"88," White Power for "Heil Hitler"

[Dave Wilton]

> On Wed, 28 Aug 2002, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>
> > Can you give me one such early cite so I can send it to the people
> > involved?
>
> The earliest I can readily find is:
>
> 1953 _N.Y. Times_ 13 Dec. 20  This trend toward what the
> planners call "a
> bigger bang for a buck" -- the attempt to achieve more fire
> power at less
> cost -- has economic, military and technical roots.
>
> The Historical Dictionary of American Slang, which probably would have
> picked up a sexual signification of this expression, has a 1968
> military-related usage as its first use.
>
> Fred Shapiro

The RHHDAS 1968 cite is from a Safire book that is referencing a 1953/54
usage, but the entry doesn't give enough information to identify the older
quotation.