"The unwilling doing the unnecessary...."

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, Steve. I found Stone's ex. on Google as well. I suspect he got it from
the Washington Post article.

NewspaperArchive has one or two 1970 exx., all later than the WP.

My WAG is that the creation of the phrase did not much antedate the report.
The war was so saturated with journalists that any saying that clever should
have been picked up pretty quickly.

JL

On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 5:05 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "The unwilling doing the unnecessary...."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I recall that quote from, oh, "way back," too. I. F. Stone picked it up
> from the
> Wash. Post and put it in his bi-weekly (maybe vol. 18 1970) and a later
> book,
> interrupted thus: "We are the unwilling," it said, "led by the
> unqualified...."
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
>
>
>
> Quoting Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>:
>
> > It's hard for me to believe that Google Books (and Amazon) turn up so
> > little for this quotation, which I first heard (or more likely read) in
> the
> > early 1970s (in the 1970 version) as applied to the Vietnam War.
> >
> > My sincere apologies to Fred if he's already covered it.  Perhaps the
> > following, with variants, may be of some interest anyway.
> >
> > 1970 Jack Foisie, "Reds Stiff Fight Upsets GI Drive," _Washington Post_
> (May
> > 8) A22: They charged out of the helicopter under withering fire wearing
> such
> > hand-printed denunciations of war on their helmets as this: "We are the
> > unwilling, led by the unqualified, doing the unnecessary for the
> > ungrateful." But a lot of them also wore the crosses of Christ under the
> > bands of their helmets.
> >
> > 1974 Robert W. Witkin _The Intelligence of Feeling_  (London: Heinemann
> > Educational) 118: He does his duty grimly like a soldier in an unpopular
> > war, 'the unwilling doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful'
> >
> > 1996 _Journal of the Royal Musical Association_ CXXI 274: Albert
> Bradshaw,
> > Trinity College, Dublin: "'The Unwilling Doing the Unnecessary for the
> > Ungrateful' (Witkin): Research on Music Education in Ireland."
> >
> > 2003 _Usenet: ok.general_ (March 25) [
> >
> http://groups.google.com/group/ok.general/browse_thread/thread/9785eefde1fd64d7/1d703333b50dbf15?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22unwilling+doing+the+unnecessary+for+the+ungrateful%22&pli=1
> > ]: The 'unofficial motto' of many members of the US forces in Vietnam:
> > "The unwilling
> > doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful".
> >
> > 2003 David R. Hackworth & Eilhys England _Steel My Soldiers' Hearts_
> (N.Y.:
> > Random House) 41: Folks had shit written all over the camouflage covers —
> > "We are the unthanked doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful led by the
> > unqualified."
> >
> > 2003 Geoffrey Wawro _The Franco-Prussian War_ (Cambridge U.P.) 288: They
> > were the proverbial "unthanked doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful."
> >
> > 2005 Larry Heinemann _Black Virgin Mountain_ (N.Y.: Doubleday) 25: We
> > understood perfectly well that we were the unwilling doing the
> unnecessary
> > for the ungrateful.
> >
> > (The two "Heinemanns" involved are, AFAIK, entirely unrelated.)
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
> > Platypus"
> >
>  > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
Platypus"

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org