美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Wants Pentagon To Stage Military Parade Down Pennsylvania Avenue

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

President Trump¹ wants a military parade. He wants a show of might in the middle of Washington, D.C. Big showy parades with tanks and missiles are more commonly associated with Russia, North Korea and China. But the White House insists if one happens here, the goal will be to honor U.S. troops. In a moment, we'll have reaction to this from veterans. First, here's NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith.

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TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE²: During the annual Bastille Day parade in Paris, President Trump sat next to French President Emmanuel Macron as jets flew overhead and heavy military equipment, troops and marching bands passed by. It was, Trump said, one of the greatest parades he had ever seen.

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KEITH: Even two months later, he was still talking about it when he met with Macron in New York.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: To a large extent, because of what I witnessed, we made do something like that on July 4 in Washington down Pennsylvania Avenue.

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TRUMP: I don't know. We're going to have to try and top it.

KEITH: People in the room laughed. But it turns out, Trump wasn't kidding.

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TRUMP: I came back, and one of my early calls were, I think we're going to have to start looking at that ourselves.

KEITH: Planning remains³ in the early stages. It's still not clear when it would happen, what military hardware would actually be part of it or how much it would all cost.

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JIM MATTIS: We've been putting together some options. We'll send them up to the White House for a decision.

KEITH: That's Secretary of Defense⁴ Jim Mattis speaking today in the White House briefing.

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MATTIS: The president's respect, his fondness for the military, I think, is reflected in him asking for these options.

KEITH: Trump, who attended a military academy growing up, got multiple deferments during the Vietnam War and didn't serve. But as a candidate and now as president, he has wrapped himself in the military, pushing for more funding and talking about the troops and veterans with great reverence⁵. He frequently refers to military leaders and aides with military backgrounds as, quote, "my generals." If such a parade were to happen, it would be the first since the end of the Gulf⁶ War in 1991, says presidential historian Michael Beschloss.

MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: During the inaugural⁷ parades for Harry⁸ Truman all the way to John Kennedy, you had tanks, you had Pershing and Nike missiles and things like this. And at the end of many of our wars - Civil War, World War I and II, Gulf War - you would have parades in Washington and sometimes in New York. But to have a parade like this in Washington without an event like that, that's a little bit outside our tradition.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Speaking Korean).

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KEITH: It is more in the tradition of countries like North Korea, which held a parade showing off its newest ballistic missile in April. In the 1950s, the Soviet⁹ leader Nikita Khrushchev presided over large military parades flaunting¹⁰ the latest in Soviet military might. Beschloss says that prompted White House aides to go to President Eisenhower, himself a decorated former general, and suggest perhaps the U.S. should do the same.

BESCHLOSS: Eisenhower said absolutely not. We, the United States, are seeking peace. We are the preeminent¹¹ power on Earth. For us to try to imitate what the Soviets¹² are doing in Red Square would make us look weak.

KEITH: And there's another concern, one that Beschloss says Eisenhower was acutely aware of - the risk that in glorifying¹³ the military, it slips into glorification¹⁴ of the president in his role as commander in chief. Tamara Keith, NPR News, the White House.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 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。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 reverence   

n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• We reverence tradition but will not be fettered by it.我们尊重传统，但不被传统所束缚。

6 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

8 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

9 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

10 flaunting   

adj.招摇的，扬扬得意的，夸耀的v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的现在分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来

参考例句：

• He did not believe in flaunting his wealth. 他不赞成摆阔。
• She is fond of flaunting her superiority before her friends and schoolmates. 她好在朋友和同学面前逞强。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 preeminent   

adj.卓越的，杰出的

参考例句：

• Washington was recognized as the preeminent spokesman of American Negroes by 1895. 到1895年,华盛顿被公认为美国黑人的卓越代言人。
• He is preeminent because his articles are well written. 他的文章写得很漂亮,卓尔不群。

12 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

13 glorifying   

赞美( glorify的现在分词 )； 颂扬； 美化； 使光荣

参考例句：

• I had no intention of either glorifying or belittling Christianity, merely the desire to understand it. 我并没有赞扬基督教或蔑视它的立意，我所想的只是了解它。
• You are glorifying a rather mediocre building. 你正在美化一栋普普通通的建筑。

14 glorification   

n.赞颂

参考例句：

• Militant devotion to and glorification of one's country; fanatical patriotism. 对国家的军事效忠以及美化；狂热的爱国主义。
• Glorification-A change of place, a new condition with God. 得荣─在神面前新处境，改变了我们的结局。