Mikhail Kalashnikov, talking about the benefits of his invention, the AK-47:
Even after lying in a swamp you can pick up this rifle, aim it and shoot. That’s the best job description there is for a gun. Real soldiers know that and understand it…In Vietnam, American soldiers threw away their M-16 rifles and used [Kalashnikov] AK-47s from dead Vietnamese soldiers, with bullets they captured. That was because the climate is different to America, where M-16s may work properly. Look what’s happening now: every day on television we see that the Americans in Iraq have my machine guns and assault rifles in their armoured vehicles. Even there American rifles don’t work properly.
I have a funny feeling that the AK 47 is a pinch off the assault rifle the Germans introduced in 44 whose name escapes me