Viggen for USMC?

I have thought about this for a while, and with a few exceptions, I think that the Viggen would have been the perfect airplane for the US Marines.
Swedish Air force realized that if a war breaks out, the airfield is the first and highest priority target. If the enemy is superior, like for instance the USSR, the chances of defending the airfields are small. Therefore the SWAF came to the conclusion that they needed an airplane that could do without the big, vulnerable airfields.

During the conceptual phase there were thoughts about doing a VTOL airplane, but it was soon realized that the compromises were too severe to make the airplane useful. A STOL airplane on the other hand had almost no compromises at all, especially if the design were a close coupled canard.
I won't go in to detail about the design here, but long story short the Viggen is an airplane that can take off and land at less that 800 m of a standard road, it can be refueled and re armed by conscripts on a road base in less than 10 min. The service team is packed in to a few Trucks that can move around between different locations to avoid attacks from the enemies.

So what about the marines?

Viggen USMC drawing,  I think it is made by the signature "Zactoman".

Well the marines want to have a close support airplane, which can operate from small, unprepared airfields, with a minimum logistic footprint.
Viggen ticks those boxes, however, the "unprepared" is a matter of interpretation.
What the Viggen can't do in its current configuration is to fly off a ship; it would need some modifications both to the airplane and to the ship.

The marines choose the Harrier as their CAS airplane, and it has been successful in its role. Still, if things would have been different and the Marines had chosen the Viggen back in the sixties I think they would have been pleased with the choice.