History Literature / ClearAndPresentDanger

* CoastGuard: USCGC ''Panache'' plays a very prominent role.

* ArtisticLicense[=/=]AnachronismStew: In the real world, 1988 featured UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush running against Michael Dukakis, since it was impossible for RonaldReagan, who got elected in 1980, to run for a third term. However, for the purposes of the story, the President in the last two novels was elected to his first term in 1984, theoretically making him either Harold Stassen or Walter Mondale. This gets more confusing in later novels where Clancy treats the Reagan and Bush presidencies as happening as normal.

* FamilyMan: Buck Zimmer, Colonel Johns's crew chief, is happily married and has seven children. [[spoiler:After he dies in the ''ODYSSEY'' rescue operation, Ryan takes it upon himself to look after his wife and eight children.]]

* TrainingFromHell: The ''SHOWBOAT'' teams train for their mission in the Colorado mountains, where the oxygen level is very low, in order to prepare themselves for operations in the Columbian mountains. They don't try playing the DrillSergeantNasty version, though, specifically because the troops are all combat experienced and wouldn't stand for it.

* BeleagueredAssistant: Cortez to Escobedo, and subsequently to the rest of the Cartel. It's specifically noted by Ritter that whatever brains the Cartel don't have, they hire. Cortez laments several times throughout the novel that he could easily replace the men he works for [[spoiler:and eventually does make moves to do as such]].

* TheCavalry: After everything goes to hell, [[spoiler:Ryan and Clark help organize a rescue for the troops left behind on the ground, with the Pave Low, their MC-130 support, Larson's King Beech, and the ''Panache'' all playing big roles]].

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The owner of the ''Empire Builder'' has laundered money for the Cartel on a massive scale, and his elimination was due to the Cartel discovering that he had been skimming off the top. [[spoiler:The records the FBI discover in his home lead to ''Operation TARPON''.]]
* CorruptCop: Ernie Braden, a detective in the Mobile police force, was hired by the Cartel to search for and steal evidence prior to the hit being put on the Corrupt Corporate Executive above. [[spoiler:His failure to discover the records subsequently result in the Cartel putting a hit on him.]]

* EnemyCivilWar: Part of John Clark's ''RECIPROCITY'' operation after [[spoiler:FBI Director Emil Jacobs is killed by the Medellin Cartel]].
* ExactWords: Ryan and Murray promise [[spoiler:Cortez]] that he won't be prosecuted. True to Ryan's word, he isn't prosecuted. [[spoiler:He's handed back to his former agency in Cuba, where his fate is most likely to be far less pleasant than what it could be under the US criminal justice system.]]

** Exploited by the Mobile Police Department, who use a combination of this and ThePowerOfLove to [[spoiler: convince two armed robbers to murder the pirates who kick off the novel.]]

* FakeKillScare: The Coasties get a drug-runner to talk by pretending to hang his collaborator from the lanyard with a hood over his head. [[spoiler:A pad of gauze soaked in ether, hidden inside the hood, knocks him out.]]
* FalseFlagOperation: Part of Clark's plan to [[spoiler:destroy the Cartel from within]].
* FieryCoverup: [[spoiler:When Clark discovers the remains of Team ''Banner'''s men after they run into a Cartel hunting party, he burns the bodies in order to cover up American involvement in the operation. He later confronts Ritter about this, saying that he's never burned the body of a friendly before, and didn't like being forced to.]]
* GeneralFailure: Vice Admiral Cutter, by sheer incompetence, manages to [[spoiler:escalate the US operations in Columbia to illegal levels. To make matters worse, Cortez discovers US involvement and then blackmails Cutter into assisting him in his power grab, which involves betraying the ''SHOWBOAT'' teams and leaving them to die]].
* GetOutOfJailFreeCard: Largely averted, since, as mentioned by [[spoiler:new FBI Director]] Bill Shaw, none of the order-followers throughout the whole operation actually broke the law since they believed that they were following legitimate, legal orders from above.

