Artbrooks: See
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/stross/ant393b_files/freedomfries.htm
and/or numerous other reliable sources.

nobody in his or her right mind used the phrase except as a joke...
No normal American uses either of these phrases...

I'd have to agree, Lighter; unfortunately then, as now, there are a significant number of abnormal, not-in-their-right-mind Americans who were, and are, not joking at all.