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Prime universe
(Capcom's primary storyline)

"I've always valued your friendship, Leon."
— President Benford to Leon in a flashback.

Adam Benford was an American Government official and a former US Military officer who would eventually become President of the United States. He was responsible for recruiting former R.PD. Officer Leon Kennedy for government service after the Raccoon City incident and considered him a close friend. Benford became President after years of government service and together with agent Kennedy founded the Division of Security Operations, an elite agency that fell under the direct command of the President. On June 29th, 2013 Benford was supposed to give a speech at Ivy University but was instead infected and zombified by the C-Virus in a terrorist attack orchestrated by National Security Advisor Derek C. Simmons to prevent him from revealing the true events of the Raccoon City incident to the rest of the world. Unable to be saved, the infected Benford was tragically killed by Kennedy to prevent him from attacking Secret Service agent Helena Harper.

Biography[]

"Bio-organic weapons are a global threat and we are partly to blame. We have to come clean and start working with the rest of the world... if we want to have any chance of fighting this."
— President Adam Benford to agent Leon Scott Kennedy

The United States for many years funded Umbrella USA's bioweapons development program and established their own in direct contradiction to the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. When a strain of the t-Virus spread out across Raccoon City in September 1998, in what would later be known as the Raccoon City Destruction Incident, a Congressional committee influenced by Derek C. Simmons voted in favor of the Sterilization Operation, the bombing of the city. This gave the government the ability to deny any involvement whatsoever as the evidence of their sponsorship would have been destroyed.

Adam Benford, then a military intelligence officer, would encounter Leon S. Kennedy, a surviving officer of the Raccoon Police Department. In escaping the city, Kennedy had obtained confidential information that implicated the government in widespread corruption and voluntary involvement in Umbrella's illicit bioresearch. However, Kennedy had also rescued the G-Virus carrier Sherry Birkin whereas an entire Delta Force unit was wiped-out in an attempt to secure "G", thus making him a potentially valuable asset in any future bioterror incidents. Thus, Kennedy was offered an ultimatum that his life would be spared if he agreed to work for the government, he ultimately agreed to Benford's demands, not in exchange for his own life but on the condition that Sherry would be kept in safe hands which Benford ensured, placing her in the direct supervision and care of Simmons.[1][2][3] Kennedy was then recruited into the newly formed Anti-Umbrella Pursuit and Investigation Team, a clandestine black ops counterterrorism force under United States Strategic Command that would covertly tackle the international threat posed by Umbrella's remaining operations and bioweaponry.

By 2002, Benford had reached the position of Director of Central Intelligence, and was hence in charge of the Central Intelligence Agency. He held a seat at the National Security Council alongside Morgan Lansdale and Wilson.[4]

Presidency[]

Following the 2008 election, Benford entered the administrative branch of government, likely holding the office of Vice President as Benford was later inaugurated as President of the United States of America in January 2011 following the resignation of his predecessor midway through his term.[1] Among Benford's first acts as the incumbent Commander-in-Chief was securing a joint-intervention with the Russian Federation in the East Slavic Civil War thus drawing an end to the long and bloody conflict under former president Belikova's regime.[5] Benford also swiftly established both the Division of Security Operations and the Field Operations Support agencies[1][6] with the former replacing US-STATCOM's Anti-Umbrella Pursuit and Investigation Team as the federal government's chief defence against bioterrorism, with Kennedy among the founding members.[7]

"I'm going to tell them everything. Everything we know about the Raccoon City Incident. A lot of people are questioning my desire to reveal the truth. I know where they've coming from. It might create more problems than it solves, a lesson I learned well in the military."

Following his subsequent victory in the 2012's following election, Benford began re-considering policy on the Raccoon City incident. In acknowledging that the United States did indeed allow and fund Umbrella's bioweapons project and had been subject to widespread corruption, lobbying and bribery by the corporation, Benford felt the government held a share of responsibility for the incident, and several other resulting incidents in the War on Terror (such as the Harvardville Airport incident). Benford hoped that open admission of this blame and further transparency going forward would help to purge Umbrella's remaining influence in the country and ensure trust in his administration, thus shaping a new era in which the United States would openly work alongside nations worldwide in curbing the global existential threat posed by bioweapons. This ideal was greatly opposed by Simmons, now serving as National Security Adviser. Simmons had not only been involved in the government's bio-weapons project, but was instrumental in the commencement of the Sterilization Operation and saw the declassifying of this information as a serious threat to both national security and internal civil stability. Despite his concerns, Simmons openly maintained his friendship with President Benford whilst he planned his assassination in secret.

Tall Oaks and death[]

Main article: Tall Oaks bioterror incident

President Benford planned his revelation speech to take place in late-June 2013 at Ivy University in Tall Oaks. In the hours leading up to the speech, DSO agent Helena Harper anonymously warned the Secret Service about the assassination plot, but the resulting search for the attackers left a hole for Simmons' team to deliver a Lepotica to the building. Due to a history of infractions, the Secret Service did not believe Harper's open pleas on the radio to return to the President.[8] Consequently, the Lepotica moved through the university without resistance and infected the President and many others with the C-Virus. When Kennedy arrived, he found that the President had already turned into a zombie and despite his reservations, was forced to shoot the former president when he attempted to lunge at Agent Harper.[9] Simmons' death led to widespread panic and uncertainty at the height of the Global bioterror attacks orchestrated by Neo Umbrella.[10]

Gallery[]

Sources[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Residentevil.net Extra Files - Digital Archives "Adam Benford".
  2. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999), file: "Leon's Epilogue".
  3. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (2009), scene: "Survivors".
  4. Survive Magazine (2023).
  5. Resident Evil: Damnation (2012)"
  6. Resident Evil 6 (2012), file: "Field Operations Support".
  7. Resident Evil 6 (2012), file: "Leon S. Kennedy".
  8. Resident Evil 6 (2012), file: "Helena's Crime"
  9. Resident Evil 6 (2012), cutscene: "Death of a President".
  10. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015), scene: "Epilogue (Two Years Later)"
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