Editing Jack Ryan (character) (section)

====''[[Red Rabbit]]'' (August 05, 2002)====
Ryan's first CIA assignment is to London as a member of a liaison group to the British [[Secret Intelligence Service]]. Initially called in to assess the Soviet government and economy, Ryan is later tasked to assist in the defection of [[KGB]] communications officer Oleg Zaitzev who has discovered that his boss [[Yuri Andropov]] had ordered [[Pope John Paul II]]'s assassination. Although Ryan and a small team of British SIS agents helps the "Rabbit" and his family get to the West, they fail to prevent the attack on the Pope (which actually happened in real life in 1981). Nevertheless, the pope is only wounded and his would-be assassin captured, while the British execute his Bulgarian handler. "Rabbit's" defection proves to be a major coup for both the American and British intelligence agencies. Ryan soon afterward suggests a nonmilitary long-term strategy to help hasten the Soviet Union's collapse and the end of the [[Cold War]].