"love it or leave it"

[Dan Goncharoff]

I believe the American Legion had been a major force in popularizing
the phrase in 1941, and continued to promote its use in the decades to
follow, including in the early to mid-60s in support of troops in
Vietnam.

DanG



On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 3:13 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "love it or leave it"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Aug 19, 2011, at 2:58 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> You're right about the short form, Wilson.
>>
>> I'm only showing that the phrase existed long before VN, FWIW, IYKWIM. YBQ
>> (that's four in a row) recommends a look at earlier but far less similar
>> words from Dorothy Parker & Gus Kahn.
>>
>> Also FWIW, my recollection is that "America: Love it or Leave it" came on
>> the national scene only as late as 1969.  It was the same year that
>> conservatives hijacked the American flag for their exclusive bumper-sticker
>> use.
>
> I'd have guessed 1968, at least by the time of the Chicago Democratic Convention in August and the backlash against opponents of the war that crystallized with the widely supported "police riot" against protestors there.
>
> LH
>
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