He's officially given his fourth star when given command of the Far East Military District.
Expy: The WWII veteran Russian sniper Pavel Petrovich Gogol is a possible expy of historical sniper Vasily Zaytsev (whose life story was also fictionalized in the movie Enemy at the Gates).And since the entire supply of the penetrator bombs that could destroy the silos was just used against the rail bridges, the only option to prevent the missile launches is a joint Spetznaz/RAINBOW assault on the missile fields. Dramatic Ammo Depletion: SORGE just revealed that the Chinese are considering launching their ICBMs.Defeat Means Friendship: One of the rare examples of this trope occurring on a national level, as the post-Cold War period eventually ends up with America's foremost strategic partner being Russia.Death from Above: The Joint Stand-Off Weapon "Smart Pig," as the Chinese 29th Type A Group Army find out to their misfortune.
Russia has also significantly modernised its own forces while it still relies on conscripts, it also possesses hypersonic warheads and definitely isn't fielding World War 2 tanks anymore. Additionally, the Chinese conventional forces are significantly stronger these days, with hypersonic warheads that could cause a serious threat to a US carrier group in the Pacific. Dated History: The climax of the book makes sense from the standpoint of a late 80's China, where they had limited nuclear weapons (12, in the book).Commie Land The People's Republic of China gets a good bit of focus, as the main antagonists of the book.He even still has his WWII-vintage Mosin-Nagant sniper plete with notches cut in the stock for each German officer he killed with it. Christianity Is Catholic: Averted, with the cooperation and friendship between a Baptist minister in China, and the new ambassador from the Vatican receiving a fair amount of attention, and both of their churches sharing the reaction when they die trying to stop a forced abortion.China Takes Over the World: The People's Republic of China becomes a significant threat to world peace.He's too smart for his own good, though, as his machinations, while not explicitly discovered until The Bear and the Dragon, are mostly inferred, and China is punished for it. The Chessmaster: Zhang Han San not only instigates conflicts between the United States and various other countries without putting China in direct confrontation in Debt of Honor and Executive Orders, but is also the puppeteer behind Premier Xu in The Bear and the Dragon.Call-Back: The scientist who assists the US Navy in converting a AEGIS cruiser into a ballistic missile defense platform is Al Gregory, a character who was last seen working on a ballistic missile defense project in The Cardinal of the Kremlin.