Debt of Honor
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| Debt of Honor | |
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| Author | Tom Clancy |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Ryanverse |
| Genre(s) | thriller, novel |
| Publisher | Putnam |
| Publication date | 1994 (1st edition) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 766 pp (hardback edition) 990pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-399-13954-0 (hardback edition) |
| 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.
[edit] Plot summary
The story starts with the passing of 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 against Japanese goods, and results in an increasing backlog of imported products which begins to hurt the Japanese economy. Facing a perceived economic crisis, a group called Zaibatsu decides to seize Japan and take military action to safeguard the Japanese economy. Along with the 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 possible Chinese-Japanese invasion of Siberia to secure its extensive resources.
Japan begins its part of the operation against the U.S. by launching torpedoes at two of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet carriers and two submarines at the conclusion of a joint U.S.-Japan naval exercise, destroying both submarines and crippling the carriers. Simultaneously, the Japanese cabal engineers the collapse of the American stock market (through the use of witting and unwitting personnel who electronically wipe out the computerized records of all transactions on Wall Street), leaving America at a huge economic disadvantage. Meanwhile, units of Japan's Self-Defense Forces occupy the Marianas Islands (as part of the grand plan involving China and India), specifically Saipan and Guam. The Zaibatsu, actually its leader Raizo Yamata, believe that these two elements, combined with the acquisition of Russian SS-19 ICBMs under the cover of the Japanese space program, will be enough to force the United States to negotiate a truce.
As the U.S. and Japanese delegates negotiate to avoid further bloodshed in what is now called the "Pacific Crisis," newly appointed National Security Advisor Jack Ryan and Russia's SVR (the “Foreign Intelligence” successor to the KGB) determines Japan's covert actions and in the process discovers the overall plan by Japan, India and China to eliminate U.S. influence in the Pacific. Fearful of an impending nuclear war between China and Russia, Ryan convinces President Roger Durling that the U.S. must take immediate action to stop the Japanese occupation, which Ryan hopes will derail the efforts of India and China. As a result, the United States commits two separate surgical strikes against Japan, resulting in the death of nearly all the Zaibatsu and the elimination of the Japanese presence in the Mariana Islands. The U.S. and Europe also perform a "reset" on the stock market that wipes out the zaibatsu's planned gains from the previous sabotage and rescue a kidnapped Japanese politician who later forces a cowardly, zaibatsu-controlled PM to resign in disgrace.
The ending also has coincidental parallels with the September 11, 2001 attacks, although the disaster is not caused by hijackers. An embittered Japan Air Lines pilot whose son was killed during the Pacific conflict flies his Boeing 747 directly into the U.S. Capitol building during a joint session of Congress with President Durling attending. He does so to avenge the deaths of his brother and son during the war. Nearly the entire United States presidential line of succession is eliminated. Ryan, who has just been appointed Vice President, is immediately sworn in as President and begins his term of office in the immediate sequel, Executive Orders.
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