Vincent Harling

Vincent Harling is a major character in the Ace Combat video game series, serving as a supporting character in Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War and the overarching protagonist of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. He is the 48th President of the Osean Federation, notable for advocating peaceful coexistence and international cooperation.
He was voiced by Hideyuki Tanaka in Japanese and by Dan Woren in English.
==Biography==
===Past===
Vincent Harling was born in 1961. In 2004, he was elected president of Osean Federation. After assuming office, he initially kept his nation neutral and pacifistic and improved its economy with his reforms. He maintained good relations with Yuktobania and focused on developing a space program, including the Arkbird, a spaceship meant to dispose of the fragments of the Ulysses asteroid still orbiting the Earth.
===The Unsung War===
After a war broke out between Osea and Yuktobania, Harling arranged for negotiations with his Yuktobanian counterpart, Prime Minister Nikanor, to be held in North Point. His aircraft was damaged by Osean air defense systems, but was safely guided by Wardog Squadron, who later relayed the escort duty to the 8492nd Squadron. Said squadron turned out to be composed of spies for Grey Men, the true instigators of the war, who abducted Harling and held him prisoner in Belka. Harling's post was taken over by the much more hawkish Vice President Appelrouth, who launched an invasion of Yuktobania, further escalating the war.
Over a month after Vincent Harling's imprisonment, he was broken out of captivity by a group of renegade Osean soldiers, supported by the Wardog Squadron, now considered traitors to their homeland. Harling was taken to the Kestrel aircraft carrier and, having reformed Wardog into "Razgriz Squadron", had them operate under his command to undermine the Grey Men's plans. The president attempted to reveal the truth about the war to his people through radio broadcasts, but they were dismissed as "enemy propaganda", until finally Harling returned to Oured with the Sea Goblin team and retook his office. He held a press conference with Nikanor, calling upon soldiers of both countries to stop fighting each other. Some listened to them and helped Razgriz Squadron defeat the Grey Men.
===Post-Circum-Pacific War===
After the war, Harling attempted to improve relations with Usean countries, and assisted in building the International Space Elevator as a symbol of peace. Most people in Usea, however, saw this as an attempt to covertly bring the continent into Osean sphere of influence, with Erusea, having had claims on the territory the elevator was built on, being particulalry outraged. Eventually, however, Harling ceased to be president.
===Skies Unknown===
When Erusea attacked Osea and the International Space Elevator, Harling, who was visiting the latter at the time of the attack, ended up trapped there. Osean military eventually conducted an operation to rescue him. While he boarded a getaway plane, his pilot got killed, and Harling himself strayed the vehicle off-course, presumably to prevent the space elevator from being damaged by fighting, since the Osean astronaut Kei Nagase was to return from her space mission soon. His plane ended up getting hit with a missile launched by an Erusean drone, destroying it and killing Vincent. An IUN pilot Trigger was blamed for the incident, however, with the true culprit revealed much later.
==Personality==
Harling is a generally good-natured person, preferring diplomacy over fighting, and strives to assist both his own and other nations. He is still prone to making choices that prove to be counterproductive, such as provoking Erusea by building the space elevator on what used to be their territory and causing environmental damage with its construction. In spite of his popularity among most Oseans, he remains humble.
==Trivia==
* The exact reason Harling steered his plane towards the Lighthouse during his rescue remains unknown and is debated even in-universe: Rosa Cossette D'Elise claims she was told that he wanted to destroy the Lighthouse, while Avril Mead, despite detesting him, talks about claims that he tried to protect it. Fans tend to agree with the latter opinion due to Kei Nagase's expected arrival to the space elevator.
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