Katana VentraIP

The Sum of All Fears

The Sum of All Fears is a political thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 14, 1991, as the sequel to Clear and Present Danger (1989). Main character Jack Ryan, who is now the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, tries to stop a crisis concerning the Middle East peace process wherein Palestinian and former East German terrorists conspire to bring the United States and Soviet Union into nuclear war. It debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.[1] A film adaptation, which is a reboot of the Jack Ryan film series and starring Ben Affleck as the younger iteration of the CIA analyst, was released on May 31, 2002.

For other uses, see The Sum of All Fears (disambiguation).

Author

Tom Clancy

English

Jack Ryan

G.P. Putnam's Sons

August 14, 1991

United States

Print (Hardcover, Paperback)

798

0399136150

Clear and Present Danger 

Without Remorse 

Plot[edit]

During the first day of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) prepares to conduct a tactical nuclear strike to stave off defeat. The necessity for the strike is averted, but an Israeli Mark 12 nuclear bomb is accidentally left on an A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft flown by Captain Mutti Zadin; which is subsequently shot down over Syria, near Kafr Shams. The nuclear weapon is lost, buried in the field of a Druze farmer. Eighteen years later, an Israeli police captain (coincidentally the brother of the downed pilot) converts to a fundamentalist sect of Hasidic Judaism after discovering his wife had an extramarital affair and attempts to instigate a violent demonstration of Palestinians at the Temple Mount. When the demonstrators unexpectedly conduct a peaceful protest, Zadin orders the police to fire tear gas and Rubber bullets at the protesters anyway. Captain Zadin then kills the leader of the demonstration by shooting him point-blank. The United States finds it hard to diplomatically defend Israel, yet knows it cannot withdraw its support without risk of destabilizing the Middle East.


Following the advice of Deputy Director of Central Intelligence (DDCI) Jack Ryan, National Security Advisor Dr. Charles Alden enacts a plan to accelerate the peace process by converting Jerusalem into a Vatican-like independent city-state to be administered by a tribunal of Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox religious leaders, and secured by an independent contingent of the Swiss Guards. As a nod to Israel, the U.S. Army supplies the IDF with more sophisticated equipment and agrees to construct a training base in the Negev Desert run by the U.S. Army's tank warfare specialists and the revived 10th Cavalry Regiment. To everyone's surprise, Ryan's plan seems to work, in large part due to Ryan's meetings with officials in Israel and Saudi Arabia and the acquiescence of the reformist President Andrey Narmonov in the democratized Soviet Union. With their religious contentions appeased, the factions in the Middle East find it much easier to negotiate their disputes.


White House Foreign Affairs Advisor Elizabeth Elliot holds a grudge against Ryan and Alden and maneuvers against them. She first takes Alden's job as National Security Advisor by taking advantage of a sex scandal involving a child fathered by Alden out of wedlock, with the stress contributing to Alden's death in a severe stroke that causes a blowout fracture. She concurrently begins a sexual relationship with widowed President J. Robert Fowler and manipulates him to publicly omit Ryan's role in the peace settlement, taking credit for himself. After Ryan accuses her of wishing to silence an American opponent of the deal, Elliot engineers a smear campaign accusing Ryan of engaging in an extramarital affair and fathering a child with a young widow. Jack's friends, CIA operatives John Clark and Domingo Chavez, convince Ryan's wife Cathy that the allegations are false. Jack's alleged mistress is Carol Zimmer, widow of Buck Zimmer, who was killed during Ryan and Clark's earlier mission to rescue Chavez and his Army teammates from Colombia. Ryan later decides to retire from the CIA, but not before he puts together a covert operation to uncover corrupt dealings between Japanese and Mexican government officials.


Meanwhile, a small group of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorists, enraged at the looming failure of their jihad against Israel, come across the lost Israeli bomb and use it to construct their own weapon by using the bomb's plutonium pit as fissile material for a new bomb. The terrorists enlist the help of disaffected East German nuclear physicist Manfred Fromm who agrees to the plot, wishing to exact his own revenge against his former communist country's reunification as a capitalist democratic state. With Fromm's expertise, the terrorists enhance the weapon by turning it into a modern style boosted fission weapon. The terrorists' plan is to detonate the weapon at the Super Bowl in Denver while simultaneously staging a false flag attack on U.S. military forces in stationed in Berlin by East Germans disguised as Soviet soldiers. The terrorists are trying to begin a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The East Germans hope that the war will eliminate both superpowers and punish the Soviets for betraying World Socialism, while the Palestinians hope the attack will destroy the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and end U.S. aid to Israel.


