The Sum of All Fears

For other uses, see The Sum of All Fears (disambiguation).

The Sum of All Fears
First edition cover art
Author(s)	Tom Clancy
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Jack Ryan universe
Genre(s)	Thriller novel
Publisher	Putnam
Publication date	1991 (1st Edition)
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	798 pp (Hardback Edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-399-13615-0 (Hardback Edition)
OCLC Number	23287312
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 20
LC Classification	PS3553.L245 S8 1991
Preceded by	Clear and Present Danger
Followed by	Debt of Honor

The Sum of All Fears is the best-selling thriller novel by Tom Clancy, and part of the Jack Ryan series. It was the fourth book of the series to be turned into a film. An interesting historical note is that this book was released just days before the Moscow uprising in 1991, which finally signaled the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Russian politics in the aftermath of the destruction of the Berlin Wall is a main element of the book.

Plot summary

The title is reference to nuclear war, and to the plot by the novel's protagonists to complete a lost nuclear weapon. The title itself comes from a quote by Winston Churchill, serving as the first of the novel's two epigraphs:

“	"Why, you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together - what do you get? The sum of their fears."	”
—Winston Churchill

In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli leadership opts for a tactical nuclear strike, but changes its decision at the last minute. Unfortunately, one incomplete Mark 12 nuclear weapon remains on an Israeli attack aircraft, which is shot down over the mountains of Syria. The nuclear weapon is lost, buried in the field of a Druze farmer.

Eighteen years later, in 1991, an unarmed Palestinian protester is killed by an Israeli police official, coincidentally the brother of the downed Israeli pilot. The United States finds itself unable to diplomatically defend Israel, yet knows it cannot withdraw its support without risk of destabilizing the Middle East. A clever plan to accelerate the peace process is put into action, based on Jack Ryan's indirect contact with the Vatican. The plan is supported by the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia. To everyone's surprise, Ryan's plan seems to work.

However, National Security Advisor Elizabeth Elliott holds a vendetta against Ryan and attempts to discredit him, exploiting her romance with the widowed President Robert Fowler to do so. Elliott engineers a smear campaign accusing Ryan of engaging in an extramarital affair. Ryan's marriage is endangered until his friends, John Clark and Domingo Chavez, reveal the truth to Ryan's wife Cathy. Ryan is forced to resign, but not before he puts together a covert operation involving the uncovering of a deal between corrupt Japanese and Mexican government officials.

Meanwhile, a small group of PFLP terrorists, enraged at the looming failure of their campaign to erase Israel's existence, come across the lost Israeli warhead and use it to construct their own weapon, using the bomb's plutonium as fissile material. The terrorists enlist the help of disenfranchised East German physicist Manfred Fromm, who agrees to the plot in order to exact revenge for his country's reunification as a capitalist democratic state. With Fromm's expertise, the terrorists are able to enhance the weapon and turn it into a thermonuclear device.

The terrorists agree to detonate the weapon during the Super Bowl in Denver, Colorado, planned to coincide with a false flag attack on U.S. forces in Berlin by East Germans disguised as Soviet soldiers. The terrorists' goal is to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union; the East Germans hope that the war will eliminate both superpowers and punish them for betraying World Socialism, while the Palestinians hope the attack will end American aid to Israel. Incidentally, the Palestinians kill their East German associates as soon as they are no longer needed.

Due to an assembly error, the weapon fizzles. Nevertheless, thousands of people in the vicinity of the botched detonation, including the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State, are killed. With the attacks in Berlin, the U.S. briefly assumes DEFCON-1 as both President Fowler and Elliott prepare a nuclear assault. The crisis is averted when Ryan, after learning of the domestic origin for the bomb's plutonium, gains access to the Hot Line and communicates directly with the Soviet president, defusing the conflict.

When the terrorists are captured by Clark in Mexico City, they attempt to implicate the Iranian Ayatollah in the attack. President Fowler, knowing the Ayatollah resides in the holy city of Qom, orders the location destroyed by a nuclear strike. After Ryan averts the attack by enforcing the two-man rule, the terrorists—under torture by Clark—reveal the ruse's purpose: to discredit the U.S. and destroy the delicate peace process, allowing the campaign against Israel to continue. President Fowler resigns from office after suffering a nervous breakdown.

The terrorists are beheaded in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by the Saudi special forces commander, using an ancient sword held by the Saudi royal family. The sword is presented to Ryan, meant to honor all who had died during the crisis, as well as all who were saved because of Ryan's actions. It is later revealed in the sequels that the gift, along with his background as a marine, inspires Ryan's Secret Service codename "Swordsman."

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

• The Sum of All Fears (film)
• The Sum of All Fears (video game)