I saw Tom Clancy on the news, briefly, Tuesday. I asked my brother why he was on there and he informed me that Clancy is a respected journalist as well as a novelist, and that he had written a book with a plotline similar to the recent attacks.
Is this true (not the part about him being a journalist, but the book)? If so, what book is it?
It’s true, it’s called Debt of Honor - IIRC at the very end of the book an airplane is hijacked and crashed into Congress, killing everyone except the VP, which was Jack Ryan, so he is sworn in as President.
No exactly hijacked (in the traditional sense). The pilot arrranges to be responsible for flying the plane empty back to alaska, cons the people there into believing the plane is to be delivered to New York, then hits DC. The plane is empty of civilians when it is crashed.
I’m not sure whether you can call the act terrorism either. The book focuses on a skirmish between Japan and the US. The pilot in question learns that his son has died fighting for Japan and then decides to crash his plane into the White House during the, IIRC, State of the Union Address.
The crash occurred after the war was finished, I believe the President was giving the standard “Hurray! The War is Over!” speech to a joint session of Congress (and Supreme Court and most of the Cabinet) at the time.
I always thought it to be a completely outlandish storyline myself before Tuesday…
Me too. I read them out of order (I do not recommend this) so I only read the book that picks up the story after the plane has crashed. I thought it was a real stretch to include such a disaster in the book. I wish that were still a belief I could hold.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Patriot Games this week, and whether Clancy’s portrayal of what we know about terrorist movements and training camps is true.
If I recall, the gathering at the Capital is for the purpose of announcing Jack Ryan as the VP. Essentially everyone important in fed government dies except for him (he is waiting in the wings to come out), and he becomes President.
There is a Dale Brown or Larry Bond book much, much closer in substance to what is happening now. Not dead on, but definitely the same ideas. I can’t remember the exact title.
What’s actually happening in the meeting is that the President is swearing in Jack Ryan as the new VP, since the old VP had to resign over some indiscretion or other. The plane crashes before Ryan is sworn in, but he gets sworn in as President anyway. This sets up a Constitutional crisis in the next book.
I’ve been trying not to think about the book where terrorists build a nuclear bomb and blow up the Super Bowl…
I’ve never heard this before. Novelist? Yes. Occasional consultant on military issues? Sure. Respected journalist? Seems doubtful. Can anyone point me to an example of his journalistic work?
By the way, I read Debt of Honor several years ago. I remember feeling a sense of dread that such a catastrophe was possible but almost certainly improbable.
You mean The Sum of All Fears? Another great read. In the past, I used to swallow these books in one or two sittings. The quality has fallen off in the last few years, though.
A number of Clancy’s books have minor similarities to this week’s terrorist attack. The climax of Debt of Honor is a airliner crashing into the Capitol building. The Sum of All Fears has a plot by Palestinian terrorists to detonate a nuclear bomb in America. Patriot Games, Executive Order, and Rainbow Six also all feature terrorist actions within the United States in their plots. And The Cardinal in the Kremlin features Afghani partisans invading a foreign power (the Soviet Union).
Clancy has written a number of non-fiction books on military topics.
He has his “Guided Tour” series, with detailed descriptions of the following types of military units: Submarine, Armored Cavalry, Fighter Wing, Marine Expeditionary Force, Aiborne, Carrier, and Special Forces.
He has also co-authored two books on military command: Into the Storm (with General Fred Franks) and Every Man A Tiger (with General Charles Horner).
Clancy’s comment during a recent interview (paraphrased): I never would have written today’s events into a novel, because I would have thought that four different crews with trained pilots all being suicide squads was completely unbelievable.
Don’t all Clancy novels deal with terrorism in one form or another? The captain of the Red October is suspected to have gone renegade and intends to attack the East Coast. Red Storm Rising begins with the terrorist attack of a large Russian oil refinery. In Net Force: Hidden Agendas, a computer virus is set in motion against the Federal financial systems. Op-Center: Divide and Conquer features a plot to convince the POTUS that his is mentally unstable. Net Force: Breaking Point has an atmospheric weapon with the capability to drive half a country into madness using low frequency wave generation. Etc.
Before this week, my major complaint about The Sum of All Fears was that the Vikings were winning at halftime in the Super Bowl when the nuclear bomb went off. And then Clancy had the gall to try to purchase the team in 1998! And who would ever hold a Super Bowl at Mile High?
Now, though, I’m a little more unsettled about that book.
Yes, the ending scenes of Debt of Honor are the opening scenes of Executive Order. However, the terrorist plot in Executive Order is unrelated to the previous book; it’s an Iranian germ warfare attack on the US.
Don’t all Clancy novels deal with terrorism in one form or another?
I don’t think so. You’re correct about the opening scenes in Red Storm Rising (one I had forgotten). And I suppose you could argue the assassination in A Clear and Present Danger counted. But I don’t think The Hunt for Red October had any actual terrorist activity, nor did Without Remorse or The Bear and the Dragon.