I am a VN vet and remember all the problems with the M16. If I recall, the principle stockholder in the company that won the contract to supply the M16 to the Army in those days ILO the M14 was owned by Lady Bird Johnson.
And yeah, he (okay, Lady Byrd Johnson, no conflict of interest that way /s) profited big time from the war, just as he profited from JFK being assassinated in Dallas by whomever...
(Okay, way off topic, I better drop it before someone rightly accuses me of hijacking the thread.)