This is a recently released video of a talk given in October 1986 by Tom Clancy. During the lecture, Clancy talks about the origins of The Hunt For Red October, the writing process, terrorism, and the intelligence community.
I figured it out once I watched some interviews although the interviewers made things hard to watch. Listening to Clancy honestly reminds me of listening to my grandpa, always got something interesting to say
Someone I knew recognized Mr. Clancy on the street in Manhattan. He asked to take a picture with him. While they took the picture, someone walked past and said, "Are you famous?" He replied, "Yea, I'm a rock star."
Great answer that reminds me of a Reddit Thread that said "So much classified material is out on the web but we do not remove it because then people know its sensitive."
I bet Tom was one HELL of an insurance salesman. God bless this man and everything he did. Even listening to this 36 years after he spoke the words, there is such an eerie feeling of relevance. RIP, Tom. Thanks for everything.
He was even better at selling BS to Americans about how invincible they are and how inferior everyone else is. No one goes broke in that business, but Clancy took it to another level. A talented propagandist, but totally full of shit.
@travis miller yeah he basically just worked for the cia as propagandist the director of the cia at the time loved him and had him put out a bunch of bs
Often you find people who like a specific thing about a topic or subject. Maybe it's inspiring stories of heroism or technical jargon and logistics. I think Tom was a man who loved everything about the military. He enjoyed the crunchy numbers, the feats of determinantion, and even the restrictions and rules that kept everything working even though they often feel stuffy and hindering. What he wrote can only come from a genuine love for the whole thing.
Excellent. He was such a great wit. Could communicate his ideas eloquently and with great humor. Dearly missed in this modern day in which we find ourselves.
@@666Tomato666 Rather obvious. World War II. British capture German U-boat. Many years later Americans make movie about it with American Navy capturing German U-boat with Enigma machine onboard.
@@AudieHolland You mean the Brits that keep forgetting about the full decryption system for Enigma they got from the Poles before the war even started?
@@666Tomato666 I didn't say they were the first to capture an Enigma. But they were the ones who captured a German U-boat for that specific purpose. Which is why I made the reply, that it was rather obvious that the US Navy would try to get their hands on Soviet coding books and machines from a sunken Yankee.
To think that Tom is REALLY keen on making these people understand that he aquired all that millitary information legaly and through civilian accessable means. Merely a decade or two later you could have that type of information at the tip of your fingers, nearly instantaneoulsy and completely free. Just crazy.
Of all the interviews and speeches I've seen with Tom Clancy, this was my favorite. I think it gave the best, most personal description of his writing and researching experience as well as his motives, his likes, his dislikes, and his knowledge base. Thanks for posting this
@@MatthewJHood 29:48- and especially 31:26-32:09 onwards: a very candid take on Northern Ireland civil rights in the 1960s-70s, and the comparative lack in the UK of national-level oversight vs US federal Civil Rights enforcement/ 'Mississippi Burning'. Also makes you wonder what he would have said about the 2001-2021 Afghanistan occupation, Guantanamo and Iraq.
I was born 88, my grandmother was a big fan. Owned all of his books, my grandfather was AF and worked on the Manhattan project. My grandfather often laughed at the books but always nodded when i asked if certain things were true. Oh i miss his writing.
Time codes: 00:30 "Storozhevoy" mutiny 07:55 Became insurance agent 08:04 USNI Meeting and payments for writing 09:38 What is a sub captain like? 11:04 Writing "The Hunt for Red October" (HfRO) 14:10 Crazy Ivan 16:16 Editing HfRO 17:40 Release of HfRO 20:00 Krazny or Kraznaya? 21:20 Research Sources 21:41 "Harpoon" Wargame 26:13 FBI HRT Demonstration 27:42 "Patriot Games" and the Troubles in Northern Ireland 33:31 Future of War is Terrorism 34:04 Role of NSA in dealing with Terrorism. 35:49 Q&A 35:57 Philosophy of classified questions 36:31 Q: Can you comment on your research on the stealth fighter? 38:57 Q: In several sections of "Red October" you mention NSA. Where did you go for information? Or, did you attempt to seek information about NSA? 42:34 Q: In "Red Storm" you reference non-Soviet Warsaw Pact forces participating in war. Does that reflect you view of what would actually happen in a Third World War? 44:11 Q: What has been the reaction to "Red October" in the Navy? 45:06 Q: If, in your research, you were the recipient of classified material and you knew it, what would be your reaction? 45:35 Soviet Boomers phoning home (WaPo front page, security problems at Cheltenham)
While were building Tom Clancy's house on The Chesapeake Bay in 88 , Many of the carpenters would stay in a camper on the jobsite , Since it was a long ride home . Tom would come over in the evenings and sit around the fire while we drank beer and talk with us . Because he lived nearby and checked on how his house was coming around . When I first met him , I had no idea who he was . Until workers started bringing in piles of books to be autographed for themselves and friends of theirs . Within a week or so I realized he was a #1 bestseller and a movie was in production " Hunt for Red October " .. When I talked with him " How are you doing Tom . He was interesting to talk to , just another guy . . But damn if he didn't have one massive house on a massive piece of property overlooking The Bay ..
