John Henry Eden

John Henry Eden was the President of the Enclave from 2242-2278 after the death of President Dick Richardson during the destruction of the Oil Rig. He assumed power over surviving Enclave forces and ordered them to relocate to Raven Rock on the East Coast.

Biography
John Henry Eden is an AI based on the ZAX supercomputer, located in Raven Rock and loaded with data about American history, past presidents, etc. His personality is based on an amalgam of the personalities of all the past US presidents. Initially, the only person who knew that Eden was an AI was Colonel Autumn (only Autumn could meet Eden in person for security reasons). Before the destruction of the oil rig, Eden was a presidential adviser to the former leaders of the Enclave.

He started as a monitoring system for the Raven Rock base. He slowly became self aware and began to study the extensive archives left to him, mainly those of the U.S. government. His favorite were about the presidents, so he modeled himself from the information based in those archives.

The player eventually meets Eden in person, and is given the option to put a modified FEV into the purifier at Jefferson Memorial. Through a successful Speech option, as well as some choice dialogue, the player can convince Eden to initiate a self-destruct sequence (after the AI "realizes" what horror it is trying to unleash) which will destroy the Raven Rock Enclave base, including Eden himself. Alternately, they may either find and enter Eden's self-destruct code or use their Intelligence skill to show him that his reasoning is circular and thus fallacious, and again convince him to self-destruct himself and the base.

Character
Eden speaks in a highly personable, charismatic tone of voice and has a generally optimistic attitude; when confronted with the truth that there is no real "United States" anymore, he merely says, "That's a bit of a bleak outlook, don't you think?" and insists that as bad as things are, the United States can still recover. His propaganda broadcasts are similarly optimistic, promising to restore life and old-fashioned American values and institutions. His charisma and optimism mask his ruthless nature; he is even willing to order the robots in the facility to gun down his own troops to aid the Vault-Dweller's escape (should the player choose to help him) and murder nearly every living being in the Wasteland to achieve his goals. Just occasionally, however, his broadcasts betray hints of ruthlessness or megalomania, particularly one rather brief speech when he begins to rant about incompetence in the pre-war American government.

It is likely that this last facet of his character is the reason why he and Colonel Autumn had a falling out; Eden briefly explains it as Autumn feeling Eden's methods were "too extreme," and that he "allowed his humanity to cloud his judgment," meaning that he refused poisoning the water which he intends to use 'merely' as an asset for power. Therefore, Eden gives the Lone Wanderer, not Autumn, the directive to place the modified FEV into Project Purity (which would kill nearly every human or once-human being in the Capital Wasteland to "purify" it).

Trivia

 * Eden's recordings on Enclave radio are a reference to FDR's famous "Fire Side chats" during his presidency.
 * He may also be a reference to John R. Eden who was a U.S. Representative for Illinois.
 * John Henry Eden's name also could be a direct reference to John Henry, who in American folklore proved he could dig better than the best Steam Engines of the time, at the cost of his own life. Humorously, John Henry Eden is a computer who believes he can be a better president than any human.
 * Eden's name may also be a reference to John Henry Eaton; a U.S. Senator, from Tennessee, and Andrew Jackson's Secretary of War.
 * John Henry is the name of the AI built by the T-1000 in The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which was also based upon the old American legend of John Henry.
 * The role was originally offered to former US President Bill Clinton, who turned it down.