经济学人28:一位受到命运青睐的共和党总统

 　　Books and Arts; Book Review;The Eisenhower presidency；O lucky man!

　　文艺；书评；艾森豪威尔总统；哦，幸运儿！

　　A Republican president who was touched by fortune；

　　一位受到命运青睐的共和党总统；

　　Eisenhower: In War and Peace. By Jean Edward Smith.

　　《战争与和平中的艾森豪威尔》，作者：简·爱德华·史密斯。

　　Napoleon believed that ability counts for little in military men if they are not also blessed with opportunity; what he wanted most were lucky generals. Jean Edward Smith's superb new biography of the “military statesman” who became the 34th president of the United States shows how often Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower's opportunities owed much to what Niccolò Machiavelli called fortuna.

　　拿破仑相信：对于军人来说，如果不是天生好运，那么能力再强也是无济于事。他最渴望得到的就是好运的将军。简·爱德华·史密斯这本杰出的新传记就展示了其主人公一生有很多机会得归功于尼可罗·马基亚维利所谓的fortuna（好运）。他就是美国第34届总统，“军人政治家”德怀特·“艾克”·艾森豪威尔。

　　He was lucky that West Point adopted competitive entry in time for him to be selected and that he was allowed to serve in spite of a football injury. His career was rescued repeatedly by older generals, who recognised his ability. His guardian¹ angel, Fox Conner, whom he met at Camp Meade in 1919, became a lifelong mentor². Conner protected him from court martial³ over a trivial allowance claim in 1921, sent him to the general staff school at Fort Leavenworth in 1925, and a year later rescued him from command of the 24th Regiment⁴, a unit for black soldiers which had such a bad name it was known as the “infantry's Siberia”.

　　他很幸运，正好赶上了西点军校开始实施通过考试竞争入学的新规定，让他可以顺利入学。同时，尽管他之前因为打美式足球曾经受过伤，他还是很幸运的得以入伍。他的戎马生涯曾有几次几近断送，幸亏那些赏识他才华的前辈将军们出手相救。1919年，他在米德训练营结识了他的守护天使福克斯·康纳中将。康纳后来成为了艾森豪威尔一生的导师。1921年因为一次不起眼的津贴申请事件艾森豪威尔几乎被告上军事法庭，是康纳保下了他。1925年康纳将艾森豪威尔送到了李文沃斯堡总参谋学院进修，一年以后又是康纳把他从第24步兵团内调救出来。当时第24团主要由黑人士兵组成，在军队里臭名昭著，被称为是“步兵的西伯利亚”。

　　Opportunity came at last when George Marshall chose Eisenhower to be commander of all American forces in Europe in 1942, a year after America entered the war, and then when Franklin Roosevelt chose him, instead of Marshall, as the D-Day commander, partly because of Winston Churchill's dislike of Marshall.

　　最终，机会在美国参战的第二年光顾。1942年，乔治·马歇尔挑选艾森豪威尔作为美军驻欧洲司令。之后，富兰克林·罗斯福又选他，而不是马歇尔作为诺曼底登陆的司令，其中有一部分原因是温斯顿·丘吉尔不喜欢马歇尔。

　　It was an almost miraculous⁵ career. Although he had seen no action, Eisenhower was promoted over 228 senior officers when he took over the American high command in north Africa, and he leapfrogged over more experienced British soldiers when he was made commander in chief of the allied⁶ forces just seven months later, in 1943. Yet neither north Africa nor the first European landings in Italy was well handled. Mr Smith, a well-known American biographer and former professor of political economy at the University of Toronto, acknowledges Eisenhower's many talents. But unlike several previous American writers (including Eisenhower's own grandson), he does not do so by portraying⁷ British commanders as almost uniformly incompetent⁸ in comparison.

