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* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Clancy first shows his lack of understanding about economic systems in this novel, and gets worse in later books.
** A big deal is made about crashing the US stock market by exploiting "expert systems" to drive down the value of everything by making it look like banks are unstable. A bank run, in which customers demand their money be pulled from banks all at once[[note]]due to concerns about the viability and stability of the bank itself[[/note]] requires ''far more'' than just having the stock value drop, even precipitously. While it's certainly possible to cause a momentary panic, it would not be an enduring panic. Also, the idea that causing chaos in the stock market would paralyze the US economy implies that the stock market ''is'' the US economy, which is so very wrong.
*** On top of that, FDIC insurance (and the equivalent for credit unions, NCUA insurance) means that 99% of depositors at a bank will lose nothing if the bank fails. The other 1% are the very rich, who diversify their deposits specifically to maximize their FDIC/NCUA insurance anyway. As for corporate accounts, they have similar insurance.
** His scenes showing the Federal Reserve discussing interest rates reads like a first-year economic student's understanding of supply and demand ("more money chasing fewer products leads to inflation"). While technically accurate, inflationary pressures and the ability of interest rates to curb them is much more nuanced.
** The Trade Reform Act is a truly ridiculous piece of legislation, going through committee votes, then the House and the Senate is about a ''week''. Trade legislation takes ''months'' if not ''years'' to implement, and the reason is because harming global trade causes recessions, and not just in the country being hit by the restrictions. Clancy implies that the US is best served by protecting their own interests and domestic manufacturing to lower imports ''and'' exports, essentially "making things in America for Americans". This is a trade practice called ''mercantilism'', and is ''actively harmful'' to the country, as shown by the ''many'' historical implementations of it where economies ended up underperforming because they didn't have export markets and refused to import needed goods.
** The idea of an economic war, in which countries collude to attack a nation's currency value, is completely bogus. Governments do not trade currency holdings, corporations and investors do, and even that is nebulous, as an investor will hold a nation's treasury notes, not their currency, and treasury notes are less about their value and more about their earnings[[note]]The value of a US Treasury Note, say a 1-year T-Note, is the face value, plus the interest. The interest is ''fixed'' for the life of the T-Note, so if you buy a 1-year T-Note at $100 and a 10% rate, after a year when you sell it, it will be worth $110, guaranteed. That $10 is the earnings, and ''that's'' what people want. But those earnings are guaranteed because the interest rate on the note is fixed when it's bought. You can't sell it for $111, because it's not worth that much, and you wouldn't sell it for $109, because it's worth more than that. The only time you would sell for less than the note is worth is if you're afraid the US government isn't going to pay out at the end of the term, something that has ''never happened in the history of modern government debt''[[/note]]. And besides, lowering the value of a country's currency relative to other currencies has much more to do with the Gross Domestic Product and ''implied'' value than who holds what currency and how much they're trading it for.
** A big deal is made about crashing the US stock market by exploiting "expert systems" to drive down the value of everything by making it look like banks are unstable. A bank run, in which customers demand their money be pulled from banks all at once[[note]]due to concerns about the viability and stability of the bank itself[[/note]] requires ''far more'' than just having the stock value drop, even precipitously. While it's certainly possible to cause a momentary panic, it would not be an enduring panic. Also, the idea that causing chaos in the stock market would paralyze the US economy implies that the stock market ''is'' the US economy, which is so very wrong.
*** On top of that, FDIC insurance (and the equivalent for credit unions, NCUA insurance) means that 99% of depositors at a bank will lose nothing if the bank fails. The other 1% are the very rich, who diversify their deposits specifically to maximize their FDIC/NCUA insurance anyway. As for corporate accounts, they have similar insurance.
** His scenes showing the Federal Reserve discussing interest rates reads like a first-year economic student's understanding of supply and demand ("more money chasing fewer products leads to inflation"). While technically accurate, inflationary pressures and the ability of interest rates to curb them is much more nuanced.
** The Trade Reform Act is a truly ridiculous piece of legislation, going through committee votes, then the House and the Senate is about a ''week''. Trade legislation takes ''months'' if not ''years'' to implement, and the reason is because harming global trade causes recessions, and not just in the country being hit by the restrictions. Clancy implies that the US is best served by protecting their own interests and domestic manufacturing to lower imports ''and'' exports, essentially "making things in America for Americans". This is a trade practice called ''mercantilism'', and is ''actively harmful'' to the country, as shown by the ''many'' historical implementations of it where economies ended up underperforming because they didn't have export markets and refused to import needed goods.
