肯尼迪总统 《为何而战》演讲

1962年6月6日，西点军校又一届学生毕业，肯尼迪总统来到西点军校，在毕业典礼上发表了本篇演讲。他表示，即便当今的世界对军人的尊敬程度已经大不如从前，尽管军人干着最危险的工作，却拿着相对较低的薪水，但国家依然需要他们，并告诉他们，要是为了彼此、为了国家、为了自由而战，希望他们能牢记西点军校的校训：“责任，荣誉，国家”。

General Westmoreland, General Lemnitzer, Mr. Secretary, General Decker, General Taylor, members of the graduating class and their parents, gentlemen:

威斯特摩兰将军，兰尼兹尔将军，部长先生，德克尔将军，泰勒将军，毕业班的同学们，学生家长们，先生们：

I want to express my appreciation for your generous invitation to come to this graduating class. I am sure that all of you who sit here today realize, particularly in view of the song we have just heard, that you are part of a long tradition stretching back to the earliest days of this country's history, and that where you sit sat once some of the most celebrated names in our Nation's history, and also some who are not so well known, but who, on 100 different battlefields in many wars involving every generation of this country's history, have given very clear evidence of their commitment to their country.

我想感谢各位愿意邀请我参加毕业典礼。我相信今天在座的各位都明白，尤其是刚才我们听到那首歌时，大家就能意识到自己正在发扬我国的悠久传统，这一起源于我国建国之初的传统，各位所坐之处，曾经坐过许多我国史上名声响当当的将军，当然也坐过许多无名将士，但他们都在上百处战场上 ，在每一代美国人的战争中，都证明了自己对国家的忠诚。

So that I know you feel a sense of pride in being part of that tradition, and as a citizen of the United States, as well as President, I want to express our high regard to all of you in appreciation for what you are doing and what you will do for our country in the days ahead.

如今各位能继承这一传统，想必十分难掩骄傲之情，我身为一名美国公民，也身为美国总统，代表国家向你们致以崇高的敬意，感谢各位在过去和未来为祖国做出的贡献。

I would also like to announce at this time that as Commander in Chief I am exercising my privilege of directing the Secretary of the Army and the Superintendent of West Point to remit all existing confinements and other cadet punishments, and I hope that it will be possible to carry this out today.

现在，我以三军总司令的名义，行使我所拥有的权力，我命令陆军部长和西点军校校长，取消对学员的一切禁闭和记过，我希望这份命令即刻开始执行。

General Westmoreland was slightly pained to hear that this was impending in view of the fact that one cadet, who I am confident will some day be the head of the Army, has just been remitted for 8 months, and is about to be released. But I am glad to have the opportunity to participate in the advancement of his military career.

威斯特摩兰将军听到这个消息可能有点难受了，因为有一位学员已经享受了8个月的赦免，现在要被释放了，我相信此人有朝一日会成为陆军司令。而我很高兴能有机会推动他的军事生涯向前。

My own confinement goes for another two and a half years, and I may ask for it to be extended instead of remitted.

而我自己的禁闭，可能还得两年半后才结束(译者注：指总统任期)，不过我可能不会申请赦免，而是申请延长。

I want to say that I wish all of you, the graduates, success. While I say that, I am not unmindful of the fact that two graduates of this Academy have reached the White House, and neither was a member of my party. Until I am more certain that this trend will be broken, I wish that all of you may be generals and not Commanders in Chief.

总之，我希望祝各位毕业生前程似锦。与此同时，我没有忘记，有两名西点毕业生正在白宫内任职，就是可惜俩人都是对面党的。鉴于目前西点学员更喜欢共和党，那么我还是只能祝愿各位成为将军，而不是三军总司令(译者注：三军总司令即美国总统)。

I want to say that I am sure you recognize that your schooling is only interrupted by today's occasion and not ended because the demands that will be made upon you in the service of your country in the coming months and years will be really more pressing, and in many ways more burdensome, as well as more challenging, than ever before in our history. I know that many of you may feel, and many of our citizens may feel that in these days of the nuclear age, when war may last in its final form a day or two or three days before much of the world is burned up, that your service to your country will be only standing and waiting. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. I am sure that many Americans believe that the days before World War II were the golden age when the stars were falling on all the graduates of West Point, that that was the golden time of service, and that you have moved into a period where military service, while vital, is not as challenging as it was then. Nothing could be further from the truth.

