US Army Considers Adopting an Interim Battle Rifle in 7.62NATO: eventually adopt 6.5

[LRRPF52]

Oh, yeah. As if the Bonus March, Jewish terrorism in Palestine, a few military coups and minor rebellions in other parts of the world really factored into his decision.

Budget considerations during the Great Depression, yes, certainly. That other stuff, nah, I don't buy it.

While not available to citizens, the diplomatic cables and their assessments were a normal part of the information gathering and dissemination cycle dating back to the 1920s, particularly with Japanese traffic as a focus. The War Department had been cracking Japanese Naval and Diplomatic ciphers since the 1920s.

There are many good books on this. A simple google search will turn up many hits.

You're not going to see reference to .276 Pedersen in diplomatic cables unless it was cooperation with Allies, so that's a straw man that is easily torn down.

The point is that there were plenty of conflicts and instability in the global tapestry of that era, with a particular focus on Japan, that could have factored heavily into MacArthur's decision to be apprehensive about a new service rifle and machine-gun cartridge.

I don't claim to know his thoughts on the matter, but these realities of that era make me wonder. I also understand that he would have been advised by Army Ordnance Bureau. To me, there are parallels that could be history repeating itself again with this mistake of leaning on 7.62 NATO, at the same time we are starting to make a lot of headway with far superior chamberings that deliver more hit probability, more energy on target, with less recoil, and less ammo load weight.