Into the Storm (Command Series) (Published in 1997) - Authored by Tom Clancy - The rise of the US army

Tom (who died in 2013) was a first rate author. He is famous for his series of fiction books centered around the world of his main character Jack Ryan, with a combination of intelligence agency (CIA) and military. His books starting with "The Hunt for Red October" were surprising because of the level of detail and military accuracy. This first book got a huge boost with the then President Ronald Reagan mentioning it as a book that he liked, and from that point on, there was no looking back. He wrote a series of books (many of them were quite lengthy), but for his fans, these were books that they loved and his books continued to be on the bestseller list, with many of them being converted into movies as well. Unlike many others, Tom Clancy did not portray the CIA or the military as big bad monsters, and with his main hero finally finding a place in the CIA, the CIA was essentially described as patriots, out to ensure that the United States defeats its enemies.
Some of his other famous books were such as Clear and Present Danger, Sum of all Fears, Debt of Honor, Executive Orders, etc. Some of these books could be seen as forecasting events which happened later, such as the plane crash by a disgruntled Japanese pilot in Debt of Honor was an eerie premonition of the plane crashes of September 11, 2001; and the Ebola crisis depicted in Executive Orders was probably the first time that a major author had shown the sheer horror of Ebola, and the current ongoing crisis in West Africa re: Ebola is similar (the social situation, infrastructure and countries are different, but the danger of such a virus comes real in the reading of this book).




Tom Clancy had also written some non-fiction books, which are much less famous, and since they are not fiction, they do not have the fast pace of the fiction books, but they are based on reality and are worth reading for the way that the books describes the setting. Into the Storm (which depicts the commander of VII corps during the Gulf War - General Frederick M Franks Jr) whose command played a pivotal role in destroying the effective military opposition of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces.
For those looking at a campaign from a distance, it seems about advancing into the battle and defeating the enemy, but if you want to take a closer look at the incredible amount of planning and intricacies involved in the effort, this book is a winner. From battlefield planning to logistics (and to give an idea of the sheer number of forces involved), you get details of everything in this book; it may seem too detailed, but there is a of great information available in this book - and it is hard to find this in other books.
The book also looks at the transformation of the US army. The Vietnam War was a defining moment for this institution; it was a draft based army, with discipline and training problems, and the defeat of the US in Vietnam was a huge blow to the morale of the army. From such a low, developing a professional and highly trained army that uses all the technology at its disposal effectively to be able to defeat its opponents in direct combat is a study that is brought out in this book.

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.

The Guest of Honor (published in 1989) - Written by Irving Wallace

Irving Wallace was born in Chicago, to Jewish parents,Bessie and Alexander Wallace Who had emigrated from Russia. He completed his studies in California and started out as a journalist at a tender age of 15. He studied creative writing at the Williams Institute in Berkley and from the mid-30s he worked as a free-lance correspondent. In 1941 he married Sylvia Kahn; they had two children. Irving Wallace served in the air force during world war two and later collaborated in several movies as a writer. His first book "Sins of Peter Fleming" did not attract much attention. But his second book influenced by the Kinsey report was a best seller. He has been a prolific churner of best sellers and his books have been adapted as major movies. He died on June 29, 1990.
Matt Underwood is the President of the United States of America who has a beautiful wife, a former Miss America, and everything a man can ask for. He has money, power and can do anything, so it seems because the world revolves around him. His wife, a charming young lady, albeit a shrew is not enough for him even though she seems to satisfy his urges initially.
In a far far south east Asian country, its president, Prem Lapang is assassinated by communists or some shifty elements and his beauteous wife Noy Sang ascends the throne, well the chair. Noy, if it helps, is an American Educated sophisticated young thing with a precocious genius of a son. About two thirds of her country is occupied by communist rebels and her Army chief who is ably assisted by the CIA favors military action to throw them out, but alas good Noy prefers to talk. This creates lot of friction which makes the defense establishment see red.



Noy Sang comes to America on a state visit, also holding begging bowl for a large loan. Now the handsome former TV anchor President is very much smitten by her and falls desperately in love. He gives a larger than anticipated loan from the American coffers. As far as I know, the American President needs congressional support to give loan to other countries. Noy also reciprocates his feelings and soon they make love everywhere. President ditches the secret service to cavort in Noy's island paradise and other places. Nobody has a clue even the CIA except for an investigative journalist who tries to make it front page news.
Soon Noy is kidnapped by her own defense chief and good old Matt Underwood does a James Bondish rescue by shooting down her assailants. He had asked the secret service earlier not to cover him but to give him a gun which is put to good use to save his lady love. Anyways he saves her and soon the scandal concerning the heads of state tends to erupt so badly that even world peace is unhinged. Matt even tries to abdicate and does not want to run for the second term, but to retire with Noy to a tropical paradise. But soon things are solved magically with help of trusted lieutenants and Underwood remains president. And Good heavens he even has Noy on the sides along with wife and the world peace.
An inane plot and premise has this book doomed from page one. If you are a starter with Wallace's books, please do not get discouraged for he has written superb books which are page turners. Start with “The man”. This one is a page turner for sure, only think you would want to turn the page so fast to reach the end and bury the book.

Force 10 from Navarone (published in 1968) - Authored by Alistair Maclean - Mallory and Miller sent to Yugoslavia to fight along with the partisans

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war that he was part of, and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
Force 10 from Navarone is the sequel to the highly successful Guns Of Navarone. Guns of Navarone had featured the doughty heroes of MacLean, Mallory, the resourceful mountaineer, Miller, the the explosives expert, Andrea Stavros, the brooding cool Greek resistance fighter, Brown, the engineer and radio expert and Stevens the medic. Brown and Stevens were martyred in their last mission to silence the German guns in Navarone. After the Aegean war Andrea stays over to marry the Greek resistance fighter,Maria and Mallory and Miller return to the war in Europe.
Force 10 picks up the threads right after the war. Miller and Mallory are ordered to return to Navarone and fetch Stavros for a mission in Yugoslavia. Stavros after much resistance comes with them. They are joined by Royal Marine Commando's who fill up the vacancies of Brown and Steven's. But one of them, Reynolds is less than pleased to be a reserve. But a team they must be, to fight the Germans in eastern Europe. They are briefed by Colonel Jensen about the mission. They are supposed to go to the Neretva region in Bosnia and check out why all allied agents have been kidnapped and if possible undertake a rescue mission.



