SOURCE: "Just Say Nuke 'Em," in New York Times Book Review, August 13, 1989, p. 9.

In the following review, Wise offers a tempered assessment of Clear and Present Danger, which he describes as "a ponderous thriller."

"It was odd, Cutter thought, how ideas grow. First the President had made an intemperate remark after learning that the cousin of a close friend had died of a drug overdose."

Next thing you know, Vice Adm. James Cutter, the President's national security adviser (and a certified baddie in Tom Clancy's new techno-thriller, Clear and Present Danger), has a chat with the C.I.A.'s senior spook. Before you can say Jack Armstrong, a team of Army commandos is assassinating workers at coca-processing sites in the jungles of Colombia and Navy smart bombs are blowing up the haciendas of the Medellin cocaine cartel, killing women and children as well as the evil drug...