Thinking that his work on the bomb is complete, the Palestinians kill Fromm. However, Fromm had not yet told them that the tritium for the booster still needed to be filtered before use, to eliminate accumulated helium-3. The Palestinians assemble the bomb for use, but when detonated, the impure booster material causes only a low yield fizzle to occur. Even with low yield, the bomb still destroys the Super Bowl venue, killing nearly everyone there including the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, and the commander of NORAD. With the corresponding attacks in Berlin, the United States briefly assumes DEFCON-1 status as Fowler and Elliott prepare for a nuclear war. The crisis is averted by Ryan, who learns the domestic origin of the bomb's plutonium, gains access to the hotline, and convinces the Soviet President to stand down his country's military.


When the terrorists are captured and interrogated by Clark in Mexico City, they implicate the Iranian Ayatollah in the attack. President Fowler orders the Ayatollah's residence in the holy city of Qom to be destroyed by a nuclear strike. Ryan averts the attack by enforcing the two-man rule. The terrorists are delivered to the FBI field office in Buzzard Point, where Ryan questions them. During questioning, Ryan falsely asserts that Qom was destroyed, tricking Qati into revealing that Iran was not involved, and that their deceit was meant to discredit the United States; thus destroying the peace process and allowing the campaign against Israel to continue. Elliot is hospitalized after suffering a nervous breakdown, while Fowler leaves office and is succeeded by his Vice President, Roger Durling (it is implied that Fowler was removed from office through the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, but a later novel clarifies that Fowler resigned in disgrace, while Elliott was forcibly removed).


The terrorists are executed by beheading in Riyadh by the commander of the Saudi Arabian special forces using an ancient sword owned by the Saudi royal family. Later, the sword is presented to Ryan as a gift. In the sequels, the gift (combined with his origins as a Marine) inspires Ryan's Secret Service codename of "Swordsman."

: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. He develops the Vatican Treaty providing a final settlement on the Arab-Israeli conflict, but is overworked and unappreciated by President Fowler, who is unable to replace Ryan due to the latter's popularity in Congress. He also has a deep rivalry with Dr. Elliot. As a result, he begins to develop alcoholism and increasingly poor health. He later decides to retire from the agency in order to overcome his drinking problem and spend more time with his family. During the events of the novel, Ryan becomes increasingly concerned about the growing economic dominance of Japan, which becomes a theme in the following novel Debt of Honor.

Jack Ryan

J. Robert Fowler: President of the United States. Fowler was introduced in Clear and Present Danger as the and a presidential candidate, and won against the incumbent President after he deliberately threw the election. Fowler is depicted as a former prosecutor opposed to capital punishment and in favor of broad social programs, although he angers Dr. Elliot and many of his supporters by refusing to commute the death sentences of the Ulster Liberation Army members depicted in Patriot Games. He is nicknamed "Hawk" by the U.S. Secret Service. He was widowed after his wife died from multiple sclerosis, and begins a romantic relationship with Dr. Elizabeth Elliot. He is motivated by his public image and desire to secure a legacy, and as a result takes credit for Ryan's program. After the crisis on the Denver bombing, during which his decision-making deteriorates rapidly, he was removed from office and succeeded by his Vice President, Roger Durling. According to an audio commentary in the DVD release of the film adaptation, Clancy has said that he based Fowler on 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, claiming that left-wing politicians are more likely to use nuclear weapons than right-wing ones.

Governor of Ohio

Elizabeth Elliot: Key advisor to President Fowler, and his lover. A former professor of at Bennington College, she was promised the position of National Security Advisor but later denied on the insistence of Fowler's running mate Durling. At the beginning of the book, she finally achieves the position using a sex scandal against Dr. Charles Alden, and nearly derails Ryan's plan by withholding a new radar system from Israel to coerce them to accept the deal. Holding a grudge on Ryan from their first encounter (depicted in previous novel Clear and Present Danger), she denies him credit for the Middle East peace plan and later falsely outs him as having a mistress, nearly breaking up his marriage. During the crisis, her advice worsens the situation and she is later placed under sedation. She is nicknamed "Harpy" by the U.S. Secret Service.

political science

Arnold "Arnie" van Damm: Chief of Staff to President Fowler. Van Damm is known for his informal dress style and his alertness to intrigue. Although he is personally , he works with Ryan to consult the Vatican over his peace deal.

areligious

Brent Talbot: . Talbot is a former Northwestern University professor of political science.