They meet general Vuckovic the commander of the partisan forces supporting the allies in Yugoslavia. He informs them that the partisan forces are trapped against the river with German Panzer forces moving in on them. He indicates that if the partisans are defeated the German Army will control all of Yugoslavia and asks for help from the allies to prevent the slaughtering.
The mission starts as soon as they are air dropped down to Neretva and are captured by Drozhny, a huge partisan Bosnian. They tell him that they are allied deserters who are being tried by the army for selling Penicillin. Drozhny produces them before a German captain Neufeld who informs a stunned Miller that Drozhny and group are German collaborators called the Chetniks. Thus the mystery of the continuous capture of allied agents become clear.
Now in the hands of the enemy they have to engage them with lies and deception. They meet the singing blind minstrel Peter and his sister Maria who have secrets of their own. After a series of twists and action the heroes manage to rescue the captured Allied Prisoners and outwit the Germans. The ending is phenomenal with a dam burst and washing away of the Panzer divisions.
This book was also adapted to become a movie, directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Barbara Bach, Edward Fox and Franco Nero and was a moderate success. But the movie has little in common with the book apart from the principle characters and the title. So grab your copy and enjoy the action packed thriller.

Guns of Navarone (Published in 1957) authored by Alistair MacLean, a classic set in the Second World War

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
MacLean's characters are men who fight against all odds. They are ordinary men who are thrown in to situations which are physically and emotionally demanding. Many of them never think about surviving, and their only instinct is to fight the odds. Some succeed, some redeem themselves and some sacrifice. But in the end all are heroes. This story is based on the battle of Leros during world war two. This is one of the most successful of MacLean's books which was made in to a successful motion picture.



The battle takes place in the year 1943 during the the world war two (based on the battle of Leros) where more than 2000 English troops are holed up. Their evacuation is possible only if the route through the island of Navarone is opened up, but this is not possible till the route is made safe from the huge guns overlooking the route which threaten any ship trying to pass through. It is needed to remove these guns, something which seems incredible, and this impossible task is put to a crack team is put together to neutralize the guns of Navarone.
The team is led by Captain Keith Mallory, a mountaineer from New Zealand who is also a commando, Andrea Stavros, a Greek colonel, Corporal Dusty Miller (an American explosives expert), Petty Officer Casey Brown (a Royal Navy personnel, from the Special Boat Service), and many others. They ultimately set sail to Navarone disguised as Greek fisherman.
Their boat has to fight the ever present enemy - the water and the sea, but eventually they reach the foot of the cliff and have to climb the sheer cliff in a storm, where the experience of Mallory proves invaluable.
They are one step ahead of the Germans, but just, and they have a timeframe whereby they have to blow up the guns to give the trapped men a chance through a relief convoy; in addition, like you would expect from such a book, one of the people supporting them is also betraying them. How do they manage to get into the fortress, and destroy the guns ?

HMS Ulysses (published in 1955) - written by Alistair Maclean and about the struggle of a doomed ship during the war

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
Because of his war experiences, his novels are also high on the action content. The emotional and the romantic angle is not very much touched upon by Maclean. His characters are highly cynical men who are always part of the high octane action and push themselves against all odds with out any thought for their safety. The elements also play a very important in MacLean's writings. Most of the time his men are pitted against harsh unforgiving surroundings which brings out the innate nature hidden inside, be it a devil or a hero.
HMS Ulysses is Alistair MacLean's first novel and is largely drawn upon his war experiences. The true story about the ill-fated convoy PQ-17 provided the basis for this story. It tells us the story of ordinary men who fight against seemingly unsurmountable odds just to prove their loyalty. HMS Ulysses is Captained by Richard Vallery, who commands unflinching loyalty from his men.



The story begins with Ulysses at Anchor in Scapa Flow after a grueling mission as an escort ship in the arctic north. The men are exhausted and tired battling the harshest of climates coupled with low food rations. They are emotionally exhausted because of the battle of nerves against the U-boats, enemy aircraft and ships. These men learn upon weighing the anchor that the higher authorities are planning to send them back in to battle and are ready to put them through the same grind with out any concerns for their well being. A mini mutiny spreads across the ship and only their loyalty towards Richard Vallery prevents them from deserting.
Now a much soothed crew find that the trust in their abilities is eroded and orders are very clear, - escort a convoy through the battle field of Murmansk and on return will be rewarded with a draft to the Mediterranean. HMS Ulysses is to use to bait German Destroyer Tirpitz and help her destruction. The Captain and the crew accepts the terms for the sake of redemption.
But a fierce storm is raging in the Arctic, coupled with death stalking Ulysses in the form of U-boats and fighter planes above. Men have to fight against bone chilling cold and the waters toss the Ulysses with no mercy with the specter of tuberculosis among them. In the last pages Alistair Maclean graphically describes the hopelessness of the expendable men battling everything stacked up against them and sacrificing their lives for honor. Glory is for them for ever because the mind numbing hopelessness brings the men to give the battle everything they have, not to survive but to sacrifice and win.

South by Java head (published in 1957) - Author: Alistair Maclean - story of the fight against the Japanese in the Second World War (to get some papers)

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
Because of his war experiences, his novels are also high on the action content. The emotional and the romantic angle is not very much touched upon by Maclean. His characters are highly cynical men who are always part of the high octane action and push themselves against all odds with out any thought for their safety. The elements also play a very important in MacLean's writings. Most of the time his men are pitted against harsh unforgiving surroundings which brings out the innate nature hidden inside, be it a devil or a hero.
South By Java head, a innate Alistair Maclean novel is about the war in the pacific, more specifically about the war of Singapore. Singapore, British colony is over run by the Japanese and the assurances about its defense by the British authorities proves to be hollow. So a large scale exodus of British and other foreign nationals take place to escape from the cruel clutches of the Japanese.



