| At the end of the prologue
to Clear and Present Danger, Clancy writes, "And so began
something that had not quite begun and would not soon end,
with many people in many places moving off in directions and
on missions which they all mistakenly thought they understood.
That was just as well. The future was too fearful for contemplation,
and beyond the expected, illusory finish lines were things
fated by the decisions made this morning--and, once decided,
best unseen." In Clear and Present Danger nothing is
as clear as it may seem.
The president, unsatisfied with the success of his "war
on drugs," decides that he wants some immediate success.
But after John Clark's covert strike team is deployed to
Colombia for Operation Showboat, the drug lords strike back
taking several civilian casualties. The chief executive's
polls plummet. He orders Ritter to terminate their unofficial
plan and leave no traces. Jack Ryan, who has just been named
CIA deputy director of intelligence is enraged when he discovers
that has been left out of the loop of Colombian operations.
Several of America's most highly trained soldiers are stranded
in an unfinished mission that, according to all records,
never existed. Ryan decides to get the men out.
Ultimately, Clear and Present Danger is about good conscience,
law, and politics, with Jack Ryan and CIA agent John Clark
as its dual heroes. Ryan relentlessly pursues what he knows
is right and legal, even if it means confronting the president
of the United States. Clark is the perfect soldier, but
a man who finally holds his men higher than the orders of
any careless commander.
Along with the usual, stunning array of military hardware
and the latest techno-gadgets, Clear and Present Danger
further develops the relationships and characters that Clancy
fans have grown to love. Admiral James Greer passes the
CIA torch to his pupil, Ryan. Mr. Clark and Chavez meet
for the first time. Other recurring characters like Robert
Ritter and "the President" add continuity to Clancy's
believable, alternate reality. This is Clancy at his best.
Clear and Present Danger is a novel by Tom Clancy, written in 1989, part of his series featuring the character Jack Ryan. In the novel, Ryan becomes unwillingly involved in a covert war against drug barons in Colombia.
Many of the central characters from Without Remorse reappear in this story, which is set about 15 years earlier, but actually published 4 years later. Clancy’s interweaving of the storylines is quite comfortable, without the inconsistencies that sometimes occur when authors try to connect two separate stories.
The central theme in this book is the ethics of use of military force; for what purpose is use of military might appropriate, what are the proper checks and balances, and lastly what can happen in a scenario where military force is used for personal gains? The topic of military force naturally flows into the more controversial issue of collateral damage. This is raised on all levels, from Ding Chavez shamefully considering that he just killed a peasant, not a trained enemy soldier, to the President realizing the potential political costs of having killed the wife and children of one of the drug lords.
The second theme permeating the story is loyalty. How can one choose whom to be loyal to in an imperfect world with no black and white, only shades of grey? While believing in radically different ideologies, these questions are central to the thoughts of Ryan, who is being kept in the dark, and his counterpart on the other side, Cortez, who receives much less respect than he believes he deserves from his criminal masters.
The book was made into a movie (1994), starring Harrison Ford as Ryan, with several significant alterations to the plot.
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