Noah Grace

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Noah Grace
Biographical Information
Place of Death	Sheridan, Wyoming
Nationality	American
Status	Deceased
Death	December 24, 1951
Family	Cora Grace (wife)
Affiliation	United States Government
Profession	President of the United States
Physical Information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Appearances
Game(s)	Resistance 2 (mentioned)
Book(s)	Resistance: The Gathering Storm
Other	Project Abraham

Noah Grace was the 33rd President of the United States of America, a former U.S. Senator from Montana, and Commander-in-Chief during the Chimeran War. Grace was noted to have served more than two terms in office and maintained America's continuing policy of isolationism. Despite being notable for his confident and inspiring leadership, he is regarded as a controversial figure by the American public due to his overt authoritarian policies. Grace suddenly died on December 25, 1951 from an "undisclosed illness" and was succeeded by Vice-President Harvey McCullen.

Biography

Noah Grace's background even after being investigated by his political party was mostly unknown, but all that is known is that he hailed from Canyon Creek, Montana and was a Junior Senator in Congress. In 1938, Grace was politically motivated by isolationist Senator Robert Taft, who attempted and failed to gather a following against Franklin Roosevelt over America's navy build-up and alliance with the United European Defense.

News article on Noah Grace's criticism on the Roosevelt Administration.

By 1940, Grace was elected as president on the Republican ticket after narrowly defeating Roosevelt through an aggressive campaign that ridiculed Roosevelt as a warmonger and criticized his apparent plans to include the United States in international affairs. Despite his anti-war stance, Grace was soon made aware of the Chimera's existence and allowed the military build-up to continue, which included the development of the first nuclear weapon, while keeping America uninvolved from international affairs, prioritizing his country's safety over the world.

After being re-elected in 1944, Grace maintained his popularity among the American people in which many favored supporting the president for another term in office. In response, the Democratic Party attempted to pass a Constitutional Amendment that limits the president to two terms in office. However, the Republican Party, despite being quietly fearful of Grace's growing influence, refused to support the Democrats to pass this amendment. Grace was subsequently re-elected in an unprecedented third term in November 1948, but with America's lowest turnout of votes in 70 years. Despite Grace's popularity, his reputation eroded among some Americans, who began to criticize his executive overreach and unlimited term in office. Among those that opposed the Grace Administration was the isolationist organization, the Alliance for American Autonomy.

Chimeran War

After the outbreak of the Chimeran War in December 1949, the Grace administration executed a massive media blackout to prevent the American public from learning of the Chimera's existence in order to prevent mass panic. The American public was only falsely informed of a "devastating influenza outbreak" in Europe. All independent broadcasting was replaced with government propaganda, such as Grace's Evening Conversation radio program. Grace succeeded in fooling the American public to accept the falsehood and earned their support for his long-term anti-immigration policy, which restricted refugees from the afflicted countries that fell to the Chimera from coming into the United States. Despite upholding America's isolationism during the conflict, Grace did allow military supplies and aid to the UED in response to the massive number of human deaths in Europe. However, the media blackout, America's limited intervention in Europe, and Grace's authoritarian actions provoked the Alliance for American Autonomy to carry out an insurrection against his administration. Grace responded by violently suppressing the AAA and other anti-Grace "subversives".

In July 1951, Grace agreed to allow American military intervention in Chimera-controlled Britain in exchange for a Chimeran Angel captured by the British. However, the exchange was disrupted in disaster during Operation Deliverance and the Angel was later killed by American soldier Nathan Hale. Although American military forces were able to liberate Britain during the Battle of London. After Britain's liberation, Grace recalled all U.S. soldiers to America and continued to maintain American isolationism.

Beginning on August 14, Grace was unable to keep the Chimera's existence unknown to the American public when the aliens began their attack on America by launching a wave of Spire missiles on nearly all of New England. Knowing that the inevitable Chimeran assault on America was nigh, Grace approved for the construction of the Liberty Defense Perimeter.

Project Omega

The following is based on the Resistance: The Gathering Storm novel and has not been confirmed by canon sources.

By November 1951, Grace witnessed the entire American Upper Midwest fell under gray territory. As the Chimera relentlessly advanced upon American soil, Grace came to the realization that his nation will not survive the Chimera's onslaught. On November 16, Grace organized a meeting with his Cabinet and proposed an "optional" contingency plan to the Chimeran invasion known as Project Omega: an attempt to negotiate with the Chimera through their leader Daedalus to spare the United States while allowing the Chimera to occupy the rest of the world. Although Grace's proposal was met with firm opposition from his Vice-President Harvey McCullen and Secretary of War Henry Walker, the majority of his Cabinet overwhelmingly supported Project Omega.