The survivors try to flee aboard the Kerry Dancer which is crippled by the Japanese. A group of survivors slip into the south china Sea by boat. This disparate groups of people include, an Englishman, Farnholme, A dutch planter Van Effen, a beautiful Eurasian Girl Gudrun Drachman, a slave trader Siran and a mysterious Johnny Nicholson. Soon this small flotilla of theirs is bombarded and dogged by the Japanese who are hell bent in getting some secret papers.
There is a large dose of adventure in the story with spies, secret papers, battle plans and real war. But all this pale in presence of the crews fight for survival. As all men in a MacLean adventure, they are pitted against the unsympathetic elements. If in HMS Ulysses the cold was the overriding element, here the heroes are up against the extreme heat and humidity. They weather tropical storms, insects coupled with the ferocious and cruel Japanese.
Johnny Nicholson is a typical MacLean lead character who is cynical, cool and well versed in the technique of war fare. There is an underlying factor of masochism in all this brave men. But a surprise element for all women is the presence of Gudrun Drachman, a nurse who ultimately is the love interest of Nicholson. MacLean attempts of portraying the the romance is almost laughable.
Another problem with this novel is the under current of racism or the political correctness. The Japanese are the villains, but is it necessary to attribute inhuman cruelty to all of them. All Japanese soldiers, especially officers are presented as blood thirsty fiends and rapist. Alistair MacLean attributes the Japanese as inherently cruel and all the Englishmen as upright citizens. Well, Maclean would be forgiven by a public in the 50's but in this era such unbridled violence and masochism may be discouraged. Apart from these sore points this book gives you an adrenaline rush and a feeling of triumph.

Dogs of War - by Frederick Forsyth (1974)

Suppose you are in the turbulent time period of the 1960's - 1970's when various colonial ruled countries in Africa were reaching their independence. There were many different influences working in the countries at that point of time, the Soviet Union was trying to get regimes to be in its favor. Many of these countries were mineral rich, and there was a fight to get the rulers of the country in favor of companies so that they could get advantages of the mineral rights that were being awarded by these countries. It was not unheard of that a country's Government could be deposed off in a coup, although using mercenaries was not unheard of. As is normal with Forsyth, his novel is based on a lot of detailed research, enough that people who were in this line of business were astounded by the accuracy of these details.



In fact, there is a lot of buzz that the country that Forsyth refers to as Zangaro was actually the country of Equatorial Guinea; the book is supposed to be atleast partly based upon Forsyth's time as a reported in the Biafran War between Biafra and Nigeria, and in fact, as a part of researching this story, Forsyth was researching how to attempt a coup against the Government of Equatorial Guinea, and it was supposed to cost a ridiculously small sum of a quarter of a million dollars. There is a lot of speculation that there was an actual coup attempt against the Government that was spoiled by Spain.
The book draws mixed reviews, with many people praising the depth of description of the details; however, there was also criticism that there were too many details or preparation and not enough action. The story is about a British mining tycoon learning of a hot discovery of the priceless metal, platinum, in the Central African republic of Zangaro. However, the ruler is leaning towards the Soviet Union, who in turn decide to give him a KGB guard and also send in their own survey team. At the same time, the British tycoon Sir James Manson hires a mercenary, Carlo Alfred Thomas “Cat” Shannon, who had left Zangaro earlier after the side he was supporting failed. They decide to plan an operation in which they will kill the current leader, Jean Kimba, and replace him with their own man. The rest of the story is about the execution of the plan, and how it meets with its challenges.

War and Peace (by Leo Tolstoy)

'War and Peace' has been called as the best novel ever written, and while there would be other favorite novels and people might consider other novels as the greatest, there is no getting around the fact that this is a great novel. War and Peace is taught in many English literature courses as an alltime great book by a great author (his other work, 'Anna Karenina' was also very famous).
The story is set around the 1812 French-Russian war where the French emperor, Napolean had invaded Russia. This was eventually a great disaster for the French, since they first managed to take Moscow (which had been abandoned by the Russians as a part of this war), but this did not do them too much good. The Russian winter had already set in, the army had to eventually return back, and they were harassed by the Cossack attacks. They lost a majority of their force in this return, and at the same time, left most of the wooden structures of Moscow burning.



The novel was published through a period from 1865 to 1869 in the 'Russkii Vestnik', and went through 2 complete different forms. Tolstoy was not happy with the first published draft, and totally rewrote the novel to get another version, that was the final published version. This original version was also published again in the last 2 decades and is now available in many languages after translation. The writing of the book in its original also reflects some of the cultural norms of the society of that time - while most of the book was in Russian, there are many dialogues that were written in French since this was the language of the French aristocracy. There is apparently a small patriotic subtext in the book as well as regards language - French is used more to denote insincerity while Russian is increasingly used to show the more honest and better part.
The book takes characters from 3 main Russian families (The Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Bezukovs, along with some more associated characters), including those who are part of the nobility and those on the edge of financial ruin, and takes the movements in their life, centered around the oncoming conflict with France, and moving onto the changes that happen due to this conflict, and the aftermath. An imposing historical figure such as Napoleon is a side part of this story, it is the impressive flesh and blood tale of these Russian characters, intersection with a description of the Russian society at that time that makes this a very impressive work of fiction.
The story presents some major characters such as Pierre Bezukhov (the main character, very honest, but not worldly wise - supposed to be a reflection of Tolstoy himeself), Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky (brave, a soldier looking forward to the war), Natasha Rostova (starting out as a young girl, she goes through many trials and tribulations, and eventually gets married to Pierre), Nikolai Rostov (another soldier, also responsible for trying to keep his family from financial ruin), Sonya Rostova (a poor cousin, she was engaged to Nikolai, but eventually releases him so that he can marry the rich Princess Maria), and many other such characters.

The Devil's Alternative - Frederick Forsyth

In this time and age, the events described in this thriller by Frederick Forsyth seem as from another age. And in fact, that was another age. In 1979, when this novel was published, the Soviet Union was the worldwide great power representing communism, with the Eastern half of Europe in its clutches. In addition to the client states such as East Germany, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc that were also communists, and some of whom had seen the might of the Soviet army when they had tried to move towards democracy, there were the states that were part of the Soviet Union besides Russia. In all, there were 15 former states that made up the Soviet Union, and it would only have been a visionary / fool who would have dared to claim that these countries will be separate countries within 12 years.
And this is one of the main stories of this thriller. The second largest constituent state of the Soviet Union was the Ukraine, and since it was the second largest, and had known independence before, it was ruthlessly sought to be made like Russia, and any elements of Ukrainian culture stubbed out; after all, if the people are as Russian as the Russians, then where will there be a need to start a separatist front. The Russians (the largest majority of the Soviet Union) used a combination of the Red Army and the feared KGB (formerly the NKVD) to sniff out and break any level of Ukrainian separatism, such that it never reached any dangerous point.


