My Top 5 Moments from Tom Clancy Novels

Much has been said, eloquently and brilliantly, by others following on from the sudden passing of renowned military/espionage political/techno-thriller author extraordinaire Tom Clancy, and so, instead of writing what so many others already have, I've decided to immortalise the best-selling author with my Top 5 Favourite Moments from Tom Clancy novels.

5. Without Remorse: John Kelly Becomes John Clark, Assassinates Traitor

Without Remorse told the story of how John Kelly, a highly-decorated US Navy sailor, became the feared CIA operator, John Clark. It's a Vietnam-era story, focusing on Kelly's personal battle with drug dealers who murdered his girlfriend and a mission he has been asked to run, which involves him going back into Vietnam, in the hope of identifying the location of a camp of American POWs, who are being held by Russian interrogators, the Vietnamese having already listed them as dead.

At the end of the book, after a conspiracy has been uncovered that lands on the doorstep of a political appointee in Washington, Clark - by then, John Kelly had 'died' in a boating accident after being tracked down by Baltimore PD (Emmet Ryan, father of Jack, amongst them), wanting his arrest for the murder of so many drug lords - had been given a new life by the CIA, and, on their payroll, goes to the home of the man identified of being the KGB mole who put Clark/Kelly's mission in jeapoardy and kills him. It's the first of many times Clark will kill for the Agency, and the disbelief of the man about to be terminated makes this scene more real and chilling. 

4. Cardinal of the Kremlin: Jack Ryan Convinces the KGB Chairman to Defect

Set against the Star Wars project and the war in Afghanistan, political realities in Russia force the KGB Chairman Nikolay Borissovich Gerasimov, to defect to Russia. On the runway at Sheremetyevo Airport, Ryan allows himself to be captured by soon-to-be-ally Sergey Nikolayevch Golovko as the American plane flying an unhappy Gerasimov out of Russia takes off. Ryan hopes that his diplomatic status protecting him from being tortured by the KGB. It's the payoff in a complicated political game, and perhaps the most prolific intel coup Ryan was responsible for post-Red October.

It's a gripping scene that comes after after John Clark has already gotten Gerasimov's wife and daughter out thanks to the submarine USS Dallas (of Hunt for Red October fame). Not for the first time, and not for the last, Ryan puts his life on the line for the CIA and for his country, despite what it may mean for him personally, in the clutches of the KGB. and it closes the story of the high-ranking CIA mole in the Kremlin, Colonel Mikhail Semyonovich Filitov, codename Cardinal, who dies of heart failure and is buried  at Camp David, with a Russian attache present.

3. The Hunt For Red October: Jack Ryan Discovers Red October Means to Defect

The book that launched Clancy's career - and made a hero out of his main character, Jack Ryan. No one in America believed that the Red October had clandestinely left it's home base for any other reason than to launch it's nuclear weapons...at least until Ryan came aboard the USS Dallas, and, having deduced the intention of Red October's skipper, Captain Marko Ramius, uses Morse code, by way of flashing lights on the periscope, to confirm the Russian's intention. 

This scene, where, for the first time, Ramius commits actual treason, confirms Ryan's suspicions, and sets up the finale of the story where the Russians stumble to the same conclusion, sending one of their ALfa-class subs, under the command of Ramius' old student, towards the American coast in an effort to destroy the Red October (and, more specifically, it's valuable stealth propulsion system) before it can fall into American hands.

2. Rainbow Six: John Clark Uncovers a Giant Biological Weapons Attack at the Sydney Olympics.

The gripping story about a specialised group (Rainbow) of counter terrorist operators from NATO countries begins with John Clark foiling a mid-air hijacking by Basque separatists, and propels the Rainbow team into a series of operations, where they foil terrorist groups in Austria, Switzerland and then on home soil, at the SAS base in Hereford, where the unit is headquartered.

After tracking down an ex-KGB agent responsible for setting up an attack on his wife and family, Clark learns of the sinister and horrifying plot masterminded by John Brightling, CEO of Horizon Corporation, and his wife, a science adviser for President Jack Ryan. The eco-terrorists plan to unleash a virus called Shiva, which will kill all of the earth's population (except their own group) so that Nature can be allowed to thrive again without human interference.

Clark's offsider, Domingo Chavez, and other Rainbow operators are in Sydney, and manage to stop the virus from being transmitted via a mist cooling system at the Olympic Stadium, but that doesn't take away from this being the most sinister and wide-reaching of all the threats in Clancy's novels. Probably my favourite Clancy work.

1. Executive Orders: Jack Ryan's First Executive Order

Thrust into the role of President of the United States in the shocking aftermath of a plane taking out the US Capitol, and the sitting president, Roger Durling - a moment that barely missed this Top 5 list - President Ryan has to contend with putting the shattered government back together in his own, unique way, the assassination of the Iraqi president, an attack on his family, Iran forming the new United Islamic Republic with the remnants of the Iraq government, and a manufactured strand of Ebola being introduced to America. That ploy is masterminded by the head of the UIR, Ayatollah Mahmoud Haji Daryaei that comes as the UIR send their military forces at Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

At the very end of the book, after American, Saudi and Kuwaiti forces have routed the UIR opposition, President Ryan makes a momentous decision and sends John Clark and Ding Chavez to Iran. There, they "paint" the house where Daryaei lives for a laser-guided bomb to be dropped during Ryan's televised press conference, where he goes on to promise that he will launch a tactical nuclear strike on Tehran unless those responsible for the biological attacks are extradited to America to face charges.

Taking out Darayei, revealed to American intelligence late in the piece to be behind the entire plot, was the boldest move of Ryan's career. His actions lay the ground work for the swaying public opinion, which had been negative for most of his presidency, and convinces President Ryan to run for a second term in office.