Archive of Our Own

Presidents of the United States:

*=assassination
®=resignation
✝=Illness

• 35. 1961-1964 Richard M. Nixon (R-CA)/Henry C. Lodge (R-MA)*
  1964-1965 Richard M. Nixon (R-CA)/VACANT
  1965-1967 Richard M. Nixon (R-CA)®/Hugh Scott (R-PA)
  • 1960s: Massively funded the USSA and oversaw it’s early successes
  • May 1961: Carl Bell is the first human in space, commanding the Defiance 7 space module. He dies upon re-entry with the atmosphere on May 5
• 36. 1967-1969 Hugh Scott (R-PA)/VACANT
• 37. 1969-1977 John Connally (D-TX)/Birch Bayh (D-IN)
  • 1969: Created the Commonwealth System
  • 1969: California divided up into California and Cascadia
  • 1969: Valiant 11, commanded by Captain Richard Wade, Mark Gariss, and Michael Hagen become the first humans to land on the Moon
  • 1970s: Poseidon Energy becomes associated with Democratic Party politics, based primarily in Louisiana
• 38. 1977-1982 George H.W. Bush (R-CT)✝/Paul Laxalt (R-NV)
• 39. 1982-1985 Paul Laxalt (R-NV)/VACANT
  • 1985-1989 Paul Laxalt (R-NV)/Robert Taft (R-OH)
• 40. 1985-1993 Adlai Stevenson (D-IL)/Paul Tsongas (D-MA)
  • 1992: Sierra Army Depot created
• 41. 1993-2001 Pete Wilson (R-CA)/John Warner (R-VA)
  • 1999: Big MT Research Project created

Beginning of Original Characters

• 42. 2001-2007 Delphine Lejeune (D/U-LA)*/Frederick Barber (D/U-NY)
• April 2001: Valiant-1 Space Station, a fully militarized station, is authorized
• September 2001: First stages of the station are launched and constructed, the USSR responds by constructing a second base on the moon, this one an explicitly rather than implicitly military one
• February 1, 2002: USSR launches a number of military satellites and threatens to shoot down any further US or European Commonwealth rockets
• February 14, 2002: Lejeune calls their bluff and the War in the Heavens begins
• March 20, 2002: the Sea of Tranquility Campaign begins
• May 2002: West Tek is founded
• June 6, 2002: Exhausted from combat and with each side lacking crucial supplies, the so-called Moon Mutiny occurs where both Soviet and American soldiers refuse to continue fighting and share crucial supplies with one another. As soon as it becomes clear to the US Military what is going on, a cover up occurs to prevent Lejeune from learning what happened.
• July 1, 2002: Lejeune learns of the Moon Mutiny and fires the Joint Chiefs of Staff and instead relies upon the Director of the CIA Richard Lamar, Director of the DIA Harold Strong, and Secretary of State Jennifer Esperanza, all three of whom Lejeune is alleged to be sleeping with.
• August 2002: Supplies in the Sea of Tranquility conflict run low, both sides move to resupply and move in new troops. The mutiny and truce ends by the beginning of September. All mutineers are offered the opportunity to either accept another tour of duty or face dishonorable discharge.
• January 18, 2003: European Commonwealth enters the War of the Heavens after a formal centralized army is created.
• January 21, 2003: the USSR and the European Commonwealth have skirmishes in divided Germany. West Berlin gets occupied swiftly although the East Germans quickly have to deal with urban guerrillas. 
• December 2003: Soviet submarines fire off several missiles at the Panama Canal and render massive damage to it. US economy slides and is only stopped due to emergency measures from the government
• January 2004: US Navy successfully completes raid on Vladivostok shipyards
• March 2004: Sea of Tranquility is somehow even more devastated than before. Radiation weapons leave swathes of the front impossible to traverse or send automation through. 
• April 2004: With the war still raging, the two parties agree to a unity ticket and a temporary Union Party. A few stragglers in both houses decline.
• July 2004: European Front Line remains stagnant with little land being traded after the fall of West Berlin. US and European troops report frequent bickering among the commanding officers of each country.
• October 2004: Near nuclear incident occurs when Soviet base in Sevastopol reports fired missiles. An officer on duty refuses to respond until there is confirmation from base due to noticing a number of errors and flaws in the computer. 
• November 2004: There is no major opposition to Lejeune and Barber. The ticket wins every state and Commonwealth by a landslide. Rumors circulate in some circles that Lejeune blackmailed all of her possible rivals, but this theory never gains traction.
