We Have Met the Enemy

Illustration of the character Pogo holding a shovel in front of a gravestone on a grey background

The original version of the quote on this button is “We have met the enemy, and they are ours” and was sent as a message in 1813 from U.S. Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to Army General William Henry Harrison after winning a battle during the War of 1812. The quote and illustration seen on this button is from the Walt Kelly comic strip “Pogo”, which ran from 1948 – 1975 and often illustrated political and social satire.  “We have met the enemy and he is us” is probably the most famous Pogo quote, used in the 1960s to refer to the chaos caused by the Vietnam War. Later, the quote was also used in 1970 on a poster for Earth Day and became a rallying cry to conservationists.