Clear and Present Danger

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Clear and Present Danger
Author	Tom Clancy
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Ryanverse
Genre(s)	Thriller novel
Publisher	Putnam
Publication date	August 1989 (1st edition)
Media type	print (hardback)
Pages	656 p. (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-399-13440-9 (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by	The Cardinal of the Kremlin
Followed by	The Sum of All Fears

Clear and Present Danger is a novel by Tom Clancy, written in 1989, and is a canonical part of the Ryanverse. In the novel, Jack Ryan is thrown into the position of CIA Acting Deputy Director (Intelligence) and discovers that he is being kept in the dark by his colleagues who are conducting a covert war against the Medellín Cartel based 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.

[edit] Plot summary

The United States Coast Guard cutter, USCGC Panache intercepts a yacht in the Caribbean Sea, discovering two Hispanic males cleaning up after executing a man and his family. Through a mock execution, the Coast Guardsmen coerce the executioners to confess to the grisly murders. However, it is later learned that the murdered man was part of a money laundering scheme within the Medellín Cartel; upon further investigation, it is discovered he had laundered and embezzled approximately $650,000,000 in U.S. Dollars.

The details of the expedition quickly percolate up to the office of the (unnamed) President, who calls for a change of direction in the War on Drugs. The incumbent president feels compelled to take drastic measures against the drug trade in the United States because election-year mudslinging has revealed his failure to generate returns on campaign promises regarding the drug-trafficking in the United States. The President's challenger, J. Robert Fowler, has rallied the public behind the administration's failure to curb the drug trade, and forces them to take a harder, more active stance against drug importation.

In order to combat the source of drugs, the President feels that initiating covert operations within Colombia is the most efficient response. The CIA concocts a bold plan involving a sudden step-up of airborne-interdiction operations against aircraft believed to be entering U.S. airspace with the intent to distribute narcotics. In order to positively verify targets, the CIA also dispatches US soldiers to infiltrate Colombian territory and visually stake-out small airstrips dispatching and receiving drug-trafficking aircraft. The units, verifying and reporting departing drug flights, dismantle and destroy the airstrips after the aircraft is shot down or captured.

Three major players help the plan reach fruition:

• National Security Advisor Vice Admiral James Cutter,
• CIA Deputy Director of Operations Robert Ritter,
• Director of Central Intelligence Judge Arthur Moore.

[edit] New Operations

The plan consisted of five operations:

• Operation: CAPER: Electronic-intelligence gathering
• Operation: EAGLE EYE: Aircraft interdiction.
• Operation: SHOWBOAT - I: Airstrip reconnaissance.
• Operation: SHOWBOAT - II: Destruction of coca processing sites.
• Operation: RECIPROCITY: Surgical air-strike on Cartel management.

Operation: CAPER was the covert-dispatching of SIGINT-gathering units to Colombia to intercept communications between Cartel management. The primary mode of communication were cellular phones, which at the time of the book's authoring, were new devices that many felt were impossible to intercept because of their ability to be moved and reprogrammed. It was also the communications arm for Operation: SHOWBOAT and the light-fighters' only means of contact with the outside world. John Clark was dispatched with CAPER to coordinate the effort.

EAGLE EYE involved dispatching F-15s to intercept drug flights verified as originating from Colombia, and positively identified as carrying narcotics. These drug flights were scouted by a completely Hispanic light infantry force which had been drawn from the various units that the U.S. Army had at the time of the novel. These included the 7th and 25th and the 10th Mountain Infantry Divisions (Light). The interdiction flights were primarily executed by United States Air Force Captain Jeff "Bronco" Winters. His primary craft at the time was an F-15C Eagle. He splashed at least four aircraft, two with missile fire, and caused another one to crash into the ocean by flying straight at it, making him an ace. He forced others to land, where the pilots were met by members of the Marine Corps Force Recon and were interrogated for more information regarding the Cartel.

These soldiers were the bulk of Operation: SHOWBOAT. The soldiers were seconded from American-based infantry battalions, and were all Hispanic in order to blend in with the local population without suspicion. The infantrymen were tasked with scouting out landing sites discovered by CIA operative Carlos Larson and reporting on departure times and tail numbers of aircraft using the airfields to refuel, allowing the EAGLE EYE team to intercept them.

