His fierce opponent in Ohio, Governor J. Robert Fowler, has rallied the American public behind the current administration's failures in the War on Drugs.

National Security Advisor James Cutter seizes an opportunity to help the president initiate covert operations within Colombia with the intent to disrupt the illegal drug trade there.

Aided by CIA Deputy Director (Operations) Robert Ritter and CIA director Arthur Moore, the plan involves inserting light infantry troops of Hispanic descent (divided into four 11 man teams, codenamed BANNER, KNIFE, OMEN and FEATURE) into the country to stake out airstrips used by the cartel (SHOWBOAT), which then allows F-15 Eagles to intercept drug flights (EAGLE EYE).

Meanwhile, a United States Coast Guard Cutter intercepts a yacht in the Caribbean Sea; two Hispanic men are found cleaning the vessel after murdering its owner and his family.

Upon arriving in the city of Bogotá, the FBI director's motorcade is ambushed, killing him as well as the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. ambassador to Colombia.

Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, former Marine and acting CIA Deputy Director (Intelligence) after his boss, Admiral James Greer, was hospitalized for pancreatic cancer, suspects the Agency's involvement in the situation in Colombia.

Having been previously ordered by the President to shut down all covert operations against the cartel to avoid the political fallout, Cutter does so after his secret meeting with Cortez.

Although the rescue team suffers casualties from the cartel men hunting the American soldiers in Colombia, they successfully extract the survivors, including Chavez.

After he briefs the heads of the Special Intelligence Committee, the President deliberately throws the election to Fowler in order to hide the operations and protect the honor of those involved.

[5] The New York Times remarked in its review: “The issues raised are real ones, and a jump ahead of the headlines.”[6] Publishers Weekly hailed it as Clancy's best work since The Hunt for Red October.

However, when Donald Stewart was hired by Paramount Pictures to rewrite the script due to Ryan not being the central character, Clancy lambasted the new screenplay as “really awful” and criticized its technical inaccuracies.

Why, then, has nearly every aspect of the book been tossed away?” Regarding the different ending, in which Ryan testified before Congress about the covert operations instead of privately confronting the President, Ford said: ”We have softened somewhat the political bias [Clancy] brings to the subject, not because we’re bleeding-heart liberals, but because we wanted to divest it of some of its baggage and let it walk on its own two legs.”[11] In a 2018 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan creators Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland revealed that they originally opted to adapt Clear and Present Danger for television.