Afghanistan was an American crusade to win the cold war against the “Evil Soviet Empire” and remake the world in its own image. Our telling goes right to the heart of understanding what really happened to America with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Instead of fulfilling the Western Dream, the US trapped itself in its own nightmare of endless war. Now Americans long for a spiritual regeneration towards peace. No one seems able to make the process move in the right direction. Over four decades we assimilated an understanding of how to envision moving from war as an honorable sacrifice to peace that serves all. Our two-part novelized memoir delivers a revelatory look at how we came to that awareness through worldly and otherworldly encounters with many fascinating people along the way. -The Valediction: Three Nights of Desmond Part 1 combines Three Days of the Condor and JFK as journalist Paul Fitzgerald unravels the deep state mystery behind the unsolved 1979 assassination of U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs. Dubs’ death changed the world as much as JFK’s but few even know his name. In a serendipitous encounter at the Kabul Hotel during his investigation, Paul meets a mysterious ally who not only helps him solve the Dubs’ murder, he challenges Paul’s assumptions about why he was drawn to Afghanistan in the first place and what to do about it.