• February 2005: Nuclear facility in Montana has a false alarm incident that would have resulted in a launch were it not for a lower officer physically disabling the launch mechanism once it became clear that the commanding officers would launch without evaluating the situation. Upon hearing this, Lejeune, whose health is in shambles due to the stress levels, immediately tasks her top minds with reaching out to the Soviets to end the conflict. At the same time, the KGB overthrows the hawkish elements of the Party and the new Premier reaches out at the same time.
• March 20, 2005: An official ceasefire and end to hostilities on all fronts is called while peace negotiations begin in earnest. All sides can claim victory in some way, although it is notably tainted and pyrrhic to all. All soldiers remaining in the Sea of Tranquility are returned home. The effects of long term combat on the Moon leave permanent physical damage. The final veteran of the conflict on either side dies after a fall in 2014. 
• April 1, 2005: Lejeune undergoes surgery during the negotiations to remove a tumor on her liver. Doctors are frustrated that she refuses to give up her drinking or smoking habits.
• September 11, 2005: The Treaty of Nanking is signed, officially ending the War in the Heavens.
• March 9, 2007: Lejeune is assassinated at the age of 46 by John Birch Society member Walter Hoffweiss. Upon his arrest, Hoffweiss states that he killed her out of a sense that she betrayed America not only through her domestic war time policy that heavily mirrored the New Deal (which Hoffweiss declared was fascist) but primarily due to her seeking peace with the USSR rather than fighting a war to the death.
• 43. 2007-2017 Frederick Barber (U/D-NY)/Mickey Jennings (U/D-WI)
• April 2007: Barber is informed by the head of the FBI that there is a possible link between the fired Joint Chiefs of Staff and Walter Hoffweiss. Knowing that arresting them would be impossible, Barber agrees to covertly have them assassinated. This comes back to haunt the Democrats.
• January 2008: The Union Party is dissolved by mutual agreement by all involved. Everyone returns to their former party affiliation and the hopes are for a good, normal election in 2008 even if the Republicans expect to lose due to the outpouring of grief for Lejeune.
• October 2015: Journalists report that a source in the FBI has leaked information that the Director and the President colluded to assassinate a former General and a former Vice Admiral.
• November 2015: Congress opens an investigation in the Barber Affair
• February 2016: After a number of shocking testimonies and the President’s insistence that he was not aware of what the FBI Director was planning, the Democratic Party collapses into civil war. Some stand by the President, some immediately denounce him and leave the party, others seek to primary his Vice President. 
• July 2016: The refusal of the establishment and the moderates to abandon Mickey Jennings as the presumptive nominee results in the walkouts of half the party.
• November 2016: The “official” Democratic ticket fails to win a single state and the largest Democratic splinter is the nascent Labor Party with the second and third largest splinters being the Nationalists and the Center Party. Later in the month Congress, with multipartisan support, officially impeaches Barber even with his time in office rapidly coming to a close.
• 44. 2017-2025 Elias Thorne (R-MI)/Robert von Felden (R-AZ)
• 2020: Delta IX rockets commissioned by USSA, Thorne praises the design as being the pinnacle of US ingenuity.
• July 2021: “The New Fear” speech is given by President Thorne in an address to the nation. In it, he calls out the Chinese as the new biggest threat to freedom and to America and announces a series of national defense initiatives focused on combating Chinese influence.
• 2024: A debate rages within the War Department about vacuum tubes vs transistors. No consensus is reached and instead a compromise of using transistors for more advanced tech and vacuum tubes for most other tech to prevent EMP use, which was a reported problem during the War in the Heavens.
• 45. 2025-2033 Robert von Felden (R-AZ)/Louise Albertson (R-NY)
• 2025: President von Felden focuses much of his mandate on continuing the anti-China policies of his predecessor and cutting expenses in the economy, preferring instead to spend money on government contractors which coincidentally include West Tek, which his family has large shares in.
• 46. 2033-2037 Benjamin Warburton (C-ID)/Jesus Reyes (C-NM)
• 2034: Delta IX rockets are officially converted into military rockets
• 47. 2037-2041 Leland Palm (R-OK)/Stanley Strong (R-CA)
• March 2039: Failed “Labor Reform” package triggers massive series of strikes and collapses the economy
• January 2040-March 2040: the American General Strike
• November 2040: On the backs of major discontent and economic turmoil, Marjorie Marigold, a self proclaimed socialist, manages to narrowly win the Presidency over the Nationalists, who got a narrow second place. The Republicans only managed a third place showing and a distant one at that. This is the worst result for an incumbent Republican since William Howard Taft 128 years ago.
