Noah Grace
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Noah Grace was the 33rd President of the United States of America and a former U.S. Senator from Montana. Grace is noted for maintaining America's continuing policy of isolationism, and is concerned mostly for America's well-being and his own.
Grace died on December 25th, 1951 of "a suspicious and sudden illness", and was succeeded by Vice-President Harvey McCullen. His death was greeted with skepticism and further questionings from the public as to how he died, given the fact that many Grace insiders reported that he was in a fine medical condition shortly prior to his death, and that the government rejected any medical request on Grace's recent annual physical and had not given any detailed information on his death, even keeping his burial plans from the public. This leaves an impression that his "illness" was a cover-up to something more sinister. (See Intel 11, Newspaper Article and Resistance: The Gathering Storm below).
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[edit] Biography
Noah Grace's background even after being investigated by his political party was unknown, but all that is known is that he hailed from the state of Montana and was able to become a Junior Senator in Congress. In 1938, Noah was politically motivated by isolationist Senator Robert Taft, who attempted and failed to gather a following against Franklin Roosevelt over America's navy buildup and relationship with the United European Defense (UED).
By 1940, Noah Grace was elected as president on the Republican ticket after defeating incumbent Franklin Roosevelt through an aggressive campaign that ridiculed Roosevelt as a war-monger and criticized his apparent plans to include the USA in further world events. Grace was re-elected in 1944 and again in 1948, with the '48 election having the lowest vote turnout in US History. His reelection led to Congress passing an act that meant a candidate could only be elected for a further 4 terms, after fearing that Noah Grace was growing to be too powerful. President Grace responded to this with: "America doesn't need Congress telling them who they should vote for".
It is sometime in his early presidency that Grace learned about the existence of the Chimera.
In late 1949, after the Chimera were made known in Europe, Grace and his administration executed a massive government censorship over America's media outlet to prevent the public from becoming aware of the Chimera, thus avoiding mass panic; they even further supplemented the public's ignorance with false news of an influenza pandemic in Europe. Despite upholding America's isolationism during the conflict in Europe, Grace did allow military supplies and aid to be given to the UED in response to the statistical number of human deaths in Warsaw, Poland. In July 1951, Grace and his administration agreed to allow American military intervention in Chimera-controlled Britain, in response to the British's exchange of a Chimeran Angel.
In late August, Grace faced the unexpected when the state of New York fell to the Chimera via a spire attack. It is sometime in September that his administration revealed to the public of the existence of the Chimera. Knowing that the inevitable assault on America was nigh, Grace agreed to the construction of the Liberty Defense Perimeter.
[edit] Resistance: The Gathering Storm
By November 1951, witnessing the entire American Upper Midwest become gray territory and the mass number of refugees flooding into Protection Camps, Grace secretly consulted with members of his cabinet on November 16th. He revealed and called for his optional contingency plan to the Chimeran invasion known as Project Omega, by seeking a negotiation with the Chimera through Daedalus to save the United States, while allowing the Chimera to occupy the rest of the world. Many of Grace's cabinet members highly approved of the contingency plan, with only the exceptions of Secretary of War Henry Walker (who greatly disapproved of it) and Vice President Harvey McCullen (who was reluctant of it).
When Walker and his wife disappeared from Washington, DC, and knowing that Walker would reveal to the American public of Project Omega, Grace labeled Walker a traitor and declared an official manhunt of him, asking for him dead or alive. Grace granted Chief of Staff William Dentweiler the duty and responsibility of Walker's capture and/or death. On November 27th, Grace made a public news conference speech in front of the renovated Lincoln Memorial. In the ten minute speech, Grace confidently ensured the public that the war against the Chimera was going well for the U.S.; shortly afterwards, Grace was incredibly close to being killed when a Chimeran spire missile landed near the Lincoln Memorial and released hundreds of Spinners upon the nearby people. The attack on Washington forced Grace and his seat of government to be relocated to Denver, Colorado.
In mid-December, Grace was briefed on the successful capture of Daedalus and opportunistically called for a "Victory Tour" in the American heartland, believing that the tour would bring high morale to the American public. Grace's Victory Tour initially began in Denver, and while about to prepare a speech in front of Denver's capitol building, Grace was saved from Susan Farley's assassination attempt by the actions of Nathan Hale. Grace, in return for this heroic action, allowed Nathan to be commander of a contingent of Sentinels as part of his (Grace's) security staff. On December 24th, under the guise of his Victory Tour, Grace visited a secret base near Sheridan, Wyoming to negotiate with Daedalus. Grace declares his offerings to Daedalus, whilst not knowing that Daedalus mindfully laughs of Grace's offer. Ultimately, Grace is immediately confronted and killed by Hale (who knew of the existence of Project Omega through the deceased Henry Walker's recordings of Grace's cabinet meetings), via a shot to the head by Nathan's assault rifle.
Grace's death was covered up by the government, and his death is declared to the public as that of a "sudden illness".
[edit] Personality
Noah Grace is noted by the public as being charming and charismatic, which enabled him to become President in 1940. In truth, Grace is a ruthless, power-hungry person who cares more for exhibiting total control over America and justifying his actions as being good for the American people; he even haughtily defends his unprecedented third term as being the choice of the people. He also believes that his dissenters are either traitors, anarchists, or "whackos". Grace also firmly believes that "law and order" and government control is the only path to America's "freedom" and exerts that "unlawful" acts, such as freedom of speech, violates the nation's "safety". As part of his controlling personality, Grace exhibits great disdain for SRPA for being entirely independent from the other American military branches (which are controlled by the Grace Administration), and because they take less direct orders from his administration.
[edit] Presidency
During his time in office, Grace approved the creation of the Liberty Defense Perimeter, made broadcasts known as "Evening Conversations" on the radio to calm the public as well as to suppress any knowledge of the Chimera, and enacted a ban on immigration by refugees of the war (which was later repealed by his successor, Harvey McCullen, to bolster falling troop numbers). Some of the public that were under his presidency, especially members of the Alliance for American Autonomy, disliked him for, ironically, ruling a free country as if he were a dictator; contrasting his early, slandering views on Roosevelt.
[edit] Trivia
- Grace's name (Noah) is chosen by his father after the Abrahamic figure who was known for rescuing all living things from the Great Flood. Symbolically, Grace himself considers his role similar to a prophet's, as he believes he is saving the American people from a "deluge" that is "far worse than the events described in the book of Genesis".
- Initially, it was not told which political party Grace represented as President, though much of his fiercely isolationist and overly patriotic views resemble that of the real-life America First group. However, the fact he defeated Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt makes Grace most probably a Republican, which is confirmed in SRPA file BU75207B1.
- Noah Grace's "Evening Conversation" radio broadcasts are much akin to Roosevelt's fireside chats.
