Clear and Present Danger (Published in 1989) - Fight the drug menace, authored by Tom Clancy

Most citizens of the US would not have heard of Colombia, or if they have heard of Colombia, they would have associated it wither some great coffee, or also for being the source of a large proportion of the drugs that enter the US. These drugs enter the US through many different transport sources, and it has been the long standing wish of the US enforcement agencies to detect and block such routes in order to stop the inflow of drugs into the country. And with this drug money, the powerful drug barons in Colombia grow richer and more powerful, in many ways, being able to defy the government of Colombia as well. From time to time, there would have been the thought of many of the Presidents of the US and other high-ranking officials to take the powerful US military and intelligence agencies, and use it to hunt down these drub barons and somehow stop this inflow of drugs into the USA.
Tom Clancy has written a number of novels that go into great detail into the politics, administration, intelligence agencies and military of the US and spun novels around them. These books get into great detail and are fascinating to read as well. When you get into such detail, you also realize that the powers of the US military are not that over-whelming (they are in terms of their reach and lethal powers, but following all the rules and legal regulations ensures the constraints on possible actions of the military); Tom Clancy spins a web about the use of US military force to break the powers of the drug barons, and how this is not so easy as it sounds.




The book was published in 1989, and was a bestseller on release, and was soon made into a major movie starring Harrison Ford. The book takes a single starting point, where a friend of the President had been executed by the drug barons for stealing from them, and the President, deeming the import of drugs into the country as a 'Clear and Present Danger' to the country, decides to take action against the drug barons and their vast drug producing areas. However, in a clear indicator about the President not having unquestioned powers, this action by the President is cloaked under secrecy, with Congress not aware of this, and there being no statement by the military that they would start acting against the drug lords in a covert manner (and since this is part of the geographic territory of the country of Colombia, with which the US has had friendly relations, there cannot be an overt action of invading the country to fight against the drug barons).
A plan is setup where US troops are sent into the country, sent in through the direction of the US National Security Advisor (James Cutter) and the Deputy Director of Operations in the CIA (Robert Ritter). Jack Ryan, now a senior official in the CIA and one who also talks to Congress, is out of the loop. The plan first starts out smashingly, with flights being intercepted and troops inside Colombia. But, things start to go haywire soon. Then of course there is the attack on a visiting group of officials, including the head of the FBI and Ryan, when they are visiting Colombia.
And then the ex-Cuban guy advising one of the cartel members starts investigating further, and discovers that the US military has been blowing off bombs in the area and they have boots on the ground. And in the worse possible course of action, the Cuban, Cortez decides that he could use this attack to take over the cartel, and also blackmails Cutter to abandon the US soldiers. Ryan learns of all this and flies into Colombia to save the soldiers, acting without official authority; entering a foreign country to get your own soldiers out under hostile fire without a great plan is not exactly what most people would try to do. What happens next ? It is a masterful and thrilling tale, well worth the reading.