• 48. 2041-2045 Marjorie Marigold (L-IN)/Reginald Stanfield (L-WA)
• January 2041: President Marigold’s ambitious agenda to cement and expand labor rights and expand the social state to beyond New Deal levels runs into problems immediately with the High Commissioners refusing to go along with any of this until all items of each bill can be “properly vetted” for “Un-American Activities”.
• February 2041: Tenuous deal between Labor and the Nationalists in the Senate falls through after the death of Texas Senator Waylon Burns. Burns had been the party leader and was the sole proponent of the deal with the strength and standing to force the caucus to agree. Negotiations resume but fail before the month is over.
• March 2041: Marjorie Marigold’s Secretary of the Treasury and long time friend, Cao Fen, is accused by the opposition of being a Chinese spy. Marigold and Labor accuse the opposition of racism. The President’s domestic agenda is brought to a total stand still as the Nationalists are now far too skittish to continue negotiating and start cynically race baiting and red baiting as a means to maintain popularity.
• April 2041: Marigold attempts to use executive orders to get at least some of her agenda through. Lawsuits and further redbaiting hold up the implementation. Within just three months, Marigold has effectively become a lame duck.
• 2041-2045: Relations between the White House and Congress continue to reach new lows. Budgets are unable to get passed after the 2042 midterm elections. Vacancies in the cabinet go unfilled.
• August 2043: Secretary of the Treasury Cao Fen is arrested on fraudulent charges of treason. Marigold spitefully pardons him.
• December 2043: The State Department tries do detente with China and cool down tensions in the cold war as a means of possibly starving the Military Industrial Complex. 
• January 2044: A clique of State Department officials leak the discussions before the White House can prep a spin on them. Congress opens up Impeachment inquiries into half the Cabinet and into the President.
• 49. 2045-2053 Carl B. Gates (I-OH)/Nancy Castewell (C-VT)
• January 2045: After the failures of the Marigold Presidency and the still massive unpopularity of the Republicans, retired General Carl Bell Gates is sworn in as an independent promising to revitalize the military, taking the fight to China, and “modernizing” the economy
• 2046: Swift intervention in South Africa is taken to preserve the anti-Communist Transvaal Republic against pro-Chinese South Africa
• 2047: Relations with the European Commonwealth begin to break down over energy concerns and European fear of the USSR over China.
• October 24, 2047: Former President Marjorie Marigold dies from lung cancer. Her presidency will remain controversial and much maligned. While the Labor party enters a terminal decline, freshman Congressman from Georgia Jefferson Atticus takes the lessons of Marigold to heart. Despite his strong support for the former President and his continued respect for her until his own death, Atticus resolves to not allow control to ever slip away from him nor to ever trust the democratic process to allow for real and necessary change.
• March 15, 2048: A meeting is held with major members of the military industrial complex to ensure that no matter who becomes President, the correct decisions and beliefs will be impressed upon them without their knowledge.
• 2048: Mexico elects a left-wing nationalist that vows to nationalize oil and redirect the profits of it to fund social programs
• 2050: Sierra Army Depot is repurposed into a top secret military research facility, the first of many
• March 2051: Mexico officially nationalizes all oil in the country. Immediately President Gates responds by imposing sanctions and unilaterally planning an invasion to overthrow the Mexican government and restore the flow of cheap oil and protecting all American business in the country.
• May 2051: the full Invasion of Mexico commences. While the invasion is successful and American companies continue to profit and oil continues to flow northwards, the legal status of the country enters a state of limbo. Occupational authorities rule via martial law, but Congress nor the White House can decide what to do next. Mexico ends up de facto annexed but without any legal representation or any Commonwealths.
• June 2051: Relations with the USSR reach their lowest point since 2005. American hegemony takes a massive blow in Africa and South America, many formerly friendly states start orienting themselves to the European Commonwealth, the USSR, or China.
• October 2051-April 2052: One of the worst winters on record reveals a deep energy crisis within America. With power grids failing due to overload and failure to procure enough fuel, the President starts looking for alternatives and tasks a number of government contractors and the increasingly vital Big MT to research new fuel avenues. The immediate consequences are the Commonwealth High Commissioners competing and infighting to procure more fuel for their own Commonwealth. In the Presidential election, the President’s tapped successor collapses in the polls. Eventually she’ll only manage to crack 8 percent, a major repudiation for the President’s dreams of a nonpartisan Presidency that acts outside of politics.
