Dr. Benjamin "Ben" Goodley is a character that appears in several Tom Clancy novels. The former protege of Jack Ryan, he served as President Ryan's National Security Advisor from 1996 to 2001.
Biography
The Sum of All Fears
Ben Goodley was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He later became noticed by the White House and the CIA for his analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis and his thesis on the Vietnam War. By 1990, he worked as Jack Ryan's assistant and protege within the CIA. Goodley was later manipulated by National Security Advisor Elizabeth Elliot into providing classified information on Ryan. Elliot then used this information to discredit him and and claim that Ryan was having an affair, shocking Goodley. Despite this, Goodley grew to rethink his opinion of Ryan after his boss' successful handling of the nuclear crisis between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Executive Orders
In 1991, President Roger Durling and the majority of U.S. Government leadership was killed when Torajiro Sato flew his Boeing 747 into the U.S. Capital Building during a joint session of Congress. Jack Ryan, who had been sworn in as Vice President moments earlier, succeeded Durling as a result. Forced to essentially rebuilt the U.S. Government from scratch, Ryan appointed Goodley as his National Security Advisor. Goodley held this position for the duration of Ryan's first term as President.