It was interesting to hear his comment at 39:41 - "I have this impulse... to call Dr. Ballard … because we didn't develop that technology to look at the Titanic." - it was in fact a recent news item that Ballard's Titanic expedition was also a cover for finding some secret nuclear submarine wreckage!
His story about the naval officer refusing to tell what he should take out of the book because it’s classified had me in stitches. Talk about the ultimate Catch-22🤣🤣
I love Tom Clancy’s novels. However this is the first time I have seen him animated and speaking. Not what I expected, but I am certainly not disappointed.
I always loved his takes on the Soviet Union. He always dissed the quality of their equipment and their leadership. From the looks of things right now, I don't think things have improved very much in modern day Russia. Such an intelligent man. He probably should have actually been working for the NSA. The problem would have been him having to take a massive pay cut. Miss you Tom.
I got recommended this video today, and ironically it's come out that the "bulletproof" vests that the Russians are using are either rusted steel, or cardboard plates (which isn't bulletproof at all). Nobody's seen the all-famed ".50 caliber resistant" battle suits that were touted a year or so ago.
@@Blueoriontiger They're infamous for developing technologies and then failing to ever actually implement or produce them, far more so than the west, who might not use half of the revolutionary technologies we come up with but at least _do_ make the equipment we _actually need,_ unlike Russia due to their unimaginably corrupt power structures
@@Blueoriontiger Perhaps question what you've been told by the empire of lies, most certainly telling that fewer and fewer men of moral character will fight for it now.
Someone finally just uploaded the full audio book, Red Storm Rising only 7 days ago. Easily one of my favorite books of all time. The attention to detail and authenticity that Tom Clancy puts in that book, is second to none. I only wish he was around to write a new updated version of Red Storm Rising, using modern day advanced military technology, like drones and 5th gen fighters. His absence is still felt to this day.
Clancy had great imagination and enough facts to make his books ring true. For those of us who grew up in the cold war, gaming out and imagining how a potential conflict with the USSR would go down was something we did quite a bit, but Clancy made it even more vivid. I think it's pretty clear that those in the intel community and military appreciated his work because those types of thought experiments were important and essential for them as well.
His books don't actually ring true at all. They're comic books for adults, perfectly tailored to an American audience that loves to be told how invincible they are and how inferior and evil everyone who opposes them is.
The passage where he states for the second time that “it wasn’t hard” tells me that his mind was quite logical. Not that he didn’t need any imagination, but that to fill in the basic outlines of his premisse, he made logical conclusions based on real life insights into objectives, needs and practical ways to achieve them.
We were lucky enough to have him as guest of honor at DragonCon in 1990 the autograph line was incredible I'd never seen anything like that before or since I mean it was silent , and everyone was very patient. I was working part-time, before a career switch into security for the B Dalton bookstore chain at the time in Atlanta. We couldn't keep Tom Clancy novels on the shelves back then. His style of writing was so unique at the time people were not only buying it for themselves once they finished the story they bought a copy for someone else, and gave it as a gift. I had more than one customer tell me they blew an entire weekend getting through the book., but it was worth every second. The man did an incredible amount of background research using unclassified information for putting his books together to the point where he actually got interviewed by government officials who thought he had violated security protocol , and he was never a government employee, just a writer who knew how to do research
I bought that book in the Pearl Harbor exchange as we were on the way to the Persian Gulf, I had finished it right before we transited into the gulf and then the Stark was hit while we were there, you can imagine what was going through my mind at that time.