Operation: RECIPROCITY was the fourth and completely separate operation formed as a part of the new War on Drugs. As the name suggests, it is a vengeful, reciprocal attack on Cartel operations as a result of the assassination of sitting FBI Director Emil Jacobs, the Director of the DEA and the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia during a visit to the Attorney-General of Colombia. This assassination is the infamous scene in the Clear and Present Danger film.

The assassination is made possible by one Cuban national by the name of Félix V. Cortez. Cortez is a former member of the Cuban DGI in the employ of the Cartel, and specifically, one Ernesto Escobedo, as their Chief of Security and intelligence operative/analyst. Cortez has managed to turn the widowed personal aide of Director Jacobs, Moira Wolfe, into an unknowing agent by feigning romantic interest. She inadvertently reveals information regarding the date and time of Jacobs' official visit. Cortez faithfully delivers this information to the Cartel, who had become more and more wary of missing drug flights. The Cartel management orders Jacobs's assassination as retaliation for Operation Tarpon, which seized hundreds of millions of dollars of cartel money. Cortez is infuriated with the plan, as it means his source is no longer of any use.

After Jacobs, the U.S. Ambassador and several other Americans who are part of the protective detail and delegation are killed in an assault on their convoy, Operation: RECIPROCITY begins. This phase involves the tasking of a carrier-borne A-6 Intruder ground-attack aircraft and a single laser-guided bomb to covertly bomb the meeting location discovered by CAPER intercepts. The planners intend to keep the bombing secret, and give the impression of a car-bomb, due to the political unrest in the region caused by disillusioned Marxist militiamen part of M-19. In order to further this belief, the bomb is a precision-guided munition with a delayed fuse. To further hide the fact that it is an air-dropped bomb, they use a bomb with a case made out of cellulose, which has been designed for use on stealth aircraft. This casing will be consumed in the blast and there will be no fragmentation. Unfortunately, one piece of oversight tipped Felix Cortez off to some, most likely American, military involvement in the assassination attempt: the use of Octol as the explosive and catalyst.

Jack Ryan slowly becomes more and more aware of the events surrounding the activities in Colombia, and instantly becomes suspicious of the Agency. As acting Deputy Director of the Intelligence Directorate, Ryan should be privy to most operations, but he can tell he is being left out of something, and suspects it is related to Colombia. After his long-time friend Commander Jackson inquires about Agency activity in the region, Ryan goes to Judge Moore and demands an explanation. Moore avoids explaining the situation, but orders Ryan to withhold the information from the Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee, and thus being ordered to break the law.

Cortez, meanwhile, discovers the true nature of the villa bombing after another airstrike hits a house in Colombia. However, he keeps this information from the Cartel out of pure self-motivation. He plans on creating a war within the Cartel that will leave him in a position to seize power. He also learns of the American troops in Colombia, and orders large groups of Cartel mercenaries to hunt them down and execute them. Cortez’s plan was genius because it would not only kill the Americans and neutralize their threat, but would also silence many soldiers and mules loyal to the Cartel leadership, who might try to block his rise to power. He finally comes into contact with Vice Admiral Cutter, and blackmails him with the knowledge of the operation. He demands an end to the operation, but promises an intra-Cartel war that will slow drug importation into the United States. Cutter cedes to the demand, and agrees to arrange a meeting with Cortez after cutting off support for the SHOWBOAT teams.

Cutter then flies to Panama and meets with Cortez, who are secretly being shadowed. Jack Ryan, along with CIA operatives John Clark and Carlos Larson have staged into Panama with a helicopter (a MH-53 Pave Low) and its partnered tanker (a MC-130 Combat Talon) from the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field. Dan Murray has been dropped off on the Panache to obtain their assistance as a "last resort" landing platform in case the helicopter can't make it back to Panama. They also shadow Cutter's meeting with Cortez for later use. 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, and the Air Force personnel plans a rescue operation. Clark hits it off with the helicopter's pilot, Colonel Paul Johns, a fellow Vietnam veteran.

