American Provisional Administration (1983: Doomsday)

The government-in-exile for the United States establised after the mainland US was deemed uninhaitable and ungovernable.

Establishment
On May 23rd 1984 the decision was made to evacuate President Reagan and Vice-President Bush from North America and fly them to Australia. Reagan and Bush left the US on May 5th, 1984. Reagan made it safely to Hawaii. There he witnessed the last functioning state government in the US, under the iron rule of labor leader Louis Goldblatt. The conservative President was somewhat shocked at the Communistic turn Hawaii had taken, but he was glad that the islands were surviving.

Thanks to electro-magnetic interference and residual radiation left over from Doomsday, the president's plane became unresponsive to the pilots controls and was horribly off course a few hours after leaving Hawaii. Running out of fuel and unable to land, the Boeing E-4 lost altitude and crashed into the South Pacific. Though the President and First Lady survived the crash, the life-raft they and their Secret Service team escaped on sank in a squall a day later.

Nominally, George Bush became President on May 6th, 1986. He reached Brisbane safely after stops in Hawaii and Auckland, New Zealand. Prime Minister Hawke welcomed Bush, but informed him that the RAAF had lost contact with Reagan's plane. They waited a few days for any reports, but with none coming, Bush had a local Australian judge swear him in as President on May 8th. The American Provisional Administration was then established in Canberra. Its goals were twofold: first, to garner intelligence on the situation, both in the US and across the world; and secondly, to provide cohesion for the community of American survivors.

ANZUS and the Gathering Order
The USA was a government without a country, but it had one great asset: the United States military scattered across the world. In order to avoid future threats by third parties utilizing the superior US military technology, the already existing ANZUS defence pact between the United States, Australia and New Zealand was modified and extended in 1985. The most important part of the new agreement was that all remains of the American and - as far as possible - the NATO Army, Navy and Air Force were immediately placed under corporate ANZUS command.

So, on June 1st, the ANZUS Order 001/1985 was given by the joint ANZUS Head Command set up in Brisbane. This order – today famous as “The Gathering” Order- was sent to all reachable U.S. (and NATO) units. It ordered all units capable to do so to set course for Australian, New Zealand and Hawaiian territory. If this could not be realized, all surviving units in defined geographical area were routed to the nearest suiting gathering point to which ANZUS supply convoys were sent. Response of forces scattered around the globes started slow, but steadily increased. The first units to report were several nuclear submarines. They set course for ports in ANZUS territory.

Due to satellite communication proving impossible, only slowly several scattered naval units reported from the Pacific and Indian Oceans. They were ordered to assemble at several points considered suitable, mainly intact British, French and U.S. naval bases on remote islands. The bulk of the regrouping flotillas consisted of submarines, frigates and destroyers from NATO countries and remains of American Carrier Groups. Civilian freighter convoys also gathered at the specified destinations.

On November 6th, the USS "Benjamin Franklin" (SSBN-640) became the fifth American nuclear submarine to arrive in ANZUS territory. Nearly running out of food, the “Franklin” entered the harbour of Cairns.

On November 18th, a great relief accompanied the return of the American carrier USS “Nimitz” and a small accompanying fleet from the harbour of Papeete, Tahiti. It had been feared that all carrier groups had been destroyed by direct nuclear attacks. But apparently due to malfunctioning ICBM’s the Nimitz carrier group was not destroyed and was able to set course south to escape the radiation in the Northern Hemisphere. On December 8th the Nimitz Group arrived in Brisbane.

Keeping the Peace
The Provisional Administration kept its authority over surviving U.S. Insular Areas in the Pacific, namely American Samoa, Micronesia, an the Marshall Islands. In theory, its authority also extended to Hawaii, but with the vastness of the ocean and the difficulty of maintaining control, Bush was content to let Governor Goldblatt maintain the islands in his own heavy-handed way.

In 1987, however, Goldblatt was assassinated. Bush personally visited Hawaii months later and found the islands torn by civil war. The Australian and US troops accompanying him restored order, with the help of those federal troops still in Hawaii, most of whom rushed to join their Commander in Chief upon his arrival. The leader of one faction was the leading survivor of Hawaii's royal line, 23-year-old Andrew Piikoi Kawānanakoa. He ordered his supporters to lay down their arms and submit to US authority "for the good of our islands." military committee responsible directly to the President was placed in charge of the state.

Two years later the APA suprvised Hawaii's first free elections since Doomsday. It had become an important link between the American remnants and their ANZUS benefactors. For the next seven years Bush's government coordinate food and medical supplies shipped from Australia.

In 1991 the APA lent Australia the Franklin to conduct its famous mission of exploration and intelligence gathering. Hawaii was the natural starting and end point for this and subsequent voyages that explored the shattered west coast of the former USA. In Okinawa, the Frankin crew narrowly escaped when it is attacked in Okinawa by islanders who (from observation) had become cannibals. In 1992 the APA sponsored a mission to restore the LORAN radio navigation station on Marcus Island that had been left intact by the US Coast Guard, who had fled to Hawaii shortly after Doomsday. The Marcus station helped allow for modern navigation for reconnaissance voyages to Japan and East Asia.

End of an Era
The Provisional American Administration formally ended on May 1st, 1995. President Bush in consultation with Prime Minister John Howard issued a short statement to the American expatriates and forces in Australia, stating that it would be best if they "become part of the Australian life and culture". Bush acted as an adviser to Howard, primarily on development of Australian oil production in Indonesia. This marked the end of the 219–year-long history of the United States of America that started in 1776. But the door for a legitimate successor to take up the former superpower's mantle remained open as the “Continuity Act” declared the United States Sovereignty and Constitution “temporarily suspended until a legitimate successor –continuing the US traditions of Freedom and Democracy- is elected by the American people”.

The successor emerged soon after, on August 15. Australia and New Zealand declared their formal unification as the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand" (commonly known as ANZC or ANZ). On the basis of a third ANZUS-Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States, all military forces and material (ships, submarines, bases, personnel) that had reported to “the Gathering” were formally integrated into the ANZC military. The Nimitz would soon be rechristened as ANZS "Commonwealth" (ANZ-01), the new Flagship of the combined ANZ Navy.

The remaining territories under the Provisional Authority held a series of referenda to decide their future status and relationship with the ANZC. American Samoa, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands decided to be fully incorporated into the ANZC, while Hawaii voted to become an independent but associated territory. On January 20, 1996, the traditional swearing-in date of the old US government, Andrew I was crowned King of Hawaii and opened the First Congress of the Free State. On March 30 the ANZC formally annexed its new territories, and the Stars and Stripes were lowered on those islands for the last time. The remaining offices American Provisional Administration were absorbed into the ANZC bureaucracy shortly after.