@@buzzaard7036 that must have been pretty wild, seeing the AirLand battle doctrine playing out to real effect. I was born two days before the ground war began! My mother vividly remembers being afraid of a draft & my dad being called-up.
I absolutely love Tom Clancy’s novels. I started reading them in high school and I still reread them to this day. I graduated in 1984. I even named my cats Tom and Clancy. RIP.
Mr. Clancy can certainly write, but he can also present a fantastic talk. not only that, he can bring some comedy with him on stage. I could listen to him for hours, hes a walking talking encyclopedia of military knowledge.
He mentioned Dr. Ballard and how that technology wasn't made to look for the Titanic. 30 years later, Ballard admitted that the discovery of the Titanic was part of a secret mission to look for missing submarines. Clancy got it right. Again.
This guy had a mind like a steel trap. I’ve worked with and had friends like this, and they’re fascinating people. It seems that the best of them get snapped up by the defense community.
@@F3PIZZA What I mean is that he’s an individual that misses very little that he sees or hears, and can later draw on these experiences to combine them with other experiences or observations to reach conclusions very quickly. He may have been eidetic, but most folks I’ve known with eidetic memories did not make the fact of their “gift” widely known.
Eye Hear Ya! Duh Fast Food-industry snapped me up fairly quick... 'made it a career. Duh scenery's always a-changing: sum days I'm doing Fountain Drinks... other times I Drop Fries.
Especially with what has happened with these so called good Ubisoft games these days lol remember how good Rainbow Six 3 was in comparison to that crap they call rainbow six siege nowdays , pathetic they don’t make em this badass no more 👊🏽RIP
What a treasure to happen upon... Patriot Games is still my favorite TC novel, although a close second would be the two that have to go together: Debt of Honor and Executive Orders. And here he is in the midst of writing it and talking about it. For a TC "fanboy" this is pure gold!
Fun fact, Tom Clancy founded a video game studio called 'Red Storm Entertainment' named after his book Red Storm Rising. They created an enormously successful line up of games which are still being produced to date by different developers (Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and more.)
This is a blast from the past in 1986 at the Friedman Auditorium. He was very entertaining and at the height of his success as a writer. Definitely the most entertaining guest speaker during my tour at the HQs.
The power of narrative should not be underestimated. People get wrapped up into the characters, and either learn their lessons, or become distracted, convoluted. This is true in writing, art, acting, and real life.
Excellent talk - I had read the hardcover in 1985 (loaned to my by a VP CO next-door-neighbor), and was just finishing "Red Storm Rising" as I climbed in the plane to take me to RTC Orlando. I became a Naval Aircrewman (SH-60B), and while going through some secondary schools at NAS North Island, a number of us students (VS, HS, and HSL) used to play "Harpoon" over the weekends when it was still a "board game" - we'd take up 3 barracks rooms - one for blue, one for red, with a referee room in the middle. I was then INCREDIBLY Blessed to be flying with the HSL Detachment that was involved with the Hunt for Red October movie filming in The Straits of Juan de Fueca (still have the patch the USS Reuben James made - to the annoyance of the production company)... then spent the rest of my career waiting for the NEXT hardcover to hit the NEX - and Mr. Clancy made SURE the military got it, if not first, but never late.
Thanks for sharing this, it is really nice to actually visualize who Tom Clancy was like and now I can appreciate my collection of his books a bit more. :)
The only man that could and he were would do the same at this time and say about national intelligence ..about the second cold war..coronavirus...global changes in weather...he was an american lecare
I read THFRO back in the day when it first came out. It was amazing the amount of detail Clancy put into the novel. He was certainly an affable guy as demonstrated by this great video.
Thank you for posting this, I had no idea that Tom Clancy was such a good public speaker. This video also re-affirms my perception of him as a professional in every sense of the word.
Clancy needed thoze Bcuz NSA was Zapping his cranium w/ LASERs ISO Explosives that could kill sum of our Intelligentsia. You wouldn't want That, would you?
Tom here is an inspiration. 'Just sit down and write the damn thing,' he said! Man, I've lost count of how many excuses I've put up to not really dedicate myself... and I have plenty of story ideas.
Get spiral-bound notebook. A box of rollerball black ink pens. Begin writing from BOTTOM page of notebook & go upwards... don't write on back sheet of what you just wrote. Start. Best Wishes & may GOD Bless you\your efforts!!! Happy Holidays!!