　　他的军旅生涯几近奇迹。虽然没有实战经验，艾森豪威尔被破格提升，越过228名高级军官，一路升到美军驻北非司令。七个月后，在1943年，他又越过一些经验更丰富的英国军人被提升为盟军总司令。但是不管是在北非的行动，还是在欧洲的意大利登陆他都不能说是执行得很好。史密斯先生是一位著名的美国传记作家，也是多伦多大学的前政治经济学教授。他承认艾森豪威尔有很多天赋。但是和其之前的几位美国作家（包括艾森豪威尔的亲孙子）不同，他并没有把英国的司令们描绘成几乎是清一色的无能军官来体现艾森豪威尔的才干。

　　Another virtue⁹ is Mr Smith's sophisticated handling of Eisenhower's infatuation for his beautiful Anglo-Irish driver, Kay Summersby, the subject of much prurient¹⁰ speculation¹¹. Mr Smith lists the circumstantial opportunities and concludes: “Whether he and Kay were intimate remains¹² a matter of conjecture¹³. But there is no question they were in love.”

　　史密斯传记的另一个亮点在于其对于另一段故事进行了精细处理，那就是艾森豪威尔对他那位美丽的英国－爱尔兰混血司机，凯·萨默斯比的迷恋。围绕着这个故事有很多不干不净的流言。史密斯列出了一些环境上的机遇并得出结论：“他和凯是否有亲密关系还未可知，但是他们相爱这一点是毋庸置疑的。”

　　Eisenhower's luck held good in 1945 when he told George Marshall he meant to leave Mamie, his wife of 29 years, for Summersby. Marshall stamped on the idea and Eisenhower ran for president. Mr Smith attributes the unusual bitterness of the 1952 campaign less to political partisanship¹⁴ than to fear: the Democrats¹⁵' fear that Senator Joe McCarthy would publicly describe their candidate, Adlai Stevenson, as homosexual and Eisenhower's fear that his correspondence with Marshall over his proposed divorce would be leaked.

　　艾森豪威尔的好运气在1945年依然不减。当时，他告诉乔治·马歇尔他想要与和他结婚了29年的妻子玛米离婚，和萨默斯比在一起。马歇尔打消了他的这个念头，之后艾森豪威尔参选总统。史密斯认为1952年大选出奇尖锐更大程度上是因为恐惧而不是政党分歧：民主党害怕参议员乔·麦卡锡会公开把他们的候选人阿德莱·史蒂文森描绘成一个同性恋，而艾森豪威尔则害怕他和马歇尔之间关于离婚提议的信件会被公布出来。

　　Much of John Kennedy's political magic came from the way journalists contrasted his youth and vigour¹⁶ with Eisenhower's elderly bumbling, his illnesses and his golf. But political craftiness¹⁷ was as important for Eisenhower as his good fortune, as laid out in a 1994 biography by Fred Greenstein, a Princeton academic, entitled “The Hidden-Hand Presidency”. In fact, Kennedy played golf much better than Eisenhower did.

　　后来的记者们常把约翰·肯尼迪的年轻活力和艾森豪威尔的年迈笨拙、疾病缠身和高尔夫兴趣加以对比。约翰·肯尼迪的政治魔力很大程度上正是来源于这些对比。但是如普林斯顿学者弗莱德·格林斯坦1994年所写的传记《深藏不露的总统》所描绘的一样，政治狡狯对于艾森豪威尔来说和他的好运一样重要。而且实际上肯尼迪的高尔夫球打得可比艾森豪威尔好多了。

　　The Eisenhower that Mr Smith portrays¹⁸ was not just a “military statesman”—as Britain's General Montgomery called him—but also a very successful president. He ended the war in Korea, refused to allow America to get involved in rescuing the French in Indochina (one idea had been to drop three atom bombs there), forced Britain, France and Israel to back down over Suez and faced down China over the Quemoy-Matsu crisis. At home he sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas, to escort nine black children to school. He presided over peace and, on the whole, prosperity.