我相信各位明白，今天的毕业只是你们学习生涯中的一个切割垫，而不是重点，因为你们未来几个月、几年为国服务的过程中，还会有前所未有的复杂、沉重且艰巨的任务等着你们。我知道，你们许多人和我们许多公民都觉得，世界已经进入核时代，如果战争爆发，那么一两天，两三天的时间，大部分世界就会变成一片废土，所以军人现在只需要站岗，只需要干等着就行了。没有比这更荒唐的言论了。我知道，还有许多美国人觉得，二战前的那段时间是军人的黄金时代，那时的西点毕业生犹如众星捧月般存在，而今天你们这个时代，虽然军人还是很重要，但面对的挑战远远不如当年。没有比这更荒谬的言论了。

The fact of the matter is that the period just ahead in the next decade will offer more opportunities for service to the graduates of this Academy than ever before in the history of the United States, because all around the world, in countries which are heavily engaged in the maintenance of their freedom, graduates of this Academy are heavily involved. Whether it is in Viet-Nam or in Laos or in Thailand, whether it is a military advisory group in Iran, whether it is a military attach in some Latin American country during a difficult and challenging period, whether it is the commander of our troops in South Korea--the burdens that will be placed upon you when you fill those positions as you must inevitably, will require more from you than ever before in our history. The graduates of West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Academy in the next 10 years will have the greatest opportunity for the defense of freedom that this Academy's graduates have ever had. And I am sure that the Joint Chiefs of Staff endorse that view, knowing as they do and I do, the heavy burdens that are required of this Academy's graduates every day-General Tucker in Laos, or General Harkins in Viet-Nam, and a dozen others who hold key and significant positions involving the security of the United States and the defense of freedom. You are going to follow in their footsteps and I must say that I think that you will be privileged in the years ahead to find yourselves so heavily involved in the great interests of this country.

事实是，西点军校在未来十年奉献国家的机会，会比美国历史上任何时期都多，因为世界上许多国家正在奋力捍卫自己的自由，而西点学员应该帮助它们。无论是在越南、老挝还是泰国，无论是派驻到伊朗的军事顾问小组，还是在危难时刻前往某个拉美国家的武官，亦或是驻韩美军的指挥官——你们会上任这些职位，承担起这些重任，你们需要做出空前贡献。西点学员、海军学院学员还有空军学院学员，在未来10年将会成为自由的头号卫士，正如西点学子一直以来所做的那样。我相信参谋长联席会议的也会赞成这一观点，因为我和他们都知道，西点学子每天都在为国奉献——身处老挝的塔克尔将军，身处越南的哈尔金斯将军，还有许多西点学子身处国防要职，为捍卫自由而默默无闻地工作。你们要追随前辈们的步伐，我相信未来几年，你们将会肩负起捍卫国家利益的重担。

Therefore, I hope that you realize--and I hope every American realizes--how much we depend upon you. Your strictly military responsibilities, therefore, will require a versatility and an adaptability never before required in either war or in peace. They may involve the command and control of modern nuclear weapons and modern delivery systems, so complex that only a few scientists can understand their operation, so devastating that their inadvertent use would be of worldwide concern, but so new that their employment and their effects have never been tested in combat conditions.

所以，我希望你们能认识到——我希望全体美国人民都能意识到——我们有多么仰仗你们。你们身上肩负着军人的责任，未来是和平时期还是战争时期，这都需要你们拿出空前的变通性和适应性。你们需要能够指挥、控制现代的核武器，和现代发射系统，其操作难度之复杂，甚至于只有个别科学家才明白，其威力之巨大，甚至于少有操作不慎，就会引起举世担忧，但是这些武器又都是新型的，其威力和效果从未在实战中检验过。

On the other hand, your responsibilities may involve the command of more traditional forces, but in less traditional roles. Men risking their lives, not as combatants, but as instructors or advisers, or as symbols of our Nation's commitments. The fact that the United States is not directly at war in these areas in no way diminishes the skill and the courage that will be required, the service to our country which is rendered, or the pain of the casualties which are suffered.

另一方面，你们还需要能指挥传统的常规部队，但是你们所扮演的，并非常规指挥官。现在身处前线的人，并不是战斗人员，而是指导员或顾问，这是我国履行自身承诺的象征。美国并没有直接参与外国的战争，但这并不代表我们就不需要技能和勇气，我们依然需要为国服务，我们仍需付出必要的牺牲。

To cite one final example of the range of responsibilities that will fall upon you: you may hold a position of command with our special forces, forces which are too unconventional to be called conventional, forces which are growing in number and importance and significance, for we now know that it is wholly misleading to call this "the nuclear age," or to say that our security rests only on the doctrine of massive retaliation.

