Russian forces attacked Ukraine on February 24, entering from several directions, with troops headed toward its capital, Kyiv. While a happy ending such as this is common in Clancy's America-first thrillers, it's yet unclear that we'll see a similar outcome in a war that's already claimed hundreds of lives and forced 800,000 people to flee. In Clancy's book, the crisis is resolved when a KGB-led coup usurps the fictional Russian leader before he is able to launch a nuclear strike on the Allied forces. The cover of the video game based on Tom Clancy's 1986 novel "Red Storm Rising" In fact, the author subsequently developed one based on the book – the game was released on the PC, Atari, and Commodore 64 platforms in 1988. What ensues in Clancy's book is an action packed, multi-theater military procedural that, at times, feels like something out of a video game. But a key difference between Clancy's scenario and the real Russian invasion is that Ukraine is not a part of NATO, the world's most powerful alliance that includes the nuclear powers the US, France and the UK.
In real life: Russian officials including Russian leader Vladimir Putin repeatedly based their new military attack on Ukraine on the lie that a genocide was taking place in Ukraine. To justify their intentions while keeping the initial attack a secret, the USSR devises a false flag operation by planning an attack on the Kremlin that they blame on NATO-affiliated West Germany. The book's plot: after one of its major oil refineries is destroyed by Azerbaijani militants, the USSR determines it must seize the oil supply in the Persian Gulf, which is protected by NATO. Two years after publishing his blockbuster submarine warfare thriller "The Hunt For Red October," Clancy (in collaboration with war game designer Larry Bond) penned "Red Storm Rising," a 725-page military techno-thriller about a global conflict provoked by the then-Soviet Union. More than three decades before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, bestselling author Tom Clancy imagined a scenario that shares similarities with the events that have ruled recent headlines. Spoiler alert: The following article contains spoilers for Tom Clancy's 1986 novel "Red Storm Rising." President Reagan reportedly recommended the book to UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
"Red Storm Rising" was one of two Clancy books that takes place outside the Jack Ryan-verse.In 1986, author Tom Clancy published a novel about a global conflict provoked by the USSR.