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Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
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Has anyone here read this book? Is it worth reading?
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
Red Storm Rising is a 1986 techno-thriller novel by Tom Clancy and Larry Bond about a third world war in Europe between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces, set around the mid-1980s, probably in 1986 or 1987. Though there are other novels dealing with a fictional World War III, this one is notable for the way in which numerous settings for the action - from Atlantic convoy duty to shooting down reconnaissance satellites to tank battles in Germany - all have an integral part to play on the outcome. This one of two novels that has no association with Clancy's others, as it does not fall in the Ryanverse.
Azerbaijani terrorists destroy a new oil-production facility in the Soviet Union, severely crippling Soviet oil production and threatening to wreck the Soviet economy. Facing a perceived need to make crippling concessions to the West to survive the crisis, the Politburo chooses a different path: war. The Politburo decides to seize the Middle East by force to secure a new source of oil. According to the Carter Doctrine, any attack on the Persian Gulf is an attack on a vital strategic interest of the United States, and will be treated as such, meaning a military response: to prevent NATO's combined reaction, they first launch a KGB operation to split NATO by making it appear as if West Germany launched an unprovoked terrorist attack on the U.S.S.R., followed by an invasion of Europe in response to that 'attack' that will tie down remaining NATO forces there, if not knocking them out.
Unfortunately, the KGB operation has limited success: the coming Soviet attack on Germany is detected a few days in advance, giving NATO time to start mobilization and providing sufficient evidence to prevent the fracturing of NATO. Nonetheless it scores some success as several countries are successfully convinced that this is a "German-Russian disagreement" that they refuse to be involved in. This removes the threat to the Soviet Union's southern front (Turkey is unwilling to launch an offensive alone) and the war quickly becomes a meat-grinder in Germany: NATO forces slowly give ground while inflicting terrible losses on Warsaw pact armies.
Recent paperback cover
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Recent paperback cover
One of the strategic masterstrokes of the Soviet Union's opening moves in the war is their seizure of Iceland, capturing the NATO air station at Keflavík. This disrupts the GIUK SOSUS line (American seabed hydrophones), expected to prevent the Soviet Navy from operating effectively in the Atlantic by making it impossible for their ships and submarines to enter the Atlantic undetected. The Soviet Navy becomes an offensive weapon, and the Warsaw Pact seriously damages NATO's war effort by interdicting resupply convoys coming from North America.
In West Germany, the battle becomes a war of attrition that the Soviets expect to win, having greater reserves of men and material. NATO holds the Warsaw Pact forces to small but continual advances only through the profligate expenditure of every weapon at hand.
As the Warsaw Pact advance fails to achieve its planned breakthrough, the Politburo considers the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Eventually, the general in charge of the Western European theatre, General Pavel Alekseyev (the Politburo keeps relieving and shooting unsuccessful generals like CINC-West) recognizes the slippery slope, and stages a coup, replacing most of the Politburo with three junior members who opposed the war at the beginning.
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