Dark Earth Timeline

South Laos would still be a monarchy is assume.

So North Vietnam and North Laos do not form a mini version of Asian Warsaw Pact.

So North Laos is, a North Vietnam puppet.

December 1973
December 1: Opening of a new large integrated tank and armoured vehicle manufacturing plant in Wingfield, Adelaide, connected by rail with Port Adelaide and the Adelaide to Darwin and planned Adelaide to Brisbane national railways. The 240 acre facility will initially build Super Centurions for service in New Guinea and the South Pacific before shifting to other vehicles in line with the current plants in Bankstown, Sydney and Essendon, Melbourne. Further facilities are planned by the Hawke Government in Perth and Brisbane, in addition to the Imperially funded Commonwealth Arsenal in Albury.
December 2: Establishment of the Banzai Institute for Biomedical Biomedical Engineering and Strategic Information in Holland Township, New Jersey as a joint venture by noted brain surgeon, theoretical physicist, jet car test pilot and freelance adventurer Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, philanthropist Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, Hollywood actor and international man of mystery Tomasz Wiseau and eccentric scientist Dr. Noah Insano.
December 3: The Huntly atomic power station in New Zealand begins generating electricity for the national grid, with the plant's 4200 MW nearly doubling total electricity generation in the country. A second plant for the provision of atomic power to South Island is in the early stages of construction at Ashburton.
December 4: Denmark's general election sees the Social Democratic government routed from office in a landslide, with an opposition grand coalition of Venstre, Progress, the Conservatives, Christian People's Party and the Social Liberals forming a new government after the loss of 34 SD seats.
December 5: The British Army of the Rhine begins reorganisation of its 120 forward deployed battle groups, including the fielding of new assault guns, tank destroyers and heavy mortars, extensive guided missile systems, Light Artillery Rocket Systems, reinforced detachments of armoured heavy infantry and upgunned variants of the FV432 and FV525 in infantry battalions.
December 6: The New York Times carries a special lifestyle features on the different Christmas foods of the world, contrasting the English speaking world's preference for ham, turkey and roast beef with the fish of Italy and Eastern Europe, the peculiar specific embrace of wild boar in one region of Brittany and the recent oddity of Japan's 'Christmas craze' for Kentucky Fried Chicken last year.
December 7: US doctors successfully use a new arcano-medical device to completely reverse damage to a spinal cord injury, paving the way for an effective cure for paraplegia.
December 8: Noted American scientist Dr. Emmett Brown is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his expansive work on the US nuclear fusion power project, from its earliest days of successfully generating 1.21 gigawatts in 1961 to its current revolutionary potential, and his steadfast promotion of the future utility of the flying car.
December 9: Florida police arrest 20 year old drifter Bernard Giles for the attempted abduction of two young hitchhikers. Subsequent investigations uncover that he is responsible for the murders of five young women, leading to him being sentenced to death and going to the electric chair on March 22nd 1974.
December 10: The Nobel Prize dinner takes place in Stockholm, with Ivar Giaever, Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson sharing the Physics prize, Geoffrey Wilkinson and Ernst Fischer sharing the Chemistry prize, Saul Bellow receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to former U.S. President John F. Kennedy for his steadfast global leadership and inspiration.
December 11: The Wall Street Journal leads with an article on the American economy bouncing back from the 1973 Recession, describing the rebound as so strong that it will likely break postwar records for recovery. It further notes that this has been accompanied by a small yet noticeable drop in the cost of living due to health care reforms and wage growth.
December 12: A British consortium of motorcycle manufacturing companies consisting of New Imperial Motors, Vincent, BSA, Royal Enfield, Norton-Villiers AMC and Triumph begin joint development of an experimental arcane flying hoverbike under contract by the British Army at special facilities in Central Australia.
December 13: The Royal Canadian Sovereign Fund reaches a value of £52,000 million, having been established in 1928 by Prime Minister Sir William Richardson to ensure that future generations can enjoy the largesse of Canadian oil and mineral wealth.
December 14: Launch of the Royal Navy's newest nuclear attack submarine, Trafalgar, lead boat of her class. The 18,000t, 525ft long submarine is armed with eight 32" torpedo tubes and a number of smaller tubes for anti-torpedoes; two dozen Lionheart cruise missiles and an unspecified number of Hawker-Siddeley Paladin supersonic anti-ship/ground attack missiles, de Havilland Blue Moon medium ranged strike missiles, anti-submarine missiles and anti-aircraft missiles; and other classified capabilities.
December 15: The third SeaWorld resort opens in Orlando, Florida, following on from the other facilities in Aurora and San Diego. The gala event is marked by the spectacular arrival and landing of a specially chartered Saunders-Roe Empress flying boat carrying a pod of killer whales from California.
December 16: Celebration of the bicentennial of the Boston Tea Party, with a group of historical reenactors dressed as colonials made up as Red Indians clambering aboard a replica sailing ship in Boston Harbor and throwing crates labelled with 'Tea' into the waters below; a spokesman assures a group of British tourists that no actual tea was harmed in the simulation.
December 17: Dendochronologists in Lyonesse reassess the age of a giant oak in the Avalon National Park ,long noted for its size with a girth of 50ft and a height of near to 300ft, as being at least 12500 years old after new core scanning spells.
