The TDY mission is now on a need to know basis – for everyone!

[Matthew Doggett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brutal and unflinching look at CIA drug smuggling during the Vietnam war. Impactful. Exciting. Dusturbing.

[David Klassen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to learn more about how futile and senseless the efforts of the US military and the CIA are, then this is worth a read. Well written until the end. The epilogue could be reworked...

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

the main portion of the book is a high intensity war novel that sort of turns almost a little bildungsroman at the end after the heavy action, but I feel like a real solid section of the content actually is in the epilogue where you get a sort of cross-section of what the overseas duty has done psychologically to the main character. this part's definitely a lot more centered on the facts of the Phoenix Program (the author's main research subject) and paints a very dirty yet realistic picture of things on the ground during the American invasion of Vietnam. the shift from the violence of the body to the blase nature of the end is purposefully drastic and you find yourself as a reader looking upon the narrator more and more unsympathetically as he becomes disillusioned by the events. in a certain sense the bleak nihilism and hopelessness of the main character is perhaps a personal illustration of one of the main accomplishments of the CIA's big '60s operations.

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about one young man's experience with TDY (temporary duty), being used by the U.S. military to spy on the CIA's covert drug smuggling operations in Southeast Asia. What he and his team went through is unbelievable but unfortunately,it is true. This is just one of possibly tens of thousands of stories similar to this incredible tale, I recommend this book to anyone interested in covert military operations, the CIA, or the secret World of drug smuggling.