最后举一个例子，让大家明白自己肩负着何种职责：你们可能会奉命去指挥一支特种部队，这支部队极为特殊，其数量、战斗力与重要性都在增长，我们现在都明白，将当下这个时代称为“核时代”是极具误导性的，说我国安全可以完全依赖核反击也是片面的。

Korea has not been the only battleground since the end of the Second World War. Men have fought and died in Malaya, in Greece, in the Philippines, in Algeria and Cuba and Cyprus, and almost continuously on the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. No nuclear weapons have been fired. No massive nuclear retaliation has been considered appropriate. This is another type of war, new in its intensity, ancient in its origin--war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins, war by ambush instead of by combat; by infiltration, instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him. It is a form of warfare uniquely adapted to what has been strangely called "wars of liberation," to undermine the efforts of new and poor countries to maintain the freedom that they have finally achieved. It preys on economic unrest and ethnic conflicts. It requires in those situations where we must counter it, and these are the kinds of challenges that will be before us in the next decade if freedom is to be saved, a whole new kind of strategy, a wholly different kind of force, and therefore a new and wholly different kind of military training.

朝鲜战争并非二战结束以来的唯一一次热战。马来亚、希腊、菲律宾、阿尔及利亚、古巴、塞浦路斯都爆发过热战，直到今天，中南半岛依然战火不断。这些战争中，没有国家使用核武器。自然也就没有什么核反击。这是一种新型且古老战争——新在其烈度远不如从前，旧在其模式还会是老一套——游击战、颠覆、渗透、暗杀，依靠着蚕食和消耗来战胜敌人，而不是直接在战场上击败。这种作战方式，配合上某些国家口中的这种“解放战争”，正在逐渐打击新生贫穷国家捍卫自由的事业，正在夺走他们来之不易的自由。它们专挑那些经济下行、有种族矛盾的国家下手。如果想要捍卫自由，我们必须反制敌人这种战略，这就是未来十年中，我们要面临的挑战，所以我们必须用一种全新的训练方式，培训出一种全新的特种部队。

But I have spoken thus far only of the military challenges which your education must prepare you for. The nonmilitary problems which you will face will also be most demanding, diplomatic, political, and economic. In the years ahead, some of you will serve as advisers to foreign aid missions or even to foreign governments. Some will negotiate terms of a cease-fire with broad political as well as military ramifications. Some of you will go to the far corners of the earth, and to the far reaches of space. Some of you will sit in the highest councils of the Pentagon. Others will hold delicate command posts which are international in character. Still others will advise on plans to abolish arms instead of using them to abolish others. Whatever your position, the scope of your decisions will not be confined to the traditional tenets of military competence and training. You will need to know and understand not only the foreign policy of the United States but the foreign policy of all countries scattered around the world who 20 years ago were the most distant names to us. You will need to give orders in different tongues and read maps by different systems. You will be involved in economic judgments which most economists would hesitate to make. At what point, for example, does military aid become burdensome to a country and make its freedom endangered rather than helping to secure it? To what extent can the gold and dollar cost of our overseas deployments be offset by foreign procurement? Or at what stage can a new weapons system be considered sufficiently advanced to justify large dollar appropriations?

但我目前谈论的，还只是军事上的问题，你们在军校都学到了如何应对这些问题。你们未来也会面对异常严峻的非军事问题，比如外交、政治和军事问题。未来几年，你们可能作为顾问去为外国援助代表团服务，甚至直接为外国政府服务。有些人可能会参与协商停火，制定停火条约时务必要广泛衡量其政治后果和军事后果。你们中有些人会前往地球上各个角落，甚至前往太空。有些人会进入五角大楼的最高委员会。还有些人会进入一些国际组织任职。还有些人负责不是用武器去消灭别人，而是负责裁军事务，消灭武器本身。但无论如何，你们未来要做出的抉择，都不会仅限于传统的军事准则，都不是你们日常训练中都所涉及过的。你们不仅要了解美国的外交政策，还要了解那些距离我们最遥远的国家，了解它们在过去20年里的外交政策。你们需要用不同的语言下命令，看得懂不同种类的地图。你们要做出那些许多经济学家都不敢做出的经济决定。比如说，你们需要思考，多少对外援助会成为我国的负担，不仅无助于捍卫我国自由，还会适得其反？我军海外部署所花费的金额，都多少能被外国政府给报销掉？什么时候，什么样的新武器，要达到何种先进程度，才值得我们大笔拨款？

In many countries, your posture and performance will provide the local population with the only evidence of what our country is really like. In other countries, your military mission, its advice and action, will play a key role in determining whether those people will remain free. You will need to understand the importance of military power and also the limits of military power, to decide what arms should be used to fight and when they should be used to prevent a fight, to determine what represents our vital interests and what interests are only marginal.

