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''Clear and Present Danger'' is a novel by Tom Clancy , written in 1989 , part of his series featuring the character Jack Ryan . In the novel, Ryan is thrown into the position of CIA Acting Deputy Director and discovers that he is being kept in the dark by his colleagues who are conducting a covert war against Drug Lord s in Colombia . The title of the book is based on the legal phrase " Clear And Present Danger ". The novel sold 1,625,544 Hardcover copies, making it the #1 Bestselling novel of the 1980s . PLOT A Coast Guard vessel intercepts a Yacht in the Caribbean Sea and discovers a murdered man and his family. Through a Mock Execution , the Coast Guardsmen get the killers to confess; however, it is learned that the murdered man was part of a Money Laundering scheme with the Medellín Drug Cartel in Colombia , with total embezzlement reaching $650 million. This event helps convince the James Cutter, CIA Deputy Director (Operations) Robert Ritter, and CIA Director Judge Arthur Moore. The plan, called SHOWBOAT, includes several phases. Operation EAGLE EYE involves F-15 s intercepting, and if necessary, shooting down drug flights from Colombia to the United States. The next operation, VARIABLE, is launched when a group of highly-skilled Hispanic Special Forces troops, including Domingo Chavez , are recruited and trained to covertly land in Colombia and destroy Airfield s and drug labs. A former agent of the Cuba n DGI named Félix Cortez, now working for Drug Lord Ernesto Escobedo, is sent to America to investigate the disappearing drug flights. He becomes romantically involved with FBI Director Emil Jacobs' secretary, Moira Wolfe, and learns Director Jacobs will be coming to Bogotá to meet with the Colombian Attorney General . He tells Escobedo this, and the drug lord orders Jacobs killed without Cortez's knowledge. Jacobs and several other Americans are killed in an Ambush in Bogotá. In revenge, the President orders CIA agent John Clark to begin Operation RECIPROCITY. This phase involves dropping a Laser-guided Bomb from an aircraft onto the Villa of a Colombian drug lord, killing a number of cartel leaders as well as civilians. It is assumed by outsiders that the villa blast was the result of a Car Bomb . The bomb, which has a synthetic case, gives the impression of Car Bomb as there is no shrapnel. Despite this, Cortez suspects American involvement. Jack Ryan becomes concerned about the events in Colombia around the same time. Due to the illness and later death of Admiral James Greer, Ryan has become the Acting Deputy Director (Intelligence) of the CIA. However, he is not informed of Operation SHOWBOAT from Judge Moore or Bob Ritter because he is not trusted by them. When informed of the true nature of the Colombian bombing by his friend Robby Jackson in the U.S. Navy , Ryan asks Director Moore about the Colombia operations and is told to tell Congress nothing is going on. Since one of his duties as DDI is to brief the Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee , he would be lying to Congress and thus breaking the law. Félix Cortez, meanwhile, discovers the true nature of the villa bombing after another Air Strike hits a house in Colombia. However, he keeps this information from his employer, Escobedo, because he plans on creating a war between the cartels that will leave him in power. He also learns of the American troops in Colombia, and orders large groups of cartel Mercenaries to kill them. Cortez's plan would not only kill the Americans, but also many cartel troops that could prevent his rise to power. Cortez then contacts James Cutter and tells him to cancel the operations against the cartels or he will alert the media; in return, he will start a cartel war and decrease the flow of drugs to the U.S. Cutter flies to Colombia and meets with Cortez. All the while, he is being tracked by Jack Ryan's men and those of the acting Assistant Director of the FBI, Dan Murray. After his meeting with Cortez, Cutter cuts off support for the American soldiers on the ground and terminates SHOWBOAT. John Clark is outraged at this abandonment of the troops in Colombia, and with Jack Ryan, he flies in a helicopter from Panama to Colombia to rescue his men. The American troops are ambushed by the cartel mercenaries and most are killed. Chavez and a few others are rescued by Clark and Ryan, but they say they want to get the man who ordered the hunt against them: Félix Cortez. The Americans capture Cortez and Escobedo in a raid; Clark later gives the captured Escobedo to rivals in the cartel, where he is killed. Cortez is later handed over from Guantanamo Bay to Cuban authorities, where he is presumably executed. In the aftermath of the operation, James Cutter commits Suicide to avoid Prison . Ryan confronts the President, who insists what he did is right. Ryan responds by saying that despite his classifying the drug cartel as a "clear and present danger," what he did is illegal, and he must brief Congress. Finally, in the November election, the President's opponent, Bob Fowler, wins the presidency. A later novel reveals that the President threw the re-election. THEMES The central theme in this book is the ethics of use of military force; for what purpose is use of military might appropriate, what are the proper checks and balances, and lastly what can happen in a scenario where military force is used for personal gains? The topic of military force naturally flows into the more controversial issue of collateral damage. This is raised on all levels, from Ding Chavez shamefully considering that he just killed a peasant, not a trained enemy soldier, to the President realizing the potential political costs of having killed the wife and children of one of the drug lords. The second theme permeating the story is loyalty. How can one choose whom to be loyal to in an imperfect world with no black and white, only shades of grey? While believing in radically different ideologies, these questions are central to the thoughts of Ryan, who is being kept in the dark, and his counterpart on the other side, Félix Cortez, who receives much less respect than he believes he deserves from his criminal masters. ''Clear and Present Danger'' can also be considered an Allegory to the Iran-Contra Scandal , which occurred around the time this novel was being written. OTHER NOVELS Many of the central characters in this story reappear in Clancy's 1993 novel '' Without Remorse '', which is set 15 years earlier. His interweaving of the storylines is quite comfortable, without the inconsistencies that sometimes occur when authors try to connect two separate stories. SEE ALSO |
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