1970s

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The German Army begins development of the Leopard 2 tank, a successor to the Leopard 1.

Iraq allows nuclear inspectors from Russia and Bulgaria to inspect whether they have nuclear weapons during the late 1970s.

Stealth missile technology is researched during the late 1970s.

1970
The FSLN, backed by the KGB and the Cuban DGI, start launching military initiatives against the Somoza regime.

Para-Medic establishes the nation's first paramedic system in Seattle, Washington.

October: The Successor Project ends.

October: CIA plans transport of Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear.

October—November: ''Beginning of the San Hieronymo Takeover which continues on to the end of the year. Members of the FOX unit, headed by Gene, and under the orders of the CIA, start a revolt and take over the Soviet IRBM facility on the San Hieronymo Peninsula, as well as hijacking the Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear during transport. Major Zero is arrested by the Pentagon under the charge of treason, as well as giving Big Boss a similar charge of treason for spearheading the revolt.

November 2nd: Big Boss is captured by members of FOX and meets Roy Campbell for the first time. Together, the pair set out to take down the FOX unit.

Big Boss defeats old Vietnam comrade Python in battle. Big Boss encounters Frank Jaeger, now a member of FOX, again in battle and recruits him. Big Boss and Roy Campbell meet Elisa for the first time, and they discover the plans for the new weapon: Metal Gear.

The San Hieronymo Takeover ends. Big Boss successfully destroys Metal Gear RAXA, with the help of Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov who comes out of hiding. The FOX unit is wiped out. Cunningham reveals that he is actually serving the United States Department of Defense to try and discredit the CIA, and is killed in a fight with Big Boss. Gene, leader of FOX, kills Elisa. Elisa foresees that Big Boss's sons will "bring the world to ruin", and "save the world." Big Boss proceeds to kill Gene, who gives him the funds he had amassed for "Army's Heaven." And later manages to destroy the ICBMG before it could activate after launching.

The United States accumulates the remainder of the Philosophers' Legacy, thanks to Ocelot. Ocelot also executes the Director of Central Intelligence. Major Zero forms the Patriots, dedicated to reuniting the world in honor of The Boss's final wishes. Ocelot joins the unit, but stays in the Soviet Union as an informant. Sigint, Para-Medic, and Big Boss make up the rest of the organization. Major Zero proceeds to turn Big Boss into an idol and hero, to lead the world as a messiah-like figure.

Major Zero disbands the FOX unit. Big Boss is ordered to become FOXHOUND commander.

November 25th: Yukio Mishima commits suicide, while questioning the status quo of the JSDF.

Congress disbands the MBT-70 production after the per-cost unit rose for the fifth time, despite the Army's objections. The funding was then redirected to the M1 Abrams.

A second revision for the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty was made, with a second mass protest against it in Japan and Okinawa.

Several Costa Rican protestors throw stones at the Costa Rican Parliament Building after they discover that the country bestowed mining rights to foreign companies.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is signed by America, the Soviet Union, France, England, and China, the nuclear powers at the time.

1971
April 19th: The Soviet Union launches the Salyut-1, the world's first space station.

Big Boss rescues EVA from Hanoi and requests her to join the Patriots, which she does.

Carrying on the traditions of Major Zero and his FOX unit, Big Boss establishes FOXHOUND.

The Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore changes its name to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Big Boss becomes disillusioned with the Patriots.

Les Enfants Terribles project commences. Zero has Dr. Clark (Para-Medic) clone Big Boss in order to preserve the Patriots' icon.

1972
March 23rd: ARPA is renamed DARPA.

May 26th: The ABM Treaty is signed by the United States of America and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas against missile-delivered nuclear weapons.

June 17th: The Watergate Scandal begins.

August 9th: The AH56 Cheyenne project is officially cancelled for good. However, the Peace Sentinel procure designs for the Cheyennes' Bomber and Raider models and put them to mass production.

August 26 - September 11: The Summer Olympic Games are held in Munich, West Germany.

September 5th: The Munich Massacre occurs when the terrorist movement Black September holds 11 Israeli athletes hostage during the Olympic Games. As a consequence of the incident's tragic mismanagement, the GSG 9 counter-terrorism force is created.

December: Project Apollo ends with the Apollo-17.

