"Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan."
2007-11-20 06:42:24 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
If you are victorious in war, everyone who is involved will make a great deal of their contribution, usually far in excess of their actual value in that success. If you lose a war or a battle, the opposite is true, No one wants to take the blame.
2007-11-20 06:50:25 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
" It's true that Kennedy, at a 1961 press conference announcing the Bay of Pigs fiasco, mentioned the quote. But as reporter John Miller pointed out, the quote stems from a 1942 journal entry by Italian Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's foreign minister.
"Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan," Ciano penned, earning his place in history -- or at least in books of famous quotations. "
2007-11-20 06:56:26 · answer #2 · answered by yankee_sailor 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure, but maybe its that many will claim a victory, but no one will claim a defeat. I belileve we are loosing in Iraq, but the president wont ever say that we're fighting a loosing battle. But if we do win this war, many will take the credit(as they should), but if we do indeed loose, no one will willingly admit defeat.
2007-11-20 06:51:11 · answer #3 · answered by Uncertain Soul 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
All of the above explanations are good, but Kennedy (John F. Kennedy, POTUS 1961-1963) got that saying from Winston Churchill!
Aha! The Yankee points out that Churchill stole it, too!
2007-11-20 07:10:42 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Everyone wants to take credit for victory, but no one wants to accept blame for defeat.
2007-11-20 06:50:37 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
That everyone will claim responsibility when something goes right, but no one will when things go wrong.
2007-11-20 06:50:25 · answer #6 · answered by Joe W 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