Michael Dugan

Actor: Ray Wise

Name: Michael Dugan*Nationality:* American*Affiliation:* Allied Forces / United States*Position:* President of the United States*Rank:* Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces*Advisers:* Ben Carville, Eva Lee*Opponents:* Alexander Romanov, Yuri*Conflicts:* Third World War, Psychic Dominators Disaster*Games:* Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge

Michael Dugan is the President of the United States during the Third World War, which pits the Allied Forces against Alexander Romanov’s Soviet Union.

A rather peaceful leader, he initially prefers to seek a diplomatic solution rather than resorting immediately to force. However, this attitude does not reflect any weakness: when a confrontation becomes inevitable, Dugan is prepared to make particularly difficult military decisions.

Before the war, Dugan played a key role in installing Alexander Romanov as head of the Soviet Union. The Allies believed at the time that they had a conciliatory leader in Moscow who would guarantee lasting peace between East and West.

This decision backfired when Romanov launched a surprise invasion of the United States in 1972. Soviet forces attacked several American regions simultaneously and quickly gained the upper hand.

Dugan personally contacted Romanov and attempted to persuade him to halt the offensive, reminding him in particular that he had helped bring him to power.

Faced with the Soviet Premier’s refusal and the scale of the invasion, Dugan finally orders a nuclear counter-attack against the Soviet Union.

Yuri, however, had anticipated this reaction. He mentally takes control of Officer Jerry Boyd and sabotages the launch procedure, causing the American missiles to be destroyed whilst still inside their silos.

The Soviet advance soon reaches Washington D.C., where Yuri’s forces install a Psychic Beacon near the White House.

Dugan, Ben Carville and a large part of the population then fall under mental control. The President appears in public to call on the American people to accept Soviet authority.

However, the Allied Forces destroy the Beacon and liberate Washington. Dugan and the key American leaders are then evacuated to Canada, from where they organise the continuation of the war.

The nuclear destruction of Chicago subsequently convinces Dugan that an American victory alone is no longer possible. He officially asks the European powers to enter the conflict.

They agree on condition that the Soviet Nuclear Missile Silos capable of reaching Europe are first neutralised. Once these have been destroyed, the Europeans fully join the war against Romanov.

Dugan is also forced to make some particularly painful decisions. When Yuri places Saint Louis under psychic control, he authorises the Allied Commander to fight American citizens under enemy control, whilst asking that civilian casualties be kept to a minimum.

The war becomes even more personal when Ben Carville is assassinated. Dugan attends his funeral and appoints the Allied Commander to succeed him as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces.

He then entrusts him with the final offensive: to use the Chronosphere to transport Allied Forces to Russia, capture the Kremlin and bring the Romanov regime to a definitive end.

The Allied victory brings the war to an end, but Dugan discovers almost immediately that an even graver threat has been developing in the shadows:Yuri.

Yuri's Revenge

At the start of Yuri's Revenge, Dugan is summoned to an emergency meeting at the White House when Yuri reveals the existence of his global network of Psychic Dominators.

Dugan even attempts to negotiate, going so far as to offer Yuri a presidential pardon and a potential career in politics if he abandons his plan. Yuri refuses and announces his intention to take mental control of humanity.

The President immediately orders an air strike against the Dominator on Alcatraz. The Harriers are shot down, but one of them crashes into the Reactor powering the machine, temporarily putting it out of action.

Yuri nevertheless activates his other Dominators and takes control of a large proportion of the world’s population.

The Allies then use the Einstein time machine to travel back to the start of the war and prevent Yuri from carrying out his plan.

In this new timeline, Dugan retains his position as President and once again leads the Allied efforts. In particular, he plays a key role in the international coordination of the war against Yuri.

The alteration to the timeline also has a happy consequence for him:Ben Carville, who was assassinated in the previous timeline, can be saved this time.

After Yuri’s capture and confinement in a psychic isolation chamber, the two timelines merge. Carville then appears alive at a meeting in the White House, much to Dugan’s surprise.

Michael Dugan thus represents the political face of the Allied Forces in Red Alert 2. Unlike the more bellicose leaders in the series, he generally seeks to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, but accepts the most difficult decisions when his country’s survival demands it.