December 23rd: The Nicaraguan earthquake occurs, resulting in the decimation of Managua, with 5,000 killed, 20,000 wounded, and 250,000 homeless. Despite international aid and relief efforts from the various parts of the West, Nicaragua did not recover due to the Somoza regime pocketing all of the relief funding for themselves.

The Twin Snakes (Solid Snake and Liquid Snake) are born as a product of Les Enfants Terribles Project. Dr. Clark's Japanese assistant is the egg donor for the two somatic cell clones, while EVA serves as the surrogate mother. Some time later, the project successfully produces another clone (Solidus Snake).

Big Boss leaves the Patriots after learning of Les Enfants Terribles. EVA and Ocelot begin to lose faith in Zero.

Big Boss fights alongside the Studies and Observations Group (SOG), the Green Berets and the Wild Geese.

Big Boss creates the Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF).

Kazuhira Miller arrived in Colombia and becomes a drill instructor for a guerrilla group, while MSF is hired by the Colombian Government to work with the Colombian Army. Two months later, Big Boss's unit, on their final assigned job, ambushes Miller and the guerrilla unit he is leading, wiping them out and almost killing him. Miller is captured, and Miller then within a week orchestrates a sham contest to ambush Big Boss's unit and escape. However, Big Boss circumvented him regarding the ambush, and Miller is eventually recruited by Big Boss and becomes MSF's second in command, having earned Miller's respect.

The United States gives back Okinawa to Japan, although American bases are still concentrated.

The Development Corporation of Costa Rica (CODESA) is developed.

France's wine industry suffers. This results in the French not wanting to drink from wine made in that year.

1973
January: The Paris Peace Accords: The U.S. starts withdrawing troops from Vietnam.

March 3rd: The text of the Washington Treaty is finalized.

May 14th: The U.S. launches Skylab, the first U.S. space station.

May 16th: The Day of the Jackal film adaptation is released in France and the United Kingdom.

September 11th: 1973 Chilean coup d'état. The socialist government of the Chilean President Salvador Allende was overthrown by the Chilean military, led by General Augusto Pinochet, in a coup d’état. The coup was supported by the CIA.

October 7th: The Battle of Latakia commences, the first instance of electronic warfare in practice.

The Waseda University Department of Engineering, in Tokyo, develops the WABOT-1, the world's first bipedal walking robot.

A mysterious armed force invades Costa Rica, the nation without a military. Huey Emmerich is hired into the Peace Walker Project.

The T-72 is first deployed into battle.

1974
May 8th: Daniel Oduber Quirós becomes the President of Costa Rica. He distances himself from the United States, limiting the privileges granted to American banks, and lifts the sanctions on Cuba.

May 18th: India becomes the sixth nuclear power as a result of Project Smiling Buddha.

July: the Threshold Test Ban Treaty is signed.

July 28th: The Alpha Group counterterrorism unit of the KGB is established.

August 9th: U.S. President Richard Nixon resigns.

NEST (Nuclear Emergency Search Team) is set up by U.S. President Gerald R. Ford to be "prepared to respond immediately to any type of radiological accident or incident anywhere in the world."

November 4th: The Militaires Sans Frontières are hired by Paz Ortega Andrade and Ramón Gálvez Mena of the Costa Rican University for Peace, to repel rogue CIA forces operating in Costa Rica. Gálvez is exposed as a KGB agent.

November 10th: Peace Walker Incident: The Militaires Sans Frontières enter Costa Rica and begin operations against the occupying force, revealed to be the Peace Sentinel. The MSF destroys one of the Pupa AI weapons with the help of its developer Huey Emmerich, who subsequently joins MSF.

November 19th: The MSF infiltrates a hidden AI laboratory headed by Strangelove, and Big Boss first encounters The Boss AI. The MSF destroy the Chrysalis AI weapon.

November 21st: The MSF track down the Peace Walker AI weapon to a testing facility disguised as a mining complex, and decommission the AI weapon Cocoon. After infiltrating the base, Big Boss is captured. The SALT II talks begin.

November 22nd: Big Boss is tortured, but later escapes captivity. Peace Walker is activated and Big Boss battles its bipedal form, successfully damaging it. Peace Walker then escapes to Nicaragua; The Boss's horse dies during Big Boss's attempted pursuit.