Frederich Forsyth also takes the opportunity to explain several aspects that form the basis of the thriller, namely:
1. The workings of the Soviet Politburo and the politics between the different members, especially about how the various members come to reach the peak of political life in the Soviet Union (politburo)
2. Some details about the concept of a super-tanker and the colossal damage that a super-tanker can do
3. The use of spies and their information in deciding what Governments that are in conflict with each other do, and how policies are made based on this information
4. And a very advanced topic for that age, involving the use of spy satellites to gather information about what is happening in the territory of another country
5. A lot of details about the spy-craft, about how to spy and control agents in hostile territory
6. And for me, something that was very interesting for me, namely details about what the SR-71 (the Blackbird) can do

The novel starts with the escape of a Ukrainian separatist (under attack from the KGB) from the Soviet Union. He meets a Ukrainian sympathizer who is fanatically in favor of Ukrainian independence and against the Soviet Union and the KGB. He takes this opportunity to go to the Soviet Union.
At the same time, the US and British discover that vast tracts of the Russian grain harvest is spoiled, and then you go to the Russian side and discover that a series of freak incidents cause the spoilage of vast chunks of the Soviet wheat harvest, causing a famine of immense proportions. And once the Americans and Western powers get to know about this, they would demand concessions on a large scale before providing the grain. The Soviet Union cannot afford to undergo a famine of this level since that may cause the one thing that any Soviet politburo dreads, the rise of the long suffering population at a level that the use of force cannot control. One option is to use the vast Red Army to attack Western Europe to get over this scarcity, and this becomes a issue about control of the Politburo.
At such a time, the new British SIS (MI6) head in Moscow meets and old flame; she is also in a position to be able to supply information about the workings of the Politburo, something that the Americans and British find very valuable. As things escalate, this information is of vital information in helping fine-tune the policies of the West.
As things move ahead, things threaten to spiral out of control. If the politburo source is used too much, she could get exposed; if it gets out that Ukrainian separatists have assassinated the head of the KGB, things could spiral out of control and risk giving the faction in the politburo the majority to go to war; and if the Ukrainian separatists use the vast super-tanker Freya that they now control and let the oil go into the ocean, it would be an environmental tragedy of the highest order.
At such times, what can happen. And this is the Devil's alternative, anything you do has a consequence, and will lead to a loss of life. And for politicians and leaders, taking the easiest path is the way to go. Coldness is an essential attribute of state-craft.
The concluding lines of the book are what would shake you when you read them - 'Ukraine will be free again'; and this is precisely what happened in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin took Russia away from the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union vanished into history.

The Fourth Protocol (1984)

Imagine the times; there was a widespread protest movement in Europe against the deployment of nuclear-armed missiles and against American bases having nuclear arms on them. In addition, there is still a great amount of tension between the Soviet Union and the US, and a new unknown Secretary-General (Gorbachev, but mostly unknown) has taken office. He is supposed to be young, and given the fact that he was able to move into the Secretary-General's office in such a rapid manner, extremely clever and cunning.
What Frederick Forsyth did in 'The Fourth Protocol' was to spin up these concepts along with spy-work and some believable nuclear terrorism into a thriller that was gripping till the end. You know that the good guys will prevail in the end, but till that time, things could go either way. The further positive was the inclusion of some real characters including Neil Kinnock, and Kim Philby.


There are many positives about this novel; it has a believable cast of events, the technology talked about seems possible, every treaty could have secret protocols (and the fourth protocol seems very logical) believable enough to be cast as the background of the novel. The novel was also made into a movie of the same name starring Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan.
The novel is made on the concept of a new Soviet Secretary-General being ambitious enough to try to explore British popular disaffection with the placement of nuclear missiles on their country. The plan, called Operation Aurora calls for the smuggling of parts of a nuclear bomb onto British territory and then exploding this very near an American base. Such a move could push British dis-satisfaction away from the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher and towards a left party. And then the most amazing thing would happen. The hard left of the Labour party, consisting of Marxist-Leninists would take over the leadership of the Labour party and set in force a series of measures that would move Britain away from friendship with the Americans.
Why call the novel 'The Fourth Protocol' ? Well, because supposedly the 1968 Non-proliferation Treaty had a set of secret protocols, out of which the number 4 was about no nation secretly transporting a nuclear device onto the territory of another nation.
The novel starts with a robbery in which the thief also finds some secrets (defense secrets) and knows that here is some treason; and sends these onto the defense ministry. And thus starts a secret enquiry into the source of this espionage. Eventually the spy is found out and turned over. At the same time, there is a Soviet plan to explode a nuclear device near an American base so as to get Labour to win the elections and then to get the hard left to take over. As this plan starts to take effect, one of the bomb parts is found and an investigation is launched. And thus starts the thriller, with the match between the MI5 officer John Preston and the illegal Soviet agent Valeri Petrofsky (a spesnatz officer); the MI5 officer a step behind but fighting to find out what the plan is and to stop it. A great thriller.

Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

Eye of the Needle was a novel that catapulted Ken Follett to instant fame. It was first published in 1978 with the title of 'Storm Island', and eventually became much more successful as 'Eye of the Needle'. It was the author's first major success and set him up to write many more successful novels based on a fast action track incorporating a spy thriller.
The novel takes a historical period (not too far back though - World War 2) and spins a story around that. The concept of a ice-cold anti-hero all out to break the secrecy of the allied effort getting felled by the courage of a lady with whom he has had an affair was very gripping. The story line is not very complex, but there is a fair amount of detail that holds the reader.



During World War II, the allied forced had been pushed from Europe and needed to re-enter the continent in order to take on the Nazis militarily. There are not too many feasible invasion routes, with the Dover-Calais route being the shortest and hence the most likely. The allies had however decided to take the longer Normandy landing; the biggest question was about how to protect this information from the Germans and to get them to focus on the Calais entry point. This entire operation was called Operation Fortitude, and it involved setting up a massive fake army so that the Germans could be deceived from afar. However, if a spy on the ground looked, he would be able to determine that this entire operation was a fake.
And the novel is based on such a person. A skilled spy, called 'Die Nadel', who is ice-cold and can kill anybody if they get in his way, eventually finds out the extent of the fake army and has to reach his submarine pick-up in a remote corner of Britain, and also transmit his findings to the German high command.
And then he runs into this couple living on an isolated island. A young couple, but the husband got crippled in an accident and is now very bitter, with the bitterness causing their relations to drift apart. And into this comes the spy; the inevitable happens; he soon starts to have an affair with the wife (the entire scenario described in some detail). At the same time, Der Niedle is being hunted by the British military who have found out about him and will do anything to hunt him down and kill him.
So what happens ? Does the husband find out about him ? Will the cold spy be able to reveal his truth or will he be found ? What about the affair between the wife and him ? 'Eye of the needle' is a well paced thriller with some well sketched out characters.