• April 2052: Resource Wars begin with the European Commonwealth invading the UAS
• May 2052: UN collapses as nations withdraw. Over the protests of domestic opposition, the US withdraws from the UN on May 25 due to a renewed attempt to sanction the US for their invasion of Mexico.
• June 2052: Documentary hits national TV showcasing the deep fears about the energy crisis and the shocking revelation that the Governor and High Commissioner of Texas had been lying about the state of the oil wells as they are in fact completely dry.
• July 2052: Young and ambitious hardliner Cheng Guo is named as Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, vowing a new era of hostility to the west.
• July 26, 2052: The UN is officially disbanded once the final great power, China, realizes that with the UN gone and international authority collapses, the Cold War between them and the US can finally move to the next stage for competition for resources and influence. No more UN bureaucrats can interfere. 
• 50. 2053-2061 Quinten Whitelaw (R-VA)/William Richardson (R-CA)
• February 2053: a major epidemic hits the country and by June is causing mass panic. It becomes known as the “New Plague” due to paranoia about the Black Death.
• May 2053: The first ever national quarantine is declared and High Commissioners are tasked with managing lockdown protocols and containing outbreaks. Friendly High Commissioners are informed by the President that those with the best numbers will get more money in their annual grants.
• 2053: With the national budget straining under the burden of a pandemic, the President begins slashing spending on non-defense spending and outsourcing these responsibilities to government contractors, who are further integrated into the administrative state. Behind the scenes massive upward transfers of wealth begin for those who can afford to profit off of the misery.
• December 2053: Tel Aviv destroyed by nuclear terrorism
• January 2, 2054: A meeting is held with important politicians across the spectrum, most business leaders, members officers of the armed forces, and the leadership of the intelligence community at the President’s private residence in Norfolk. This group of individuals, under the President’s careful guidance and manipulations, are convinced of the need to expand on President Gates’ belief in a nonpartisan group of individuals to ensure that America always has proper guidance and to start influencing all parts of American society from the shadows in preparation for a likely inevitable war with the communist world. No name is given to this group yet and it will not become an official organization for another 10 years.
• January 2054: Limited nuclear exchange in the Middle Eastern War. The cities of Cairo, Aleppo, Tikrit, Palermo, Athens, and Salzburg are hit in targeted nuclear strikes. 
• February 2054: Project Safehouse is initiated
• July-August 2056: Pittsburgh Steel strike occurs. The pro-business High Commissioner comes into conflict with the pro-Union governor of Pennsylvania. The New Horizons Movement mobilizes to muster aid and shows of support, but the Federal government moves in hard to suppress the strike. In an emergency session of Congress when the opposition is physically prevented from joining the chambers. The government passes a series of massively anti-union laws that in effect completely castrate and obliterate the concept of organized labor in all but name. After the harsh crackdown on the Steel Union and the divide and rule tactics of the President, many labor unions officially give up, although unofficially they begin to massively rally around the figure of New Horizons Movement founder Jefferson Atticus.
• 2057: A Congressional Committee dedicated to investigating the natural resources at various national parks and if the resources are of “national importance” the park will lose it’s protected status and allow for industrial development and exploitation to move in is created.
• 2059: The White House releases an official program for identifying signs of the New Plague that includes believing in socialism as a symptom. Anyone that spots someone with symptoms are encouraged to report them to the authorities. The New Plague has become an excuse for the government to ban public meetings and have everyone registered with the government.
• 2059: The Anchorage Front Line is established
• February 2060: Traffic across the country comes to a halt as the energy crisis reaches a new height. Oil is too precious to use on civilian vehicles. Limited fission cars and electric cars hit the market, but are prohibitively expensive. Public transportation sees a surge in popularity, but is underfunded in more than a few places and in others was never funded to begin with. The pressure for fusion grows.
• March 2060: The economy collapses under pressure from energy crisis and the unfolding crisis in Europe.
• March 2060: The European Commonwealth and the UAS end hostilities after the last of the oil wells are dried up or destroyed.
• July 2060: The European Commonwealth dissolves due to infighting and localized military coups seizing control over several European countries. European fascism sees a resurgence after a century at rest as fascistic movements grow in popularity across the resource stricken continent.
• July 2060: Senator William Calvert manages to steal control of the Republican Party from Vice President Richardson due to the poor economy and perception of incompetence of Richardson.
• August 2060: The European Civil War begins as the splinter countries devolve into warring for resources. The USSR begins influencing the politics of some of the most Eastern European countries. 
