With this new Axanar fan film phenomenon comes repeated mention of some pre-TOS historic event I've only heard passing references to on fan forums" the Four Years War. Where did the notion of a Four Years War come from? Is there any basis for it in canon? If I understood past references to this supposed war on these forums and in other literature, it seems to be some fanon or gaming lore.
Basically it seems to be a fan interpritation of events mentioned in TOS, but never fully established. Archanus IV was the site of a Klingon attack as mentioned by Chekov. There are battled fought with the Klingons in the area around Sherman's Planet in the past. Garth of Izar is renown for some ship to ship combat against some foe that could not have been the Romulans. Enough so that it was required reading for Kirk at the academy. There was a peace mission that involved Axanar. Probably a few others a well. Since the Klingons are suppost to be the main enemy of the Federation, the Four Years War became the war that all these events took place.
Like Kirk making Garth's victory sound like some major federation saving thing. As well as Kirk having impressive military accomplishments of his own that were treated as separate from Starfleet explorationy stuff.
I suppose if I was doing Axanar I would have made it a Federation Civil War. Kirk states that the peace at Axanar made it possible for he and Spock to be brothers. If anything a Klingon War would have strengthened Earth Vulcan relations not divided them. With a civil war Earth and Vulcan could have been on opposing sides. The peace would then have allowed Kirk and Spock to be brothers.
Great minds think alike, even if offset by a few days. I haven't seen anyone nail down specifically and conclusively that a "Four Years War" was part of TOS canon, so it is safe to conclude it is a non-canon/fanon/gaming construct here. That's cool, since we are talking about a fan-film.