1970s

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The German Army started developing a successor to the Leopard 1 tank, the Leopard 2.

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.

Beginning of the San Hieronymo Takeover which continues on to the end of the year. Members of the FOX unit, headed by Gene, start a revolt and take over the Soviet IRBM facility on the San Hieronymo Peninsula, where a new type of nuclear weapon is being developed. Major Zero is arrested.

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 recruits old Vietnam comrade Python from FOX. 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 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."

The United States receives the missing half of the 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 with Big Boss.

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.

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.

Big Boss officially establishes the FOXHOUND unit.

Frank Jaeger joins FOXHOUND.

September 11th: Nikita Khrushchev dies.

1972
March 23rd: ARPA is renamed DARPA.

June 17th: The Watergate Scandal begins.

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.

Big Boss grows tired of Zero's lust for power, and of playing the role of a puppet.

Big Boss is wounded in Vietnam and falls into a coma. Using this opportunity to try and preserve their messiah in the event that Big Boss leaves, Zero finalizes the Les Enfants Terribles project. Para-Medic, now operating under her real name of Dr. Clark, injects Big Boss's DNA into eggs donated by her Japanese assistant. EVA agrees to serve as a surrogate mother.

Nine months later, the project produces the twins Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. Big Boss, infuriated, quits the Patriots, leaving America, and FOXHOUND, behind. Some time later, the project successfully produces another clone, Solidus Snake. EVA and Ocelot begin to lose faith in Zero and the Patriots.

December: Project Apollo ends with the Apollo-17.

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

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

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

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.

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 is hired into the Peace Walker Project.

The T-72 is first deployed into battle.

1974
May 18th: India becomes the sixth nuclear power as a result of Project Smiling Buddha.

July: the Threshold Test Ban Treaty is signed.

August 9th: President Richard Nixon resigns.

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

November 4th: 15:42 While training on the Barranquilla Coast of Colombia, the Militaires Sans Frontieres are contacted by Paz Ortega and Ramon Galvez Mena of the Costa Rican University for Peace, asking for their aid in repelling a mysterious armed force that is invading Costa Rica. 20:31 After initially refusing, Kaz and Big Boss deduce that Galvez is actually a KGB agent. They discuss the mission, and learn that The Boss might be involved in the mission, Big Boss participates after enduring the shock that The Boss survived.

November 10th: The Events of Peace Walker: The army without a government, Militaires Sans Frontieres, commanded by Big Boss, help Costa Rica defend themselves from an unknown force.

November 19th: Big Boss arrives at the general area of the AI Facility on Muleback. He evades the patrolling Peace Sentinels, and neutralizes a Hind A chopper. After making it to the facility, as well as rescuing Cecile Cosinas Caminades, Big Boss has to backtrack to steal a ID Film Badge from a Peace Sentinel member due to Huey Emmerich's ID Film Badge being locked out of the security clearance. After encountering Strangelove and the Mammal Pod/The Boss's AI, Big Boss fights Chrysalis and decomissions it.

November 21st: After a two day-trek, Big Boss arrives at the base that Peace Walker was transferred to get its final testing done: an underground facility disguised as a mining facility. Big Boss decomissions the AI weapon Cocoon and infiltrates the base. He enters the preparation chambers for Peace Walker and infiltrates the Mammal Pod to communicate with The Boss. He was then captured by the Peace Sentinels. The SALT II talks begin.

November 22nd: Big Boss is tortured for information about his motivations for killing The Boss by Strangelove all day. He then escapes by using Strangelove's Film ID Badge, and confronts Peace Walker, which has already been activated. After defeating its bipedal form, it turns into a quadruped and heads over to Nicaragua with Big Boss in pursuit with The Boss's Horse. However, he isn't able to make it over to the border in time, and The Boss's horse is critically injured from the fall.

November 23rd: Gerald Ford meets with Leonid Brezhnev to negotiate SALT II at Vladivostok. Peace Walker arrives at a United States owned Missile Base in Nicaragua. Big Boss is forced to shoot The Boss's horse after it was severely injured during the chase. Big Boss infiltrates the United States Missile Base and tracks down Coldman and Paz. Vladimir Zadornov changes the target to Cuba and fatally wounded Coldman. Amanda and the rest of the FSLN unit, along with the Militaires Sans Frontieres, detain Vladimir. Coldman activates Peace Walker, not only causing Cuba to be a nuclear target, but also resulting in fake trajectory data being sent to NORAD and the National Military Command Chain. Coldman dies. Peace Walker is damaged, and sacrifices itself to stop the flow of the false data.

November 24th: Gerald Ford and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT-2 treaty.

December 27th: A group of FSLN guerrillas seized the home of a former government official and took as hostages a handful of leading Nicaraguan officials, many of whom were Somoza relatives. The guerrillas succeeded in getting 14 Sandinista prisoners released from jail and flown to Cuba along with the kidnappers.

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

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

April 30th: The Vietnam War ends. North Vietnam occupies South Vietnam.

June 25th: The Mozambican War of Independance ends with Mozambique attaining independence from Portugal. Afterwards, 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 returns to Mozambique and participates as a soldier for the RENAMO.

Big Boss rescues Frank Jaeger from a FRELIMO prison camp in Mozambique.

Helena Dolph Jackson is born

The Angolan War of Independence ends.

1976
December 4th: The Insurgency in Aceh begins.

Richard Dawkins publishes The Selfish Gene.

Nastasha Romanenko is born in Prypiat, Ukraine.

1977
May 25th: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is released.

November 21st: The Delta Force is established.

1979
February: The First Chadian Civil War ends, with the Second Chadian Civil War beginning shortly thereafter.

July 19th: The FSLN overthrow the Somoza regime and assume power in Nicaragua.

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

The Leopard 2 MBT are deployed in Germany.