Secretary of State

Scott Adler: .

Deputy Secretary of State

G. Dennis Bunker: . Bunker is a decorated former U.S. Air Force captain from the Vietnam War, flying a hundred F-105 combat missions and earning three Distinguished Flying Crosses during the bombing of Hanoi. He later gained fame by constructing a large business conglomerate in southern California and gaining ownership of the San Diego Chargers, and he bonds with the President over their mutual love of football. He is killed in the Denver bombing.

Secretary of Defense

: Ryan's personal driver and bodyguard, former CIA operative.

John Clark

Domingo “Ding” Chavez: Clark's partner, CIA field operative. Works as Ryan's bodyguard while studying for a degree at .

George Mason University

Dan Murray: Deputy Assistant Director of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Marcus Cabot: . Although he is initially inexperienced and adversarial towards Ryan, he grows to respect him after the Vatican Treaty.

Director of Central Intelligence

Ben Goodley: Ryan's assistant and . A postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, he became noticed by the White House and the CIA for his analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and is researching a thesis on the Vietnam War. Initially manipulated by Elliot into providing classified information on Ryan, which she would later use to discredit him, Ryan's successful handling of the crisis makes Goodley rethink his opinion on his boss.

protégé

Inspector Sean Patrick "Pat" O’Day: FBI agent who is Murray's second-in-command.

Dr. Charles Alden: A professor of history who becomes the first National Security Advisor to President Fowler. Alden is a brilliant tactician who has a good relationship with Ryan despite their differing political views. However, his tendency to have affairs allows him to be undercut by Elliot, and he dies of a stroke after his affair with a student is discovered.

Yale

Alan Trent: "" Chairman of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Oversees Operation NIITAKA.

Japan-bashing

Development[edit]

Clancy started working on the novel in 1979, setting the first chapter during the Yom Kippur War. Then he abandoned his idea for other novels until he wrote The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988), where Ryan first meets Russian premier Narmonov. After figuring out the resolution to The Sum of All Fears, Clancy then used his next novel Clear and Present Danger (1989) as a way to introduce future President Fowler. Speaking of the consistency, Clancy said: "The whole series really is a logical and connected network of plot lines which would continue to diverge and converge throughout the body of the work."[4] The novel was notable for detailing the process in making a bomb; however, certain technical details were altered, and Clancy made clear in the novel's afterword that a lot of information in his book can be found in the public domain.[5]


Whilst the Israelis used both the A-4 single-seat single-engine subsonic light attack jet and F-4 two-seat twin-engined all-weather supersonic fighter-bomber during the Yom Kippur War, use of the A-4's nuclear capability was never envisaged. Nuclear warheads were assembled at the Tel Nof Airbase, but for deployment on F-4 rather than A-4 as told in the novel. This was done on October 8 in such a way that the U.S. got to know of it by the next morning, prompting President Nixon to initiate the same day an immediate air-lifted re-supply to Israel of conventional arms, including tanks and planes to replace losses, in Operation Nickel Grass. Whether any of these nuclear bombs were actually carried during a sortie has never been documented.


At least one real-world buried nuclear warhead has actually been documented however, but American and in the U.S., rather than Israeli in Syria. The plutonium pit of a Mark 39 nuclear bomb warhead remains buried 33m deep in a North Carolina field, now fenced-off, following the fatal 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash. Many B-52 Stratofortresses crashed while carrying live nuclear warheads on training flights, mostly inside the U.S., between 1961 and 1968, but many have been recovered.

Reception[edit]

The book received positive reviews. Publishers Weekly praised the novel as "a nonstop roller-coaster ride to a nail-biting finish", adding: "Fundamentally, Clancy is writing about a vital and elusive quality: grace under pressure. Whether terrorists or statesmen, Clancy's characters face a common challenge—situations that break down pretensions of rank, power and ideology. Their responses, carefully and empathetically constructed, make this book compelling instead of merely ingenious."[6] Kirkus Reviews hailed it as "hair-raising" and "quite a rouser".[7]