Did Al Gore really say he invented the internet?

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Al Gore did not say he invented the internet. On 9 March 1999, during an interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN, Gore was asked what were the differences between himself from his opponent in the race for the nomination for President in 2000. His answer was misphrased and while it might sound like he was taking credit for the internet, he was indicating that he supported economic conditions in the US that would allow such new developments as the internet to take place in American society. The snopes site will have the complete information; there is a link to the site below.
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But he did indeed say he "created the internet":
"But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
While quite amusing, it was readily apparent to even a casual observer that Al Gore had nothing to do with the creation of the internet. The credit for creating the internet goes to the U.S. Military back in the early 1970s as a means to communicate between military installations in the event of nuclear war with the USSR.
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But he DID NOT say he "created the internet". He said he "took the initiative in creating the internet" That statement is actually true. That U.S Military project referenced above was called ARPANET. The US military portion of ARPANET was split off in 1983 to form MILNET.
In 1988 Al Gore sponsored the National High Performance Computer Act which created a national computing plan and began connecting other Universities and Libraries to the existing ARPANET network.
Then, Al Gore began to craft the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 (commonly referred to as "The Gore Bill") after hearing the 1988 report toward a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by UCLA professor of computer science, Leonard Kleinrock, one of the central creators of the ARPANET (the ARPANET, first deployed by Kleinrock and others in 1969, is the predecessor of the Internet). The bill was passed on December 9, 1991 and led to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) which Gore referred to as the "information superhighway." SO, while quite amusing to see ignorant people who know nothing about the history of the Internet perpetuate the lie that Al Gore had nothing to do with it. Al Gore did in fact take the initiative in creating the the internet.
He is actually owed quite a bit of thanks and credit for there being an internet today.

First answer by Dazani. Last edit by Zyguh. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributorrecommended]. Question popularity: 21 [recommend question].