** The idea of an economic war, in which countries collude to attack a nation's currency value, is completely bogus. Governments do not trade currency holdings, corporations and investors do, and even that is nebulous, as an investor will hold a nation's treasury notes, not their currency, and treasury notes are less about their value and more about their earnings[[note]]The value of a US Treasury Note, say a 1-year T-Note, is the face value, plus the interest. The interest is ''fixed'' for the life of the T-Note, so if you buy a 1-year T-Note at $100 and a 10% rate, after a year when you sell it, it will be worth $110, guaranteed. That $10 is the earnings, and ''that's'' what people want. But those earnings are guaranteed because the interest rate on the note is fixed when it's bought. You can't sell it for $111, because it's not worth that much, and you wouldn't sell it for $109, because it's worth more than that. The only time you would sell for less than the note is worth is if you're afraid the US government isn't going to pay out at the end of the term, something that has ''never happened in the history of modern government debt''[[/note]]. And besides, lowering the value of a country's currency relative to other currencies has much more to do with the Gross Domestic Product and ''implied'' value than who holds what currency and how much they're trading it for.
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[[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/debtofhonor.jpg]]
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* YouWatchTooMuchX: Kiyoshi Kaneda, Yamata's [[TheDragon Dragon]], watches samurai dramas on TV; in the opinion of his captive, Prime Minister Koga, the man doubtlessly likens himself to the ''ronin'' characters from one of them, which Koga finds absurd since the feudal caste system, including the samurai, has been abolished for two hundred years. When Clark and Chavez burst into the room to rescue Koga, Kaneda is gunned down before he can clear his pistol from its shoulder holster - which, Clark notes, is obviously something he picked up from a movie, since real professionals know the things are worse than useless if you need to draw your gun quickly.
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* YouWatchTooMuchX: Kiyoshi Kaneda, Yamata's [[TheDragon Dragon]], watches samurai dramas on TV; in the opinion of his captive, Prime Minister Koga, the man doubtlessly likens himself to the ''ronin'' ''{{ronin}}'' characters from one of them, which Koga finds absurd since the feudal caste system, including the samurai, has been abolished for two hundred years. When Clark and Chavez burst into the room to rescue Koga, Kaneda is gunned down before he can clear his pistol from its shoulder holster - which, Clark notes, is obviously something he picked up from a movie, since real professionals know the things are worse than useless if you need to draw your gun quickly.
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* YouWatchTooMuchX: Kiyoshi Kaneda, Yamata's [[TheDragon Dragon]], watches samurai dramas on TV; in the opinion of his captive, Prime Minister Koga, the man doubtlessly likens himself to the ''ronin'' characters from one of them, which Koga finds absurd since the feudal caste system, including the samurai, has been abolished for two hundred years. When Clark and Chavez burst into the room to rescue Koga, Kaneda is gunned down before he can clear his pistol from its shoulder holster - which, Clark notes, is obviously something he picked up from a movie, since real professionals know the things are worse than useless if you need to draw your gun quickly.
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Overprotective Dad has been disambiguated
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* DatingWhatDaddyHates: A minor example, combined with a hint of OverprotectiveDad and LikeFatherLikeSon. Chavez dates Clark's daughter, Patsy, starting in this novel, and while Clark doesn't actually object, he can't help but notice the similarities between Chavez and himself.
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* DatingWhatDaddyHates: A minor example, combined with a hint of OverprotectiveDad and LikeFatherLikeSon. Chavez dates Clark's daughter, Patsy, starting in this novel, and while Clark doesn't actually object, he can't help but notice the similarities between Chavez and himself.
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* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Averted. When Yamata's plans are foiled and Japanese soldiers arrive to arrest him for treason, he asks for "a few minutes alone" during which he intends to commit suicide. His request is denied, as the soldiers are under very specific orders to bring him in alive.]]
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* TheDragon: Kenada, who is Yamata's bodyguard and chief enforcer. He is the man who murdered [[spoiler:Kimberly Norton and later in the novel he also kidnaps Koga. Koga himself believes that Kenada is a member of the Yakuza.]]
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** The unnamed assassin who pushes the Federal Reserve Chairman in front of a taxi cab while the financial crisis is unfolding disappears and is never heard from again.
** Chuck Searls, the computer programmer responsible for the "Easter egg" that caused the financial crisis, flees the United States for an island in the Caribbean and apparently gets away scot-free.
** Chuck Searls, the computer programmer responsible for the "Easter egg" that caused the financial crisis, flees the United States for an island in the Caribbean and apparently gets away scot-free.
