This is true that the main cause of the great war and the conflict between the United States and China was indeed the fighting over resources. However given that during the real 1950s America went through what was known as the "Red Scare," it makes sense to suggest that the American government of the Fallout Universe (and thus the Enclave) was steadfastly against communism (and this can be seen in many posters and of course liberty prime in Fallout 3). You're right in saying that this dislike of communism was not the main cause of the war and I hope that wasn't what my post implied, but this battle between democracy and communism was certainly a major factor in it.



yeah I would agree that the Enclave never really offically stated what their mission was, but I believed it was implied through the propaganda of President Eden and President Richardson. The pre-war "Enclave" (the American government: like you said, before the war the Enclave was the American government, there was no distinction between the two) had the main goal of defeating China and ending something that they believed to be the root cause of the problems (Communism). Later however, with the Great War, the Enclave's goals were focused on restablishing control over the continental united states, as the battle with China (and thus communism) had been voided.

Enclave were not the Government. They were a shadow government / Military organization within the Government.

I would say that they weren't necessarily a seperate organization from the government and like The Enclave said in his post, they were more of a "code word" within the U.S. Government.

Not only that but the President and most other higher government officials were in "The Enclave" (including what seems to be a good portion of Congress), so when you take that into account and then if one assumes that the Enclave was a seperate organization, then the question must be asked "who was running the government? what was the United States Government?," and the answer would be the Enclave, even if lower officals and grunt soldiers didn't quite know it.

Also look at the meaning of the word "enclave" itself. In geography, an enclave is a piece of territory owned by part A in the middle of the territory owned by part B. Do they mean it's an enclave in the US government, or an inclave within something else, belonging to the government (that is, an exclave to the government)?

I agree they were not a different branch or offical organization within the governemnt. They did not have an office or anything like that. They were a group of like minded people that formed a secret shadow government. The people in the background pulling the strings. We don't know if the pre-war president was apart of the Enclave or what other pre-war government officals were apart of it. Its safe to say some very powerful people were. I don't see the pre-war Enclave being a big part of the Government as in not many were apart of the Enclave or knew about it. Military members like Generals, high up government officals and CEO's. Enclave did not form over night. Something with that kinda power would have been around for decades which means the president could have been just a puppet before the great war.

The Pre-war government might not have known anything about the vault experiments. For all they know the Vaults were to save people but Enclave members were incharege of building them and overseeing funding.

Enclave members could have been responsible for the Great War. America was winning the war against China so their plans for taking over went out the window, so they launched.

That's what made the Enclave a great faction, they are powerful and yet we know so little about them. They are the "men in black" or the "smoking man" from the X-Files. IMO.

The reason I assume that the President was "in on it" is that before the Great War, the President and other top officals took shelter at the Posiden Oil rig.

wiki

"Come 2077, with total nuclear war rapidly arriving at America's doorstep, the President of the United States and a number of other United States government officials left their posts to take refuge in a number of secret locations around the world. Among them was the Poseidon oil rig. Here, the President himself set up a secret base from which the USA could continue to exist and wage war on China, with the eventual goal of retaking the continental United States."

I would agree though that the Enclave was not necessarily the public face of the government, but it was the government.

It seems very likely the president was in on it. Maybe the Enclave rigged the election to get him elected. Or they let him in on it at the last second.

Still we agree the Enclave were not the public face. I would go as far as to say Only a select few within the government knew about the Enclave.

I say there wouldn't be any members outside of the Enclave who knew about them... If somebody found out and refused to join they'd probably be killed.

Conspiracies are interesting.

You mean like http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Quaere_Verum?

tsk tsk tsk shouldn't have tried to oust the Enclave.....

Basically yeah...