History Literature / WithoutRemorse

* StealthHiBye: Kelly demonstrates his almost-impossible stealth abilities during a test halfway through the book. Having volunteered to be the spotter for the Boxwood Green mission, the Admirals in charge (and the Marines doing the mission) decide that he has to prove himself by getting to his planned position on a hill overlooking the simulated prison camp. However, the Marines will be guarding the hill, know that Kelly is coming, and have a huge incentive[[note]]in addition to the Navy/Marine rivalry, Sergeant Irwin implies that there will be some hefty punishment if they let Kelly though[[/note]] to find and stop him. After about 4 hours, they conclude that Kelly failed, since they haven't seen him, and one of the men on the hilltop asks for a light. Podulski lights the cigarettes and is scared to death to see that the man is ''Kelly'', who announces that he's been there for ''two and a half hours'' without them noticing.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Kelly kills a few of the drug dealers by invading their hideout and slaughtering them with a K-Bar. The various bad guys mistake this for what the other group would do: the Italians think killing someone with a knife is a street thug thing a *** would do, the black Henry Tucker thinks that a silent, professional murder is exactly what the Italian Mafia could pull off. Racism and ignorance in both directions... but Clancy was clearly looking to make Tucker look better as a street-wise counterpart to Kelly, while the Italians are nothing but businessmen.

* CantHoldHisLiquor: After Robin Zacharias is severely beaten by his NVA captors, Gerasimov gives him vodka to help numb the pain (and also loosen his tongue). Zacharias, being a devout Mormon who doesn't drink, at first resists because but then relents after Gerasimov tells him that it's for medicinal purposes. Gerasimov is amazed by how quickly the alcohol starts to take effect on Zacharias, and deduces that Zacharias has never drank a drop of alcohol in his life and thus never built up a tolerance for it.

* CoolBoat: Many are described in loving detail, particularly in the days leading up to the Sender Green rescue mission. Special mention goes to USS ''Newport News'', the last all-gun cruiser in the U.S. Navy.
* CrazyPrepared: The rescue mission training goes over this in intricate detail, with all of the involved soldiers having their orders memorized down to the exact second that they fire their grenades, how to adapt if several of them are incapacitated in the middle of the operation, and so on.
** Invoked by Kelly in the "full up rehearsal" of the Sender Green mission. The test is being run for the first time in front of the people that are needed to get authorization, and it goes off without a hitch, 15 seconds faster than planned. One of the people asks what the plan is if something goes wrong, and Kelly explains that he administratively "killed" 3 soldiers before the mission began, who were then carried in and carried out of the objective. The presentation of a massively successful first night-time test run, despite greater than anticipated difficulties, easily convinces Robert Ritter from the CIA to endorse the mission.

** The SENDER GREEN prisoners are stated to have been reported as dead by the North Vietnamese. In the case of Zacharias, the troops who capture him even photograph him next to [[KilledOffForReal his backseater]], taking care to make both of them appear equally dead.
* AFatherToHisMen: Admirals Podulski and Maxwell. While they push for the Boxwood Green mission because of the national security implications of the captured soldiers being eventually broken, they also do so out of loyalty to the prisoners. America sent those men into harms way, it is therefore America's responsibility to try to get them back out.

* GeneralRipper: Admiral Podulski is this, to a certain extent. While discussing options for liberating the Sender Green POW camp, one of his initial suggestions is to use B-52s to blast a path through. His ultimate motive for going after the camp is split between a genuine concern for the American lives at stake but also so he can use it to show that the North Vietnamese government lied, thus poisoning the peace talks enough for POTUS to authorize Operation CERTAIN CORNET, a full-scale invasion of North Vietnam. This all started because his only son and the last of his long line (descended from Polish nobility, no less) was killed flying combat sorties over Haiphong. He wants to make sure his son's sacrifice wasn't for nothing. [[spoiler: He fails. The BOXWOOD GREEN mission is burned, and he dies of a heart attack later. Later the USA pulls out of Vietnam.]]

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Vo Nguyen Giap is one of the officers involved in [[spoiler:belaying the orders to kill the American prisoners of war at Sender Green after the failed rescue attempt]].

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Admiral Greer. In addition to recognizing Kelly's value beyond his military experience, he acts as a tempering agent for Podulski and Maxwell's plans. He's also the only one of the three planners to realize that Sender Green's objective is only going to be to rescue the US personnel: Podulski's desire to turn it into an invasion of North Vietnam is, he notes internally, never going to happen.

* SemperFi: The rescue force sent in to liberate Sender Green is comprised of Marines, at least one of whom Kelly knew from his days as a SEAL.

* StealthHiBye: Kelly demonstrates his almost-impossible stealth abilities during a test halfway through the book. Having volunteered to be the spotter for the Sender Green mission, the Admirals in charge (and the Marines doing the mission) decide that he has to prove himself by getting to his planned position on a hill overlooking the simulated prison camp. However, the Marines will be guarding the hill, know that Kelly is coming, and have a huge incentive[[note]]in addition to the Navy/Marine rivalry, Sergeant Irwin implies that there will be some hefty punishment if they let Kelly though[[/note]] to find and stop him. After about 4 hours, they conclude that Kelly failed, since they haven't seen him, and one of the men on the hilltop asks for a light. Podulski lights the cigarettes and is scared to death to see that the man is ''Kelly'', who announces that he's been there for ''two and a half hours'' without them noticing.

* GeniusBruiser: John Kelly isn't just big and strong, but he's also exceptionally intelligent. [[spoiler:Bob Ritter is so impressed by Kelly's ability to think on his feet that he convinces him to permanently become a CIA field agent.]]

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: The police (and as a result drug dealers) initially identify Kelly as a "rich beach bum" given that he leases his own island.

** After Kelly explains to Greer and Ritter that he's been bumping off drug dealers in his spare time, Ritter notes that there's been talk of getting the CIA involved in the War on Drugs. In ''Clear and Present Danger'', Ritter and Mr. Clark helm a CIA operation aimed at curbing the drug trade.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler:Pamela]]'s brutal and horrifying murder is the inciting incident for most of the novel's plot.

* NotSoDifferent: several cases.

** Subverted with Henderson and [[spoiler:his KGB handler]]. The latter plays up the similarities between them, saying that it's important for reasonable people like the two of them to work together in the service of world peace and to counteract the influence of hard-liners on both sides. Of course, [[spoiler:he doesn't believe a word of it and is just trying to portray treason in a more palatable light]].