M4 Sherman "The Right Tank for the Wrong War"

The_Chieftain:   Mmm... I take your points, though I'm not sure I find them convincing. Yes, the T-34 is arguably the best tank in the world in 1940/41. I think, though, one must also investigate the question of why the US wasn't using the designs. Yes, I know that Christie was a bit difficult to work with, but does that invalidate the reasons that the US Army may have stuck with the bogies, such as rugged reliability and internal space? Again, if there was ever any one country which sacrificed anything necessary in terms of capability to make sure that the tank built would do what it was expected to do as effectively as possible at all times, it was the US. One might also inquire as to how US tank design may have progressed had they had the impetus of being a continental power without the safety provided by an ocean secured by a large Navy, even given the fiscal constraints the US Army was under in the 1930s. Perhaps the US tank of 1940 might actually be a bit better than the M2 Medium which it had, though there are equally arguments that it wouldn't have given the thinking behind US tank design requirements. After all, the 37mm was a perfectly reasonable anti-tank gun, a position generally shared by Germany and the UK at the time, after all.    Fundamentally, the question is "If the US could have had a T-34 of its own in 1940, would it have chosen to do so, or would it still have built something different?" I don't know if there truly is an answer to that counterfactual.