“Within a very few years the Kalashnikov’s attributes—its mechanical characteristics combined with its unprecedented availability—transformed Stalin’s rifle, conceived as a tool of the state, into an engine for violence in the service of almost any cause.” — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“The weapon, which Kalashnikov emphasizes as a defensive tool and a shared monument to the population’s creative energy, was rather a marker of the planned economy under totalitarian rule, a nation that could make weapons aplenty but would not design… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“The sentence was death. His appeal was rejected. At 7:18 A.M on April 9, 1959, József Tibor Fejes was hanged. He was suspended on… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“It is said that when men have made up their mind to die they act and speak like gods.” — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“the Russian assault rifle would see its first combat use—both by conventional forces and by insurgents. The United States military, all the while, would… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“McNamara’s Pentagon was right on one point. The M-14 was not the best all-purpose rifle for what war had become, especially in a tropical… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“In sum, the United States had armed its foes, indirectly but surely. The war echoed edicts of Mao: “Guerrillas must not depend too much… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“The rules of war established by pen soldiers do not form the basis of actual operations in the field,” he wrote.” — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“If a rifle could not be trusted, its other characteristics were moot. Being a bayonet holder was not enough.” — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“enough weapons had been shown to enough military officers, and distributed to enough armies and navies, that given time even the most stupid of… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“Within a very few years the Kalashnikov’s attributes—its mechanical characteristics combined with its unprecedented availability—transformed Stalin’s rifle, conceived as a tool of the state,… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“The M-16 sure is a marvelous gun, and in a god-awful war it provides some keen fun. The bullet it fires appears too small… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“By 1944, three years later, the ordeal and the turnabout had both been spectacular. The Soviet Union had lost as many as 20 million… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“He gave them nicknames, including a series of people he assigned the name Stupid.” — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“Often Soviet soldiers located insurgents only by drawing their fire—the 1956 version of a perilous form of combat patrol, known among soldiers as the… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“Captain Madonna’s assessment of Colt’s assault rifle, circa 1967. “It was a pretty good bayonet holder,” he said. “I knew those weapons were failing.… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
“The government had spent more than a decade bringing forward the M-14, only to discover in simulations and in Vietnam that soldiers equipped with… — C.J. Chivers Copy Share Image
