The Bear and the Dragon
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The Bear and the Dragon is a political thriller novel by Tom Clancy featuring Jack Ryan. It was published in 2000.
Plot introduction
In the book Jack Ryan is President of the United States. After Russia discovers oil fields the size of the Persian Gulf in Siberia and gold deposits just as big, it looks as if the struggling Russian economy is on the road to recovery.Plot summary
After a roving CNN news team captures the murder of the Papal Nuncio to Beijing, Renato Cardinal di Milo, and a Chinese religious minister in China, Yu Fa An, as they stop Chinese authorities from performing a forced late-term abortion on a member of Yu's congregation. As a result, the world boycotts trade with the PRC. With its economy struggling due to recent military expansions, China decides to hasten its planned invasion of Siberia to access the abundant newly discovered oil and gold fields, attempting to murder the Russian President and his top ranking advisor in the process.
In an attempt to dissuade China from invading Russia, Ryan persuades NATO to admit Russia, and personally promises assistance to Russia's President Grushavoy. China invades anyway. Russia opposes this and eventually wins through help from the United States Army, Air Force and NATO allies, in the process completely annihilating two Chinese Shock-Army formations and severely damaging two others. The U.S. Navy, in an attack on the Chinese mainland coastal defenses, destroys much of the Chinese navy's aging fleet while it lies in port. Ryan decides to broadcast CNN's coverage of the war, plus direct feeds from U.S. reconnaissance drones, over a CIA Web site to counter propaganda that is being spread by the Chinese government about the situation of the war; this decision becomes important later on as events develop.
As the war turns against China, Beijing's increasingly desperate leaders decide to ready their ICBMs for a potential launch. A joint NATO-Russian special operations force (including Rainbow Six), led on the NATO side by John Clark, is dispatched to destroy the ICBMs. The force destroys all but one of the missiles; the remaining one being targeted at Washington. Ryan's family is evacuated, but he decides at the last minute to stay behind on board a Navy ship docked in Washington that has an experimental anti-missile system. Ryan watches as the ship successfully destroys the ICBM just before it was set to explode over Washington.
Ryan then decides to broadcast CNN's coverage of the near-destruction of Washington on the same CIA Web site. By this time, several thousand Chinese citizens have been following the war on this site. Late at night, a group of students who have become enraged over the Chinese leadership's handling of the war after watching the CIA site march through Tiananmen Square and successfully invade a Politburo meeting, leading to the fall of the government. A reformist Politburo member, Fang Gan takes over and arrests the men behind the invasion, Premier Xu Kun Piao, Minister Zhang Han San, and Marshal Luo Cong. Fang also orders an immediate withdrawal of Chinese forces from Siberia, and then in open discussion with student leaders starts China's transition to democracy.
Literary significance & criticism
The Bear and the Dragon, for a number of reasons, was one of Clancy's most poorly received novels by critics to date. The extensive passages of politics and the length of the book did not appeal to some of Clancy's traditional readers. The small number of sex scenes alienated some Clancy readers, who were used to fast paced action throughout much of the story.
Also, another major criticism raised by military enthusiasts is several minor inaccuracies concerning the military technology used by the Chinese and Russian forces.
Allusions/references from other works
- Over several episodes in the fourth season of the British sitcom My Family, the main character Ben Harper reads The Bear and the Dragon, and eventually starts a book club exclusively discussing that book.
External links
- [Review of the novel]
- The Bear and the Dragon at: [Amazon.com] and [Barnes & Noble.com]
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Fiction: 1980s: The Hunt for Red October | Red Storm Rising | Patriot Games | The Cardinal of the Kremlin | Clear and Present Danger 1990s: The Sum of All Fears | Without Remorse | Debt of Honor | Executive Orders | SSN | Rainbow Six 2000s: The Bear and the Dragon | Red Rabbit | The Teeth of the Tiger Non-fiction: 1990s: Submarine | Armored Cav | Fighter Wing | Marine | Into the Storm | Airborne | Carrier | Every Man a Tiger 2000s: Special Forces | Shadow Warriors | Battle Ready |
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