"the race of the vassals has begun" this phrase was mentioned in a New
York Times article called "THE ALLIES European Leaders Divide Between
Hawks and Doves" By ALAN COWELL  --- I assumed this might be a famous
quote from some historical piece.  I used Advanced "Google" search and
copied into box for matching exact phrase and got no matches including
no match for New York Times.  I am a bit new to this research tool,
did I do it wrong for one.  And secondly is this a phrase from
history?

Just in case anyone else is looking at this, the NYT was (in this
instance) quoting Elmar Brok, a Germany Christian Democrats and
chairman of the EU's foreign affairs committee. I've not found any
indication of this being a historical quote so far, and it certainly
doesn't ring a bell.