** TheCartel's decision to [[spoiler:assassinate the US Ambassador the Director of the FBI, and the head of the DEA]] displays a tenacious grip on the IdiotBall. Cortez is the only one that realizes this.
** This is reciprocated by the United States when they decide to [[spoiler:start using the ''SHOWBOAT'' teams to hit Cartel processing cites, which essentially is an act of war against Columbia since they're now technically using armed soldiers to kill Columbian citizens inside of their borders]].
* InnocentBystander: Many.
** After [[spoiler:the Cartel eliminate Emil Jacobs]], Cutter's response is to approve a surgical bombing of a Cartel meeting. Of course, the bomb isn't as surgical as he deluded himself to believe, resulting in the deaths of various Cartel heads' family members and servants. [[spoiler:This has a direct impact on the election rhetoric, putting even more pressure on the President.]]
** When the ''SHOWBOAT'' teams commence operations [[spoiler:hitting Cartel processing sites, it's implied that many of the peasants who do the dirty work have no other choice to feed their families]].
** Ernie Braden's wife happens to catch a stray round when [[spoiler:Cartel hitmen murder him in his front yard, and she later dies in the hospital]].
* ItsAllMyFault: Moira Wolfe, on discovering that she was used by Cortez, [[spoiler:and that the information she gave directly resulted in Emil Jacobs's death]], attempts suicide because of this.
* ItsPersonal: Many.

** When the Cartel discover the implications of Operation ''TARPON'', and [[spoiler:that Emil Jacobs would be flying to Columbia to meet with their Attorney General, they make the rash decision to murder him. Of course, this results in compromising Moira Wolfe, the FBI source who gave Cortez the information]].
** In response to the above, the President [[spoiler:gives Ritter a "hunting license with no bag limit," which results in the killing of various Cartel heads, as well as the ''SHOWBOAT'' teams attacking Cartel drug processing sites]].

* TheKillerBecomesTheKilled: The Alabama police use some wildly illegal and creative means to get two black felons to [[spoiler: murder Ramon and Jesus, the pirates, after their lawyer gets them off.]]
** Not even off; the two men are almost certain to get life imprisonment, the Mobile PD don't like the idea of them ''surviving at all''.
* LastStand: [[spoiler:the Battle of Ninja Hill, in which fifteen US Army soldiers take on 200 Cartel gunmen. While the ''SHOWBOAT'' teams manage to kill close to half of the gunmen and wound most of the rest, only five of them end up surviving, with one of them captured and later killed.]]
* LeaveBehindAPistol: [[spoiler:Admiral Cutter is given the "choice" by Clark of facing trial for flagrant violations of U.S. and international law. He chooses the "easy" way out by stepping in front of a bus. Later novels strongly imply that Clark did this entirely on his own initiative.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The United States's response to the Cartel for [[spoiler:murdering Director Jacobs]].

* RuthlessModernPirates: The Cartel fit this, more or less.
* ShootOutTheLock: Larson shoots out the lock at an airplane strip where [[spoiler:Colonel Johns's chopper lands to refuel before heading out to ''Panache''.]] Though it ''is'' slightly {{justified|Trope}} in that he uses five rounds to do so and specifically aims to separate the lock mechanism from the door.

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler:In later novels, it's noted the at the time, Carol Zimmer was pregnant with Buck's eighth child, and was planning to surprise him with it the next time he came home.]]
* SwissBankAccount: The Cartel launder their money through an intricate network set up by an Alabama businessman, which was almost untraceable. However, [[spoiler:once it's cracked by Operation ''TARPON'', it inflicts a net loss on the Cartel on the order of half a billion dollars. Keep in mind, these are 1988 dollars, so the result is equivalent to ''over'' a billion dollars today]].

* TheStarscream: Cortez, after [[spoiler:the Cartel make the decision to murder Jacobs in response to ''TARPON'']].
* TitleDrop
* TrainingFromHell: The ''SHOWBOAT'' teams train for their mission in the Colorado mountains, where the oxygen level is very low, in order to prepare themselves for operations in the Columbian mountains.
** Subverted somewhat in that the training is conducted in a relaxed manner, with none of the pettiness of bootcamp. The ''SHOWBOAT'' troops are all mature enough to get on with the task at hand without being continually shouted at by drill instructors.
* WeHaveReserves: Invoked by Cortez when he sends hundreds of Cartel gunmen [[spoiler:to eliminate the ''SHOWBOAT'' teams based on the information provided by Cutter]]. It ends up being a ploy to deliberately reduce the Cartel's available manpower so that he can make his power grab.
* YouAreInCommandNow: [[spoiler:Bill Shaw ends up becoming the new FBI Director upon Emil Jacobs's death.]]

