10. Executive Orders (Jack Ryan, #8)
Executive Orders is a political fiction novel written in 1996 by Tom Clancy and is the sequel to the book Debt of Honor written two years earlier by the same author.
A Japanese kamikaze jumbo jet has just destroyed the Capitol in Washington, killing the President of the United States, Ministers and Members of Congress, members of the Supreme Court and the commanders of the army, air force and navy. In this scenario, Jack Ryan, who had just accepted the post of vice president, was appointed head of the White House.
Jack Ryan must also deal with Iran that weaves with other powers a vast conspiracy against the United States of America. The bad guys in this book are the “UIR” standing for United Islamic Republic dealing lots of trouble with the help of India and China. Part of this plot will lead to a biological attack (with a variant of the Ebola virus) that hit several US cities, including Chicago and beginning a terrible epidemic.
Jack Ryan will handle these problems and restore order in the country by declaring martial law, enforcing travel restrictions so the virus can be contained but with the virus being so deadly it could not spread far.
Tom Clancy in the Executive Orders wanted to communicate that the danger to the United States of America does not come from abroad, and prepare the state to deal with terrorism, corruption, and ineptitude of bureaucracy.
The book anticipates the technique of using suicide of airliners on the US institutional buildings five years before the attacks of 11 September 2001 and predicting the subsequent anthrax attacks, the possibility of a terrorist attack with biological weapons made from the inside. These predictions, details and purely, his way of thinking make in my opinion these books a must read.
9. The Cardinal of the Kremlin (Jack Ryan, #4)
“One way or another, we all fight for what we believe in. It Doesn’t that give us some common ground?”
Tom Clancy’s novel The Cardinal of the Kremlin, is a continuation of the work Hunt for Red October, based on the development of strategic defense initiative and its Soviet equivalent, covering topics including intelligence gathering and counterintelligence, political intrigue, and guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan.
As far as I know the SDI systems mentioned in the book are based on real systems and some of the things mentioned in the book resemble actual things from real world such as Soviet mountaintop called Okno. Michael Filitov is a war hero and colonel in the Red Army, but his CIA code name is the Cardinal.
A meeting by chance in the Moscow subway determined KGB to launch the hunting for the spy who was in the upper echelons of Russian power. USA and USSR negotiated a treaty that could lead to war – or for peace – while the intelligence services of both sides are locked in a final conflict. In those circumstances, CIA agent Jack Ryan’s mission is not an easy one, for he must trick the entire KGB so he could save the life of Cardinal – the man whose information could change the course of history.
The author of the bestseller “The Hunt for Red October”, ”Red Storm” and “The Bear and the Dragon” address again the conflict between the two superpowers of the world, this time leading the reader’s imagination in the arid and hostile land of Afghanistan to the use of cutting edge technology of lasers in space.
Sadly a movie adaptation of this book will never be made, it was rumored that a movie will be made starting Harrison Ford and William Shatner but a video game was made with the same title in 1990 based on the novel of course.
8. Debt of Honor (Jack Ryan, #7)
“Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.
There was a time when nails were high-tech. There was a time when people had to be told how to use a telephone. Technology is just a tool. People use tools to improve their lives.”
This thriller novel was written in 1994 and it continues the series highlighting Jack Ryan who became the National Security Advisor when the corporate moguls Zaibatsu, how had control over the Japanese government start a war against the United States. One of the subplots in this novels would form the main plot in one of Clancy’s other novels, The Bear ad the Dragon.
A car crash produced by two Japanese vehicles reveal some manufacturing and shipping errors and as the trade negotiations between Japan and United States are stopped, the congress enables a law that allows copying the trade practices of the countries that export in the U.S. which is used to copy the non-tariff barriers from Japan, cutting the Japanese exporting on which it’s economy depends.
After these events the corporate mogul Yamata, plans to lead Japan into war with the United States, gaining secret help from India and China, plotting first to eliminate the American presence in the Pacific.
The second phase would be to an economic attack, Japan planning to crash the American stock market by planting and logic bomb into the system with the help of a programmer, Japan hoping that the America will be too confused to respond quickly to the military attack. This is where Jack Ryan is recruited as the new National Security Advisor for President Roger Durling and the CIA officer John Clark is sent to revive a spy network in order to gain information.
7. The Bear and the Dragon (John Clark, #3)
“Since China has defined the United States as its main enemy, the predominant American inclination will be to counterbalance and prevent Chinese hegemony.”
Tom Clancy’s novel seems to be running on such an illustrious political analysis observation. In the nearly nine hundred pages, the volume describes a military conflict between the two great powers. Indirectly, however, because, wanting supremacy, China – which continues to have a despotic regime, heedless of the misery most and their lack of freedom – first attacking Russia after the collapse of communism weakened and strained by serious problems of transition to a new system.
Aggression is caused by the discovery of large oil and gold resources in Siberia, vital for the economy of the most populous state. But Americans are assisting former enemies and rivals in mastering the planet. With the White House, the Chinese offensive is stopped and, for the moment, to the relief of all, it establishes the peace.
But what happens in the “theater” of military operations arouses most interest of the reader, although many passages that describe armed clashes are skillfully sketched with a good knowledge of tactics and strategies adopted in a war.
Much more exciting are the confrontations between intelligence, in which able spies are acting. Tom Clancy once again proves he is an ace in imagining a story of espionage. And at the same time extraordinarily well-documented sources that anyone that would write such fictions would envy him.
A huge number of characters are trapped in this narrative warp. One of them is Jack Ryan, known from other books of the author – was present, for example, in “The Hunt for Red October” or “presidential order”. This time we watched him act in the position of US president.
The former CIA feels somewhat embarrassed by the privileges which they have as the occupant of the Oval Office. Many of his decisions are based on the suggestions of reliable collaborators. Sometimes even he has the impression that his powers are limited by what others think.
And yet, the final decision belongs to him and how to present it carrying out its tasks as a strong and visionary leader, the fate of the world depends him. Tom Clancy created a memorable character, charming, with human weaknesses – occasionally afford a cigarette in places where smoking is prohibited and sometimes drinks one glass of whiskey – but is extremely attached to ordinary people, it really feel responsible for their lives, willing to faithfully represent their aspirations.
After all, caring for those who have chosen the highest-rating among those placed in the right place for them, which does not forget a moment of modest social status from which they started, making models with a constant popularity.