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* RareVehicles:
** The F-22 Raptor and RAH-66 Comanche, which depending on how loosely one interprets the "around 1995" setting, may or may not have actually flown at the time of the novel.[[note]]The F-22 first flew in 1997 and the Comanche in 1996.[[/note]] Somewhat justified, as both aircraft are explicitly depicted as prototype, "the only ones in existence" planes, though it's notable that the novel has more Comanches taking part in the mission to Japan (3) than were ever actually built (2).
** On the Japanese side, the E-767s are depicted as being essentially as rare as they are in real life, though their detection capabilities are heavily exaggerated.
** The F-22 Raptor and RAH-66 Comanche, which depending on how loosely one interprets the "around 1995" setting, may or may not have actually flown at the time of the novel.[[note]]The F-22 first flew in 1997 and the Comanche in 1996.[[/note]] Somewhat justified, as both aircraft are explicitly depicted as prototype, "the only ones in existence" planes, though it's notable that the novel has more Comanches taking part in the mission to Japan (3) than were ever actually built (2).
** On the Japanese side, the E-767s are depicted as being essentially as rare as they are in real life, though their detection capabilities are heavily exaggerated.
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** The Japanese E-767, an AWACS on steroids, is this for the Japanese. Not only is it superior to an E-3 in virtually all categories, it can actually direct missiles at targets for its fighters, effectively making it an airborne Aegis cruiser.
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** The Japanese E-767, an AWACS on steroids, is this for the Japanese. Not only is it superior to an E-3 in virtually all categories, it can actually direct missiles at targets for its fighters, effectively making it an airborne Aegis cruiser. Similarly to the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, the book features more of these aircraft (ten) than were ever actually constructed (four).
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* DeadlyEscapeMechanism: Discussed with regards to submarine escape trunks.[[note]]airlock-like chambers which allow a sub's crew to escape the boat while submerged[[/note]] Jones derisively refers to them as "the mom's hatch" - something sailors could point out to their families to calm their nerves, but practically useless in an actual emergency.
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However, unknown to him and the rest of the world, a Japanese conglomerate owner, Raizo Yamata, plots to destroy the United States and turn Japan into a global superpower in its place. Conspiring with powerful military and political figures in India and China, Yamata aims to bring ruin to the United States now that the US military has been greatly downsized due to the diminishment of the Soviet armed forces.
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However, unknown to him and the rest of the world, a Japanese conglomerate owner, Raizo Yamata, plots to destroy the United States and turn Japan into a global superpower in its place. Conspiring with powerful military and political figures in India and China, Yamata aims to bring ruin to the United States now that the US military has been greatly downsized due to the diminishment of the Soviet armed forces.
forces. When a string of deadly car accidents is linked to faulty Japanese-made vehicles, the United States conducts a controversial review of their trade policies with Japan, causing tensions between the two nations, and Yamata sees his chance to put his plans in motion...
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* WhamEpisode: The novel ends with [[spoiler:a suicidal Japanese pilot ramming his plane into the Capitol, killing not only the President, but also the entire Congress, the Supreme Court, and many members of the federal government.]]
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* JapanTakesOverTheWorld
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* JapanTakesOverTheWorldJapanTakesOverTheWorld: Or a chunk of the southwestern Pacific, rather; though the implications and main concern of the protagonists is that this would give them the resources and influence needed to ''further'' expand their sphere of power.
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* MoralMyopia: One of the main arguments the Japanese make for the plan is that America has been gleefully making use of Japan to national AllTakeAndNoGive levels while [[NoRespectGuy never treating them with respect]], and how would you like it if someone else did it to you?
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* MoralMyopia: One of the main arguments the Japanese make for the plan is that America has been gleefully making use of Japan to national AllTakeAndNoGive levels while [[NoRespectGuy never treating them with respect]], and how would you like it if someone else did it to you?you? [[spoiler: It helps, however, that by the end of the novel, the U.S. is more interested in stabilizing the conflict and restoring things to the status quo than enacting truly punitive measures against Japan itself, and efforts are made to involve as little of the Japanese public as possible.]]
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* DirtyBusiness: The US does some ambiguous things to get the better of the Japanese, but several of the characters involved regret the necessity of it.
** Chavez in particular finds [[spoiler: the mission to destroy two of the E-767 planes by making them crash on landing]] difficult, not because of the mission itself, but because of the consequences: [[spoiler: he kills 60 people in the span of about 3 minutes, and it weighs on his conscience]]. Clark tries to help him out, but Chavez refuses out of a sense of duty.