November 23rd: Gerald Ford meets with Leonid Brezhnev to negotiate SALT II at Vladivostok. Peace Walker makes preparations to destroy MSF's Mother Base with a nuclear strike, from a U.S. missile base in Nicaragua. Ramón Gálvez Mena, a.k.a. Vladimir Zadornov, changes Peace Walker's target to Cuba and fatally wounds Peace Sentinel leader Hot Coldman. Sandinistas under Amanda Valenciano Libre and the MSF capture and detain Zadornov. On his deathbed, Coldman arms Peace Walker for launch, despite the change in target, which also transmits false trajectory data to NORAD and the National Military Command Chain. Coldman dies. Peace Walker is heavily damaged by the MSF, which then destroys itself in order to stop the false data transmission.

Post-November 23rd to Pre-December 21st: The MSF sends some of its soldiers to Angola to participate in the country's war for independence. Because of the MSF recovering Peace Walker's nuclear warhead from Lake Nicaragua and the decision to arm ZEKE with it, they unofficially became the world's seventh nuclear power. Pacifica Ocean hijacks Metal Gear ZEKE from the MSF and attempts to convince Big Boss to rejoin Zero's organization, Cipher. She later attempts to use ZEKE to launch a nuclear strike at the East Coast of the United States, with the intention of framing the MSF, forcing Big Boss to battle ZEKE and critically damage it.

November 24th: Gerald Ford and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II. The treaty limits the number of strategic nuclear delivery vehicles on each side to 2,400. Among that number, MIRVs are restricted to 1,320.

December: Former Prime Minister of Japan Eisaku Sato receives the Nobel Peace prize for laying forth Japan's Three Non-Nuclear Principles.

December 3rd, at 13:18, MSF was hired by KGB contacts that had been acquaintances to Miller back before he joined MSF, to assassinate an infamous sniper duo from the Laotian Civil War, Glaz and Palitz, at a prison facility.

December 7th, at 05:31, MSF was dispatched to the United States Naval Prison Facility to retrieve an Intel Unit agent, the mission being necessitated because he was a vital member of MSF.

December 21st, at 18:08, MSF, via an undercover agent, learned of classified intel that pertained to Cipher. They immediately went to the base to retrieve the information, included on a cassette tape. The information on the tape revealed the existence of a Cipher-affiliated individual known only as Skull Face.

December 27th: A group of FSLN guerrillas seize the home of a former government official and took as hostage a handful of leading Nicaraguan officials, many of whom were Somoza relatives. The guerrillas succeed in getting 14 Sandinista prisoners released from jail and flown to Cuba along with the kidnappers. They achieve recognition as a representative of anti-Somoza sentiment.

Sigint develops the idea that AIs should be used to control and manipulate information and have limited control over humanity.

1975
The United States regains control of the Da Nang Air Base.

January 9th, at 7:01, MSF is hired by the United States military to sabotage one of their own bases' anti-air defense turrets due to suspicions that the base had been compromised.

Mid-to-late February: While Big Boss was on a mission, Dr. Strangelove resigned from MSF due to nothing cooking up at AI and ZEKE's already complete status. A week later, the IAEA requested an inspection of Mother Base. However, despite MSF initially attempting to refuse, Huey ended up sending a follow up letter to the IAEA behind Big Boss and Miller's backs indicating that MSF changed their minds about the inspection, thus forcing MSF to prepare for the inspection.

February 25th-26th: Paz was reported to have survived her encounter with Big Boss and placed in a prison camp on Cuba in results of possibly being a triple agent against Cipher.

March: Former President of Costa Rica José Figueres Ferrer admits to collaborating with the CIA.

Ten days after hearing of Paz's survival, Miller and Big Boss decide to send Chico to Cuba to be with his sister Amanda who is already on assignment there. Chico never makes it, however, as he vanishes after the boat he was on docks in Santiago de Cuba, 60 miles from where Paz is being held. Due to Chico's experience of mountain climbing, Big Boss estimates that he will make it there within three days.

March 7th-8th: Chico goes alone to save Paz from captivity only to be captured by XOF led by Skull Face and held prisoner at Camp Omega, a military prison base just on the coast of Cuba.

March 9th-11th: Still in captivity, Chico is briefly reunited with Paz who is placed in an adjoining cage. Shortly thereafter, however, she is removed and taken to be tortured by the guards. Over the following two days, she is removed from her cage several times and tortured by the guards before being returned there afterwards. After one such torture session, Chico interacts with her briefly. However, much to Chico's bemusement, she cuts the conversation short and tells him that she does not want to talk to him, threatening to scream if he continues to talk to her.