• September 29, 2060: “Campaign Consultant” for Senator Jefferson Atticus, Desmond Lockheart, leaks to the press the infamous Dog Incident that manages to destroy the career of Senator Calvert. 
• October 2060: Calvert’s previously nearly neck at neck polling utterly collapses as riots appear in the wake of all of his campaign appearances. Eventually he drops out of the race mid October and the former Vice President is quickly nominated as the new nominee, much to the anger of Calvert’s VP. The ticket devolves into infighting by the first week of November.
• November 2060: Flamboyant Georgian populist Jefferson Atticus wins the Presidency in a massive landslide, many noting that Calvert would have lost by a large margin even had the Dog Incident not been reported.
• 51. 2061-2066 Jefferson R. Atticus (NH-GA)*/Gina Carruthers (NH-NJ)
• January 2061: President Atticus and RobCo CEO Robert House meet and strike up something of a friendship/alliance in advance of the massive reforms Atticus plans to bring to the American economy.
• 2061: Atticus begins his bold plans to “Rejuvenate” America. National public works projects are created to mobilize the unemployed to update civilian and military infrastructure, with a special emphasis on updating and creating public transportation hubs between all major cities. A number of sectors are nationalized over major opposition from Corporate America and the courts, but this opposition is silenced through a mixture of blatant court packing, public intimidation, and arrests. Social programs to alleviate poverty in the country are funded for the first time since the failed Marigold Presidency. By the end of the year, a major labor reform bill that re-empowers Unions and castrates corporate power is passed due to Atticus’ total control of his party. The energy crisis gets tackled by a massive investment in constructing nuclear power plants and renewable energy, especially hydro-electric dams.
• 2061: American state-run corporations begin to set up shop in European countries as a form of neo-colonialism. While the countries continue to fight and struggle, Europe sees itself getting taken over economically by the Americans and Soviets, who enters into a friendly competition with each other to see who can control most of Europe by the end of the decade.
• May 2061: Atticus meets with Soviet Premier Ivanova and the two quickly become personal friends. Relations between the two countries warm. While not allies, they are on friendly terms with one another and start to do business with each other.
• 2062: The Mississippi Valley Authority and the Colorado Valley Authority are created.
• 2062: Despite government efforts, the New Plague continues to hit the country. While the authoritarian measures that Atticus continues have limited effect on containing the disease, it does work well at ensuring domestic stability and further expansion of Atticus’ autocratic tendencies.
• June 20, 2062: The Niagara Sabotage, conducted by Chinese spies and saboteurs, occurs. A massive manhunt is undertaken to arrest the saboteurs and pressure grows to “detain subversive elements” but Atticus is queasy at the thought of internment camps. He does however use this as an opportunity to begin officially investigating all opposition groups to his Presidency.
• December 2062: President Atticus meets with Mexican political leaders to resolve the legal gray area that is Mexico. Atticus once again makes an offer for full statehood and united Commonwealth status inside the United States with heavy reconstruction efforts, but Mexican leaders decline. Instead the plan is to withdraw occupation forces outside of 90% of Mexico and allow them to form a more organic satellite government for the United States, thereby relieving pressure on occupation authorities and preserving a mutual economic relationship.
• December 25, 2062: The Enclave is created and named as a reaction to withdrawal from most of Mexico. Former President Whitelaw spearheads the creation of the secret society and takes a personal touch to recruitment.
• February 2063: Atticus gets wind of the existence of a shadow state and their attempts to take control of parts of his party. Atticus begins periodic micro-purges of the New Horizons Movement to prevent “damned Enclavists” from being able to prevent his agenda. 
• 2063: In the midst of Atticus’ continued corporatist reforms and increasing of Federal power at the expense of the powers of states and Commonwealths, a battle for influence behind the scenes begins, with Atticus tasking Chief of Staff Laurie Lamar and Special Advisor to the President Desmond Lockheart with the challenge of finding out where the Enclave is concentrating power, and root them out. Lockheart later refers to this in a cabinet meeting as “A great big bloody game of whack-a-mole.”
• 2063: Swift interventions in African countries are undertaken to preserve resource extraction. China, feeling the pressure on resources, begins pushing heavily into influencing South America.
• November 2064: Atticus, an immensely popular President with an autocratic control on the country, wins reelection in a landslide not seen since Lejeune’s reelection in 2004. In the wake of his victory, there are already talks in pro-Atticus parts of the country about a third term.
• January 2065: Robert House, in a private meeting, tells Atticus his predictions of the inevitability of nuclear war. Disbelieving this, he takes Atticus step by step through his calculations. Atticus makes the calculated decision to try and effectively end the Cold War with China by starving their regime of resources and hoping that the lessons of the European Commonwealth will prevent them from going to war.
