Cauldron (Bond novel)
Cauldron is a technothriller novel by Larry Bond.
1 Plot
1.1 Background
Economic upheaval around the world in the early 1990s
becomes an opportunity for France and Germany to con-
solidate their power in Europe through an alliance called
the European Confederation or EurCon. However, it is
a continental partnership in name only; France provides
the political power with the Germans carrying economic
muscle. The instability and the countries dierences
with the United States causes the dissolution of NATO
in 1996.
1.2 Story
The main plot takes place in 1998. Because North
African immigrants are ooding Europe looking for
work, riots in France and Germany prompts both coun-
tries to force a number of former Warsaw Pact nations
to accept them in various factories. The rst of these is
a Eurocopter plant in Hungary. To further ensure sub-
servience to EurCon, military governments take over in
several countries. Russian Army forces launch a coup in
Moscow as well and put the president under house arrest.
Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia stand up
against EurCon, which gradually deploys combat troops
to their borders. France also negotiates with Russia to
stop natural-gas shipments to Poland. The United States
comes in to support Poland by sending an LNG tanker to
Gdask; French operatives blow it up in the harbor. The
US Navy starts sending armed convoys to force a break-
through of the Baltic Sea and keep the supply lines open.
French oppression in Eastern Europe comes to a head in
May 1998 when a peoples uprising in Budapest results
in the regimes collapse. Seeing the turmoil as a potential
harbinger for unrest, France orders military forces to sub-
jugate the Hungarians days later; however, the Hungarian
Army slows down the French assault.
The French and Germans invade Poland two months af-
ter the attack on Hungary. Because of heavy opposition,
the Poles gure out that the EurCon armies plan to en- The French Fifth Republic also falls; French President
velop Polish forces in a pincer movement and pull them Nicolas Desaix, who engineered the establishment of Eu-
out to safe havens in eastern Poland. Meanwhile, the US rCon, is arrested and petty thugs hired by the DGSE kill
1
convoys in the North Sea are still on track for Poland.
EurCon mobilizes their airpower to stop the Americans,
who have laid a trap. Much of the EurCon strike force
is destroyed, and a last-ditch attempt to destroy the US
eet with ASMP nuclear-tipped missiles is thwarted. The
failed nuclear attack forces the US to launch Operation
Counterweight - a concerted strike on enemy facilities in
France and Germany proper. A B-52 raid levels French
resupply facilities in Metz while a surgical strike destroys
Frances S3 IRBM silos in the Plateau d'Albion. Some
EurCon planes in the Poland front are sent home for lo-
cal defense.
Behind the scenes, the French seeks Russian intervention
against the anti-EurCon forces, which are ghting delay-
ing actions to buy time for US troops disembarking in
Gdask. CIA operatives make contact loyalist Russian
ocers and learn that the EurCon-Russia treaty will both
lead to a massive Russian invasion of Europe and French
support for an ultra-nationalist plan for Russia to forcibly
re-create the Soviet Union; the CIA agents are shocked
when the lead loyalist ocer bluntly says that the treaty
can be killed o by wiping out the top conspirators be-
fore they can send enforcement orders from Moscow. Al-
though the negotiations are complete, the assassination
team successfully eliminates emissaries from both sides
before the orders are transmitted. The Russian president
is also rescued and Russian forces assembling at the Pol-
ish frontier waiting for the attack signal are ordered to
withdraw instead.
The EurCon attack is nally stopped when elements of
the US 101st Airborne hold the line in a wooded area near
the town of Swiecie in time for other US armor to rein-
force them. Angered at the lack of reconnaissance of the
US lines, French commanders consider redirecting part
of the other EurCon forces in Hungary to join the push
north. A German colonel already angry at the French
holding back their troops while German forces are left to
die as cannon fodder leads fellow troops in deserting the
French. The Germans ght o a French attack on their
command post. Word of the attack and the revelations
about the Franco-Russian negotiations leads Germany to
sever their ties with EurCon; the German chancellor who
negotiated the countrys membership is forced to resign.
With US assistance, Belgium and the Netherlands declare
war on France, which nds itself bereft of allies when the
other EurCon member-states desert as well.
2 5 REFERENCES

him in his cell. The murder prompts the newly estab-

lished French Sixth Republic to nally take action against
the DGSE and its associated organizations. With the war
nally over, the United States hosts an international free-
trade summit in London. US troops in Poland also return
home.

2 Characters

2.1 French
Nicolas Desaix - Foreign Minister and later Presi-
dent

2.2 Americans
Ross Huntington III - industrialist and close friend
of the US President

2.3 Germans
Wilhelm von Seelow - Bundeswehr colonel who is
elected into the Bundestag after the war.

3 Critical reception
The book received positive reviews.
Kirkus Reviews praised the novel for its cast of characters
and accurate presentations of military tactics.[1]
George Leef of The Freeman praised the novels plot as
a potential result of a breakdown in free trade around the
world and noted Desaixs ambitions for France as akin to
Napoleonic glory.[2]
Publishers Weekly commended the book for prose that
easily advances the plot, but stated that the too warm
and fuzzy epilogue should have been left out.[3]

4 See also
The Shape of Things to Come

5 References
[1] https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/
larry-bond/cauldron/
[2] http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/
book-review-cauldron-by-larry-bond#
axzz2PevUEHYF
[3] http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-446-51567-2
 3

6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1 Text
Cauldron (Bond novel) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauldron_(Bond_novel)?oldid=756111578 Contributors: Kross, Stemoni-
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6.3 Content license

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