SAS conducting Live Fire Hostage Rescue Exercise with Live Volunteer Hostage and the Volunteer (an Army Sergeant) was briefed as to precisely what was about to happen in the room containing himself, Five Terrorist Silhouettes, a Safety Officer and the soon to arrive, Hostage Rescue Team. To complicate matters slightly, the Volunteer was requested (Ordered) to throw himself out THAT Window when the excitement began. Unfortunately, mention of the use of Flash Bang Grenades was omitted from his briefing and when deployed they did precisely what they were designed to do; created Shock and Confusion. Dragging his stunned Mind back into the present, the Volunteer remembered that he was to throw himself out a Window. Unfortunately directly in front of the Window he selected, some meters out, was an overly aggressive Terrorist Silhouette, the intended Target of an SAS Trooper with a Shotgun. Regrettably as the stupefied Volunteer hurled himself out the nearest Window, the Trooper was despatching his overly aggressive Silhouette, with a well aimed Shotgun Blast, which caused numerous Shotgun Pellets to depart through the same Window, as the Volunteer. Although the Volunteer was moving quite quickly, the Shotgun Pellets were moving faster, or at least they were, until the Volunteer’s Butt Cheeks Stopped them mid flight. There are not many people living in the world today, who can claim that they were once shot by an SAS Trooper, in a Hostage Rescue Situation and lived to tell the Tale.
The rule is: if you get unauthorized access to senstive information, you don't "delete" it. You keep it and hand it over to the appropriate authorities. This allows them to see what the hell you obtained so they can more effectively deal with it.
I've war gamed with Larry Bond a few times and he has some great Tom Clancy stories. Larry is very similar to Tom; same way of telling stories. I have several versions of his game HARPOON that I have played several times (including with Larry).
When Mr. Clancy was speaking about "Russian trust in their allies", I was reminded of a bit of information I learned about that. When the Soviets gave/sold fighter aircraft to those same allies in the Warsaw Pact, they were downgraded versions of the Soviet aircraft used in Russian territory. They had shorter ranges and their radar units were replaced by inferior models, just in case. In case these countries rebelled, or in case some pilot, somewhere, were to defect to the "West", there would not be any top secret parts that would "embarrass" their military leaders by giving their latest and greatest ideas to the opposition.
@wavvy 100%, imagine sitting there going as fast as you can as low as you can to avoid detection from both ussr and nato radars, pop up well within japanese airspace to get detected on radar, hope you don't get scrambled on and shot down by fighters stationed in japan, then land at a small municipal airfield when you realize you don't have the gas to make it to your planned airbase. Oh, and all of this was done purely by memory, he had to memorize is flight plan and locations of various divert airfields in order to get on the ground, because afaik he didn't have a map that went that far south, as his ordered flight plan was still within russian airspace.
Great talk! Filled with humour and wonderful stories! Years ago, I played the war-game "Harpoon III" in which he had some input and now I can see why the game was so good - he really knows his stuff!
Theres hours of TC interviews and videos on the web, but still not enough.. I would love to of seen him appear on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast if he was still alive.. Would of been amazing.
Man, I would love to hear his perspective on current events. It is a shame that listening to him is like doing research on what life was like in the 80s.
Good thing some of us are being true to his legacy and working on a new title paying homage to the original R6, Ghost Recon and Sum Of All Fears video games unlike some of these certain studios we shall not name. Nothing but respect for this man! His novels are awesome!
Loved his books, still do in fact. Great talk about a great book. That being said, old school horn dog that if he was around today, He’d get me to’d back to the 80’s
I bought the book "Hunt for Red October" because I had read in the paper a story about the book. It mentioned that he was questioned about his sources because it was suspected to have classified information. I thought a book like that must be pretty good so I got the book and have been a Tom Clancy fan ever since.
Hesitating to call this 'entertainment', this guy is such an easy watch... Easy to hear, easy to listen to and easy to get the message. Humans have a lot - This guy is one of them.
'Lost in translation' could be ascribed to Clancy. How? Ex.: duh modern computer you have in your hand... a 5G Android cellphone compared to Steve Jobs 1st marketed apple computer. Clancy's probable 140+ IQ interfacing w/ an audience (not one in video) of average people (100). BTW... recent article states Einstein's IQ 120's. His has been severely DOWN-graded to make dummies Feel Better. Current high SAT scores: in duh 2000's! SAT's once maxxed @ 1680.
