As the novel opens, an American scholar on his way to the Moscow airport is approached by a Russian journalist, given a package and implored to deliver it to an old friend in the State Department. The American doesn't know it, but the package contains technical documents describing a devastating new Soviet weapon system, the existence of which Washington only dimly suspects. Apparently the Soviets have successfully tested an energy weapon that will enable them to incinerate any city on the planet at will. To make matters worse, a hardline general has covertly seized power in Moscow and is preparing to force America's surrender by demonstrating the awesome power of the new death ray. He soon issues an ultimatum to the President: surrender to Soviet forces in 72 hours, or Washington D. C. will be annihilated.
Desperate for an alternative to surrender or mutual nuclear destruction, the President authorizes a seemingly suicidal sabotage mission into the heart of Soviet Asia to destroy the secret weapon before it destroys them. A four-person team is quickly assembled, consisting of a bad-ass Russian-speaking Green Beret of Czech heritage, a KGB defector who had plastic surgery and is now working for the CIA, an ex-Soviet tank commander with experience running cells behind the iron curtain, and a five foot tall Jewish female assassin who grew up near Tashkent.
The sabotage mission was the heart of the story, and the most exciting part by far. The quick assembling of the team; the stealth, low-altitude insertion by helicopter from Pakistan over the Hindu Kush mountains into Uzbekistan; the tense jeep ride across the steppe, dressed as Soviet soldiers, to the vicinity of the secret base; the hideout at the ruined mosque; the intrigue as a traitor in their midst is revealed; the scouting of the secret base; the desperate attempt to complete the sabotage mission despite heavy security—while it's highly implausible that such a mission would be attempted on such short notice with such a team, it made for a gripping tale.
Meanwhile in D.C., the president masterminds a grand deception that involves setting off natural gas explosions throughout D.C. to provide cover for his emergency evacuation of the city, while Soviet provocateurs manage to convince anti-war protestors that the president is on the verge of launching an all-out nuclear attack on Russia. The ultra-hawk Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is pushing for a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the Tashkent base, there is still no word from the sabotage team, and the President, under intense pressure from all sides, holds the fate of America and the world in his hands.
It was fascinating to read how many of the American political divisions described in this book are still going strong after more than 50 years, as well as the international tensions. While this is definitely a snapshot of America in the early 1970s, with an unpopular war winding down, war-hawks rattling sabers and anxious to prove that the military can still win, paranoia about mutually-assured mass destruction, governments deceiving their populations and protestors being manipulated by shadowy powers, in many ways it is still very relevant to our time.
This was a good read, but I think it would've been even better as a more streamlined men's adventure novel focused on the sabotage mission, with less of the political intrigues, drama with the protestors, government cover-ups, etc. Also, the Soviet death ray and the weapon the saboteurs brought to destroy it both seemed rather unrealistic and science-fictional, and took me out of the story a bit.
Apparently Craig only wrote one more novel, which is surprising because this was an entertaining debut effort that, despite some far-fetched elements, had all the ingredients of a successful espionage thriller. Recommended for fans of the genre.
Get a copy of The Tashkent Crisis here.
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