　　史密斯描绘的艾森豪威尔不仅仅像英国将军蒙哥马利所说的那样：是一位“军人政治家”，他也是一位非常成功的总统。他结束了朝鲜战争，拒绝让美国被牵涉到在中南半岛援救法国一事中（当时的一个建议是在那儿投三颗原子弹），逼迫英国、法国和以色列在苏伊士问题上让步，还在金门妈祖危机时压倒了中国。在国内他派出第101空降师前往阿肯色州的小石城，护送九位黑人孩童上学。他的总统任期是一段和平时期，而且整体上来说经济繁荣。

　　Eisenhower also left two mighty¹⁹ endowments for the North American economy. He pushed through the visionary St Lawrence Seaway, which takes seagoing ships to Chicago. As a young officer in 1919 he had accompanied the army's first convoy²⁰ across a continent where you sometimes had to navigate²¹ roadless tracts²² with a compass. Thirty-six years later he sent to Congress the legislation that created the interstate highway system. A fiscal²³ conservative, Eisenhower believed in strong government, and knew how to use it.

　　艾森豪威尔也为美国经济留下了两笔巨大的财富。他促成了具有远见的圣劳伦斯航道的兴建，这使得海运船舰可以开到芝加哥。1919年身为一名年轻官员时，美国军方第一次派出横跨美国大陆的车队，他曾随同前往，一路上有很多地方他们必须穿过无路的通道，仅靠指南针导向。36年之后，他向国会递交了一份立法，之后该立法创造了美国州际高速公路系统。作为一位财政保守分子，艾森豪威尔相信强势政府，而且他也知道应该如何使用这样的政府。

1 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

2 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

3 martial   

adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的

参考例句：

• The sound of martial music is always inspiring.军乐声总是鼓舞人心的。
• The officer was convicted of desertion at a court martial.这名军官在军事法庭上被判犯了擅离职守罪。

4 regiment   

n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制

参考例句：

• As he hated army life,he decide to desert his regiment.因为他嫌恶军队生活，所以他决心背弃自己所在的那个团。
• They reformed a division into a regiment.他们将一个师整编成为一个团。

5 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。

6 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

7 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

8 incompetent   

adj.无能力的，不能胜任的

参考例句：

• He is utterly incompetent at his job.他完全不能胜任他的工作。
• He is incompetent at working with his hands.他动手能力不行。

9 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

10 prurient   

adj.好色的，淫乱的

参考例句：

• She showed a prurient interest in the details of the rape case.她对那强奸案的细节津津乐道。
• We read the gossip written about them with prurient interest.我们翻看他们的八卦时带着不洁的想法。

11 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

13 conjecture   

n./v.推测，猜测

参考例句：

• She felt it no use to conjecture his motives.她觉得猜想他的动机是没有用的。
• This conjecture is not supported by any real evidence.这种推测未被任何确切的证据所证实。

14 Partisanship   

n. 党派性, 党派偏见

参考例句：

• Her violent partisanship was fighting Soames's battle. 她的激烈偏袒等于替索米斯卖气力。
• There was a link of understanding between them, more important than affection or partisanship. ' 比起人间的感情，比起相同的政见，这一点都来得格外重要。 来自英汉文学

15 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 vigour   

（=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力

参考例句：

• She is full of vigour and enthusiasm.她有热情，有朝气。
• At 40,he was in his prime and full of vigour.他40岁时正年富力强。

17 craftiness   

狡猾，狡诈

参考例句：

• Indeed, craftiness in humans was a supreme trait. 事实上，手工艺(craftiness)也是人类最重要的一个特性了。
• Experience teaches men craftiness. After all, you only live once! 经验使人知道怎样应当油滑一些，因为命只有一条啊！ 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

18 portrays   

v.画像( portray的第三人称单数 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The museum collection vividly portrays the heritage of 200 years of canals. 博物馆的藏品让运河200 年的历史再现眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The film portrays Gandhi as a kind of superman. 这部电影把甘地描绘成一个超人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

20 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

21 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

22 tracts   

大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文

参考例句：

• vast tracts of forest 大片大片的森林
• There are tracts of desert in Australia. 澳大利亚有大片沙漠。

23 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。