Battle Cry (1953): By Leon Uris

Leon Uris wrote a number of books in his lifetime (1924 - 2003). Leon Uris fought in the Second World War in the United States Marine Corps, and his experience formed the basis of his first book, Battle Cry, released in 1953. The book chronicled the adventures of a group of young men who join the United States Marines after the Pearl Harbour attack, and take part in the fierce fighting with the Japanese in the Islands of the Pacific. Names such as Wake, Guadalcanal, etc were famous milestones in this fighting (these were also incidentally some of the places where Leon Uris had toured in).
And for a book written so far back (1953), there is a fair amount of representation of different cultures shown. Though the book skips over the African-American community, there are soldiers from Native Indian (Navajo), Italian-American, Swedish, Yankee, and other backgrounds. The narrating is done by a crusty old sergeant (with a lot of experience) called Mac. The whole group is led by a Colonel, Sam Huxley, who wants glory for his team.
The book is well-written, taking the story in more detail of the All-American boy, Danny Forester, and his urge to join the Marines and the effect this has on his personal life. These impacts are supposed to represent the problems faced by other soldiers, and the impact on their families who see young boys (barely out of their teens), young men, and family men going off to a war from whom many may never come back.
The book makes for some gripping reading, with their adventures in a war that is destined to take them to a place with fierce fighting between the Americans and the Japanese (not depicted in any great detail - just as fierce fighters who will fight to the end rather than commit suicide). The book starts with boot camp, with a hint of seriousness starting to emerge, and then becomes more serious as the narrative proceeds. Times where there is no actual fighting going show the life of the Marines at these forward and war zones, and is able to keep reader attention. But it is the scenes of battle that do not hesitate from actual gore and death, and there are members of the squad and friend who end up dead or very wounded.
The book shows the motive behind people heading to war, to fight for the country; and at the same time does not hesitate in showing the actual death and destruction that can emerge from such a battle. Read it if you can find it, it's a very good book.

Tom Clancy: Bear and the Dragon

The Bear refers to Russia and the Dragon refers to China and these are terminologies from old. If you are a follower of the Chinese Communist Party, then this book is not for you (in fact, if you detest somebody making critical comments of China, then you would not like this book). There is very little positive in this book about China, starting from the beginning and going almost till the end. Even a person who is portrayed somewhat positively is also shown as forcing himself on the young girls in his office.
The book is much more positive on Russia, although the cooperation that is depicted in the book between Russia and the US does not exist in any form or condition currently. In fact, given the adversarial nature of the relationship between Bush's administration and Putin's semi-dictatorship, the story in this book seems almost fanciful.



The book has many positives. There is the usual Clancy style of having multiple stories weaving into the script, slowly coming together and blowing into a tension wracked ending. And suddenly, you see an almost calamity occurring, stopped in the nick of time. Next, you have the usual concept of people with honour, and many people without honour. There is more of Jack Ryan (and if you are a fan of a fictional character such as I am of Jack Ryan), you get to see more of the individual qualities of his characters, including more anger, and of his revulsion against actions that go against his morality.
As always, the CIA is essentially portrayed as a positive and patriotic force, (although numerous other books normally portray the CIA as a force that can act like a rogue force at times). The best thing is the level of detail in the book about military actions. The main battle action in the book is wonderfully detailed; in addition, with the current discussion about missile defense, there is a fair amount of discussion about the way in which to prepare for missile defense.
The book starts with an assassination attempt on the head of the Russian intelligence agency (the successor to the KGB), he is a close confidant of the President and such an attempt causes a great deal of alarm. At around the same time, Russia discovers that Siberia has an immense stockpile of gold and oil, something that will cause Russia to lift itself out of its slow economic growth and into modernity. This stockpile causes immense jealousy among China's leaders.
And onto the main theme of the book: China. Clancy does not spare China (I would not be surprised if Clancy is prohibited from entering China). Its dictatorship (the Chinese Communist Party), the lack of democracy and freedom of worship, and most of all the restrictions on citizens including the forced enforcement of abortion on citizens violating the one-children rule comes in for special focus. Even though the criticism is harsh, one wonders whether any of this is false (One knows that there is no democracy, the treatment of the Tibeteans, of special religious cults, of people seeking the right to move from one part of the country, and the immense clashes between the citizens the corrupt party all over the country all seem to portray a country very different from others).
Anyhow, in this book, the enforcement of a brutal abortion combined with a crackdown on a Christian sect inflame western opinion, and push the Chinese towards attempting a military attack on Russia's new riches. The book is all about how this moves forward into an actual war between China and a Russo-US axis, moving forward into a nuclear confrontation.

Tom Clancy: Executive Orders

If you have read some of my earlier reviews, you would not be faulted for assuming that I am a fan of Tom Clancy's writings. I have read most of his books, and found fault with few of them; in each of them I have gained a bit of knowledge about matters about which I did not know previously, whether it be the working of the US Government and its intelligence agencies (although this knowledge would be outdated with the sweeping changes introduced after the September 11 attacks in the entire intelligence hierarchy and the demotion of the CIA), the interaction between the various arms of the US Government (executive, legislature and judiciary), knowledge of financial institutions and the stock market, and the precise attention to detail that is paid to military matters. Some are controversial, including the one that starts this book.
The power of Tom Clancy as an author is in terms of how his various plots drag you into the novel (feel free to disagree if it does not have the same effect on you), and typically there are a number of sub-plots that seem to merge as you move on, and culminate towards a gripping conclusion. Of course, the conclusion is unlike a detective novel (where you might find out whodunit on the last page), you would know where all this is going to land up when reading the last 50 pages (except for the prequel to this novel, the 'Debt of Honor').



