Book Review – Tom Clancy’s “The Cardinal of the Kremlin”

Today we’re taking a look at Tom Clancy‘s The Cardinal of the Kremlin, the fifth chronological book in the Jack Ryan series of novels.  The Cardinal of the Kremlin is a direct sequel to the events in The Hunt for Red October.

Set in the late 1980s, The Cardinal of the Kremlin tells a story of how a top secret CIA informant, “CARDINAL,” leaks information about a secret Soviet program that’s designed to use lasers to destroy satellites orbiting the Earth.  The U.S. is working on its own version of the weapon, and both countries are racing (and spying on one another) to stay out in front.  When the Soviets discover the chain of people passing information out of the country, the CIA races to rescue “CARDINAL” before it’s too late.

One of the side stories in this novel involves guerrilla forces in Afghanistan waging war against the Soviet army.

The Cardinal of the Kremlin begins in Moscow, Russia, as CIA analyst Jack Ryan attends a diplomatic conference as part of an American delegation to the Soviet Union.  With him in the room is experienced CIA field agent Mary Pat Foley.  The main purpose of the meeting in Moscow is to get the Russians and Americans to agree to a nuclear arms reduction treaty, but, of course, other goals include gathering intelligence on their KGB counterparts.  One of the Russian officers that Mary Pat meets is Colonel Mikhail Semyonovich Filitov.  The colonel is a Hero of the Soviet Union after his achievements as a tank commander in the Red Army during World War 2 (a.k.a. the Great Patriotic War).

Colonel Filitov also happens to be a highly placed spy for the CIA.  His code name is “CARDINAL.”  He has his own personal reasons for being a traitor to the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, both the U.S. and Soviet Union are working on anti-ballistic missile weapons using lasers.  The American version uses lasers that reflect off a series of mirrors in orbit to strike their targets, and the Soviet version uses a series of lasers that fire upwards and strike low-orbit passing satellites.  One day after a reconnaissance plane is finished recording the testing of the American laser, it accidentally records a testing of the Soviet laser.  It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.  The news sends the CIA and U.S. Army scrambling for answers as it was believed that the Soviet laser project, codenamed “Bright Star,” was still several years away from being operational.

Over in Afghanistan, the Soviets are still in the country and the Arab mujaheddin have been waging guerrilla warfare against them.  The leader of one of the group of fighters is a man with the nickname “Archer.”  He received the name after his skill of using shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles to shoot down Russian aircraft.  It turns out that Archer and his men witnessed the Russian laser in action as it was being tested, and he believes that the weapon is a grave threat to him and his men.  With the help of a CIA agent, Archer leads his men on a risky mission across Afghanistan and into southern Russia to destroy the weapon.

Back in the U.S., Jack Ryan travels to New Mexico and the research lab to meet one of the top scientists behind the U.S. laser, Army Major Alan Gregory.  Major Gregory is brought to Washington, D.C. to brief the president about the American and Soviet lasers.  Gregory’s girlfriend, Candi Long, also happens to work at the research lab, but her speciality is in optics and the mirrors.  To make matters more complicated, a lesbian KGB agent, Bea Taussig, falls in love with Candi Long, and she reports everything that she knows about Candi and Alan to her KGB handler, Tanya Bisyarina.  Tanya, in turn, reports this information to her superiors back at the KGB in Moscow.

Over in Moscow, the system of passing messages between Colonel Filitov and the CIA field agents uses several Russians, a chain link of message passers who only know of their immediate contacts and not either end of the message chain.  One day a KGB agent riding on a subway train happens to be looking when two message passers make contact.  The agent follows the man who received the message.  He is captured, interrogated, and later agrees to help capture his other known contact, a woman on the train.  The woman is later captured and after using a sophisticated KGB brainwashing technique, she tells her secrets and her memories of working for the CIA are erased.  She is later returned to the city to resume working at her normal position.

The Americans are aware of the message chain being broken, and Robert Ritter at the CIA uses that as an excuse to grab Filitov and have him flee from Russia.  Filitov has been a spy for thirty years and it’s well beyond time to take him out of the country.  The President ultimately agrees, and a plan is set in motion on retrieving not only Filitov but another high ranking Soviet officer as well.  The USS Dallas is sent on a secret mission and passenger John Clark prepares to make a quick trip into Russia.

Knowing that the chain is broken, both of the Foleys make risky contacts to Filitov to pass him information.  The Russians are suspicious of Filitov being a spy (part of the recovered message mentioned something about “Bright Star,” the laser project that Filitov was overseeing for the KGB), so they have agents monitoring him.  The Soviets learn that Mary Pat Foley secretly passed Filitov information while they were both attending a junior hockey game.  When Mary Pat later meets with Filitov again, they’re both arrested by the KGB.  Mary Pat maintains her innocence, and because her husband is a diplomat, she’s later released though they are both deported from Russia.  Colonel Filitov, however, is interrogated many times and held in an isolated prison cell.

