Whenever the Democrats whip up a feminist frenzy to win elections, as in 1992 and 2012, I’m reminded of a deflationary joke I’ve always seen attributed to a 1970s secretary of state. For example, premier gossip columnist Liz Smith wrote in 1988:
“‘Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There’s too much fraternizing with the enemy,’ said Henry Kissinger.”
But I’ve often wondered: did Henry Kissinger really say that?
Well, I finally found out.
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Many of the most famous quotes in history turn out to be misattributions. For example, there’s no evidence that either Mark Twain or Winston Churchill said “Golf is a good walk spoiled.”
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So I asked Garson O’Toole of
QuoteInvestigator.com if Kissinger really originated this witticism.
The first version O’Toole could find was anonymous column filler in a 1944 Lubbock, TX newspaper. He next discovered it popping up in Covina, CA the next year. By 1953, publisher Bennett Cerf was attributing it to New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber, whose favorite theme was the war between men and women. Soon Ann Landers was circulating it.
The linkage to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger appears to have been the responsibility of President Gerald Ford and his favorite speechwriter, professional gagman Robert Orben (who is still alive at 87). [...]
Ford enjoyed exploiting the fact that he didn’t look quick-witted, specializing in deadpan one-liners like, “If Lincoln were alive today, he’d be spinning in his grave.”
As my commenter Bill pointed out to me last year, a 1975 People article attributes Ford’s line to Orben’s speechwriting skills:
A great philosopher once said—I think it was Henry Kissinger—nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There’s just too much fraternizing with the enemy.
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