1970s

1970
The German Army begins development of the Leopard 2 tank, a successor to the Leopard 1.

The Sandinista National Liberation Front, 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.

Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov, upon his being stripped of his rank as a result of the events of Operation Snake Eater for his abuses against his soldiers, is exiled to the San Hieronymo Peninsula, and is shortly thereafter imprisoned in the Western Wilderness.

A Soviet spy steals blueprints to the Saturn V from NASA, resulting in modifications to the silos at the San Hieronymo Peninsula Soviet missile base.

October: The Successor Project ends.

October: CIA plans transport of Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear.

October—November: Beginning of the San Hieronymo Incident 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. Big Boss is also charged with 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 sets 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 Incident 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, fatally wounds Elisa. With her last breath, Elisa foresees that one of Big Boss's sons will "bring the world to ruin", while the other will "save the world." Big Boss proceeds to kill Gene, who gives him the funds he had amassed for "Army's Heaven." He 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 process to conduct a coup d'état on the Ichigaya Camp, the main Headquarters of the eastern command of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, by meeting with the commandant under pretense with four other members of the Tatenokai. He then holds the commandant hostage. After being jeered by the soldiers at the camp despite attempting to have them restore the divinity of the Emperor, Mishima process to commit suicide via Senppuku, while questioning the status quo of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Then-JSDF member Kazuhira Miller witnessed the suicide. This plays an influencing factor in his later resignation from the organization.

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.

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

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

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

Big Boss becomes disillusioned with the Patriots.

1972
The movie Silent Running is released.

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 organization Black September holds 11 Israeli athletes hostage during the Olympic Games, eventually killing them. 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 arrives 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 Convention 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.

The Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) is set up by U.S. President Gerald 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: The MSF is hired by KGB contacts that has been acquaintances of Miller back before he joined the MSF, to assassinate an infamous sniper duo from the Laotian Civil War, Glaz and Palitz, at a prison facility.

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

December 21st, at 18:08: The MSF, via an undercover agent, learn of classified intel that pertains to Cipher. They immediately head to the base to retrieve the information, which is included on a cassette tape. The information on the tape reveals 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: The MSF is hired by the United States military to sabotage one of their own base's anti-air defense turrets due to suspicions that the base has been compromised.

February: Dr. Strangelove resigns from MSF. A week later, the IAEA requests an inspection of Mother Base, which Huey accepts despite MSF's initial reluctance.

February 22nd: Paz's survival and imprisonment at Camp Omega is confirmed by the MSF.

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

March 5th-8th: Chico goes missing in Santiago de Cuba on his way to join up with Amanda and goes alone to rescue Paz from Camp Omega, only to be captured himself and imprisoned there by the military group XOF.

March 9th-11th: Chico has sporadic contact with Paz who occupies an adjoining cage. Over the following days, she is removed from her cage several times and tortured by the guards before being returned there afterwards.

March 12th: Chico gives XOF leader Skull Face information regarding Mother Base, its staff numbers, and Metal Gear ZEKE, after being forced to watch and participate in Paz's torture.

March 13th-14th: After more torture, Chico's cassette recorder is discovered by Skull Face who then takes it from him.

March 14th-15th: Under Skullface's orders Chico sends out an SOS transmission which is picked up by the MSF. Despite suspecting a trap, Big Boss commences lone infiltration of the prison site.

March 15th: Paz is drugged, implanted with two timer bombs, and chained in a boiler room. Skull Face receives reports of Big Boss's impending arrival and C4 explosives having been placed on Mother Base's legs.

Skull Face visits Chico's location and gives him a cassette recording of Paz's torture, claiming that she is dead. Skull Face and XOF then depart by helicopter and head towards Mother Base.

March 16th: At around midnight, Big Boss infiltrates Camp Omega to rescue Chico and Paz. Big Boss succeeds in freeing both Chico and Paz, the latter by using clues from Chico's cassette tape, and has them extracted by helicopter. It is soon discovered that Paz has a bomb planted inside her and she undergoes surgery without anaesthetic to have it removed, which she survives.

The attack on Mother Base is discovered by Big Boss, and he manages to rescue Kazuhira Miller and other soldiers before retreating. Paz awakens and informs MSF of a second bomb inside her, before opening the helicopter's door and diving out. The bomb detonates as she is in mid air and sends the helicopter out of control into another incoming chopper.

Smoke from the attack on Mother Base is seen for miles, with no known survivors, although reports indicate several choppers being in the vicinity afterwards. A scandal breaks out regarding the American government and its allies' involvement with MSF.

Big Boss 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
Richard Dawkins publishes The Selfish Gene.

Nastasha Romanenko is born in Prypiat, Ukraine.

The Les Enfants Terribles project is abandoned.

December 4th: The Insurgency in Aceh begins.

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.

1978
February: Challenger 1 is developed.

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 24th: The first stages of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan begins.

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.

Late 1970s
Stealth missile technology is researched.

Iraq allows nuclear inspectors from Russia and Bulgaria to determine whether or not they have nuclear weapons.