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oil tanker standoff) and then quietly executed without them being able to reveal that they have assassinated the KGB chief. Kaminsky, who is waiting in Israel to confirm the two prisoners' release, is cornered by
Israeli police and commits suicide, believing himself hunted by the KGB again. Drake and his team are killed after escaping the supertanker while Vishnayev is dismissed from the Politburo in disgrace, ending the threat of war.
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crisis and avert war. He informs Munro that
Valentina is genuinely fond of him, but not so romantically attached to abandon her homeland for him. Walking outside, free to begin a new life outside the service, Munro begins laughing at himself - a veteran spy taken in by the oldest espionage trick in history:
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but will do so gradually and without resorting to nuclear weapons) from the peace faction as his successor. After the ceremony he privately reveals to a shocked Munro that
Valentina had been working for him all along, feeding Munro and the Western governments the information they needed to defuse the
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in history, or a Soviet invasion of western Europe. Thus
Matthews is faced with the 'Devil's Alternative' of the title: no matter which course of action he pursues, massive loss of life is guaranteed. Munro eventually devises a third option which enables the prisoners to be released (thus ending the
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after one of the pilots is shot dead during landing. Drake needs the two men released because only they can reveal that the Soviet government couldn't protect one of its most powerful leaders, thus triggering nationalist uprisings in
Ukraine and other
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Maxim Rudin, while a hard-line
Communist who has ruled with an iron hand for a long time, knows that the pro-war faction's plan would result in an all-out nuclear war because the West would otherwise be vassals on a planet dominated by the
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first published in 1979. It was his fourth full-length novel and marked a new direction in his work, setting the story in the near-future (in 1982) rather than in the recent past. The work evolved from an unfilmed screenplay entitled
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Bill
Matthews receives information from the British that the USSR will cease negotiations regarding grain and military concessions if the prisoners are released, so there appear to be only two potential outcomes: the greatest
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for wheat has led to the inadvertent poisoning of the wheat crop. The United States is aware of this crisis and plans to sell its food to the
Soviets in exchange for political and military concessions. Hardliners in the
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419:(although the fictional Matthews is finishing up his 2nd term of office in the book, while Carter was nearing the end of his 1st and only Presidential term in 1979); his Polish
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Mishkin and
Lazareff, with the help of Drake, complicate the situation for Rudin by assassinating Yuri Ivanenko, his ally in the Politburo and the chief of the
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offices and has access to the records of
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theoretician Vishnayev come up with a different strategy: to take the food by conquering
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nationalists who have suffered lifetimes of abuse and discrimination by the
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Meanwhile, a chain of failures at the Soviet Union's plant that makes
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The novel features many real-life people with their names disguised;
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232:. The castaway, Miroslav Kaminsky (ukr. ΠΠΈΡΠΎΡΠ»Π°Π² ΠΠ°ΠΌΡΠ½ΡΡΠΊΠΈΠΉ), is a
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244:. Kaminsky tells Drake about Lev Mishkin and David Lazareff, two
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The story opens with the discovery of a castaway in the
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and demand the extradition of Mishkin and Lazareff to
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In 1975 Forsyth sold an original screenplay entitled
482:Nathan, Paul S. (1975). "Rights and Permissions".
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379:who had also purchased film rights to Forsyth's
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395:would co-produce the film. No film was made.
387:for the work plus a percentage of the gross.
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499:"Starger to Produce Films for Paramount".
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236:who escaped after he was betrayed to the
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71:Learn how and when to remove this message
34:This article includes a list of general
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303:The news of the war plan comes to
40:it lacks sufficient corresponding
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505:. 21 July 1975. p. E9.
415:William "Bill" Matthews is
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399:References to real people
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16:Book by Frederick Forsyth
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196:The Devil's Alternative
55:more precise citations.
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883:Novels set in England
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234:Ukrainian nationalist
913:Novels set in Greece
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417:James "Jimmy" Carter
305:British intelligence
868:Fiction set in 1982
853:1979 British novels
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624:The Fourth Protocol
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833:(1980) (TV)
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680:The Veteran
433:Cyrus Vance
385:US$ 150,000
329:supertanker
320:West Berlin
294:Soviet bloc
285:nuclear war
266:Soviet Army
53:introducing
847:Categories
779:The Jackal
696:The Afghan
469:References
367:Background
361:false love
133:Hutchinson
36:references
704:The Cobra
543:Works by
377:Lew Grade
348:oil spill
333:North Sea
264:, led by
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166:Paperback
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123:Thriller
111:Language
61:May 2021
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720:The Fox
688:Avenger
331:in the
309:Kremlin
269:Marshal
160:Print (
114:English
49:improve
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427:; and
337:Israel
226:Turkey
164:&
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119:Genre
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