** Chavez in particular finds [[spoiler: the mission to destroy two of the E-767 planes by making them crash on landing]] difficult, not because of the mission itself, but because of the consequences: [[spoiler: he kills 60 people in the span of about 3 minutes, and it weighs on his conscience]]. Clark tries to help him out, but Chavez refuses out of a sense of duty.
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* DirtyBusiness: The US does some ambiguous things to get the better of the Japanese, but several of the characters involved regret the necessity of it.
**it. Chavez in particular finds [[spoiler: the mission to destroy two of the E-767 planes by making them crash on landing]] difficult, not because of the mission itself, but because of the consequences: [[spoiler: he kills 60 people in the span of about 3 minutes, and it weighs on his conscience]]. Clark tries to help him out, but Chavez refuses out of a sense of duty.
**
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** Done on a larger scale when Clark and Chavez are tasked with neutralizing the E-767 fleet. Chavez uses a theoretically nonlethal weapon to blind - and panic - the pilots when the planes are on final approach, causing them to succumb to vertigo and crash. As there are no survivors and no physical evidence left behind, the crashes appear to be accidental. This is reinforced by the FAA releasing a safety bulletin on the aircraft, warning of an issue with the autopilot that could result in a catastrophic accident during landing. Undermined, however, by the unlikelihood of ''two'' aircraft having separate accidents within minutes of each other at the same airport.
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** Done on a larger scale when Clark and Chavez are tasked with neutralizing the Japanese E-767 fleet. Chavez uses a theoretically nonlethal weapon to blind - and panic - the pilots when the planes are on final approach, causing them to succumb to vertigo and crash. As there are no survivors and no physical evidence left behind, the crashes appear to be accidental. This is reinforced by the FAA releasing a safety bulletin on the aircraft, warning of an issue with the autopilot that could result in a catastrophic accident during landing. Undermined, however, by the unlikelihood of ''two'' aircraft having separate accidents within minutes of each other at the same airport.
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* YellowPeril: Sinister Japanese cabal, with Chinese backing, led by a vengeful businessmen who schemes to cripple the world economy and launch a new war of aggression. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in that there's plenty of other non-Asian assholes in the book who make things complicated for the heroes, including several American politicians, and for the most part the general Japanese public remains mostly uninvolved. In fact, it's the ''Japanese'' government themselves who take the liberty of having him arrested in the end.
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* YellowPeril: Sinister Japanese cabal, with Chinese backing, led by a vengeful businessmen businessman who schemes to cripple the world economy and launch a new war of aggression. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] {{Downplayed| Trope}} in that there's plenty of other non-Asian assholes in the book who make things complicated for the heroes, including several American politicians, and for the most part the general Japanese public remains mostly uninvolved. In fact, it's the ''Japanese'' government themselves who take the liberty of having him arrested in the end.
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* ItsPersonal
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* ItsPersonalItsPersonal:
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** Ron Jones says this of his motivation for fighting against Japan, as the son of his mentor when he was a sonarman aboard ''USS Dallas'' was aboard ''USS Asheville'' when it was sunk.
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** Ron Jones says this of his motivation for fighting against Japan, as the son of his mentor when (when he was a sonarman aboard ''USS Dallas'' Dallas'') was aboard ''USS Asheville'' when it was sunk.
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* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: Exploited by Yamata. After the events of ''The Sum of All Fears'', the U.S. and Russia destroy all their primary strategic platforms like [=ICBMs=] and missile submarines, leaving America no clear way to retaliate once Japan constructs her own version of SS-19 ballistic missiles. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for him, he didn't stop to consider that while the missiles ''themselves'' were removed and disarmed, the submarines were still sitting around in perfectly-usable condition and were still very much effective machines of war even without their missiles. There's also the fact that the reformed Japanese government is ''very'' pissed at him after he essentially shatters Japan's NuclearWeaponsTaboo for the sake of his failed conquest.]]
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* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: Exploited by Yamata. After the events of ''The Sum of All Fears'', the U.S. and Russia destroy all their primary strategic platforms like [=ICBMs=] and missile submarines, leaving America no clear way to retaliate once Japan constructs her own version of SS-19 ballistic missiles. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for him, he didn't stop to consider that while the missiles ''themselves'' were removed and disarmed, the submarines were still sitting around in perfectly-usable condition and were still very much effective machines of war even without their missiles. There's also the fact that the reformed Japanese government is ''very'' pissed at him after he essentially shatters Japan's own NuclearWeaponsTaboo for the sake of his failed conquest.]]
