Is it true that John Kennedy is the author of the phrase “Victory has a thousand fathers, and defeat is always an orphan”?

It is generally accepted that the 35th president of the United States pronounced the winged phrase about the difference in attitude to the winners and defeated. We checked whether such an attribution is correct.

The authorship of the phrase “Victory has a thousand fathers, and defeat is always an orphan” John Fitzgerald Kennedy attributes news resources (“News","Russian newspaper" Lenta.ru), online collection of quotes (PEOPles.ru "Pearls of thought","Quotes.info","Wikisite"), As well as many famous personalities (for example, the Kubinsky leader Fidel Castro in the book"Reflections to commandante", Military correspondent Alexander Scholkov And international journalists Valentin Zorin And Igor Fesunenko). Some sources specify that with this phrase the American president commented on the unsuccessful landing of the American landing in Cuba.

In 1960, the predecessor of Kennedy in the White House Dwight Eisenhower Approved The plan of the military operation to overthrow the Cuban revolutionary authorities led by Fidel Castro. It was supposedthat the landing of the American landing will ultimately lead to the creation of the Provisional Government, acceptable to Washington. About 1,400 ethnic Cubans who found the refuge in the United States and negatively configured to the communist government of the island were to be the main shock force. In their idea, American aviation was supposed to support them.

The implementation of the task was in the spring of 1961, shortly after John Kennedy's post, US President. However, from the very beginning, everything went not according to plan. Cuban intelligence reported the country's leadership about the impending invasion. An urgent strengthening of all areas suitable for landing was carried out. April 15 American bombers Attack Cuban airfields, however, were disabled only two of the 24 at the disposal of the country of aircraft - the bulk was replaced in advance by layouts and faulty machines. And on the night of April 17 aircraft of the Cuban Air Force sunk Four transport vessels, one of which transported ammunition and heavy weapons. As a result - by April 19, the local army managed to squeeze the pro -American forces from the island, taking a large number of trophies and prisoners. The next day, April 20, Kennedy gathered in Washington members of the American Society of Newspaper editors. In his Speech He called the incident “the struggle of the Cuban patriots against the Cuban dictator” and stated that the United States would withdraw a lesson from this situation.

A day later, Kennedy's press conference took place-her Video recording, And transcript. At the beginning of communication with Kennedy reporters, referring to yesterday's statement about Cuba, he asked them no longer delve into this topic. However, the foreign policy agenda over and over again or indirectly surfaced in issues addressed to the president. One of the journalists complained that the State Department and the White House did not publicly present their version of events that unfolded in Cuba, which led to the spread of conflicting information regarding the details of what happened. Kennedy's reaction to this remark was next: “Well, I think, answering your question, we must decide how much useful we can say in the interests of the United States. One of the problems of a free society, the problem that is absent in dictatorship is the problem of information. Much has been printed in the newspapers, and I will not be surprised if those of you who represent the press will witness many briefings from interested people or departments in the next day or two. There is an old saying that Victory has a hundred fathers, and defeat is an orphan. And I won’t be surprised if you come out of the stream of information about all recent events. ”

As you can see, John Kennedy really mentioned the desired expression, but used another numeral (“one hundred” instead of “thousand”) and, in addition, called the old saying. Was this statement known until April 21, 1961?

It turns out that it is. For example, in the English translation of the diary of Count Galeazzo Chiano, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Mussolini era, you can meet Record, dated September 9, 1942 and concerning the last failures of the German army in Africa: “As always, the victory has a hundred fathers, and the defeat has an orphan (in original - "No one wants to admit defeat." - approx. Ed.). Now in Libya they quarrel, and Cesselering ran to Berlin to complain about Rommel. There are rumors about the possible review of Rommel. ” Chiano's diary was completely published in English in 1947 (and published in parts in American newspapers even earlier), so Kennedy, the veteran of the Second World War, had the opportunity to get acquainted with him. In addition, the phrase with reference to Chiano was brought in others books 1950s dedicated to the recent war. And in 1952, the quote as an “old military proverb” became an epigraph to one of the heads of Paul Benjamin's book “When geese fly south".

Perhaps it was Galeazzo Chiano that was the author of aphorism in the edition that came to us largely thanks to John Kennedy, but statements with a similar meaning are known from antiquity. So, even Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (died around 120) in "Biography Yuri Agricoli"He remarked:" After all, in any war, the next, highly unjust law acts: everyone ascribes good luck to himself, and they have guilty for misfortunes on one. " You can also mention the old Greek saying "Success has many friends" (this is one of variations The first part of the Kennedyevsky aphorism). In any case, it is incorrect to call the 35th President of the United States by the author of the winged phrase.

Photo on the cover: StockVault.net

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

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