Retief of the CDT (Retief, volume 7) by Keith Laumer

One mid-ranked functionary stands between hapless aliens and the
menace presented by both the imperialist Groaci and the diplomat's
own organization.

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/the-paper-they-were-signing
--
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On Sunday, June 25, 2023 at 2:11:11 PM UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:

Retief of the CDT (Retief, volume 7) by Keith Laumer

One mid-ranked functionary stands between hapless aliens and the
menace presented by both the imperialist Groaci and the diplomat's
own organization.

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/the-paper-they-were-signing
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

I enjoyed these stories a lot - I can immediately put my hands on my copies of "Retief at Large" and "Retief of the CDT" and I think I have a copy of "The Return of Retief" around somewhere.

These are very obviously inspired by the cold war in Third World countries, with the CDT being the US and the Groaci the USSR - in the story "Pime Doesn't Cray" the alien world ecourages role-swapping, and the CDT are inspired to subvert expectations by
funding the construction of a Bolshoi-type Ballet theatre, onlly to find that the dastardly Groaci had decided to surprise their opponents by funding the construction of a Yankee-Stadium style sports arena.

To me the part of the series that strains my suspension of disbelief most is the contrast between Retief and the rest of the CDT - Retief is not only the juniormost employee who has more functioning brain cells than the rest of the office put together.
He is impressively built, a natural athlete, irresistable to women, and has a jocular, slightly condescening, manner which ensures co-operation from a variety of sidekicks native to the planet in question. His superiors are not only stupid, but diverted
by pointless bureaucratic politics and corruption, and with exactly the build and athletic ability you would expect from a lifetype of cocktail parties and ten hour meetings. It is difficult not to wonder what Retief is doing in this company (except from
saving Terra, I suppose).

Thre are some nice one-liners in there. I cannot find it quickly, so I may have this slightly wrong, but I remember liking something like "The role of the CDT is to maintain interstellar tensions at a level just short of open war" (the speaker intended
to speak about preserving the peace, but since we are talking about a CDT employee other than Retief, mistakes were made).

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In article <dd3836f9-ae88-472d-8b4a-8b1d0d383010n@googlegroups.com>,
Andrew McDowell <mcdowell_ag@sky.com> wrote:

On Sunday, June 25, 2023 at 2:11:11 PM UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:

Retief of the CDT (Retief, volume 7) by Keith Laumer

One mid-ranked functionary stands between hapless aliens and the
menace presented by both the imperialist Groaci and the diplomat's
own organization.

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/the-paper-they-were-signing
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

I enjoyed these stories a lot - I can immediately put my hands on my
copies of "Retief at Large" and "Retief of the CDT" and I think I have a
copy of "The Return of Retief" around somewhere.

These are very obviously inspired by the cold war in Third World
countries, with the CDT being the US and the Groaci the USSR - in the
story "Pime Doesn't Cray" the alien world ecourages role-swapping, and
the CDT are inspired to subvert expectations by funding the construction
of a Bolshoi-type Ballet theatre, onlly to find that the dastardly
Groaci had decided to surprise their opponents by funding the
construction of a Yankee-Stadium style sports arena.

To me the part of the series that strains my suspension of disbelief
most is the contrast between Retief and the rest of the CDT - Retief is
not only the juniormost employee who has more functioning brain cells
than the rest of the office put together. He is impressively built, a
natural athlete, irresistable to women, and has a jocular, slightly >condescening, manner which ensures co-operation from a variety of
sidekicks native to the planet in question. His superiors are not only >stupid, but diverted by pointless bureaucratic politics and corruption,
and with exactly the build and athletic ability you would expect from a >lifetype of cocktail parties and ten hour meetings. It is difficult not
to wonder what Retief is doing in this company (except from saving
Terra, I suppose).

Thre are some nice one-liners in there. I cannot find it quickly, so I
may have this slightly wrong, but I remember liking something like "The
role of the CDT is to maintain interstellar tensions at a level just
short of open war" (the speaker intended to speak about preserving the
peace, but since we are talking about a CDT employee other than Retief, >mistakes were made).

(Hal Heydt)
Laumer spent some time as a Military Attache in SE Asia. It's
what he saw on the ground that he's spoofing.

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