re: I started Tom Clancy’s so-called Ryanverse (possible spoilers)

It's been many years, but I think you will enjoy the series.

Reading them in the order written would make the prequel you are reading now a bit more meaningful, with quite a few references to people or relatives of people who show up in the later books.

I've often wondered how those books would stand up for someone who didn't personally live during the Cold War. Are you old enough to remember that?

I am too young to remember vietnam, so that prequel felt like historical fiction to me, and I would guess the rest of the series would feel that way to someone with no living memory of the Cold War