'The Hunt for Red October' novel review (Naval Institute Press hardcover edition)

(C) 1984 U.S. Naval Institute Press

In 1984, the Naval Institute Press published “The Hunt for Red October,” Tom Clancy’s Cold War-era novel about a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst, Jack Ryan, who leads a group of Anglo-American naval officers on a classified mission in the cold waters of the North Atlantic. Their task: to assist 26 disenchanted Soviet Navy officers commanded by Captain First Rank Marko Ramius in a mass defection to the West – and take possession of the Red Navy’s newest ballistic missile submarine.

Clancy, who at the time owned a successful insurance agency in Maryland, was one of the first writers to have a work of fiction published by the Naval Institute Press. The Annapolis-based publishing arm of the U.S. Naval Institute is best known for non-fiction books and reference guides about the military – with a special focus on naval warfare, technology, and history. In 1984, when Clancy submitted his manuscript for “The Hunt for Red October” to the Press after being rejected by traditional publishers, an editor read it, recommended that it be published.

The suggestion was approved, Clancy received a $5,000 advance, and “The Hunt for Red October” was published as a first edition hardcover.

Clancy hoped to sell around 5,000 copies; the first edition – which is still in print 32 years later – sold 45,000 copies. “The Hunt for Red October” was well-received by book critics (Reid Beddow of The Washington Post said the novel was “the most satisfactory novel of a sea chase since C.S. Forester perfected the form.”) and government officials like former CIA Director Stansfield Turner (“An action-packed, suspenseful story that’s fun to read.”)

But as many of Clancy’s die-hard fans know, the review that launched “The Hunt for Red October” onto the bestseller lists was President Ronald Reagan’s. Reagan, who was one of Clancy’s conservative heroes, called his novel “the perfect yarn” during a nationally-televised press conference.

“The Hunt for Red October” takes place over a period of 18 days in December circa 1986. It begins at the Soviet Navy’s Northern fleet’s submarine base at Polyarnyy, where the Typhoon-class missile boat “Red October” is about to set sail. Her commanding officer, Captain First Rank Marko Ramius, is one of the Red Navy’s best sub skippers; a master seaman, he was given command of the lead boat of every new class of Soviet submarines by his superiors. The son of a senior Communist Party official, Ramius is the living example of the New Soviet Man, dedicated to his profession and loyal to the Party.

But in the Soviet Union, appearances are often deceptive. Beneath his façade of a true believer in Communism and a loyal servant of the State, Marko Ramius is a man with a grudge. He is ashamed of his father’s deeds as a loyal Stalinist in post-World War II Lithuania, where the older Ramius helped suppress resistance to Soviet rule in the Baltic country annexed by Russia in 1940. He also hates a system that deprives its citizens of basic human rights and often rewards or protects incompetents because they have connections in the Communist Party.

As in director John McTiernan’s 1990 film adaptation, Ramius enlists the help of like-minded officers to carry out a daring plan: to take control of the “Red October” without the crew realizing it, then sail the submarine to the West – and defect.

To prevent the smarmy political officer. Ivan Putin, from interfering, Ramius murders him in his cabin and makes his death look like an accident. (“He slipped on the deck where I spilled my tea,” Ramius says to the ship’s doctor after the murder. ”I tried to keep him from falling, but he hit his head on the table.”)

Clancy interweaves the plotline of the canny Ramius’ conspiracy with the efforts of CIA analyst Jack Ryan to discover why the Soviet Navy is mounting a sudden “all-hands” sortie in the North Atlantic.

 A former Marine officer, stockbroker, and naval historian, Ryan is a young, brilliant Agency official assigned to the London station as part of a joint Anglo-American intelligence group.

Initially assigned to brief Deputy Director (Intelligence) James Greer about the strange new features of the “Red October,” Ryan begins to fit the various pieces of the “Red October” puzzle together and suggests that the Americans assist Ramius in his daring bid for freedom.     

In this fusion of traditional military fiction, contemporary science fiction based on real-life technology, elements of spy novels, and observations based on the social reality of the era, Clancy not only launched a spectacular literary career that made him a brand name – he also created a new literary genre called the techno-thriller.  

Using the spare, no-frills style that characterize the 16 Jack Ryan novels he wrote or co-wrote before his death in October of 2013, Clancy describes the moments before “Red October” begins its maiden voyage to a nearby area to participate in scheduled naval exercises.

“Captain!” The bridge speaker had a metallic voice. “Message from fleet headquarters.”

“Read it.”

“‘Exercise area clear. No enemy vessels in vicinity. Proceed as per orders. Signed, Korov, Fleet Commander.’”

“Acknowledged,” Ramius said. The speaker clicked off. “So, no Amerikantsi about?”