After learning of the arrest of Filitov, Jack Ryan comes up with a plan to rescue the colonel and bring him to America.  Ryan travels back to Moscow as part of another American diplomatic team.  In a secluded room, Ryan meets with KGB chairman Nikolay Borissovich Gerasimov.  In the aftermath of Filitov’s arrest, Gerasimov plans to take over as General Secretary of the KGB, a move that would be dangerous for the U.S. considering Gerasimov’s anti-American ideology.  Jack Ryan presents Gerasimov with the nuclear missile launch key from the Soviet ballistic missile submarine, the Red October.  He threatens to release information about the defection of the officers, a move that would embarrass the Soviet Union.  That is, unless Filitov is released *and* Gerasimov and his family defects to America.

Chairman Gerasimov, however, has a different sort of plan.  On his orders, a team of three KGB agents cross from Mexico into New Mexico.  They then use Bea Taussig’s help to kidnap Major Gregory at a local shopping center.  Gerasimov wants to extract Gregory to Moscow and interrogate him on the American laser system, and then use that information against Jack Ryan.  The kidnapping plan runs into trouble when the KGB agents run into a traffic jam, take a wrong turn, and then get lost.  They’re ultimately pulled over by a police officer after they make an illegal traffic maneuver.  Gregory tries to signal the officer for help, but the agents see him do it and they shoot and try to kill the officer.  The police officer is hit but it’s not fatal, and soon a manhunt is under way for the Russian agents.

The three agents finally get Major Gregory to a Soviet safe house that’s being operated by Tanya Bisyarina.  The police officer shooting has delayed their plans for extracting Gregory back across the border.  Tanya creates an alternate plan using a large truck and shipping containers to smuggle the agents as well as Major Gregory out of the country.

The FBI is quickly alerted to Gregory’s kidnapping, and they prepare the elite Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) for the rescue operation.  The only problem is that they don’t know where to look.  They catch a lucky break when Bea Taussig tries to seduce Candi Long during this crisis, but she ultimately reveals her part in the kidnapping.  Bea alerts the FBI to the Russian agents, and the agents are soon spotted.  The FBI follows them to their safe house and then creates a rescue mission for the HRT.  Major Gregory is quickly rescue during an assault that kills three KGB agents and captures one of them alive.

Jack Ryan informs Gerasimov of the rescue operation and that Major Gregory is safely back in American hands.  The chairman of the KGB is forced to accept Ryan’s plan to defect to America.  The plan is to smuggle Colonel Filitov to the airport when the U.S. diplomatic team is ready to head back to America.

Meanwhile, with the assistance of Captain Marko Ramius, the USS Dallas delivers John Clark to the coast of Estonia.  He sneaks into the country, meets Chairman Gerasimov’s wife and daughter, and then escorts them back to the submarine.  The Dallas then makes a quick getaway before a Russian ship attacks and destroys them.  Ramius uses the radio to fool the Russian ship and make it look like the Dallas is a covert Soviet sub on a training mission.  This works and the USS Dallas is able to escape.

In Moscow, Colonel Filitov finally breaks when his KGB interrogators trick him into revealing his secrets.  That doesn’t matter though as Gerasimov removes him from his prison cell and takes him to the airport.  The two Russians are able to board the American airliner, but trouble arises and Jack Ryan chooses to remain behind and help the others escape.  The aircraft departs and Ryan is captured by Russian agents.  He knows that the Russians won’t kill him because of his diplomatic status, but there are no guarantees.

The Russians take Ryan to a secluded cabin where he meets the new General Secretary, Narmonov.  The new leader briefly discuss the situation and decide that it would be best if the recent events in the Soviet Union were kept under wraps.  Jack Ryan is then returned to the American embassy where he later catches connecting flights back to the United States.

In southern Russia, Archer leads his mujaheddin in a daring raid against the Soviet laser compound.  The raid causes considerable damage to the facility, but it’s not destroyed.  Most of the attackers are killed, including Archer.  The rest of the fighters return to Afghanistan where they reorganize themselves and set out to conduct more guerrilla warfare against the Soviets.

The Cardinal of the Kremlin ends with Colonel Filitov, codenamed “CARDINAL,” arriving in the U.S. and telling Major Gregory, amongst other officers, everything that he knows about project “Bright Star,” the Soviet Union’s laser program.  A few months after he arrives in the U.S., Filitov peacefully dies in his sleep.  He’s buried at Camp David, some twenty miles from the site of the Battle of Antietam (a.k.a. Battle of Sharpsburg) during the American Civil War.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So is Tom Clancy’s The Cardinal of the Kremlin a good book?

Yes, very much so.

Although parts of this book are somewhat detailed, The Cardinal of the Kremlin was a great book and a terrific read from start to finish.  Like most Clancy books, this can be a bit of a hefty read because it’s packed with so much material, but it’s worth it in the end.  The last quarter of the book races by with the events of the kidnapping of Major Gregory, the USS Dallas and John Clark’s covert actions, and the nail-biting flight out of Russia.

To get the most out of The Cardinal of the Kremlin, you really need to have read the previous books first, especially The Hunt for Red October.  Red Rabbit also offers more to the back story, in particular the events in Moscow surrounding Mary Pat Foley.

Fans of classic Tom Clancy novels will feel right at home with The Cardinal of the Kremlin.  Clancy is in his prime here and it clearly shows.  This is a very well written story with a great plot, entertaining characters, and plausible and satisfying conclusions to scenarios.  Do not pass up a chance to read this book!