* TakeThat: Clancy wrote the novel after the Iran-Contra scandal broke, and wrapped in elements of the VietnamWar, to highlight what he saw as political operators making mistakes with covert operations for obscure, unjustified, and sometimes illegal goals.

* ArtisticLicense[=/=]AnachronismStew: In the real world, 1988 featured GeorgeHWBush running against Michael Dukakis, since it was impossible for RonaldReagan, who got elected in 1980, to run for a third term. However, for the purposes of the story, the President in the last two novels was elected to his first term in 1984, theoretically making him either Harold Stassen or Walter Mondale. This gets more confusing in later novels where Clancy treats the Reagan and Bush presidencies as happening as normal.

* BoringYetPractical: Invoked by the Director Jacobs, who argues that, instead of covert special operations and bombing, good, honest police work can do much more to sink the Cartel. He makes a pretty good case, seeing as how Operation TARPON makes by far the biggest hole in the Cartel's power.

** Bronco Winters, who pilots the F-15 that takes part in Operation ''EAGLE EYE'', accepted the job because his mother was killed by a druggie when he was a child.

** In one scene, Bob Ritter explains to another character that John Clark is more than happy to go after the Cartel because Clark's former girlfriend was murdered by a drug-dealing pimp (referring to events that would later be depicted in the John Clark OriginStory novel, ''Literature/WithoutRemorse'').

* RoaringRampageofRevenge: The United States's response to the Cartel for [[spoiler:murdering Director Jacobs]].

* TheBigGuy: Julio Vega, who would later become a recurring character, is introduced in this novel, and given his nickname, ''[[EverythingIsWorseWithBears Oso]]''. A staple of this and later novels is that he's so tough that a hundred pushups a day doesn't generate even a drop of sweat for him.

The novel is notable for introducing {{Badass}} John Clark as a regularly recurring character, after the popularity he enjoyed in ''Literature/CardinalOfTheKremlin'', as well as Domingo "Ding" Chavez, who would later become the other half of Clark's BadassDuo.

The novel is notable for introducing {{Badass}} John Clark as a regularly recurring character, after the popularity he enjoyed in ''Literature/CardinalOfTheKremlin''.

* BleageuredAssistant: Cortez to Escobedo, and subsequently to the rest of the Cartel. It's specifically noted by Ritter that whatever brains the Cartel don't have, they hire. Cortez laments several times throughout the novel that he could easily replace the men he works for [[spoiler:and eventually does make moves to do as such]].

''Clear and Present Danger'' is the third Literature/JackRyan novel written by Creator/TomClancy. It is the fifth chronological book, published in 1989 and taking place in 1988.

* ActionDuo
* ActionSurvivor
* BoringYetPractical: Invoked by the Director of the FBI, who argues that, instead of covert special operations and bombing, good, honest policework can do much more to sink the Cartel. He makes a pretty good case, seeing as how Operation TARPON makes by far the biggest hole in the Cartel's power.

* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: John Clark does this successfully to Admiral Cutter.
* DerelictGraveyard: "Bronco" speculates that the [[http://www.amarcexperience.com/AMARCDescription.asp Boneyard]] in Arizona is where the a captured druggie [=DC-7B=] will eventually be dumped, given that one more old aircraft in storage there won't be particularly noteworthy.

* EnemyCivilWar: Part of the plan for a CIA operation after Emil Jacobs is killed by the Medellin Cartel.
* ExactWords: Jack Ryan says to [[spoiler:Cortez]] that he won't be prosecuted. True to Ryan's word, he isn't prosecuted. [[spoiler:He's handed back to his former agency in Cuba, where his fate is most likely to be far less pleasant than what it could be under the US criminal justice system.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Cortez has the mindset of a professional intelligence officer, so while he mostly has a lot of PragmaticVillainy moments, he does show genuine disgust with the methods used by the Cartel to intimidate their rivals (even paraphrasing RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil at one point).