Grace's contingency plan was soon put into jeopardy when Walker defected to Freedom First, an anti-Grace rebel group, and threatened to expose the conspiracy to the public. Grace immediately labeled Walker a traitor and declared an official manhunt for him, either dead or alive. Grace assigned his Chief of Staff William Dentweiler to oversee Walker's capture or death.

On November 27, Grace made a brief speech during a public news conference in front of the renovated Lincoln Memorial. During the ten-minute speech, Grace confidently reassured to the public that the war against the Chimera was going well for America. But shortly afterwards, Grace was incredibly close to being killed when a Chimeran Spire missile landed near the monument and released hundreds of Spinners. The attack on Washington forced Grace and his seat of government to relocate to Denver.

In mid-December, Grace was informed of the successful capture of Daedalus and he opportunistically called for a "Victory Tour" in the American heartland, believing that the tour would boost high morale to the American public. Grace began his Victory Tour in Denver and prepared a speech in front of the Colorado State Capitol Building. Grace would later escaped another attempt on his life when he was saved from an assassination attempt by the Sentinel Nathan Hale. In gratitude, Grace awarded his savior by appointing Hale as the commander of a Sentinel contingent as part of the President's security staff.

On December 24, under the guise of his Victory Tour, Grace traveled to Sheridan, Wyoming to negotiate with an imprisoned Daedalus. Grace declared his offer to Daedalus, who was left unimpressed and had no intentions of honoring it. Soon after Grace made his offer, the President was immediately confronted and shot in the head by Hale, who learned of Project Omega's existence and Grace's planned betrayal to humankind. Immediately after Grace's death, Daedalus took the opportunity to escape from his captivity.

End of information based on the Resistance: The Gathering Storm novel.

Grace's death was hastily covered up by the government in which they announced to the public that he had died from an "undisclosed illness." Harvey McCullen soon succeeded his predecessor and he gradually proceeded to reverse Grace's policies, thereby allowing America to take a more active role in the Chimeran War.

Personality

Noah Grace was noted by the public as being charming and charismatic, which enabled him to become President in three consecutive terms. In reality, Grace was a ruthless and ambitious tyrant. He justified his actions as being for the good of the American people, despite the fact that his judgment did more harm than good during the Chimeran War. He even haughtily defended his unprecedented third term as being the choice of the people in spite of the lowest voting turnout after 1948. He contemptuously viewed his detractors such as the Alliance for American Autonomy to be either "subversives", traitors, anarchists, or "whackos". Grace allegedly believed that "law and order" 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".

Grace also exhibited great disdain for SRPA for being entirely independent from the other U.S. military branches and taking less direct orders from his administration.

Presidency

A campaign poster for Noah Grace.

During his tenure in office, Grace established a strict isolationist policy that lasted for more than a decade and implemented an anti-immigration policy on war refugees. He also suppressed public knowledge of the Chimera through censorship and propaganda such as his "Evening Conversations" radio addresses, thus violating American civil liberties for the sake of national security.

Critics of Grace's administration were forcibly silenced, leading some of the American public to accurately perceive him to be a tyrant; ironically, this perception heavily contrasts Grace's early, slandering criticisms of Roosevelt.

Quotes

• "I've had a look at the president's current budget, and frankly, it scares me. War planes, bombs and supertanks? Americans are a peace-loving people, just trying to put food on the table. You can't feed your family with weapons and warfare."
• "Let it be known that American isolationism is not cowardice, but restraint." - Grace's June 1944 speech regarding America's first detonation of a nuclear weapon.
• The people will choose their leader. They don't need Congress telling them how to go about it." - Grace's response to the Congressional effort to enforce a two-term presidency.
• "I know the Secretary is accustomed to rough language- but I would appreciate a semblance of civility here in the White House. And, while I applaud the Secretary's love of liberty, I feel it necessary to remind him that our freedoms extend from the rule of law. Not protest, not chaos, but law. We will have order in this country-or we will have nothing at all."

Trivia

• It is confirmed in Resistance: The Gathering Storm that Noah Grace was named after his Abrahamic namesake during his birth on a raining day. Grace even considered his role similar to a prophet, 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. It was later confirmed in SRPA file BU75207B1 that he is a registered Republican.

A Noah Grace campaign poster in a New York City subway.

• Noah Grace's "Evening Conversation" radio broadcasts are an analogue to Roosevelt's fireside chats.
• In Resistance 3, there are election posters of Noah Grace in Saint Louis and in the New York City subway.