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Overall Summary

Clear and Present Danger is a novel by Tom Clancy. It’s the sequel to Cardinal of the Kremlin, and it features Jack Ryan. The book accurately depicts military hardware, tactics, and realpolitik in the world today.

The story begins by describing the Oval Office and Situation Room in the White House just before a meeting between President of the United States, his advisers, and Governor J. Robert Fowler who is running against him for re-election. The President wants to do something big to get people’s attention so he declares that the illegal drug trade is a ‘clear and present danger’ to national security. He authorizes CIA Deputy Directors Ritter and Moore to help with logistics of this plan which will destabilize Colombia Cartel operations.

The U.S. government is going to send a small team of special forces troops into Colombia, where they will secure the airstrips used by drug cartels. They will also use advanced surveillance technology to listen in on cartel communications and then intercept their smuggling flights with F-15 jets when necessary. In addition, the Coast Guard has intercepted a yacht that was involved with killing its owner, who was laundering money for drug cartels. The CIA investigates this murder and discovers that Hardin had been laundering money for the cartels before he died.

The drug cartel leader, Escobedo, regrets ordering the murder of a yacht owner because he was betrayed by his own men. When he learns that an FBI Director will be meeting with Colombia’s Attorney General in Colombia, he orders the assassination of the Director. The President then escalates operations against Escobedo’s Cartel and sends air strikes to eliminate their power base. However, Escobedo wasn’t present when these attacks occurred. In response to this attack on his organization, Escobedo uses mercenaries and blackmails Cutter into shutting down all covert operations against him in exchange for information about Cortez’s activities

Jack Ryan begins to suspect the operations in Colombia. He should be privy to all actions, but he’s not getting that information, which makes him very suspicious. So he decides to investigate on his own by hacking into Ritter’s computer files and reading them himself. When he sees what’s happening there, it horrifies him and makes him want to take action against Cortez.

The President orders Cutter to shut down all operations. Cutter complies and gives Cortez the coordinates of the American troops. Ryan and Clark intercept these communications, realize that American troops are being abandoned to their deaths in Colombia, seize an army helicopter, fly there to rescue them before they can be attacked by cartel forces. They come under fire from cartel mercenaries but manage to extract all the troops. They raid the cartels’ position and capture Cortez who is sent back home where he’s marked as a political problem doomed for assassination

Clark presents Cutter with the evidence that he has committed treason. Cutter decides to kill himself instead of facing these charges. Ryan meets with the president and vents his frustration about how everything was handled. He then goes on to brief congress, telling all he knows, including what happened during the operation. The president refuses to admit mistakes but does go on to run a poor campaign in order to ensure he loses the election so Governor Fowler becomes the next president. This allows him to leave office without revealing what’s happened as well as protecting not just his own legacy but also those of everyone else involved in this scandalous situation. Congress goes along with this plan because they want it for their country’s sake rather than allow such a terrible scandal come out into public knowledge which would ruin many people’s legacies, including their own and those of others involved in this mess.