* EveryBulletIsATracer: Averted. When tracers are used (particularly in the miniguns on the Pave Low helicopters), it's specifically mentioned that only one out of X bullets is a tracer round, for the purposes of assisting with aim[[labelnote:*]]miniguns aren't equipped with sights, as they're for area denial and not precision shooting[[/labelnote]]. Given [[GatlingGood minigun]] [[MoreDakka rate of fire]], it's also mentioned that it looks like a laser beam at full "rock and roll".
* FakeKillScare: The Coasties get a pirate to talk by pretending to hang him from the lanyard with a hood over his head. [[spoiler:A pad of gauze soaked in ether, hidden inside the hood, knocks him out.]] His pal falls for it and blabs.
* FalseFlagOperation
* FriendlySniper: Domingo "Ding" Chavez, who becomes a major recurring character in later Clancy books.
* GetOutOfJailFreeCard: Those involved in the illegal conflict are given one to protect the CIA from the consequences of their actions.
* HollywoodHacking: Averted.
* HomeFieldAdvantage: The American Special Operations team initially slaughters the cartel soldiers sent to kill them. However, the cartel soldiers wise up and start using the familiar terrain to their advantage and turn the tide.
* IdiotBall: TheCartel's decision to assassinate the US Ambassador and the Director of the FBI displays a tenacious grip on the IdiotBall. Cortez is the only one that realizes this.

* LeaveBehindAPistol: Admiral Cutter is confronted by Clark with committing suicide or facing trial for flagrant violations of U.S. and international law. He chooses the "easy" way out. Later novels strongly imply that Clark did this entirely on his own initiative.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Ernesto Escobedo is an obvious stand-in for infamous Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
* OddFriendship: Alan Trent, a gay Democrat from Massachusetts and Sam Fellows, a Mormon Republican from Arizona.
* PuppetGun
* RightManInTheWrongPlace
* RunningGag: "Plus change."
* RuthlessModernPirates
* ShootOutTheLock: Larson [[spoiler:shoots out the lock at an airplane strip where Colonel Johns's chopper lands to refuel before heading out to ''Panache''.]] Though it ''is'' slightly {{justified|Trope}} in that he uses five rounds to do so and specifically aims to separate the lock mechanism from the door.
* SmugSnake: Ernesto Escobedo's default attitude towards America and Americans.
* SpySpeak
* TheStarscream: Bob Ritter, who ditches Cutter as soon as is practicable.

* WesternTerrorists

''Clear and Present Danger'' is a Literature/JackRyan novel by Creator/TomClancy.

Ryan must investigate the murder of a life-long friend of the POTUS in relation to what appears to be a drug cartel in Columbia, only to be pulled into a war illegally started by the US government.

The [[Film/ClearAndPresentDanger 1994 film adaptation]] starred Creator/HarrisonFord as Ryan.

* TheCartel

''Clear and Present Danger'' is a Literature/JackRyan novel by TomClancy.

* HarsherInHindsight: How much Clancy got right about the drug war in Columbia is borderline prescient. To start with, Operation CAPER involves intercepting cell-phone calls in order to gather actionable intelligence against the cartels; in the 80's to the early 90's, American ELINT-gathering units of the ISA, then known as Centra Spike, were crucial in dismantling the operations of the biggest cartel in Columbia at the time, the Medellin Cartel. Next, it is decided to make the laser-guided bomb strikes against significant cartel heads look like the actions of disaffected anti-government guerillas; in real-life, vengeful vigilante groups like Los Pepes began to lash out against the cartels as the body count from narcoterrorist acts began to rise. Then, Escobedo, an expy of the real-life Pablo Escobar, is brought down by the light infantry team headed by John Clark. The real-life Pablo Escobar was killed in a raid by a unit specially trained by US Special Forces advisors, with the very real evidence that those same advisors had taken part in those raids (it is speculated that Escobar was actually killed by a Delta Force sniper covering the Columbian assault team).

* HarsherinHindsight: How much Clancy got right about the drug war in Columbia is borderline prescient. To start with, Operation CAPER involves intercepting cell-phone calls in order to gather actionable intelligence against the cartels; in the 80's to the early 90's, American ELINT-gathering units of the ISA, then known as Centra Spike, were crucial in dismantling the operations of the biggest cartel in Columbia at the time, the Medellin Cartel. Next, it is decided to make the laser-guided bomb strikes against significant cartel heads look like the actions of disaffected anti-government guerillas; in real-life, vengeful vigilante groups like Los Pepes began to lash out against the cartels as the body count from narcoterrorist acts began to rise. Then, Escobedo, an expy of the real-life Pablo Escobar, is brought down by the light infantry team headed by John Clark. The real-life Pablo Escobar was killed in a raid by a unit specially trained by US Special Forces advisors, with the very real evidence that those same advisors had taken part in those raids (it is speculated that Escobar was actually killed by a Delta Force sniper covering the Columbian assault team).

* LeaveBehindAPistol

* SmugSnake