United States government

This article generally is a dossier comprising information concerning appearance of United States federal government in Fallout world.

Executive branch
There were mentioned in Fallout games President of the United States as well as some federal departments, like:
 * uncertain name department or departments responsible for defense affairs :
 * War Department - referred in Maxson Log as present in year 2077,
 * Department of Defense - connected with HERMES armor research and mentioned by "Faction Profile – the Brotherhood of Steel" together with Pentagon. Defense Department was mentioned as well by West Tech Research Facility mainframe, as present in year 2076.
 * The Secretary of the Army was mentioned at Tibbets design document as present in 2040 . According to Van Buren tech demo plot federal government could exercise only limited power with army, thus according to their names at least some Armored Infantry Divisions belonged to commonwealths.


 * uncertain name department or departments responsible for energy and power:
 * Department of Energy - mentioned in timeline in year 2053 ,
 * Department of Water and Power - mentioned in Vault Locations v34.129 holodisk.
 * Moreover Atomic Energy Commision was present in year 2241.


 * department responsible for foreign affairs ,
 * department or departments responsible for war bonds and Vault bonds,
 * department or departments responsible for supervision of agencies, like Federal Bureau of Investigation, Unamerican Activities Force , Secret Service , BADTFL and United States Space Agency ,
 * there were also some independent agencies like Environmental Protection Agency (cut off material) and National Archives.

Legislative branch
Congress mentions:
 * The House of Representatives and Congress both (sic!) in February 15 2075 voted unanimously to impeach the President for jaywalking ,
 * Library of Congress was packed in the G.E.C.K.,
 * Senator Todd Peterson was mentioned.

District of Columbia affairs - District of Columbia Transport Authority.

Judicial branch
Federal Courts were mentioned at Tibbets design document.

Enclave
There was a covert branch of the legal U.S. government and a shadow government, that was having paranoid dreams for a coup against the real U.S. government. It was called the Enclave. Its members acted as lobbyists for industry sector also.

== Afterwar succession ==

In March 2077, prepared for a nuclear or biological attack from China, the President and the Enclave retreated to remote sections around the globe and make contingency plans for continuing the war.
 * One of the few old world organizations to survive the Great War was the Enclave - before the war the shadow government within the legal government of the United States. Members of the Enclave were hardliners who both embraced the idea of a nuclear war and knew that the common man could not survive it. They believed that as long as the “important people” of the United States survived, they could regroup quickly and wipe out communism once and for all. Enclave used Poseidon Energy facilities - protected during the firestorm of 2077.
 * In 2241 NORAD was offline, there was the large Crater in 2253.
 * Status of the Enclave President position was questioned by Brotherhood of Steel. Matthew, their representative in San Francisco, referred Dick Richardson as "so-called Presedent".
 * In 2277 there were no U.S. government presence at government buildings such as Pentagon and Congress.
 * The federal government may not have ever considered the Vaults as society's best chance for survival - the government may have considered themselves the best candidates for rebuilding the world and already had their asses covered in the event of a nuclear or biological war by relocating to other remote installations across the nation (and elsewhere) that weren't necessarily Vaults. The Enclave certainly didn't seem to be devoting much effort to digging up any other vaults and trying to use the human stock there to rebuild civilization.

Executive branch
According to Fallout Bible Presidential powers were as follows:
 * Presidential Orders could concern military research and data protection as well as Presidential Directives could concern armed forces conditioning and testing programs.
 * Presidential decisions could concern major importance scientific projects connected with military actions.

The President directly controlled also the automatic Emergency Defensive Systems on the oil rig.

In year 2220 Congressman Richardson was elected president for the first term of five, through aid and political pressure by his father, previous the U.S. president. It is not certain, if present in year 2241 president Dick Richardson was one elected in 2220, however it was possible (eg. he could had some term off, or terms were longer then four years).

There was the Cabinet mentioned also. It was addresse of the Project report from United States Chemical Corps and Power Plant Operations report from Atomic Energy Commission. Its seat was Executive Office on the oil rig.The only known cabinet level administration officer in the Enclave was Vice-President, the first person in the presidential line of succession.

There were some executive agencies present after the War, like Secret Service, Atomic Energy Commission, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and (cut off) Environmental Protection Agency. United States Armed Forces were present and its Enclave Patrols at Navarro perimeter expressed like some border police also.

Legislative branch
Vice President was present on the Enclave oil rig (he shall be President of the Senate). According to Fallout Bible since August 1 2215 Congressman Richardson was rising to power within the Enclave, aided by pressure from his father, President Richardson.

Judical branch
No information about this branch, except the fact, that court martial was performed by Armed Forces officers (part of executive branch).

After the destruction of the oil rig
The destruction of the Enclave's oil rig, following the Chosen One’s assassination of the Enclave’s U.S. President, erased all trace of President Dick Richardson from history. However, some broken remnants of the Enclave survived.

Possible candidates for acting commander of the Enclave armed forces post were officers, who could survived destruction of the oil rig, eg. mainland outposts senior staff, Enclave Control Company senior personnel or some officers who might have evacuated in vertibirds from the rig or might be deployed on outside missions. The commander of remaining Enclave forces became Augustus Autumn, in year 2277 in rank of Colonel.

A new President of the United States appeared, John Henry Eden, from the Raven Rock base on the east coast. Despite the fact that some of the remnants of the government retreated after the destruction of the Enclave's oil rig, according to Autumn, Eden was next in line for leadership. President Eden then ordered Autumn to relocate the Enclave forces to the Raven Rock base. Before the destruction of the Enclave oil rig, John Henry Eden was an advisor to US Presidents of the Enclave. He should be some kind of remote advisor in fact, because he was an AI permanently placed in the Raven Rock base at the ZAX unit there. It not is certain also, if he was member of Richardson's Cabinet. According to Eden's propaganda broadcasts on the Enclave Radio presidential election was promised, but without going into the details for "reasons of national security", as well as surrending President's post - without stating exact time however. According to some speeches made on Enclave Radio there was still some form of Congress also. The only person aware of President Eden's AI identity was Colonel Autumn. It seems even Eden wasn't aware he was not a human. In 2277, Colonel Autumn rebelled against President Eden and revealed his AI identity to the rest of the Enclave members.

Without (legal) President the Enclave forces were just some kind of United States Armed Forces continuation.

Footnote
Basic real-world constitutional provision for federal government is United States Constitution, Article Two, Section 2, Clause 1 - the President may require the Opinion of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices. Because of Divergence occured in 1950s it is sure only, that in the Fallout world United States Constitution content could be the same as in the real-world up to 21st Amendment.