“You doubt the fleet commander?” Putin inquired.

“I hope he is correct,” Ramius replied, more sincerely than his political officer would appreciate. “But you remember our briefings.”

Putin shifted on his feet. Perhaps he was feeling the cold.

“Those American 688-class submarines, Ivan, the Los Angeleses. Remember what one of their officers told our spy? That they could sneak up on a whale and bugger it before it knew they were there? I wonder how the KGB got that bit of information. A beautiful Soviet agent, trained in the ways of the decadent West, too skinny, the way the imperialists like their women, blond hair…” The captain grunted amusement. “Probably the American officer was a boastful boy, trying to find a way to do something similar to our agent, no? And feeling his liquor, like most sailors. Still. The American Los Angeles class, and the new British Trafalgars, those we must guard against. They are a threat to us.”

“The Americans are good technicians, Comrade Captain,” Putin said, “but they are not giants. Their technology is not so awesome. Nasha lutcha,” he concluded. Ours is better.

Ramius nodded thoughtfully, thinking to himself that zampoliti really ought to know something about the ships they supervised, as mandated by Party doctrine.

“Ivan, didn’t the farmers around Gorkiy tell you it is the wolf you do not see that you must fear? But don’t be overly concerned. With this ship we will teach them a lesson, I think.”

“As I told the Main Political Administration,” Putin clapped Ramius’ shoulder again, “Red October is in the best of hands!”

Ramius and Kamarov both smiled at that. You son of a bitch! the captain thought, saying in front of my men that you must pass on my fitness to command! A man who could not command a rubber raft on a calm day! A pity you will not live to eat those words, Comrade Political Officer, and spend the rest of your life in the gulag for that misjudgment. It would almost be worth leaving you alive.

A few minutes later the chop began to pick up, making the submarine roll. The movement was accentuated by their height above the deck, and Putin made excuses to go below. Still a weak-legged sailor. Ramius shared the observation silently with Kamarov, who smiled agreement. Their unspoken contempt for the zampolit was a most un-Soviet thought.

Clancy’s gift was his ability to tell a riveting story while at the same time sharing his conservative philosophies with the world. He detested Communism for its political and even spiritual oppressiveness and its dogmatic refusal to let individuals think for themselves.  He didn’t dislike Russians – in fact, some of his most compelling characters are citizens of the Soviet Union. But he did hate how Communism was a “political philosophy responsible for millions of deaths and untold misery.”

Another of Clancy’s talents was to create clearly-defined good guys and bad guys. In “The Hunt for Red October,” Marko Ramius and Jack Ryan are presented as decent men on a mission. Ramius wants to exorcise the memories of his father’s evil deeds in Lithuania and avenge a deeply personal wrong done to him by a callous State a few years earlier.

Ryan, for his part, is Clancy’s answer to Ian Fleming’s popular but fantastical James Bond. Unlike the iconic martini-drinking and womanizing superspy, Jack is a devoted family man and dependable “man in the gap” who uses his intellect rather than his gun hand to carry out his mission. (That’s not to say he doesn’t know how to handle himself in a gunfight; Ryan is a former Marine and is a good shot with a pistol.)

25 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, “The Hunt for Red October” may be a relic of the Cold War, especially for readers who have lived in a world with only one superpower – the United States. It is, of course, a product of the time in which Clancy wrote it. In 1984, many Americans questioned the Reagan Administration’s buildup of American military power as a response to the massive Soviet expansion of its conventional and nuclear forces in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world of the previous decade.

Also, this was a time in which the American military, intelligence and government communities were often portrayed as dark forces with a sinister agenda. In many novels and movies before “The Hunt for Red October” was published, the protagonists were disillusioned Vietnam veterans like Craig Thomas’s Mitchell Gant. In Thomas’s 1977 novel “Firefox,” Gant reluctantly assists the CIA and Britain’s MI6 in a mission to steal a new Soviet prototype fighter.

Though “The Hunt for Red October” also involves a joint CIA-MI6 effort to acquire a piece of advanced Soviet military equipment, Ryan is not an embittered, cynical loner with an ax to grind. He is a team player who believes in the ideals of the American dream even as he acknowledges some of his country’s flaws.

Clancy also respected and admired the men and women who serve in the U.S. armed forces. “The Hunt for Red October” was one of the first works of American pop fiction to portray military personnel in a positive light. The author deplored the way that the public treated its veterans during and after the Vietnam War. In “The Hunt for Red October,” readers get a more nuanced and realistic look at America’s military professionals. Some literary and social observers credit Clancy’s novels – including 1986’s “Red Storm Rising” – as part of America’s newfound affection and respect for its military and intelligence communities.