Red Storm Rising
Author | ||
---|---|---|
Country | United States | |
Language | English | |
Subject | World War III | |
Genre | ||
Publisher | ISBN 0399131493 | |
Red Storm Rising is a
The book debuted at number one on
Plot
To divert attention from the impending operation, the Politburo embarks upon an elaborate
Even though a planned attack on a NATO communications facility in
aircraft, and destroying key bridges that much of the Soviet Army has yet to cross.Nevertheless, the Soviet Navy achieves a decisive early victory by launching a bold amphibious landing on Iceland, taking control of the NATO airbase in Keflavík. This is followed up by a substantial air attack against a combined American-French carrier battle group that was originally sent to reinforce Iceland with several landing ships full of US Marines. The battle results in the loss of several ships including the French carrier Foch and the landing ship USS Saipan. Damage was also done to other ships like the US carrier USS Nimitz, forcing her to drydock in Britain to undergo repairs. This leaves the Soviets in control of the strategically important GIUK gap.
NATO and Soviet air and ground forces continue to battle ferociously in Germany, with both sides taking heavy losses. General-Colonel Pavel Alekseyev, the de-facto Soviet senior commander on the ground, scores a breakthrough in a tank battle at
With Iceland re-taken, the United States is able to resupply the rest of NATO via the reopened sea lanes. By this point Soviet tank and strategic bomber formations have taken punishing losses, forcing them to further cede the initiative as NATO prepares to mount a decisive counteroffensive. The Soviet leadership begins to realize that they face the possibility of outright defeat -- either through a NATO military breakthrough or a war of attrition which, given their desperate lack of oil supplies, would amount to the same result. The General Secretary considers using nuclear weapons to force a favorable end to the war. This infuriates Alekseyev, who had been mobilizing for a final counterattack on Germany but faces execution by the Soviet government for its slow timetable. The KGB chief organizes a coup along with Alekseyev and other members of the Politburo. The new Soviet government then negotiates for a ceasefire with NATO and a return to status quo ante bellum, ending the war.
Characters
NATO
- Edward Morris: Commanding officer of USS Pharris and later USS Reuben James.
- Daniel X. McCafferty: Commanding officer of Los Angeles-class submarine USS Chicago.
- Robert A. Toland III: NSA analyst and naval reservist, later promoted to commander in the United States Navy Reserve.
- Michael D. Edwards, Jr.: First lieutenant in the United States Air Force serving as a meteorological officer at Naval Air Station Keflavik in Iceland. Leads intelligence gathering there during the Soviet occupation of the island with the code name of "Beagle", later receiving a Navy Cross for his bravery.
- Jerry "The Hammer" O'Malley: Lieutenant Commander in the USN serving as a helicopter pilot aboard Reuben James. Receives a Distinguished Flying Cross for his antisubmarine warfare work.
- Amelia "Buns" Nakamura: naval radar reconnaissance satellites. She also becomes the first Space Ace because of her satellite shoot-downs.
- Terry Mackall: Sergeant First Class in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment on the German front. Receives a battlefield promotionto lieutenant for his valor and leadership skills.
- Colonel Douglas "Duke" Ellington: USAF officer and commander of the F-19 Stealth squadron
- Colonel Charles DeWinter "Chuck" Lowe: Officer in the United States Marine Corps who works with Bob Toland before the conflict and later as the commanding officer of a Marine regiment in the invasion force that recaptured Iceland. Lowe served three Tours of duty in Vietnam and received a Navy Cross for his bravery in that war.
- General Eugene Robinson: Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Robinson served three Tours of duty in Vietnam and commanded the 101st Airborne Division. Robinson is a supremely-skilled gambler, which he uses to hide how desperately-overstretched NATO forces are late in the war when personally meeting with Colonel-General Alekseyev to negotiate a cease-fire.
- William Calloway: British SISagent.
- James Smith: Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps serving under lieutenant Edwards in Iceland.
Soviet Union
- Pavel Leonidovich Alekseyev: Deputy Commander of the Southwest Front and then Commander in Chief-Western Theater after briefly serving as second in command. Exceptionally brave and given to leading from the front personally, Alekseyev briefly takes command of a Soviet tank division after NATO artillery fire wipes out its entire command staff, leading to the key Warsaw Pact victory at Alfeld. After the coup, he is made Deputy Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces.
- Mikhail Eduardovich Sergetov: Energy Minister and non-voting member of the Soviet Politburo. After the coup, he becomes acting General Secretary.
- Ivan Mikhailovich Sergetov: Alekseyev's aide-de-camp and Sergetov's son. Promoted to major during the war.
- Major Arkady Semyonovich Sorokin: Soviet VDV officer whose daughter Svetlana dies in the Kremlin bombing. Later recruited by Alekseyev for the coup.
- Boris Georgiyevich Kosov: Chairman of the Committee for State Security (KGB). Mastermind of the coup, only to be killed in revenge by Major Sorokin.
