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Debt of Honor

1st edition cover
Author	Tom Clancy
Language	English
Series	Ryanverse
Genre	thriller, novel
Publisher	Putnam
Publication date	1994 (1st edition)
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	766 pp (hardback edition) 990pp (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-399-13954-0 (hardback edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
OCLC	30739194
Preceded by	The Sum of All Fears
Followed by	Executive Orders

Debt of Honor (1994) is a novel by Tom Clancy. It is a continuation of the series featuring his character Jack Ryan. In this installment, Ryan has become the National Security Advisor when the Japanese government (controlled by a group of corporate tycoons known as the Zaibatsu) goes to war with the United States. One of the sub-plots in this novel (on occupying the Siberian "Northern Resource Area") would later form part of the main plot of Clancy's later novel The Bear and the Dragon.

Plot summary

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On Interstate 40 in Eastern Tennessee, a car accident involving a tractor-trailer and two Japanese-made cars results in the deaths of six people (2 adults, 2 teenagers, a toddler, and an infant). The accident involves the failure of both gas tanks in the Japanese cars, which causes an explosion. It is revealed that the Japanese-made gas tanks were manufactured below proper safety standards, which caused them to fail. This stirs long-standing resentments stemming from Japan's protectionist trade policies, and trade negotiations with Japan grind to a halt.

As this plan is formulated, Jack Ryan, a private citizen after the events of The Sum of All Fears, is recruited as National Security Advisor by President Roger Durling. CIA officers John Clark and Domingo "Ding" Chavez are sent to Japan covered as Russian reporters. Their mission is to reactivate a former KGB spy network, pretending to be Russian spies for this purpose, in order to gain economic intelligence. The Japanese intelligence agents are not idle, either: they have corrupted one of the U.S. trade negotiators with promises of a lucrative consulting job after he resigns.

Increasing tensions with Japan results in Congress passing the "Trade Reform Act", enabling the United States to mirror the trade practices of the countries that it imports goods from. The bill is immediately used to replicate Japan's non-tariff barriers, and cuts off the export U.S. markets that Japan's economy depends upon. Facing an economic crisis, the corporate oligarchs presented as the true rulers of Japan decide to take military action to safeguard the Japanese economy. Along with China and India, the plan involves curtailing the American presence in the Pacific in an effort to reestablish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which includes a later possible Chinese-Japanese invasion of Siberia to secure its extensive resources.

The Japanese plan has three major components. First, units of Japan's Self-Defense Forces occupy the Marianas Islands, specifically Saipan and Guam. The invasion, conducted with commercial airliners, is virtually bloodless. Meanwhile, during a joint military exercise, Japanese ships "accidentally" launch torpedoes at two of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers and two submarines at the conclusion of a joint U.S.-Japan naval exercise, destroying both submarines and crippling the carriers. This drastically reduces the U.S. capability to project power into the western Pacific.

An immediate retaliation is forestalled by the second element of the Japanese plan: an economic attack. Even as the military mission begins, the Japanese cabal engineers the collapse of the American stock market by exploiting flaws in the program trading systems at major brokerages, and then deletes all trade records. With a massive economic crisis, and panic and chaos in America's homeland, it is hoped that America will be too distracted to quickly respond to Japan's military adventures.

Japan immediately sues for a peaceful settlement, offering international talks and seemingly free elections in the Marianas, in attempt to stall and delay an American military response. Negotiators also secretly reveal to the Americans that Japan has obtained nuclear ballistic missile capability. The oligarchs, led by Raizo Yamata, believe that offers of negotiation and the nuclear deterrent, defended by a seemingly impregnable AWACS system, will cause America to concede Japan's advantage. With two of America's twelve carriers disabled, and the rest pinned down by international crises elsewhere (the result of Japan's covert allies' maneuvering), Ryan has few resources with which to defend American interests.

Although he is the National Security Adviser, seemingly focused on military issues, Ryan advises the President that the economic crisis must be dealt with first. After a chance comment from his wife, Ryan realizes that the deletion of trade records on the day of the crash (intended by the Japanese to cause further chaos and paralysis) could actually be an advantage. He engineers a "do-over", where that day of trading is ignored, and all assets are set to where they were on at the start of business that day. Accompanied by a Presidential address to the nation and behind-the-scenes bullying of investment bank CEOs and traders, the plan is a success: America's economy is restored with only minor disruption.

Ryan then turns his attention to the military confrontation. Through a series of special operations, Ryan first plans the elimination of Japan's AWACS system, through a series of "accidents" using widely dispersed American assets, followed by B-2 Spirit attacks that destroy the Japanese nuclear missile range. Clark and Chavez, who have provided valuable intelligence and assisted in the destruction of the AWACS planes, now work along with U.S. special-operations assets to assassinate the Zaibatsu in the ruling clique. The Japanese spy in the U.S. diplomatic delegation is discovered and arrested. Ryan assigns his fighter pilot friend Robby Jackson the job of liberating the Marianas, which is accomplished with little bloodshed. Cornered, Japan's government quickly concedes defeat, arrests Yamata and the surviving Zaibatsu, and accepts America's generous offer of status quo ante.

Throughout the book, President Durling has faced another, less important political crisis. His Vice President, Edward Kealty, has been accused of date rape using drugs on a former member of his staff. Although Kealty has sufficient political power to avoid conviction, he is forced to resign. With the crisis now over, President Durling nominates Jack Ryan to the Vice Presidency during a joint session of Congress on live television.

However, an embittered Japan Air Lines pilot, avenging the deaths of his son and brother—killed during the Pacific conflict—flies his Boeing 747 directly into the U.S. Capitol building during the proceedings. Nearly the entire United States presidential line of succession is eliminated, including the President, most of Congress, nearly all of the Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and all nine Supreme Court Justices. Ryan, who had just been confirmed as Vice President moments before, narrowly escapes the attack and is immediately sworn in as President. He begins his term of office in the immediate sequel, Executive Orders.

The airline attack at the end has coincidental parallels with the September 11, 2001 attacks, although the disaster is not caused by hijackers and the book was written six years prior to the attacks.

References

1. Clancy, Tom (1995). Debt of Honor. The Berkeley Publishing Group. p. 975. ISBN 0-425-14758-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

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• 1994 novels
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