1980s

198X
Big Boss battles in various African civil wars. He is reunited on the battlefield with Frank Jaeger (then a RENAMO soldier), and rescues him from imprisonment and torture.

Big Boss meets Frank Jaeger's adopted sister in Mozambique, and takes them both to America. The young girl eventually takes the name of Naomi Hunter.

VR training is researched and developed.

Early 1980s
Jack (Raiden) is born.

1980
September 17th: Somoza is assassinated by the FSLN.

September 22nd: Iraq launches a full-scale invasion of Iran, triggering the Iran-Iraq War. Both the U.S. and the USSR back Iraq, out of fear of the ripple effects of the Iranian Revolution.

Huey Emmerich's son, Hal, is born.

The United Nations officially establishes the University for Peace in Costa Rica.

The M1 Abrams tank is developed.

The Turing test of intellect was disproved by John Searle.

1981
March 30: U.S. President Ronald Reagan is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.

April: The U.S. launches the Columbia, the first space shuttle.

June 7: Operation Opera: Israeli bombers strike at an under-construction nuclear reactor in Iraq.

The movie Escape from New York is released.

The Contras are formed in Nicaragua. Their goal is to overthrow the FSLN government. They are backed by the U.S. CIA and the Argentine intelligence.

1982
March 19th to June 14th: The Falklands War.

June: The Second Chadian Civil War ends.

1983
March 23rd: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the SDI.

April 18: A suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon

June 27th: The MSX is formally announced to the public.

October 25th to December 15th: The Invasion of Grenada.

November 17th: Costa Rican President Luis Alberto Monge refuses to allow the construction of U.S. military bases in his country, declaring permanent neutrality in Costa Rica.

The Challenger 1 is developed.

1984
Big Boss awakens from his nine year coma.

The USS Missouri is modernized and placed back in action.

1985
March: Mikhail Gorbachev's new administration ushers the Soviet Union into the Détente-2 era. Gorbachev begins political reforms as part of the Perestroika movement.

Late 1980s
Solidus Snake kills Jack's (Raiden's) parents and adopts him. Solidus trains Jack as a child soldier.

Big Boss establishes the mercenary nation-state and fortress of Outer Heaven in South Africa.

1986
Perestroika is formed, which is later cited as one of the causes of the fall of the USSR.

January: USSR General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev proposes the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe with the eventual elimination of all nuclear weapons by the end of the century.

January 24th: The Voyager II space probe makes its first encounter with Uranus.

January 28th: The U.S. space shuttle program stalls due to the Challenger explosion.

February: U.S. President Ronald Reagan proposes a limit of 140 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) in Europe and concurrent proportionate reductions in Asia.

February 19th: The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.

March: The U.S. proposes the Human Genome Project, igniting a global research effort.

April: The Chernobyl accident. The fallout showers the Romanenko family with radiation. Nastasha Romanenko vows the world to be free from nuclear weapons.

October: The Soviet Union begins a phased withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.

1987
January: The Lord's Resistance Army insurgency begins in Uganda. Sometime during this civil war, Drebin 893 is kidnapped by the guerrilla forces and forced to fight as a child soldier in the conflict.

February: The Soyuz TM-2 successfully docks with Mir.

May: USSR residential force in Afghanistan begins retreat.

October: The U.S. and USSR come to a consensus on a Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles through extended negotiations.

December 8th: The INF Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by the U.S. and USSR.

Meryl Silverburgh is born.

Kevin Washington is born.

1988
February: During the Winter Olympics in Canada, Frank Jaeger (under the alias "Frank Hunter") meets Czech figure skater Gustava Heffner. They later fail in an attempt to elope, after Gustava is denied asylum in the West.

February 23rd - September 6th: During the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein launches the Al-Anfal Campaign, a genocidal military campaign against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. During the campaign, Sniper Wolf's family is killed.

May 27th to June 1st: The INF Treaty is ratified by the U.S. and USSR, and enters into force.

August: U.S. space shuttle launches recommence.

August 20th: Iraq and Iran sign a ceasefire, ending the Iran-Iraq War. Space Shuttle launching restarted.

December 21st: The Pan Am 103/Lockerbie bombing.

START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) is approved by both the U.S. and USSR.

1989
SNF (Short-range Nuclear Force) total abandonment commences.

The separation between negotiations over START and SDI is prevailed to the public.

The USSR armed forces, including 500,000 personnel, 6 tank divisions and other troops, are cut.

February 2nd: The last USSR armored column leaves Kabul, ending 9 years of military occupation.

February 15th: The USSR announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.

August 25th: Voyager II passes the planet Neptune and its moon Triton.

September 22nd - 23rd: The US-USSR sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Chemical Weapons at the Wyoming foreign minister meeting.

November 9th: The Berlin Wall falls.

Democracy movement becomes widespread in various Eastern European areas.

Asylum-seeker and refugee flow into capitalist society increases.

December 2nd - 3rd: The U.S. and USSR agree to complete an agreement on CFE (Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) by the end of 1990 at the Malta Conference.

December 20th, 1989 - January 31, 1990: The United States invades Panama, codenamed "Operation Just Cause." Sundowner was involved in this invasion.

December: The Liberian Civil War begins. Jack (Raiden) participates in the war as a child soldier.

General Electric starts the Land Warrior project with the intention of reducing the weight of several combat equipment.

Raiden goes to war as a child soldier in Liberia.