• June 2065: The New York Hot Summer begins. In response and after very public fighting with Poseidon Energy, Atticus fully nationalizes the energy sector and creates an Energy Czar to create a plan for effective energy rationing across the country with planned rolling blackouts. The Enclave seizes this opportunity to expand its influence and re-ignites the shadow war after a quiet year of setbacks to Enclave resources. Parts of the New Horizons Movement balk at these acts and in conjunction with others who have been micro-purged and reassigned, are recruited by the Enclave.
• Winter 2065: Food insecurity had been growing for years, but actual shortages begin to appear. 
• January 1, 2066: After a hungry winter, the President announces the appointment of a “Food Czar” and the creation of a Department of Food to oversee national food rationing to ensure that everyone can effectively get food and no food hoarding can occur. An implicit part of this plan is Atticus’ desire to seize the food and wealth of his enemies while sparing his allies. This is the straw that manages to see the Enclave surge in strength, managing to start getting puppets into Atticus’ inner circle. 
• March 2066: With Lockheart confirming the amount of Enclave influence over the party and now in the cabinet, Atticus bids him to start reaching out to all allies to prepare for a massive and risky plan to purge the Enclave from all parts of American society. Atticus’ popularity remains extremely high, so there is a hope that the public will go along with the bold plans come the end of the year.
• April 2066: Trade talks with China begin due to their desperation for more fuel and resources. The President remembers his conversation with Robert House the previous year and puts his plan to intimidate them and bluff them into ending hostilities into effect.
• June 24, 2066: All talks end abruptly as Atticus makes a big show out of storming out of the talks and declaring a refusal to share any oil with non-American countries.
• June 25, 2066: Arguments with Canada, who have been facing increasing American pressure and domination, lead to Atticus devising a plan similar to the Mexico scheme to turn them into another one of “America’s Little Brothers”. 
• July 2066: In a speech, Atticus refers to the shared bond with Canada as being deeply familial and calls Canada “Our little brother” and “Little America” variously.
• August 4, 2066: The first crude fusion cell is unveiled. Atticus and his Energy Czar immediately begin plans to integrate fusion into the American energy grid, with the President hoping to prioritize civilian infrastructure first as a means of starving the Enclave’s influence.
• August 24, 2066: On a hot and humid day in Memphis, Tennessee, President Atticus meets with supporters to campaign for a personal friend and ally of his to become Senator of Tennessee. While the election would not be in doubt, the President wants to seem approachable and show that he is making the same sacrifices that everyone else is. While giving one of his famous stump speeches, an Enclave marine slips through the Secret Service and manages to climb a water tower and fire a laser rifle at Atticus, his husband, and Senator Vivian Wilmot. Atticus is vaporized and turned into a pile of ash, his husband loses an arm, and Wilmot’s head is sliced off.
• 52. 2066-2073 Gina Carruthers (NH/P-NJ)/Diego Alvarez (NH/P-FL)
• September 1, 2066: During the period that Atticus’ ashes are supposed to be laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda, his urn goes missing. Unofficially, the higher echelons of the Enclave stole it and during a drunken celebration of the death of their greatest enemy, the invited leadership takes turns pissing in the urn before dumping the entire thing in the toilet.
• December 2066: With Atticus gone and Carruthers having a reputation as a lightweight, China invades Alaska. Carruthers, as a member of the Enclave since 2062 due to her irrelevance as VP, uses the war as an excuse to “cut the administrative strain” that the New Horizons Movement was causing. By 2068, unions would return to being all but destroyed, all of the nationalizations would be undone and returned to private hands as “Government contractors”, and all social spending is cut to focus on funding the military. Fusion energy is redirected to military purposes and any civilian use is up to private contractors.
• December 22, 2066: The Ebon Atoll incident occurs. Pro-Atticus members of Congress try to open an investigation into the incident, but out of fear it would damage morale, the Enclave begins the persecution of any pro-Atticus politicians and groups. 
• January 1, 2067: Carruthers announces the end of energy rationing and food rationing as “all efforts need to be made on the war effort”. Due to fears of another Niagara Sabotage, the President announces the start of Chinese Internment.
• April 2067: Power armor is deployed for the first time in Anchorage to great effect. Funding is poured into proliferating this as much as possible.
• June 2068: The National Horizons Movement is dissolved and replaced by the “Patriot Party”. While the pretense of democracy will be maintained for another 8 years, at least a full third of eligible voters vow to never vote in another election again in protest. Despite this, all elections are regularly reported to have 80% turnout.