Surprisingly for Clancy, this novel has a couple of weaknesses in the sense that one of the sub-plots involving the anarchists never made much of an impact, and the ending of that plot was also a bit weak, and he could have removed it without any impact on the book (unless he made it stronger). Additionally, the concept of a sleeper agent exists, but for one to rise undetected through the ranks and reach so close to the President was a bit hard to believe, you would believe after all that such a person would sooner or later get swayed by the influence of the culture he lives in. Also, some of his characters are painted in a fairly negative way, for example the Iranian leader, even while explaining his motives, does not have anything positive for you to understand him as a complex character.
From this point on, there will be some detailing of the story, so if you want to avoid spoilers, you can jump away at any point and go ahead and read the novel.
Executive Orders was released in 1996 and starts where Debt of Honor concludes as a renegade Japanese pilot takes his jumbo jet and pilots it into the Capitol (The US Congress). (Imagine the shock when the September 11 attacks took place involving large jets colliding with buildings, including the fourth jet, brought down by passengers that was supposed to be attacking the US Congress). When you read the book including the details, you can begin to understand as why the World Trade Towers actually went down, and feel for the people who were affected.
Jack Ryan was supposed to be brought into the building for confirmation as the Vice-President, and since the President is now dead, he is defaulted as the new President, at a time when most of the Washington based central administration is dead (Cabinet Secretaries, Senators, Congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, all). As the book says, the US Government was gutted.
Tom Clancy has the concept of honor woven into his books, and Jack Ryan is a honorable man (different from most politicians) and will do what it takes to build the administration of the country up again, assisted by some able advisors such as the experienced Chief of Staff, a straight FBI agent made as the Acting Director, and his friends in the CIA as the CIA head (and he is accused of building up the Government in his image, maybe rightfully so, since putting your friends in prominent positions is a form of nepotism). He also has an unusual challenge where the resigned Vice-President, Ed Kealty claims a honor also by claiming that he did not officially resign and hence he should be the President by simple law. Unfortunately, Jack Ryan controls the Government and hence has a major lead.
Given that the heads of most Governments have not read the previous books :-) and do not know the inner strength of Jack Ryan, they under-estimate his capabilities. For example, when he does not display a seemingly political speech at the memorial of the victims, he is seen as not presidential and his overseas enemies feel that the time is right to defeat the United States.
The major incidents of the book get started when a person seemingly Saddam Hussein (although not by name), is assassinated by a deep undercover ready-to-die Iranian agent under the control of the Iranian cleric (Ayatollah Mahmoud Haji Daryaei), Iraq is ripe for the picking (especially since Saddam never let a second line of command build up). Soon, in a carefully choreographed yet quick turn of events, all resistance inside Iraq melts and it joins Iraq (a bit difficult to believe since the rulers were all Sunni, very resistant to Shia Iran and would not have so easily joined up, but anyhow, let us continue). Now, if only they can get Saudi Arabia, then the United Islamic Republic would be in control of the holy places and the largest oil exporter in the world.
What stops them from doing do? Primarily the US, since it would not like the Saudi regime to be replaced by an clerical Iranian controller. So how to stop the the US from doing so; get some countries such as India and China to act as distractors, and then incapacitate the US by crippling with with a biological attack (an Ebola based warfare, lethal and described in great detail) as well as an assassination attack on the President directly.
The novel has some great parts on how Ryan acts as per his instincts, which are decidedly not leaning towards the Democratic Party (his spiel for strict constructionists for the Supreme Court sounds very much like Samuel Aito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia - people whom I consider can set the rights of individuals back by a large degree), and his debate on whether to limit cross-state travel (though sounding correct) can be very ominous indeed, given that the current debates are all about using the need for fighting terrorism to set more control.
In the end, his struggle to beat Ebola is successful, and he is also able to set forth a principle about making leaders responsible by getting the Iranian leader killed; at the same time that a small section of his army, using its high-tech wizardry is able to beat the UIR army in a very believable way.
Why is the novel called Executive Orders ? Because the President governs within the ambit of laws made by Congress, and in the absence of Congress, he can govern with the issue of Executive Orders.

Isaac Asimov: Foundation

In the 1940's, a writer starting writing science fiction stories about a empire far in the future (and when we mean far, we mean so far in the future that no one remembers Earth). This is a mega-empire, controlling vast sections of the galaxy in a peaceful existence, enforced by the power of massive spaceships and the power of atomics (weapons as well as other equipment controlled by the power of atomic energy). And then imagine this entire galaxy wide power to be in a slow decline such that no one realizes that it is decaying but no one knows that, except for one man who has invented a new science/maths that is so complicated that very few people can figure it out. (This maths works at predicting the behaviour of people in a crowd, with the bigger the crowd, the more easy the prediction is to make. Conversely, it is impossible to predict what one person can do.) Using this maths, the person has calculated that this mega-empire that has held the peace for thousands of years will die out, and there will come a horrible period of anarchy, war and horror that will last for tens of thousands of years unless some steps are taken to reduce this time period. Asimov took a series of short stories he had written using this theory as a base, and made an epic novel out of this, itself the precursor to a series that won the Hugo Award in 1965. Asimov may have died in 1987, but his name lives on in this mighty series that he wrote.



