United States government

According to United States Constitution 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 (Article Two, Section 2, Clause 1).


 * [[Image:Fob header.gif]]

Executive branch
The Enclave was 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. The Enclave members acted as lobbysts for industry sector also.

Federal executive departments and agencies
(mentioned in Fallout games) There were independent Environmental Protection Agency present also.
 * War Department - mentioned in Maxson Log as present in year 2077 - and Defense Department - mentioned by West Tech Research Facility mainframe as present in year 2076 (Department of Defence - according to van Buren screenshot concerning HERMES armor [[Image:Vanburen.jpg|20px]] and according to "Faction Profile – the Brotherhood of Steel" [[Image:FO3 logo.jpg|60px]]; the Secretary of the Army was mentioned at Tibbets design document as present in 2040 [[Image:Vanburen.jpg|20px]]); its seat was Pentagon [[Image:FO3 logo.jpg|60px]]; in real world War Department was subsumed by Department of the Army in 1945, renamed in 1947 into Department of Defense,
 * Department of Water and Power - mentioned in Vault Locations v34.129 holodisc (however: Department of Energy was mentioned in timeline in year 2053 [[Image:Fob header.gif|60px]] and Atomic Energy Commision was present in year 2241 [[Image:Fallout2.gif|50px]] - in real world created in 1977),
 * Department of State - foreign affairs present - eg. United Nations membership, Soviet Consulate present in Los Angeles, in real world - Great Seal of the United States keeper,
 * department or departments responsible for:
 * war bonds and Vault bonds,
 * law enforcement agencies supervision:
 * Federal Bureau of Investigation - mentioned with its refrigerator only (FREEZER.MSG),
 * Unamerican Activities Force - worked to ferret out communist sympathizers in the American population [[Image:Vanburen.jpg|20px]],
 * Secret Service (if it was present then) [[Image:Fallout2.gif|50px]],
 * BADTFL - its offices were responsible issuing of special permits for Combat Armors civilian use also.

Possible Cabinet positions in order of presidencial succession
There were also Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as cabinet level administration officer.
 * Secretary of State,
 * Secretary of Treasure,
 * Secretary of War (Secretary of Defence, Secretary of the Army),
 * Secretary of Water and Power (Secretary of Energy),

Legislative branch

 * Library of Congress present - mentioned together with GECK.
 * Senator Todd Peterson mentioned at Maxson Bunker design document [[Image:Vanburen.jpg|20px]].
 * February 15 2075 - the House of Representatives and Congress both (sic!) voted unanimously to impeach the President for jaywalking (this information comes from the Sierra Depot GNN Transcript holodisk, which Chris Avellone [[Image:Fob header.gif|60px]] discards as non-canon, as it was supposedly modified by the Sierra Army Depot soldiers) [[Image:Fallout2.gif|50px]].

Judical branch
Federal Courts mentioned at Tibbets design document.

Afterwar succession
Constitutional foundation for United States presidential line of succession were Article II, Section 1, Section 3 of the 20th Amendment (1933), and the 25th Amendment (1967) - see: United States presidential line of 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 [[Image:Fallout2.gif|50px]], there was the large Crater in 2253 [[Image:Vanburen.jpg|20px]].
 * Status of the Enclave of the USA President position was questioned by Brotherhood of Steel. Their representative in San Francisco (Matthew) refered Dick Richardson as "so-called Presedent" (notice: Brotherhood of Steel origined from deserted US Armed Forces Military Police security squad and their initial order was issued by Cap. Maxson unless otherwise directed, from a proper representative of the War Department; seizing Pentagon building by paladin Owyn Lyons'es detachment in first decades of XXIII century was an irony of fate).
 * In 2277 there were no U.S. government presence at Pentagon building and on the D.C. area [[Image:FO3 logo.jpg|60px]].
 * The federal government (or whatever branch of federal government was responsible - it was not necessarily the Enclave) 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.
 * Nonetheless, even members of the Enclave probably could not answer the question of who created the Vault experiments and their reasons, as many of the people responsible for the creation of the Vaults died long ago, and many records were lost in the great static of 2077. President Richardson was familiar with the purpose of the Vaults, but he never saw them as more than little test tubes of preserved humans he could mess with [[Image:Fob header.gif|60px]].

Executive branch


In year 2220 Congressman Richardson was elected president for the first term of five, through aid and political pressure by his father, previuos 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). Notice: it seems the 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1951) didn't work (if existed) - in real world it also prevents a President from being elected more than twice.



The Cabinet was addresse of the Project report from United States Chemical Corps and Power Plant Operations report from Atomic Energy Commision. 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. Very likely Cabinet present in the Enclave was minimally staffed (eg. the first American President appointed a Cabinet of four people). Agencies present after the War:
 * Secret Service (USSS) - it is not certain, if USSS was an official part of the Enclave armed forces. If USSS existed before the War, because of Divergence in Fallout world, it could be overseen by Department of Treasure.
 * Atomic Energy Commision (AEC) with unknown exact status, it reported to the Cabinet (Department of Water nad Power or Department of Energy not mentioned). In real world the same named independent agency existed in 1946-1974 period (see: Atomic Energy Commision).
 * National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mentioned by Vice President Bird (he was an idiot talking about martian canals, however there had been some pre-war space program and the Enclave off-planet evacuation plans concerned with Bloomfield Space Center[[Image:Vanburen.jpg|20px]]); there was no significant means and resources to do anything serious connected with space affairs on the oil rig; in real world NASA is independent agency created in 1958,
 * Environmental Protection Agency branch in California (no human staff, no the Enclave presence) [[Image:Fob header.gif|60px]].

Legislative branch

 * Acording to U.S. Constitution the Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate (Article one, Section three, Clause four).
 * Vice President was present on the Enclave oil rig [[Image:Fallout2.gif|50px]].




 * 2215 August 1 - Congressman Richardson was rising to power within the Enclave, aided by pressure from his father, President Richardson.
 * 2220 March 5 - Congressman Richardson was elected president for the first term of five.

Judical branch


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

Government after destruction of the Enclave oil rig
The destruction of the Enclave erased all trace of President Dick Richardson from history. According to one of Fallout 2 endings eventually the survivors of the Enclave find a home in the ranks of NCR. In that case it can be said, that there didn't survive any the USA President succesor like Vice President or any other member of the Congress or Cabinet. According to J.E.Sawyer's Fallout PnP survived some broken remnants of the Enclave (following the Chosen One’s assassination of the Enclave’s U.S. President and the destruction of their Poseidon oil tanker headquarters off of the California coast).

There are no explicit provisions in real world for what would happen if everyone on the presidential succession list were dead, unable to serve, or otherwise ineligible to assume the Presidency (deputy secretaries - if any were present- would not be eligible, as the line of succession only applies to full Cabinet members; in the event of the death of their superior, deputy secretaries only assume the responsibilities as "acting secretary"—positions, that are not counted in the line of presidential succession).

The only known the Enclave officials, who could be present after the oil rig destruction, would be Camp Navarro senior staff or sgt. Granite (if left alive, their order of seniority could be as follows: Base Commander, Sgt. Granite (200 hp), Sgt. Dornan (150 hp), Quartermaster). In that case one of them would be United States Armed Forces acting commander and all the Enclave remnants - some kind of US Armed Forces continuation (as well as Brotherhood of Steel).

None of the holografic directors present at the Environmental Protection Agency facility was acting EPA Administrator.