'I'm from the government and I'm here to help (you)'

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

This line is widely associated with Ronald Reagan. A 8/13/86 NYT
report of a Reagan news conference reports him saying:  "I think you
all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the
English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

The earliest cite I've found for the line is from an April, 1978 NYT
article in which someone says, "you know the three great lies,,, ;the
check is in the mail; I'm going to love you as much in the morning as
I do tonight, and I'm from the Government and here to help you." A
June, 1978 book review from the WSJ quotes a recent book by George
Will as listing these statements as "the three least credible
sentences in the English language."

But on the Web, some people report that the "I'm from the government"
line goes back to the 60's. Can anybody locate (or does anybody know
of) an earlier source for this?

Geoff Nunberg