December 18: Prime Minister Stanley Barton gives an expansive television and wireless address on the progress of Britain, recovery from the recession and the planned road forward for Empire Socialism, with the next steps to focus on a programme of targeted aid and support of New Commonwealth states in a policy of ‘help at home’, or assisted development of education and industry.
December 19: The War Department issues an extensive requirement for a successor MBT to the M-70 Marshall; and for an upgraded longer ranged version of the M109 self-propelled howitzer and a doubled barreled variant. The chief military news of the day, though, comes in the form of the timetable for the planned increase in the divisional strength of the U.S. Army, with the 11th Infantry Division and 13th Armored Divisions to be activated in 1974/75, the 17th Infantry Division in 1975/76 and the 14th Armored Division in 1976/77, taking the force to 24 infantry, 16 armored and 2 mechanised cavalry, 6 airborne and 2 air cavalry divisions, the Ranger and Commando Divisions and the 4 artillery divisions for a total of 56. No changes are to be made to the strength of the Army National Guard, but the Army Reserve could be in line for an increase pending the results of a complex study into mobilisation requirements.
December 20: The Prime Minister of Spain is assailed by would be assassins in the gardens of his residence outside Madrid but turns the tables on the miscreants thanks to his magic ring of protection, giving him an opportunity to shoot both with his derringer whilst his guards come to his aid.
December 21: The ground force phase of the US punitive expedition to Sudan, Operation Fateful Lightning, formally concludes as the final planeload of troops embark at Khartoum, with the Task Force commander, Lieutenant-General Joshua Chamberlain, stating that the United States of America would go to the ends of the Earth and beyond in defence of freedom and her people, whenever necessary. A flight of B-52s passes overhead during his statement, en route from England to bomb suspected rebel sympathising targets in Gadarif.
December 22: Adventurers claim to have discovered the long lost tomb of Tutankhensetamun in the Valley of the Kings, describing it as perhaps the last untouched royal tomb of deep antiquity and speculating on the fabulous treasures that probably lie within.
December 23: Soviet biological scientists develop a new series of specially enhanced insects and arachnids of dramatically increased size, leading KGB agents within the programme to make urgent reports on the perceived stability of Comrade Lysenko and his cabal.
December 24: Release of The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien, a compilation of twenty years’ worth of charming letters and stories ostensibly delivered to his children each Christmastide from Father Christmas. A spokeself for Father Christmas describes it as ‘an imaginative version of events’, but indicates that the book receives the North Pole’s seal of approval, but that further comment would not be forthcoming, as all there were a tad busy today.
December 25: Queen Elizabeth II delivers her annual Christmas message to Britain and the Empire and Commonwealth, highlighting the spirit of change and the value of family and faith, utilising film shot through the year for the first time, including the marriage of Princess Anne and Prince Christian and the Princess of Wales with her new son. Earlier in the day, a special Royal Christmas Feast is held at the Crystal Palace, with over 50,000 poor, needy or deprived people invited to share in food, drink and Christmas cheer, whilst nearly 600,000 hampers are distributed to needy families across Britain on Her Majesty's command.
December 26: Release of The History of the Second World War, the official British history of the war published by HMSO with the simultaneous release of the final six volumes on British Intelligence in the conflict. The unorthodox simultaneous nature of publication is due to the declassification of Ultra, the decryption of German signals communication by British boffins which provided the Allies with a decisive advantage.
December 27: Comet Kohoutek is visible with the naked eye in daytime at its peak brightness and apparent magnitude, leading to much excitement amongst scientists and laymen alike, with a sold out special Christmas cruise of RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 viewing it from the Caribbean.
December 28: The Imperial Japanese Army begins experimental testing of its first domestically developed anti-ballistic missile system, the Mitsubishi Type 72. Japan has previously indicated its inclination for acquiring a production licence for the new United States' MIM-104 'Patriot' Field Army Ballistic Missile Defense System (FABMDS) surface to air missile, the highest performance and newest SAM in the Free World, which is currently in initial production to replace the US Army's MIM-23 HAWK medium range SAMs and the MIM-20 Plato TBMD missile, so that the Type 72 is seen as a higher performance asset with a strategic role.
December 29: American, Soviet, British and French diplomats reach a joint agreement for the staging of an international conference to discuss strategic arms control in August 1974 in Geneva.
December 30: The notorious international terrorist Ilych Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, is ambushed, shot and arrested by Scotland Yard detectives as he attempts to assassinate the head of the British Zionist Federation.
December 31: HMSS Dreadnought begins a long burn en route for Neptune, taking advantage of its position within the solar system to try and join Orion 6 in the mission to explore the final frontier where no man has gone before.

Well, he has quite the group with him.

Not as of yet in DE. His three collaborators here are quite…eclectic…

The military events on the 1st, 5th, 14th, 19th and 28th have some interesting elements to them,

They are the final iteration of the Centurion from 1960, upgunned from 105mm to 125mm, getting a more powerful engine, modern early 60s fire control and having extra appliqué armour. This is a case of building what can be done right now, rather than wasting a year while lines are set up for the Valiant and Crusader.