March 12th: During a routine torture session for Paz, Chico is told to accompany the personnel, and is escorted to Paz's torture location. Chico meets their leader, Skull Face, for the first time. Once at Paz's location Skull Face begins to beat Chico in an attempt to get him to talk. Chico refuses, however, and insists that Skull Face continue to beat him. Realizing that this will not work, Skull Face instead begins to beat Paz before having his men strip her naked in front of him. Skull Face then rapes Paz in front of Chico and orders him to forcibly have sex with her against his will, after which point he agrees to talk. He gives Skull Face information regarding Mother Base, its staff numbers, and Metal Gear ZEKE.

March 13th-14th: As with the previous days, Chico is once again brought to Paz's location and forced to whip her. He pleads with her to talk but she refuses, calling him a coward and a traitor for revealing information to the soldiers, which makes him angry. In the middle of this, Chico is grabbed by Skull Face and his tape recorder is discovered on his person. Skull Face decides to hold on to it despite Chico's pleas for him to give it back and orders his men to bring Chico back to his cage. Later on, Skull Face comes to Chico's cage and tells him that they've decided to let Paz go, leading Chico to believe that she had talked. Skull Face neither confirms nor denies this but tells Chico that only Paz will be returning to Big Boss, stating that she told the soldiers to leave him behind since she doesn't much care for him anymore. He then further manipulates Chico by telling him that he can go home if he sends out a distress call to Big Boss asking him to come and rescue him, promising to look the other way and take some guards off duty in order to facilitate the rescue. Chico at first is hesitant to trust him but he agrees nonetheless. He also reluctantly agrees with Skull Face that Paz should be killed before Big Boss's arrival out of fear that she will tell Big Boss that he gave up valuable information about Mother Base.

March 14th-15th: Chico sends out an SOS transmission which is picked up by the MSF telling them that he and Paz are being held by Cipher on an old military base in Cuba and giving them specific instructions on where to find them. Upon hearing the transmission, Miller and Big Boss know it's a set up but Big Boss states that they have no choice but to try and rescue him due to his knowledge of Mother Base's nuclear capabilities. Miller suggests that they send somebody else but eventually agrees with Big Boss that he should go because Chico and Paz won't take orders from anybody else.

Later on, Skull Face has a conversation with Paz in which he states that Big Boss will know he's walking into a trap but will come anyway. He then outlines to her his plan to kill Big Boss following an attack on Mother Base. Paz says that Cipher would never go along with this plan prompting Skull Face to agree saying that is why he will have to distance himself from the group. He then forces Paz to make a choice between saving Big Boss or Cipher. She initially states that she will never talk and that given the choice, she would choose to kill Skull Face. He in turn tells her that the feeling is mutual, but for secret agents "restraint is a virtue." He then pushes her to give up Zero's location in order to save Big Boss, which she agrees to do provided that Zero be killed. Skull Face agrees to this but for himself rather than for her.

March 15th: Paz is returned to her cage as Chico is sleeping and she records a final message to him on his recorder. Later, she is returned to the boiler room where she is drugged and implanted with two bombs, on which a timer is set for 24 hours due to her not being healthy enough to survive longer than that. As she is strung up, Skull Face promises to give her a magnificent end, vowing that she will not see triumph. Skull Face's men report that Big Boss's chopper has left Mother Base and that C4 has been placed on its legs, further stating that two teams. A strike team and a decoy team are in place, signalling that their master plan is under way. Skull Face tells them that it is time to move out but not before paying one last visit to Chico.

As Big Boss is on his way to the prison camp, Skull Face and his men arrive at Chico's location. He tells Chico that Paz told them everything but states that he kept his word about her death not resulting in her suffering long. He gives Chico back his tape recorder as a "reward and a momento" so that Big Boss can "hear his little diary" previously having had his men make copies of the tapes. He asks Chico how it feels to play the traitor telling him "no more war games, you're a real man now soldier." Chico does not respond, however, as he simple looks at Skull Face before removing a headphone jack from a hole in his chest and plugging it into his recently returned tape recorder. Skull Face begins to walk away but not before telling Chico to give his regards to his Boss when he gets home. Skull Face takes a jeep to the camps heliport where he meets up with the rest of his men. They remove the XOF logo from their helicopter and head off towards Mother Base.