- Marshal Andre Shavyrin: Chief of the General Staff. Later executed by the Politburo for failing to bring favorable results on the war.
- Marshal Yuri Rozhkov: Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Army. Executed along with Marshal Shavyrin.
- Marshal Fiodr Borrissovitch Boukharin: Commander of the Kiev Military District. Later promoted to the head of the General Staff after Shavyrin and Rozhkov's execution, then forced into retirement after Alekseyev's Coup.
- Andre Illich Chernyavin: Spetsnaz officer assigned to sabotage the NATO command post at Lammersdorf.
Other characters
- Vigdis Agustdottir: Icelandic civilian rescued by Edwards from Soviet soldiers in Iceland and later married Edwards as the novel closes.
- Patrick Flynn: Associated Press Moscow Bureau chief
- Ibrahim Tolkaze: Militant Islamistof Azerbaijani descent working as an oil field engineer. He and his confederates Rasul and Mohammet instigate the road to war by infiltrating the oil refinery where Ibrahim works, murdering multiple security and technical personnel, and triggering numerous pipe ruptures that set the entire refinery and adjacent oil field ablaze. All of them are killed when security forces storm the control room.
- Gerhardt Falken: Alleged West German Federal Intelligence Service agent behind the Kremlin bombing.
Themes
Red Storm Rising depicts a future
According to a document released by the UK National Archives in December 2015, U.S. President Ronald Reagan had recommended Red Storm Rising to UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shortly after the Reykjavík Summit in 1986 between him and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev so as to gain an understanding of the Soviet Union's intentions and strategy.[2][3] Some of the advanced weapons systems described in the novel were deployed four years later in the Gulf War.[4]
Development
Publication
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In 1987, the book was published in French as Tempête Rouge (Red Storm), translated by France-Marie Watkins, with the collaboration of Jean Sabbagh.
Reception
Like its predecessor, The Hunt for Red October, the book received critical acclaim for its accurate military narrative. Publishers Weekly praised it as "fascinating and totally credible story, told with authenticity and great suspense".[10] Kirkus Reviews hailed it as "an informative, readable, sometimes dazzling speculation on superpower war".[11]
Game adaptations
In December 1988, MicroProse released a Red Storm Rising computer game, in which the player commanded an American submarine against Soviet forces. The player had the option of choosing between both single missions or campaign and which era to play in; modern missions offered the player more advanced submarines and weapons, but also a more technologically advanced adversary as well.
In 1989,
See also
- The Third World War: The Untold Story, by John Hackett
- Red Army, by Ralph Peters
- World War III in popular culture
- Seven Days to the River Rhine
Notes
- ^ While Bond is not credited on the book's jacket, Clancy's "Author's Note" preface states that he and Bond were "co-authors" and that "this book is [Bond's] as much as mine."
References
- ^ "The New York Times bestseller list for the week of August 17, 1986" (PDF). Retrieved December 27, 2018.
- ^ Milmo, Cahal (December 30, 2015). "Ronald Reagan 'prepared for historic Cold War meeting by reading Tom Clancy thriller'". The Independent.
- ^ Mohdin, Aamna (December 30, 2015). "Reagan to Thatcher: Read a Tom Clancy thriller to understand the Soviet Union". Quartz.
- ^ Greenberg, Martin H. The Tom Clancy Companion (revised ed.). pp. 11–17.
- ^ Sipe, Russell; Wilson, Johnny; Clancy, Tom; Meier, Sid (July 1988). "An Interview with Tom Clancy". Computer Gaming World. pp. 22–24.
- ^ "Choreographing the Dance of the Vampires". Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
- ISBN 0-425-13407-5.
- ^ Peck, Michael (October 11, 2013). "The Name's Bond, Larry Bond". Foreign Policy. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
- ^ LaGrone, Sam (October 8, 2013). "Interview: Larry Bond on Tom Clancy". USNI News. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
- ^ "Book Review: Red Storm Rising 12-Copy Floor Display by Tom Clancy". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
- ^ "RED STORM RISING by Tom Clancy". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
- ^ "Origins Award Winners (1989)". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on November 5, 2007. Retrieved October 29, 2007.
Further reading
- Gallagher, Mark. Action figures: Men, action films, and contemporary adventure narratives (Springer, 2006).
- Griffin, Benjamin. "The good guys win: Ronald Reagan, Tom Clancy, and the transformation of national security" (MA thesis, U of Texas, 2015). online
- Hixson, Walter L. "Red Storm Rising: Tom Clancy Novels and the Cult of National Security." Diplomatic History 17.4 (1993): 599–614.
- Outlaw, Leroy B. "Red Storm Rising-A Primer for a Future Conventional War in Central Europe"" (Army War College, 1988). online
- Payne, Matthew Thomas. Playing war: Military video games after 9/11 (NYU Press, 2016).
- Terdoslavich, William. The Jack Ryan Agenda: Policy and Politics in the Novels of Tom Clancy: An Unauthorized Analysis (Macmillan, 2005). excerpt