I have always been a fan of Asimov, so I might be a bit biased, but I have always considered this book to be an incredible book. Part of the beauty of this book is that it does not go into details of what the future will look like in terms of development of machines or other such science, but concentrates on what the society of that time will be like. In many ways, it seems like a continuation of things you can see even now (or could see if you studied the rise and falls of the great empires); using the decay caused by flattery, by too much bureaucracy, and by the presence of weak people in the position of power. You can read about how politics plays a part in everything, and how the power of mass appeal can be used to seduce the masses. In fact, if you look further, you can even relate the use of organized religion (and the terms takes on a new meaning in the book) to be used to control an entire planet (seems similar to what you can see in terms of the influence of religion in large sections of the world ?)
The book starts from the perspective of Hari Seldon, a newly arrived mathematician to the city of Trantor, the heavily settled capital of the Galactic Empire that has been in operation now for 12,000 years. Trantor is a world that has been totally built over now (although modern climatologists will argue that such a doing would totally destroy the climate of the world) and is dependent on a large amount of resources from all over for its survival. He is already getting famous as the inventor of psychohistory, which can be used to predict the future (or more accurately, as he keeps on describing, is a tool that be used to calculate the future of large masses of people). The Emperor calls him, and is not satisfied, and ultimately he is hauled up in front of the court for predicting sedition.
He manages to turn the battle by defining some of the timeframes, and proposes that he can save the future by getting an Encyclopedia Galactica built using his team, and they are moved to a small mineral-less planet called Terminus on the edge of the galaxy. Their true mission is to eventually establish a Foundation that is the core of Seldon's plan to bring order within a 1000 years. And so starts the story of the Foundation, growing out of this small set.
The story continues 50 years later with the planet being governed by the body writing the encyclopedia, not caring about what else happens. They get a visit from the neighboring provinces, one of the 4 neighboring provinces that have rebelled against the empire and become independent, but are low in technology, with no knowledge of atomics. Terminus is asked to pay tribute for protection (extortion on a planetary scale), and in lieu of minerals, to accept parceling out sections of the planet to the province and accept it as a feudal lord. A visitor from the empire is of no help. It is at the this time that Salvor Hardin, the largely powerless Mayor of Terminus shows his true skills, convincing the other provinces that the move by Anacreon is against them and winning this round. And to cement his triumph, Hari Seldon emerges in a 50 year hologram from the Time Vault and describes that the events were exactly as he expected, and that the concept of an Encyclopedia Galactica was a sham, with the true purpose being to setup the Foundation as the nucleus of a new power center.
3 decades later, the Foundation, using its vastly superior technology and knowledge of atomics, has taken over pseudo-control over the neighboring provinces through a system of science and technology transfer under the guise of a religion called Scienticism. People all over have accepted it as a valid religion, controlled by priests who are educated on Terminus and are capable of controlling the mobs on the various planets. But Terminus by itself does not have any military power of its own, instead depending on the religion to keep things under control. One person, Wiennis, the regent of Anacreon has seen through this and wants to defeat the Foundation militarily and get overall control. Towards this end, he even captures a derelict old massive Empire battleship and gets the Foundation to repair it, something that Salvator Hardin agrees to do. Hardin is under tremendous pressure from a section of his political opposition that does not like this appeasement, and they are enraged at this generosity of the Foundation. However, when Wiennis orders the attack, he finds out the true power of the religion that he endorsed. His ship, and every temple of the land is put under interdict, with the priests telling the population that Wiennis is committing blasphemy and his rebellion is defeated. However, at the end, in another emergence of Hari Seldon in the time vault, he comments about how the religion is enough for defense, but not for expansion.
These were the 2 most interesting chapters of the book, and the remaining chapters of the book talk about how the Foundation now spreads through the power of its technology and through the Merchant Princers, traders who spread the influence of the Foundation through the neighborhood, beating attempts to control this influence from spreading through means of hook or crook. The last section has an interesting story about how, when a society is hooked onto convenient and useful machines in every section of life, a war can be controlled by just denial of such machines to households in the planet.
For true science fiction adherents, this is such a book worth keeping that even buying a hardbound edition will be useful.

Hardcover

Paperback

Tom Clancy: Without Remorse

Without Remorse is an attempt by the author to explain the emergence of his other main character (the main character is Jack Ryan, but there is also a CIA operational executive called John Clark), the man who carried out a number of field operations including execution and even spying (with mention in many books such Clear and Present Danger, Sum of all Fears, Debt of Honor, Executive Orders, Rainbow Six, Bear and the Dragon). The movie is set in 1971, in the middle of the Vietnam War.
Most people know of the Vietnam War as a major disaster where the US lost 54,000 soldiers and where it had to beat a humiliating retreat, but the Vietnam War was also the one where the US military developed its special operations forces to a major extent, including the SEAL teams, trained in extraction, working behind enemy lines, underwater jobs, and enemy executions. The novel tells the story of one extraction, as well as the story of a former SEAL whose girl-fried was killed by drug dealers in a macabre way, and his revenge using all his abilities. Without Remorse refers to this fightback and the cold blooded way in which this former special operations man targets drug dealers without any pity.
In the Vietnam War, many Americans Prisoners of War were kept in bad Prisoner of War camps, ill-treated and many times not reported to the Red Cross. They were interrogated and treated very badly. It was a mission for the Special Operations team to try and extract them, but this was also a political mission, needing permissions from the political leadership, with the risk of such operations being revealed. In fact, a previous such operation had been a failure, and given that there were also peace talks ongoing, the State department did not want to agree to such operations due to the fear of the peace talks collapsing.
The hero of this book, John Kelly was a former SEAL and a hero who had taken part in many operations in Vietnam, being a part of the SOG (Special Operations Group). He is now retired, and is in pain, having lost his wife in a road accident. At this point, he meets up with Pam, who has escaped from the torture of a brutal drug dealers network where she was one of the couriers as well as the comfort women for the drug dealers. However, as she is getting cured, in an exaggerated sense of bravado, Kelly exposes her to danger and she is taken from him (while he is shot to a near death state). She is soon killed by them in a particularly brutal way.
As Kelly recovers, he learns, and and that is when he vows to use his specialities to hunt down her killers (in a pretty well written part, the nurse and his future wife, Sandy, sees death in his face, a controlled and determined death). He starts his mission of recovery while the police case does not go anywhere. He is also approached by the military for another rescue mission in Vietnam because of his knowledge of the location. For this mission training, he is given a CIA moniker, John Clark, and starts training with the military.
He also starts dealing with the drug dealers, first finding the dealer who started Pam onto the life of prostitution, killing him, and then starting to kill more of them after interrogating them to find out about the main drug dealers, no mercy involved. In fact, were it not for the fact that Clancy was writing about death and murder, those are very well-written and detailed sections. He also rescues a girl and hands her to Sandy Toole (the nurse who helped him), thus making it clear to Sandy that in fact John is doing the drug dealer killing that is making the newspapers. When this girl is also killed after being rescued, he suspects that the police is also infiltrated and is more convinced that the drug dealers need to be killed. There is a very detailed section on the interrogation of one of the capture drug dealers using a standard compression and decompression chamber.
He rescues more girls, and in a stand off, kills the drug dealers behind the killings of Pam. By now the police have identified who could be behind this, although they have no evidence against him. In his rescue mission, he fails somewhat because the rescue mission has been leaked, but he kills the brutal Camp Commander and captures a Soviet air officer who was interrogating the prisoners. This is used to transfer the prisoners to a safe location so that they would not be killed.
In the end, Kelly gives up his identify and becomes a full fledged CIA person by faking a boating accident as he is being pursued by the police and the Coast Guard.

