Noah Grace

Noah Grace was the 33rd President of the United States of America and a former U.S. Senator from Montana. Grace was noted for maintaining America's continuing policy of isolationism, and regarded as a controversial ruling figure from the public. Grace died on December 25th, 1951 from a "suspicious and sudden illness", and was succeeded by Vice-President Harvey McCullen.

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 narrowly defeating incumbent Franklin Roosevelt through an aggressive campaign that ridiculed Roosevelt as a warmonger and criticized his apparent plans to include the USA in further world events. Grace was re-elected in 1944 which led to straw polls showing favorable support for another term in office. In response, the Democrats in Congress proposed to pass a Constitutional Amendment that meant a candidate could only be limited to two 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." However, the Democratic Party failed to gain support from the Republicans, who were quietly fearful of Grace, resulting in Grace entering his unprecedented third term in November 1948, but with America's lowest turnout of votes ever in 70 years.

In April 1949, Britain's King Edward VIII visited Grace during a private meeting between the two rulers, in which the King divulged information concerning the existence of the Chimera and requesting Grace in everything in his power to help Europe in anyway he can in spite of America's favoritism towards isolationism. Though by this time, Grace may have already knew about the Chimera from the previous Roosevelt administration when he was first in office. By 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, in which 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. However, at that time Grace was opposed by the isolationist extremist organization, the Alliance for American Autonomy, who carried out a terrorist campaign against his administration in response to America's intervention in the war and as well his near-totalitarian power over the country.

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; however, the exchange was disrupted in the disaster of Operation Deliverance and the Angel being later killed by Nathan Hale. Although, American military forces were able to liberate Britain during the Battle of London.

In late August, Grace faced the unexpected when nearly all of New England fell to a wave of Spire attacks, becoming America's first Gray Zones. As a result, the Grace 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.

Resistance: The Gathering Storm
By November 1951, having witness the entire American Upper Midwest became under gray territory and fearing the inevitable fall of his nation Grace secretly consulted with members of his cabinet on November 16th and revealed his optional contingency plan to the Chimeran invasion known as Project Omega, by seeking a possible 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, D.C., and knowing that Walker would reveal to the American public of Project Omega, Grace labeled Walker a traitor and declared an official manhunt for him, either 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 brief public news conference speech in front of the renovated Lincoln Memorial. In the ten minute speech, Grace confidently assured 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 the President'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 at Grace's offer. Ultimately, Grace is immediately confronted and executed by Hale (who knew of the existence of Project Omega through the then deceased Henry Walker's recordings of Grace's cabinet meetings) for his planned betrayal of mankind via a gunshot to the head by Nathan's assault rifle. Daedalus used the confusion to escape his captivity.

Grace's death was immediately covered up by the government, and his cause of death is declared to the public as that of a "sudden illness". Harvey McCullen soon succeeded his predecessor and gradually proceeded to reverse Grace's policies and allowing America to take a more active role in the war.

Personality
Noah Grace is noted by the public as being charming and charismatic, which enabled him to become President in 1940. In truth, Grace was a ruthless, power-hungry person who cares more for exhibiting total control over America and justifying his actions as being the good for the American people; he even haughtily defended his unprecedented third term as being the choice of the people. In his views towards his dissenters, Grace considered them to be either traitors, anarchists, or "whackos". Furthermore, Grace firmly believed 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 through the people's right to protest their government, violates the nation's "safety".

As part of his controlling personality, Grace exhibited 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.

Presidency
During his time in office, Grace established a strict isolationist policy that lasted more than a decade, 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; heavily contrasting his early, slandering views on Roosevelt.

Trivia

 * Grace's name (Noah) was chosen by his father on a raining day of his birth after the Abrahamic figure who was known for rescuing all living things from the Great Flood. Symbolically, Grace himself considered his role similar to a prophet's, as he believed 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.