March 10th, 2025
7minute read
Imagine a world without Vietnam.
I mean, imagine a world without the Vietnam War.
What effect might that have had on the affairs of men today?
Spc. Jonathan Low, a designated marksman for Co. C, 2nd Bn., 27th Inf. Rgt., uses the scope on his M14 rifle to scan the horizon from a hilltop in in Afghanistan during a 2004 patrol. Image: DVIDS
These sorts of imponderables keep decent alternative history fiction writers fed and clothed.
However, thats not what we will be discussing today.
I want to instead relatedly ponder a world without the M16.
Lance Cpl. C. Clements rests with his M16A1 after a trek through swollen rice paddies, 13 miles south of Da Nang, during the Vietnam War. Image: Staff Sgt. Bob Bowen/U.S.M.C.
Origin Story
The American love affair with the M16 rifle was almost an iffy thing.
The rest is, as they say, history.
That was not, however, how it was meant to be.
A Marine fires his M14 at a NVA sniper during the fighting in Hue, February 1968. Image: Hoeynck/U.S.M.C.
In the early 1960s, theM14 was the standard infantry rifleused throughout the U.S. Army.
When Uncle Sam chose the M14, he did so for good reasons.
The M14 was the direct result of lessons learned during the Second World War.
Col. Edwin C. Reed, commanding officer, Marine Aircraft Group 16 (MAG-16), familiarizes himself with the newly adopted M16 rifle at the Marble Mountain air facility rifle range. Image: U.S.M.C.
WWII was the most horrible, bloodiest, most destructive conflict in human history.
Nobody actually knows how many people died.
Estimates range between 50 and 85 million.
Marines of Company C, 9th Marines, move through swampland searching for Viet Cong northwest of Hue. Image: Sgt. T. F. Burch/U.S.M.C.
Nowadays, there is a 1-in-100,000 chance that a 21st-century human will perish as the result of armed combat.
In the mid-1940s that number was 300 per 100,000.
The end result was 44 long and weighed 10.7 lbs.
U.S. Army soldiers armed with M16A1 rifles wait inside a helicopter during an exercise. The second soldier from the right has anM203 40mm grenade launcherattached to his M16A1. Image: NARA
with a loaded 20-round magazine.
For the conditions under which WWIII was expected to have been fought, the M14 was legit perfect.
Widespread mechanization meant that most American soldiers would have ridden to the battlefield rather than walked.
Cpl. James C. Wormington crosses a stream with his M14 rifle at the ready during Operation Chinook II. Image: Lance Cpl. E. L. Cole/U.S.M.C.
What you got in exchange for all that length and bulk was some superlative range and exceptional downrange thump.
In trained hands, the M14 will reach out a really long ways.
The Army puts the maximum effective range of the M14 at 800 meters.
A Leatherneck from I Company, 3d Battalion, 26th Marines cautiously checks an enemy bunker for possible residents during a patrol south of Da Nang. Image: Cpl. W. R. Shaaf/U.S.M.C.
That of the M16A1 with which I was issued back in the day was only 460.
For certain tactical applications, bigger is better.
What If?
A student at the U. S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School fires an M14 rifle during weapons training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina May 13, 2020. Image: K. Kassens/U.S. Army
So, where might military small arms evolution have gone had we not gotten involved in Vietnam?
Meanwhile, American ground pounders would have clung dogmatically and righteously to their nearly four-foot, long-range .30-caliber rifles.
Today, we maintain several thousand nuclear warheads with a notable portion deployed and ready to go.
Featuring a nearly indestructible polymer collapsible stock, optics mounting points and more, this SOCOM 16 CQB represents a logical modernization of the M14 rifle for today’s shooters.
The Russians apparently stockpile comparable numbers.
However, what if that didnt happen?
What if we avoided both Vietnam and planetary atomic suicide?
A Republic of South Korea Marine with a Daewoo K2 rifle trains with Cpl. Ryan Salinas and his M16A4 during Exercise Foal Eagle 2009. Image: Lance Cpl. Michael A. Bianco/U.S.M.C.
Some variation of the M14 could even still be our standard infantry rifle today.
Details
When I was a kid, we all looked to the stars for our future.
Thats obviously not how things turned out.
That same tech obviously found its way onto our military weapons.
In short, I think Uncle Sam would likely have been fielding something like theSpringfield Armory SOCOM 16 CQB.
History has borne this out to a degree.
Ruminations
Its an interesting intellectual exercise to ponder what might have been.
For the gun nerd truly committed to his craft, that is indeed a fascinating thing to ponder.
Go to forum thread
M1ATMStandard Issue
M1ATMSOCOM 16 CQB w/ HEX Dragonfly
