Patton's "dumb bastard"

[Jonathan Lighter]

So you're in the clear.

JL

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 4:49 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Patton's "dumb bastard"
>
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>
> Fred wrote:
> > Thanks to Garson and Sam and Jon and Victor for all the great information
> about the Patton/dumb bastard quote.  But no one seems to have noticed that
> in the Yale Book of Quotations I cite the Bureau of Aeronautics Navy
> Department News Letter, Jan. 1, 1943: "The greatest duty of a sailor / Is
> duty from worries and cares, / Not to die for his country, / Make our
> enemies die for theirs!"
>
> Fred, the 1943 citation is valuable, and I did see it when I read the
> material in the YBQ. The August 28, 1942 comical interchange was meant
> to be complementary because it shows the notion of making "some other
> chap die for his" (country) was present in the RAF as well as the U.S.
> military in WW2 before the dates given for Patton's speech. This
> echoes the 1917 and 1918 citations. I considered posting the YBQ 1943
> cite to the list but thought, perhaps incorrectly, that others had
> already seen it.
>
> Garson
>
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