Clear and Present Danger

This article is about the novel. For the film based on the novel, see Clear and Present Danger (film). For the legal term, see clear and present danger.

Clear and Present Danger
Author(s)	Tom Clancy
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Jack Ryan universe
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)
OCLC Number	19845912
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 Jack Ryan universe. 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 a drug cartel based in Colombia. The title of the book is based on the legal phrase "clear and present danger".

Plot summary

The United States Coast Guard Cutter Panache intercepts a yacht in the Caribbean Sea, discovering two men cleaning up after killing a man and his family. Through a mock execution, the Coast Guardsmen force the executioners to confess to the murders. It is later learned that the murdered man was part of a drug cartel money laundering scheme.

Hearing of this atrocity, the President (who is unnamed in the novel) calls for a change of direction in the War on Drugs. He feels compelled to take drastic measures against drug trafficking because his challenger, J. Robert Fowler, has rallied the public behind the administration's failure to curb the drug trade.

The president initiates covert operations within Colombia and a step-up of operations against aircraft believed to be distributing narcotics. 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.

The plan consists of four operations:

• Operation CAPER is the interception of mobile phone communications between cartel management. It is also the communications arm for SHOWBOAT and the light-fighters' only means of contact with the outside world. CIA operative John Clark is dispatched with CAPER to coordinate the effort.
• Operation EAGLE EYE uses F-15s to intercept drug flights. Several aircraft are destroyed and others are forced to land, where the pilots are interrogated for information regarding the cartel.
• Operation SHOWBOAT involves four teams of soldiers infiltrating Colombia to stake-out airstrips used by drug-trafficking aircraft. They report departure times of aircraft, allowing the EAGLE EYE team to intercept them. Later the troops attack the airstrips and coca processing sites. The soldiers are seconded from American light infantry battalions, and are all Hispanic in order to blend in with the local population.
• Operation RECIPROCITY involves using ground-attack aircraft and laser-guided bombs to attack cartel locations discovered by intercepts. The bombs have a casing that will be consumed in the blast to give the impression of a car-bomb.

Félix Cortez is a former member of Cuban Intelligence in the employ of the cartel. Cortez feigns romantic interest in the aide of FBI Director Emil Jacobs. She unknowingly reveals information regarding the date of Jacobs' official visit to the Attorney-General of Colombia. Cortez delivers this information to the cartel management, who order Jacobs's assassination as retaliation for seizing cartel money. Jacobs and several other Americans in his delegation are killed.

Jack Ryan becomes aware of events in Colombia, and suspects involvement of the CIA. As acting Deputy Director of the Intelligence Directorate, Ryan should be privy to most operations, but he realizes he is being left out of something. After his long-time friend Commander Jackson inquires about activity in the region, Ryan goes to Moore to demand an explanation. Moore avoids explaining the situation, but orders Ryan to withhold the information from the Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee.

The use of Octol as the explosive in RECIPROCITY tips Cortez off to military involvement and hence to the true nature of the bombing. Planning to create a war within the cartel that will leave him in a position to seize power, he suppresses this information. He also learns of the American troops in Colombia, and orders large groups of cartel mercenaries to hunt them down. Cortez blackmails Cutter into ending the operation, promising an intra-cartel war that will slow drug imports into the United States. Cutter's meeting with Cortez is shadowed by Ryan and Clark. Clark is outraged at the abandonment of the troops in Colombia, and with Ryan, the FBI and Air Force personnel plans a rescue operation.

Clark makes radio contact with two of the teams to warn them of the cartel operations and orders them to alternate pickup points to await extraction. The other two teams have encountered a large number of cartel mercenaries and taken casualties. Clark makes radio contact with some survivors, including Domingo Chavez.

Clark flies into Colombia to retrieve Chavez' band of survivors. Ryan uses an Air Force helicopter to pick up the surviving members of another team. Together they launch a raid on the cartel's command post, capturing Cortez. The group then attempts to extract the remaining ground team. During this extraction the helicopter comes under heavy fire from the cartel forces. A helicopter crewman, Sgt. Buck Zimmer, is mortally wounded, and Ryan promises to take care of his family - a promise which plays into the plots of the novels The Sum of All Fears and Executive Orders. Due to a hurricane and damage to the helicopter, they land on the deck of the Panache instead of returning to Panama.

Clark confronts Cutter with the evidence of his treason, and Cutter commits suicide to avoid shaming the Navy or those lost in the operation. Cortez is returned to Cuban hands, where he is a marked traitor. Ryan 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 Ryan must brief Congress.

The two presiding members of the committee briefed by Ryan meet with the President, who agrees to unspecified conditions. Ryan, who has observed both presidential campaigns, realizes that the incumbent has deliberately sacrificed himself (by running a poor reelection campaign) to protect the knowledge of the covert operations and the honor of those involved. Fowler wins by a slim margin, and Ryan realizes that the incumbent has more honor and dignity than he originally thought.

See also

Clear and Present Danger (1994 film)

Novels portal