Tom Clancy: Debt of Honor

Somehow, I have always liked reading books by Tom Clancy. His books always contain a good deal of learning about things that you read superficially about in news articles, but when you read about them as he explains them, they make much more sense. So, for example, in this book by Tom Clancy that was published in 1995, you learn about trade, about the politics that drive bills in Congress, a lot about the stock market and the working of major financial institutions, and about the military (a pet subject of Tom Clancy), as well as about the effects of a fully laden plane flying into a building.
Now, in a book about a major trade war between the US and Japan, you would expect to see a lot of Japan bashing, but it is not so obvious actually. There are many people in Japan who are depicted as weak or with ill-will towards the US, but then you have major American politicians who are also shown as weak, or philandering. So, there is some Japan bashing, but very minimal, and I am pretty sure that from what I read earlier, the depiction of the influence of businessmen in Japanese political life is accurate to a large degree.
What appeals most about Tom Clancy is how he keeps several stories running at the same time, switching between the stories from time to time and still making sense. One problem of course is doing this, giving character to the novel makes it cumbersome and a bit big to read in terms of pages (this book itself being 900 pages), but I don't mind it too much. He also plays a lot on honor, considering that too be a core attitude in a person, and he has a set of core characters who are honorable, such as the lead man, Jack Ryan, the CIA operatives, the Russian head of the spy agency, his FBI friend, and so on.
The book starts 2 years from where the previous book (The Sum of All Fears) left off, with Jack Ryan getting called back into public life and getting appointed as the National Security Advisor. He has a couple of initial successes, and then the story takes a twist on its own. A car accident and a botched gas tank leads to politics that leads to a trade war as a politician leverages on the public outrage; this action leads a disaster in terms of the Japanese trade and economy getting badly affected. The Prime Minister has to resign and a hardliner takes over, being guided by a businessman who has visions of Japan regaining old glory. The businessman has also influenced an attempt by the Japanese to develop nuclear weapons, with old Russian missile bodies being used for the delivery mechanism (ostensibly for space launchers).
The trade war escalates, with the Japanese businessman coordinating a melt-down of the storage of American stocks records, leading to a disaster as with no records, there are no established trades. In the midst of this, a planned naval exercise with Japan turns ugly for the Americans when the Japanese sink 2 submarines with all the personnel on board, and America is now at war, with a nation that also has nuclear capability.
In addition, the Americans do not have current nuclear missile capability, they do not have naval assets to take back some islands that the Japanese have taken over. In the midst of all, there is a sexual criminal scandal against the Vice-President. Jack Ryan has to deploy all his skills to win back the initiative for the Americans, and he eventually does that. The description of the military battles as well as the stock mechanisms are very detailed. The only weak point was the sudden termination of the scandal involving the Vice-President.
At the end of the book, with the Vice-President having resigned, Jack Ryan is called to be the Vice-President, at which a time a disgruntled Japanese pilot puts his fully fuel loaded plane into the Capitol Hill, killing most of Congress, the President and the Supreme Court. Jack Ryan will have to be President now.

The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October was an incredible book. First published in 1984, it was at the time when there was a height of conflict and tension between the Western Alliance and the Soviet Union. The book launched the writing career of its author, Tom Clancy, and created a new hero, Jack Ryan. Tom Clancy used this hero in many of his following novels, but The Hunt for Red October was the one that started it all. It was turned into a movie starring Sean Connery in the iconic role of Marko Ramius, the commander of the Soviet missible submarine, Red October, and Alec Baldwin as the role of Jack Ryan.
The book was incredibly researched, and the story goes that the Kremlin ordered a huge quantity of books to try and overcome their greatest fear (a captain of a missile submarine has a huge amount of independence, something not given to any other offical in any submarine, which is why the Soviet submarines had a political officer as well), and the US administration tried to identify who could have provided the detailed research to Tom Clancy.
The story revolved around the defection of the crew of the Red October, a revolutionary new Soviet missile submarine that has a new stealth propulsion system, something that can provide a major advantage to the Soviets (for information, a ballistic submarine missile has incredible firepower, read this entry), as the missiles provide both a stealth first fire capability and a quick reaction retaliatory capability. The US has an extensive underwater sonar system designed to pick up traces of an incoming submarine, but with this new capability, Red October would be able to avoid getting detected, an immense strategic advantage.
Marko Ramius, a half-Lithuanian by birth has risen high in the ranks of the Soviet navy and is now trusted with the best submarine made by the Soviet Union. However, they do not know that he is a disgruntled man, since his wife's death at the hands of a well-connected doctor was unpunished; further, he believes that Red October would provide an immense strategic advantage to the Soviet navy. He decides to defect, and then sends a letter to the Navy Secretary informing of his intention to defect and sail to New Yoork Harbor. This letter reaches once he has set sail.
The panic stricken Soviets send the entire North Atlantic fleet after him, although they realize that sending the fleet within a 400 km distance to the American coast could be seen as a tremendous escalation, so they inform the Americans that Marko sent a letter claiming that he will launch missiles against the US, which is why the massive Soviet fleet is chasing him.
In a meeting with the US President and other officers, Jack Ryan, a new CIA analyst (supposedly joining the CIA in another novel, Patriot Games), mentions that maybe he is trying to defect. He is charged with the responsibility of coordinating this, as too many people actually don't believe him.
In order to make it seem that the submarine has actually sunk, Red October declares an emergency, and gets most of the crew off, with the captain staying behind in order to sink the submarine. However, in a gun-fight on board the submarine, a GRU (Soviet military intelligence) agent uses a gun against the captain and his officer, and tries to blow up the submarine. Ryan finally kills him after a gun-fight.
In another tension filled event, the captain of a Soviet attack submarine, and a former pupil of Ramius, recognizes the submarine he is trailing is the Red October and tries to sink it. The US subs accompanying the Red October are unable to fire back, but eventually Red October rams this submarine and sinks it. And finally the Red October is guided into a US navy base. And in order to convince the Soviets that it was Red October that sank, the Americans place a device on the deep ocean floor that convinces the Soviets.
This was a compelling novel, something that was very exciting to read and also approve of the detail that went into writing this book.