• November 2068: Carruthers is reelected by a comfortable margin in spite of not meaningfully representing anything different than her Republican counterpart as both are part of the Enclave.
• 2069: Canadian protests are ignored as the US Military starts abusing as much of Canadian resources as possible and in an ironic nod to Atticus, is treated as if it was already America.
• 2070: USSA launches the Deep Sleep project
• 2072: Congress passes the “Atmospheric Counter-Espionage Act”
• June 2072: A whistleblower leaks to one of the few free press groups in the country the existence of a dangerous super weapon. Rather than deny it, the US Army confirms the existence of such a weapon. A body is found floating in the Potomac several days later.
• June 3, 2072: Anti-American riots and resistance crescendos into outright sabotage of the war effort. The attempted destruction of a crucial pipeline gives Carruthers the justification to announce the annexation of Canada as an attempt to restore order to “America’s Little Brother”.
• July 12, 2072: The Shanghai Sally incident causes yet another wave of paranoia about alleged sabotage by Chinese spies. The government happily takes this as an opportunity to further progress their fascist goals.
• September 9, 2072: Former President Quinten Whitelaw and secretly the mastermind behind the Enclave, dies. He is publicly mourned by the administration as “a great man and patriot who always preserved freedom”. This is in spite of Carruthers over 10 years ago having been a major critique of “Whitelawian Fascism”. 
• November 2072: Republican nominee Senator Richmond “Dickie” Richardson “wins” the election. While on the surface he is more of the same, he is among the more radical elements of the Enclave and dreams of officially transitioning America to Enclave Fascism.
• 53. 2073-2077 Richmond Richardson (R-CA)/Clementine Bullwer (R-TN)
• September 15, 2073: Out of fear for biological weapons, West Tek and government scientists develop the “Pan-Immunity Virion”. It took only 20 years since they initially tried to counter the New Plague to yield results.
• October 2074: The US launches an invasion of the Chinese Mainland in spite of the President stating just days before that America was fighting a purely defensive war. While a major propaganda win for the Government, it quickly turns into a stalemate as resources are stretched ever thinner and Chinese submarines catch entire fleets off guard.
• November 2074: Richardson meets with business leaders both in and out of the Enclave in West Virginia to discuss automation and the successes made in the realm of robotics to supplement “malcontent traitors” who refuse to support the war effort or ask for “communism” in the form of safety conditions.
• January 2075: The President complains to his secretary that Robert House refuses to return his calls and when he does talk to him, House is dismissive of him and the Enclave.
• January 10, 2075: The head of the BADTFL briefs the President and other Enclave leaders on growing discontent and insurgency cells across the country. Initially dismissive of this, the BADTFL head reveals that his agents just days ago managed to bust a nationwide arms smuggling program that was successfully arming known anti-government forces across the country. Efforts to try and keep the populace docile are doubled.
• February 18, 2075: The Government in conjunction with the Smithsonian and Galaxy News Network that to generate patriotic fervor in advance of the tricentennial next year, there will be a weekly radio program celebrating America in the form of talking about one US President every week. Enclave propagandists are able to churn out overly patriotic whitewashing for most of the Presidents through FDR, but it soon becomes clear that instead of focusing on the “Great things” all did, some Presidents get overly maligned and mocked due to personal dislike from Enclave historians. Examples: George HW Bush is accused of destroying the Presidency of the Great Patriot Richard Nixon, John Glenn (opponent to President Pete Wilson in 1996) is characterized as a valor stealing old man with claims he did not actually go to space even though multiple historians emphasize he did, Delphine Lejeune’s sex life is described in great detail with many parents complaining about the claims that she kept the country together by sleeping with all of Congress and with various military leaders. Internal Enclave opposition kills the project once the first non-white President, Freddie Barber, is supposed to be written. Former President Whitelaw’s son, George Whitelaw, personally ends the project and has the historians involved in the project sent to Mariposa Military Base for human testing due to their racist characterization of Barber.
• March 21, 2075: PVP trials are suspended in favor of a variation known as the Forced Evolutionary Virus at Presidential behest.
• November 2075: American listening posts posit the possibility of Chinese stealth subs patrolling the Atlantic. Reports are dismissed when presented in mid December.
• January 2076: Major panic strikes the eastern seaboard as food convoys coming from American aligned regimes in Europe and Africa are sunk by a Chinese submarine group.
