Red October (fictional submarine) the "Red October" adventure proved useful to Ryan's career. In later books, Ryan is able to use his heroism in obtaining the submarine as a lever with which to force a threatening KGB Secretary to defect to the U.S. against his will (in the novel "The Cardinal of the Kremlin"), ending the possibility of a Kremlin coup against a politically centrist Soviet government. Years later the truth of these events comes to light when political opponents of then-President Jack Ryan reveals his part in the affair. By this time in the early 1990s, the Soviet Union has collapsed and the
The Hunt for Red October Writers. "No one encapsulated the mindset and mentality of the Reagan era more, as the Cold War was heating up for the last time and we were entering a new age of modern warfare. Clancy's books tapped into our fears and helped define our psyches, even as he reinvigorated the thriller genre by bringing millions of new readers into the fold.” The book was instrumental in restoring confidence in the American military and government, which had endured a bitter defeat in Vietnam War and foreign policy failures during the late 1970s. The book also led to a shift in book