Uncanny Realism

WHEN Tom Clancy published his first techno-thriller about a Soviet submarine and the American intelligence network, Pentagon officials said he must have had inside information to offer readers such precise descriptions of military tactics and technology.

The insurance salesman-turned best-selling author swore he got all his information from magazines and public sources, but many defense experts were not convinced.

Clear and Present Danger

By Tom Clancy

Putnam Books

656 pp., $21.95

This time around, though, few will challenge Clancy's claim that simple research and intuition give his books their uncanny sense of realism.

His latest effort, Clear and Present Danger, seems realistic not because of its description, but because of its plot--which anticipates with frightening accuracy exactly how the South American drug war has unfolded in recent months.

Government critics can't complain this time. That's something no one could have told Clancy, and it makes the book a worthwhile diversion for anyone with a few hours to spare.

CLANCY'S plot is straight out of today's headlines--maybe even a day ahead--as it weaves a story around a the federal government's efforts to fight the drug war.

First, Clancy shocks the reader with a brutal massacre of a family, committed by a ruthless pair of drug thugs somewhere in the Caribbean. Sound familiar?

A not-so-probable chain of events follows, making the incumbent Republican President more frustrated with his country's helplessness. Eventually he decides to conduct covert military operations against the Columbian kingpins. Sound more familiar?

Unfortunately, things go wrong, and word leaks out about the covert action. With the election months away, the administration panics and decides to cut its losses, covering up the operation and abandoning its para-military groups deep in the Columbian jungle. Sound really, really familiar?

EVEN the oblivious reader will notice the parallels Clancy draws to the Iran Contra affair--the book's bad guy is a carbon copy of John Poindexter, right down to rank and service.

But while the lack of subtlety is a bit insulting, it shows that Clancy's writing has matured since his earlier efforts.

Clancy's first two books, The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising, were both cold war thrillers that told grand stories (grand enough that they were both # 1 bestsellers for many months) but had little to offer in terms of theme or message. His two follow-ups, Patriot Games and Cardinal of the Kremlin, struggled to escape the cold war mentality and succeeded only thanks to Clancy's knack for describing gadgets.

Now, with Clear and Present Danger, Clancy has managed to write a book that does more than tell a dazzling and gripping story. Clancy is clearly frustrated with how the government has treated the military, and has written a story to tell everyone just how bad it is.

That's quite a step for Clancy, who has managed to offend more than a few with his ultra-conservative, normally super patriotic politics.

For once, Clancy does not paint the Soviets as the bad guys, except perhaps for one of the drug kingpin's assistants who is also a former KGB agent. And Clancy, who made no bones about his homophobia in an interview last year with Newsweek, at least took a step in the right direction this time, making a gay member of congress--a la Barney Frank--a small but important hero in his story.

READERS should be warned that Clear and Present Danger relies more heavily on stories told in earlier novels than any of Clancy's prior works. Those who haven't read Red October or Patriot Games might be a more than a bit puzzled by some passages and puns.

More importantly, however, readers are sure to be disappointed by the book's ending, which Clancy reportedly wrote in one night. On the one hand, it is entirely too tidy to be believable. On the other, its message--of death before dishonor--is too much like the super-patriotism many readers have found offensive before.

But for all its shortcomings, Clear and Present Danger is still worth the effort. Clancy fans will doubtless find the detailed gadgetry dazzling and the action-based plot more than enough to keep even the weariest eyes awake. Those who have never read him before will be at least be tantalized enough to try out his earlier works.