Clark flies into Colombia with Larson to make radio contact with the teams to warn them of the Cartel operations and advise them of alternate pickup points. Making contact with two of the four SOC teams inserted (FEATURE and OMEN), he orders them to pre-determined hold positions to await extraction. Whilst trying to contact Team BANNER (which had been rendered combat ineffective due to an impromptu encounter with a large number of Cartel mercenaries), Clark spots the activities of Team KNIFE. KNIFE had encountered the same group of Cartel fighters as BANNER, and while the superior tactics and coordination of the reinforced squad had preserved the combat integrity of KNIFE, superior numbers of Cartel soldiers had taken their toll. KNIFE, after a valiant last stand, was overrun at their expected extraction zone. While this occurred, Clark is flying overhead in a Beechcraft piloted by Larson. He makes sporadic radio contact with the survivors from Team KNIFE. These survivors, including Domingo Chavez escape. Clark advises Chavez that he will meet them the next day at a rendezvous point, and Chavez agrees.

John Clark flies into Colombia the next day to meet with Chavez' band of survivors and picks them up in a van after a prolonged search. Jack Ryan flies in later that night on the Air Force helicopter and picks up the surviving team members from Team OMEN. This group, together with Clark and Chavez's group launch a raid on the cartel operation's command post, capturing Escobedo and Cortez. The group then flies to extract the remaining ground team, Team FEATURE. During this extraction the team and the helicopter come under heavy fire from the remaining Cartel ground forces. It is during this that the helicopter's crew chief, Sgt. Buck Zimmer, is mortally wounded. Comforting the dying man, Ryan makes a promise to take care of his family - a promise which play prominently into the plots of the novels The Sum of All Fears and Executive Orders.

Due to a hurricane, and some damage to the helicopter, Colonel Johns makes a landing on the deck of the Panache during a tropical storm, after two failed attempts. The landing takes all of his skill as a pilot to execute, but is accomplished thanks in no small part to the crew of the "Panache". Cutter, who has flown back to Panama upon finding out that a rescue operation is under way, is made to believe that the helicopter crashed in the mountains during the storm. He flies back to Washington believing that the matter is closed.

Before leaving Colombia Escobedo is returned by Larson and Clark to his fellow Cartel members, who are led to believe that it was he who was conducting the assassination attempts. While it is not said, it is strongly implied that the drug lords will kill him for his supposed transgressions.

In the aftermath of the operation, James Cutter commits suicide to avoid prison by stepping out in front of a speeding Metrobus. Cortez is returned to Cuban hands, where he is a marked traitor, and the officer who greets him states that they "have much to talk about". Ryan then meets with and confronts the President, who insists what he did is right. Ryan responds that despite his classifying the drug cartel as a “clear and present danger,” what the president did was illegal, and he (Ryan) must brief Congress.

Ryan is assumed to have briefed a special committee headed by the fictional Rep. Al Trent (D-Mass), and Rep. Sam Fellows (R-AZ). Despite their innate ideological differences, the two presiding members of the committee reach a conclusion and brief the President, who agrees to their conditions (we find out much more about this in "The Sum of All Fears"). Ryan, who had observed both presidential campaigns from a dispassionate point of view, begins to realize that the incumbent had deliberately sacrificed himself (by running a deliberately sloppy and uncoordinated reelection campaign) to protect the knowledge of the covert operations and the honor of those involved, particularly the covert operators who had executed their assigned missions. Fowler wins by a slim margin, and Ryan realizes that the incumbent (still unnamed) has more honor and dignity than he originally thought.

[edit] Major 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.

[edit] Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

Characters in Clear and Present Danger, such as Ernesto Escobedo, and parts of the plot are similar to that of real-life drug lord Pablo Escobar. In addition to naming, similarities include a suspected assassination (or, in the book, assassination attempt) by the United States government.

The Iran-Contra affair under the Reagan Administration, with the issues of dual loyalties and conflicts between the executive and legislative branches, also was a major influence in the book. Robert Ritter was partially based on Oliver North.