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The Novel, The Hunt For Red October By Tom Clancy, Takes

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The novel, The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy, takes place in the height of the Cold War in the 60 's. The story begins with Captain Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius setting out to sea in the submarine Red October on a mission for his country, the USSR. As time progresses in the submarine we learn that Ramius plans to defect to the United States as he has become inceasingly disgruntled with Soviet rule after the death of his beloved wife. Despite the odd 's stacked against Ramius and even USSR loyalists aboard his sub, he continues on his goal of getting him and his men to the United States to escape what he sees as corrupt rule. Russia however does find out about Ramius ' betrayal and sends their entire fleet after the Red October, as it …show more content…

Throughout the novel i began to wonder if anyone of the events portrayed by Clancy had any historical or real world evidence of occuring, such as mass USSR defection by disgruntled citizens and military figures, the act of scuttling or purposely sinking your own naval vesel, and the United States stance on allowing in fugitives from foreign countries. In The Hunt for Red October, it is questionable as to whether or not the United States would be so openly willing as to send out enitre battleships just to allow asylum to a handful of defectors from foreign countries. In history, there are numerous accounts of defectors coming to the United States during and after WWII. As we as students aren 't generally educated on defectors coming to the United States while in school, it seems questionable to wonder about our nation 's stance on accepting them. People in the novel such as Jack Ryan and Captain Bart Macuso are entirely ready to allow Ramius and his fellow defectors asylum in the States without so much as a second thought, Ryan goes as far as to blatently state that "naturally, we give asylum to the defection officers"(Clancy 72). This statement indicates that providing asylum for defectors is very common within the novel 's world, which is nearly identical to our own, yet we only hear of United States defectors fleeing to

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