[Ads-l] "One man's terrorist..."

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Interesting, JL. Barry Popik has pertinent citations beginning in 1957.

"One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter"
Entry from October 09, 2011
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/one_mans_terrorist_is_another_mans_freedom_fighter

[Begin excerpt]
Time magazine
Letters, Apr. 1, 1957
Monday, Apr. 01, 1957
Sir:
Your March 11 issue contains two articles: one on “terrorists,” the
other on “freedom fighters.” This raises an interesting question:
Would a dastardly “terrorist” become a heroic “freedom fighter” if he
happened to be a Hungarian instead of a Cypriot?
J. H. GROFF Souderton, Pa.
[End excerpt]

"The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs" from Charlie, Wolfgang, and Fred
has an entry with citations beginning in 1970:

[Begin excerpt]
One man’s terrorist is another man's freedom fighter (One man’s
freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist).

1970 Christian E. Hauer Jr., Crisis and Conscience in the Middle East
(Chicago: Quadrangle) 41: "One man’s terrorist is another man's heroic
freedom fighter. But terrorist activity was a fact of daily life in
Palestine."
[End excerpt]

Nigel Rees included an entry on the topic in "Brewer's Famous
Quotations", and he mentioned a thematically related passage
contrasting the terrorist and the policeman in "Secret Agent" (1907).

Garson


On Sat, Aug 1, 2015 at 7:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "One man's terrorist..."
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The modern cliche' that "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom
> fighter" seems first to have been formulated in so many words by
> Gerald  Seymour,
> in his IRA thriller *Harry's Game* (1975).
>
> But Seymour may have been inspired by Yasser Arafat's statement to the UN
> General Assembly on Nov, 13, 1974:
>
> "The difference between the revolutionary and the terrorist lies in the
> reason for which each fights. For whoever stands by a just cause and fights
> for the freedom and liberation of his land from the invaders, the settlers
> and the colonialists cannot possibly be called terrorist...."
>
> JL
>
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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