History Literature / ClearAndPresentDanger

** In ''much'' lesser measure, Clark with the Cartel. He despises drug dealing and organized crime on a very personal level, but is also a veteran Cold Warrior and as such appreciates the Cartel's very successful history of taking on Marxist terrorist cells in Colombia.

* YouAreInCommandNow: [[spoiler:Bill Shaw ends up becoming the new FBI Director upon Emil Jacobs's death]].

* OddFriendship: Alan Trent, who was introduced in ''Literature/CardinalOfTheKremlin'', is first seen in the company of Sam Fellows, a Mormon from Arizona, at the end of the novel [[spoiler:when they force the President to throw the election to Fowler]].

* AscendedExtra: After a small but very popular appearance in ''Literature/CardinalOfTheKremlin'', John Clark is given a major supporting role in this novel.

* ArtisticLicense[=/=]AnachronismStew: In the real world, 1988 featured UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush running against Michael Dukakis, since it was impossible for UsefulNotes/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. But this is impossible, since ''Red October'', which has the same President, clearly states that December 3rd took place on a Friday that year, which makes it only possible to happen in one of four years in the post-Vietnam, pre-2000 era: 1976 (Impossible as Ryan would have still been in college at that time), 1982 (''Red Rabbit'', which takes place before ''Red October'' is explicitly stated to take place in this year), 1993, or 1999. This gets more confusing in later novels where Clancy treats the Reagan and Bush presidencies as happening as normal.

* GenreSavvy: Most of the U.S. government officials have read-up on previous government scandals and do there best to avoid the pitfalls of their predecessors.
** FBI Director Jacobs correctly deduces that the Colombia mission is likely to spiral out of control and will blow up in their faces before too long.
** Every time the President gives orders to Ritter or Cutter about turning the Colombia operation into a personal revenge mission, he makes sure to be as vague and oblique as possible so the tape recorders he has running will show he never actually ordered any explicit assassinations. To his credit, Cutter figures this out and responds by making his answers equally vague.

** Bob Ritter, being [[GenreSavvy a veteran of Washington politics]], knows full well he needs to cover his ass and so forces Admiral Cutter to provide him with one. Unlike in the film adaptation, this is treated as covering the CIA and its assets in general, rather than just Ritter personally.

* GenreSavvy:

** Every time the President gives orders to Ritter or Cutter about turning the Colombia operation into a personal revenge mission, he makes sure to be as vague and oblique as possible so the tape recorders he has running will show he never actually ordered any explicit assassinations.

* ArtisticLicense[=/=]AnachronismStew: In the real world, 1988 featured UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush running against Michael Dukakis, since it was impossible for UsefulNotes/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. But this is impossible, since ''Red October'', which has the same President, clearly states that December 3rd took place on a Friday that year, which makes it only possible to happen in one of four years in the post-Vietnam, pre-2000 era: 1976 (Impossible as Ryan would have still been in college at that time), 1982 (''Red Rabbit'', which takes place before ''Red October'' is explicitly stated to take place in this year), 1993, or 1999). This gets more confusing in later novels where Clancy treats the Reagan and Bush presidencies as happening as normal.

* ArmchairMilitary: Discussed by John Clark who promises that if the American teams don't survive then the REMF (rear echelon motherfucker) who abandoned them is going to die. He wasn't kidding.

* GenreSavvy: FBI Director Jacobs correctly deduces that the Colombia mission is likely to spiral out of control and will blow up in their faces before too long.

In the midst of an election year, the President decides that he must show the voters that he is taking a hard line against drugs. His new National Security Advisor, Vice Admiral James Cutter, takes charge and enlists the CIA in order to conduct offensive operations against the Medellín Cartel. At the same time, Jack Ryan finds himself assuming the position of DDI due to his mentor James Greer succumbing to pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, things soon spiral out of control and Ryan must find a way to stop things before too much damage is done to the government.

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 Badass Duo.

* ArtisticLicense[=/=]AnachronismStew: In the real world, 1988 featured UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush running against Michael Dukakis, since it was impossible for UsefulNotes/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.

** Bob Ritter, being [[GenreSavvy a veteran of Washington politics]], knows full well he needs to cover his ass and so forces Admiral Cutter to provide him with one.

** This is reciprocated by the United States when they decide to start using the ''SHOWBOAT'' teams to hit Cartel processing sites, 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.

* 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 and eventually does make moves to do as such.

* TheCavalry: After everything goes to hell, 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. The records the FBI discover in his home lead to ''Operation TARPON''.

* DrivenToSuicide: Moira attempts suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills, after she finds out that she was used by Cortez for the information that was used in the attack on the FBI in Bogota.

* EnemyCivilWar: Part of John Clark's ''RECIPROCITY'' operation after FBI Director Emil Jacobs is killed by the Medellin Cartel.

* FalseFlagOperation: Part of Clark's plan to destroy the Cartel from within is to make them think that their own members are bombing each other.

** TheCartel's decision to 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 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.

** After 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. This has a direct impact on the election rhetoric, putting even more pressure on the President.

* ItsAllMyFault: Moira Wolfe, on discovering that she was used by Cortez, and that the information she gave directly resulted in Emil Jacobs's death, attempts suicide because of this.

** When the Cartel discover the implications of Operation ''TARPON'', and 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 one scene, Ritter explains to Cutter 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'').
** More generally, the CIA deliberately select for this trope, picking for their operation military men they feel will be angry about drugs - the Gunnery Sergeant in Command of the Recon Marines who receive the intercepted drug flights, for instance, served in Vietnam and saw a platoon wiped out by the Vietcong because some of them were doing drugs.

* 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.

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: In later novels, it's noted that at the time, [[spoiler:Carol Zimmer]] was pregnant with her husband's eighth child, and was planning to surprise him with it the next time he came home.

* WeHaveReserves: Invoked by Cortez when he sends hundreds of Cartel gunmen to eliminate the ''SHOWBOAT'' teams based on the information provided by Cutter. In addition to killing the U.S. soldiers, he wants to reduce the Cartel's available manpower so that he can make his power grab.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Bill Shaw ends up becoming the new FBI Director upon Emil Jacobs's death.