HISTORICAL NOTE:  M14 RIFLE (OFFICIALLY:  U.S. RIFLE, CAL. 7.62mm M14)

The M14’s gas-operating firing system was based on that of the M1 Garand. Similar to the M1, the M14 stored a cleaning kit in the butt-plate trap opening. The rifle had a front blade sight and peep sight, the latter adjustable for windage and range in 100-meter increments out to 1,000 meters. The M14 could be used with an M2 bayonet and M76 rifle grenade launcher attachment. An M2 bipod could be installed on M14 rifles intended for automatic-fire mode.

The M14 was the standard infantry rifle for all Army and Marine units that deployed to Vietnam in 1965, but Defense Secretary Robert McNamara ended procurement in 1964, selecting the M16 as a replacement. By 1970, only a handful of M14 rifles remained in Vietnam.

NEW 2020, BEING RETIRED... BUT AVAILABLE NOW FROM PICACHO PEAK COLLECTIBLES!

PLEASE NOTE: IMAGES OF ACTUAL VIETNAM BATTLE SCENES, VIETNAM WAR MAPS, THE "M14" RIFLE, THE VIETNAM WAR MEMORIAL WALL AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS INCLUDED IN THIS LISTING ARE FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES ONLY AND ARE NOT INCLUDED WITH THE SALE OF THIS M14 MARINES IN ACTION SET. 

MINT CONDITION IN ORIGINAL KING & COUNTRY BOX!

All of the Vietnam War 'Leathernecks' are equipped with a mixture of gear and weapons including the M16A1 rifle, the M60 'Pig' machine gun, the M79 'Blooper' grenade launcher, the M1911A1 semi-automatic pistol, the M79 LAW Rocket Launcher... a much larger support weapon the M42 'DUSTER' a mobile anti-aircraft tracked vehicle that fired twin .40mm BOFERS and proved devastating to enemy infantry and fixed fortifications... and now we have added additional troops armed with the M14 Battle Rifle, and more... including an APC, the 106mm Recoilless Rifle, the 105mm Howitzer and crew... and the M14 Marines in Action a four (4) figure set. 

HISTORICAL NOTE: 'TET' OFFENSIVE and THE BATTLE OF HUE... 1968

BATTLE OF HUE 1968 - VIETNAM WAR SERIES

Huế - the ancient imperial capital city of Vietnam - was a hundred kilometers south of the DMZ. It had a population of nearly 140,000, making it the third largest city in the Republic of South Vietnam. The Citadel, or Imperial City, is the walled in portion of Huế sitting on the north bank of the Perfume River. 

The Battle of Huế - also called the Siege of Huế - was one of the bloodiest and longest battles of the Vietnam War. Between 30 January and 3 March, 1968, in the South Vietnamese city of Huế, 11 battalions of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), four U.S. Army battalions, and three U.S. Marine Corps battalions - totaling 18 battalions – engaged and defeated 10 battalions of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Vietcong (VC).

By the beginning of the North Vietnamese 'Tet' Offensive on 30 January 1968, large, conventional, U.S. forces had already been committed to combat operations on Vietnamese soil for almost three years.

In 1968, the city of Huế, was an important supply and logistics center for U.S., ARVN (Army of the Republic of South Vietnam) and other Allied Forces from the coastal city of Da Nangto the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).  Huế was also a base for United States Navy supply boats.

The city was also one of the primary targets of the joint NVA/VC offensive, which coincided with the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.

Within hours of launching the attack on Huế the Vietcong and the PAVN launched the Tet Offensive, by simultaneously attacking hundreds of military targets and population centers across the country… including Huế. The PAVN and Vietcong forces rapidly occupied most of the city... only two small military compounds remained unoccupied. 

Over the next month, during intense house-to-house fighting, the U.S. Marines and ARVN forces gradually drove the enemy out of Huế. In the end, although the Allies declared a military victory, the city of Huế was virtually destroyed and more than 5,000 civilians were killed (2,800 of them executed by the PAVN and Vietcong, according to the South Vietnamese government). The communist forces lost an estimated 2,400 to 8,000 killed, while Allied forces lost 668 dead and 3,707 wounded. The losses negatively affected the American public's perception of the war, and political support for the war began to wane.

HISTORICAL REFLECTION: THE VIETNAM WAR (EXCERPTED FROM KEN BURNS "THE VIETNAM WAR")

America’s involvement in Vietnam began in secrecy. It ended, 30 years later in failure, witnessed by the entire world. It was begun in good faith by decent people out of fateful misunderstandings, American overconfidence, and Cold War miscalculation. And it was prolonged because it seemed easier to muddle through than admit that it had been caused by tragic decisions, made by five American presidents, belonging to both political parties. Before the war was over, more than 58,000 Americans would be dead. 

At least 250,000 South Vietnamese troops died in the conflict, as well. So did over one million North Vietnamese soldiers and Vietcong guerrillas. Two million civilians, north and south, are thought to have perished, as well as tens of thousands more in the neighboring states of Laos and Cambodia. For many Vietnamese, it was a brutal civil war, for others, the bloody climatic chapter in a century-old struggle for independence. 

For those Americans who fought in it, and for those who fought against it back home, as well as those who merely glimpsed it on the nightly news, the Vietnam War was a decade of agony, the most divisive period since the American Civil War. Vietnam seemed to call everything into question, the value of honor and gallantry, the qualities of cruelty and mercy, the candor of the American government, and what it means to be a patriot. And those who lived through it have never been able to erase its memory, have never stopped arguing about what really happened, why everything went so badly wrong, who was to blame, and whether it was all worth it. 

PLEASE NOTE: IMAGES OF ACTUAL VIETNAM BATTLE SCENES, VIETNAM WAR MAPS, THE "M14 RIFLE", THE VIETNAM WAR MEMORIAL WALL AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS INCLUDED IN THIS LISTING ARE FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES ONLY AND ARE NOT INCLUDED WITH THE SALE OF THIS DISMOUNTED NCO ARMORED VEHICLE COMMANDER FIGURE SET. 

MINT CONDITION IN ORIGINAL KING & COUNTRY BOX!

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