Strategist (Operation Snake Eater)



A strategist, in collaboration with the CIA, was alleged to have manipulated events in the 1964 Virtuous Mission, in order to bring about the events of Operation Snake Eater. This account was relayed by renegade FOX commander Gene to Naked Snake, during the 1970 San Hieronymo Takeover, contradicting previous accounts that Operation Snake Eater had only been planned in response to the Virtuous Mission's perceived failure.

According to Gene, the "deviously cunning" strategist had deliberately planned for the event that Colonel Volgin of GRU would use a U.S. nuclear weapon to attack the OKB-754 research facility in Tselinoyarsk, USSR. On August 24, 1964, renowned U.S. soldier The Boss was ordered to "defect" to the Soviets in order to locate the Philosophers' Legacy, providing Colonel Volgin with two Davy Crocketts as proof of her supposed sincerity. Volgin subsequently launched one of the miniature nuclear shells at OKB-754, sparking an international incident. The U.S. then had to prove its "innocence" in the affair to the Soviet Union, by assassinating The Boss during Operation Snake Eater, which was planned by CIA official Hot Coldman.

Behind the scenes
The alleged strategist behind Colonel Volgin's nuclear attack and the subsequent necessity for the Boss's death in Operation Snake Eater, was first mentioned in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. The identity of any such individual has never been officially confirmed, although the character is often been speculated to be Hot Coldman, who planned Operation Snake Eater itself. Fans had previously believed the strategist to have been either Ocelot, Zero ("the man withe same codename as Null"), or the CIA Director from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The sole image of the strategist in Portable Ops is actually modified artwork of Ocelot.