• January 2076: Annexation of Canada is announced to be completed by a proud President Richardson. Canadian insurgents plague American authority, however, so any suspected Canadian insurgent is executed without trial. The annexation of Canada and the opening of farmland does allow for some level of calm to resume in America as hope for more food grows.
• June 2076: T-51 Power Armor is deployed to the Yangtze Front. It massively demoralizes the Chinese armies in the area leading to a localized collapse of the war effort. These gains can’t be pressed as far as the Army and President would like due to supply line issues.
• August 2076: Lack of food shipments and crop failure in Canada, which the Government blames on the Chinese, leads to near famine-like conditions in many parts of the country. The month of August is hit by daily food and energy riots. With the domestic situation collapsing, the President declares a state of emergency and declares martial law. All elections are officially suspended until “the end of Un-American activities”.
• September 1, 2076: Successor to former President Whitelaw as the closest thing to a Leader of the Enclave, General Bolivar Trask realizes that if nothing changes by the new year, Enclave rule will collapse within 3 years due to the erosion of American societal norms and safety valves. He begins meeting with scientists and business leaders to try and figure out a plan before proposing it before the entire Enclave upper leadership.
• November 2076: A rare bloody nose is given to the government by a collection of former New Horizons diehards led by West Virginian Senator Sam Blackwell. Investigations uncovered his ties to a crypto-separatist group, which sent the Enclave into full blown paranoia. Trask takes this as a confirmation of his theory.
• January 10, 2077: Anchorage is liberated after General Constantine Chase orders a full assault on remaining Chinese forces in Alaska. While touted as a major victory, it’s costly and once again there are impediments to any ability to capitalize on these wins. Namely the collapsing homefront.
• January 11, 2077: White House spokesman Warren Eccleston urges for calm as food riots continue across the country. He only makes the situation worse with references to the President’s extravagant meals.
• January 22, 2077: Still under martial law in all parts of the country, domestic troops are given power armor to use against all domestic opposition. Civilian deaths and injuries skyrocket and massive dissent in the Army spreads with the numbers of deserters and mutinies rising at a terrifying rate. Any stragglers in the military and political leadership of the Enclave are convinced of Trask’s plans.
• March 1, 2077: Vault Tec hosts a meeting among the best and brightest of corporate America including the CEOs of Repconn, RobCo (despite them not being a member of the Enclave), West Tek, Big MT in addition to a number of military and government observers. The future is discussed and Trask tells one of his loyalists to reveal the plan: the Enclave will trigger a nuclear war to ensure that the slate is wiped clean and only they, the best of the best, will be able to rule. Robert House comes away from the meeting convinced that only his plan can work.
• March 17, 2077: President Richardson abolishes the White House Press Corps and retreats to the Poseidon Energy Oil Rig off the coast of California. The Cabinet is ordered to remain in Washington for a little while longer before diffusing to their assigned regions. Other Enclave leaders are ordered to head to the vicinity of their safety zones or begin preparation for cryo-stasis. 
• Summer 2077: With the Enclave prepping for wiping the slate clean, large parts of the country are left to the control of Commonwealth High Commissioners and military authorities. Urban areas such as Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh become low level insurgencies. Suburban areas are untouched. High Commissioners declare states of famine in most Commonwealths.
• July 2077: Pittsburgh, already facing massive unrest, sees the first labor action in 20 years with all steel mills coming to a close. 
• August 2077: Appalachia fully devolves into civil conflict as the High Commissioner and Governors are unable to muster the resources to crush strikers and rioters.
• September 3, 2077: The Appalachian Free States, an explicit attempt to leave the United States, is declared. With the region in full blown rebellion, the full nature of the crisis America faces is unavoidable even for the most privileged to pretend does not exist. Many simply declare them to be traitors and move on. 
• September 19, 2077: Strikers in Pittsburgh nearly lynch the owner of one of the steel mills and successfully kill several other steel mill leaders.
• October 1, 2077: A tentative agreement is reached between the Steel Union and the Pittsburgh steel mills. There is a split in the union due to the very narrow vote that adopts the resolution. Those that refuse to accept the deal continue the fight and even most of those that wanted to stop fighting decline to go back to work.
• October 3, 2077: The Free States rebellion spreads across the entirety of the Appalachian mountains. Governors call for the National Guard and corporate contractors to put down the insurgents. Bloodbaths ensue.
• October 12, 2077: Mariposa Military Base suffers a mutiny led by Captain Roger Maxson. 
• October 22, 2077: Roxbury Food Riots send Boston into another wave of unrest and opposition to military rule.
• October 23, 2077: The End