Misfire: The Tragic Failure of the M16 in Vietnam

Retired army colonels Orkand and Duryea offer a solid, technically detailed examination of the development and use of the M16 rifle in the Vietnam War that also encompasses their theories about how the war was conducted. Duryea—who died after finishing the book—helped test the M16 before its use in the war; Orkand led a 1971 military study examining the inadequacies of the weapon, which had a dangerous tendency to jam. There are dense, jargon-filled passages on weapons testing results and pages of direct quotes from congressional hearings on the M16’s development and implementation. In a chapter titled “Weighed in the Balance—A Jammed M16 Caused My First KIA,” Duryea tells of a PFC whose M16 jammed in May 1966 and who was killed by enemy fire. The authors blame politicians and military leaders for the failure in Vietnam, writing that “American men” who served in Vietnam “were committed into combat without a commensurate commitment from their leaders and the American public that they would be backed by the same determination and willpower that had sustained our fighting forces in World War II and Korea.” Further, they write, “Committing thousands of America’s young men into combat with an unproven, insufficiently tested weapon was just one tragic instance of the many misguided decisions that characterized the Vietnam War.” Replete with technical descriptions and charts, this book will appeal to those with a keen interest in 20th-century weaponry. Illus. (July)