March 16th: At around midnight, Big Boss, under the codename of Snake, infiltrates Camp Omega to rescue Chico and Paz, not knowing that XOF was present on the base before him and knew of his arrival. Successfully arriving at the prison site, Big Boss approaches Chico. Chico freaks out, attacks Big Boss and demands that he leaves. The commotion attracts other prisoners. To calm the noise down and to prevent detection, Big Boss puts Chico into a choke hold and makes him pass out. After retreating to a near by cave, Chico reveals to Big Boss that Paz is dead and has no idea of her whereabouts. Refusing to believe this, Big Boss evacs Chico out and goes to search for Paz with the help of clues from Chico's tape recordings. Big Boss finds Paz tied up in the prison's boiler room and evacs himself and her out. After successfully rescuing both, Chico reveals that Paz has a bomb planted inside of her. She undergoes surgery without anaesthetic to have the bomb removed. Paz survives the operation.

After arriving back, Big Boss discovers that Mother Base has been attacked. Touching down, he manages to save Miller and various other soilders before retreating, watching what he has built over the past few months in flames. Angered, Miller lets out his frustration on a unconscious Paz, who awakens and panics about being a host of a bomb. Big Boss tries to calm her down informing her that they've removed it, only for Paz to note them that she is hosting a second bomb. Before they could do anything to help, Paz opens the helicopter's door and dives out. The bomb activates killing Paz and putting the chopper out of control into another incoming chopper.

The resulting attack caused enough damage to have smoke be seen everywhere, as well as a scandal to break out regarding the American government and its allies about their involvement with the MSF, which had been blamed by the Western media as being a "money-hungry private militia." There are no known survivors, although reports after the attack indicate several choppers in the vicinity.

He and Miller at some point later are seriously injured. Both are taken to a medical facility where Big Boss' heart stops beating. After hours of CPR to bring him back, Big Boss' heart eventually starts to beat again but he falls into a coma.

April 30th: The Ho Chi Minh Campaign leads to the fall of Saigon, and thus the reunification of North and South Vietnam. The Vietnam War ends.

June 25th: The Mozambican War of Independence ends with Mozambique attaining independence from Portugal.

July 17th: Soyuz 19 and Apollo 18 dock in orbit. The U.S. and Soviet Union complete their first peaceful joint activity in space.

November: The Angolan War of Independence ends.

December 2nd: The Laotian Civil War ends.

Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, takes over Cambodia, starting a four-year genocide later known as the "killing fields." The Cambodian who would later be known as Monsoon was a survivor and victim of this brutal regime.

1976
December 4th: The Insurgency in Aceh begins.

Richard Dawkins publishes The Selfish Gene.

Nastasha Romanenko is born in Prypiat, Ukraine.

The Les Enfants Terribles project is abandoned.

1977
November 21st: The Delta Force is established.

May 25th: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is released.

The Mozambican Civil War begins, between the ruling party, the Front for Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), and the Rhodesian/South African-funded Mozambique Resistance Movement (RENAMO). Frank Jaeger would later return to Mozambique and participate in the conflict as a RENAMO soldier, ultimately being rescued by Big Boss after suffering torture.

Prime Minister of Grenada Sir Eric Gairy lobbies the UN to create an agency or department to study UFOs and extraterrestrial life, influenced by magazine photos of the Chrysalis, originating from Chico.

An underground nuclear test site was discovered beneath the Kalahari Desert. Bowing to international pressure, the South African government abandons the site.

1979
Leopard 2 main battle tanks are deployed in Germany.

The Iran Revolution leads to the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

February: The First Chadian Civil War ends, with the Second Chadian Civil War beginning shortly thereafter.

July 1st: The Sony Walkman TPS-L2 is first sold in Japan.

July 19th: The FSLN overthrows Somoza in an armed uprising, helping realize the Nicaraguan Revolution. Somoza defects in the aftermath, ensuring the Nicaragua Revolution comes to fruitition, and is assassinated the following year.

November: Towards the end of the Rhodesian Civil War, Frank Jaeger rescues and adopts a young Naomi Hunter, after killing her parents.

December 27th: A new Cold War begins with the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. This brings about an end to Détente as a result. Revolver Ocelot participates in the invasion whilst working as a Spetsnaz operative. During the war, the Afghan rebels who feared him gave him the name "Shalashaska."

The Khmer Rouge is driven out of Cambodia by the Vietnamese, although not before wiping out over a third of Cambodia's population.