你们在外国的表现，会成为许多国家人民了解真实美国的唯一途径。你们在外国执行军事任务，给出的建议、采取的行动，都将决定当地人民是否能继续享有自由。你们需要明白军事力量的重要性，同时明白武力的局限性，这样才能明白什么时候该采取武力，什么时候要避免使用武力，分得清什么是不可割舍的国家核心利益，什么是可以让出的微不足道利益。

Above all, you will have a responsibility to deter war as well as to fight it. For the basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible of a final military solution. While we will long require the services and admire the dedication and commitment of the fighting men of this country, neither our strategy nor our psychology as a nation, and certainly not our economy, must become permanently dependent upon an ever-increasing military establishment.

最重要的是，你们有责任震慑敌人，并抗击敌人。因为当今世界面临的根本问题，不是可以靠军事手段来解决的。虽然我们未来依然需要军人，崇敬展示为国做出的奉献，但是无论从我国的战略上还是心理上来看，都不可能永远维持一支规模不断扩大的军队，更不用说经济方面了。

Our forces, therefore, must fulfill a broader role as a complement to our diplomacy, as an arm of our diplomacy, as a deterrent to our adversaries, and as a symbol to our allies of our determination to support them.

所以我们的军队，必须职责广泛，既能谈判，又能以武力促谈，既能震慑我们的敌人，又能成为我们盟国的定心丸，表明我们会支持他们。

That is why this Academy has seen its curriculum grow and expand in dimension, in substance, and in difficulty. That is why you cannot possibly have crowded into these 4 busy years all of the knowledge and all of the range of experience which you must bring to these subtle and delicate tasks which I have described. And that is why go to school year after year so you can serve this country to the best of your ability and your talent.

正是因此，西点军校的课程数量才不断增多，涉猎更广，难度更大。所以你们不不可能在短短四年内，就掌握履行上述艰巨职责所需的所有知识，所有经验。所以我们才需要几十年如一日地学习，因为这样我们才能为国家做出更大的贡献。

To talk of such talent and effort raises in the minds, I am sure, of everyone, and the minds of all of our countrymen, why--why should men such as you, able to master the complex arts of science, mathematics, language, economy, and all the rest devote their lives to a military career, with all of its risks and hardships? Why should their families be expected to make the personal and financial sacrifices that a military career inevitably brings with it? When there is a visible enemy to fight in open combat, the answer is not so difficult. Many serve, all applaud, and the tide of patriotism runs high. But when there is a long, slow struggle, with no immediate visible foe, your choice will seem hard indeed. And you will recall, I am sure, the lines found in an old sentry box in Gibraltar:

我相信，一谈到这个，所有人、我国所有人脑中都会浮现出一个疑问，为什么——为什么像你们这样优秀的人，又懂科学，又晓数学，能说外语，又能搞经济的人才，要不辞辛苦、冒着生命危险从事军旅生涯？为什么你们的家属要为此承担感情和经济上的损失？但如果我们进入了战争时期，这个问题的答案就昭然若揭了。届时会有许多人踊跃参军，百姓无不赞扬军人，爱国主义情绪高涨。但是我们现在身处一场漫长的斗争之中，我们没有直接进入战争时代，所以你们会面临较为艰难的选择。我相信，你们会想起当年人们在直布罗陀的一个旧哨兵站里发现的一首诗：

God and the soldier all men adore

In time of trouble--and no more,

For when war is over, and all things righted,

God is neglected--and the old soldier slighted.

战争年代，人人崇敬，

神与军人，战后即止；

战事既休，万事皆正，

无人祈神，无人敬军。

But you have one satisfaction, however difficult those days may be: when you are asked by a President of the United States or by any other American what you are doing for your country, no man's answer will be clearer than your own. And that moral motivation which brought you here in the first place is part of your training here as well. West Point was not built to produce technical experts alone. It was built to produce men committed to the defense of their country, leaders of men who understand the great stakes which are involved, leaders who can be entrusted with the heavy responsibility which modern weapons and the fight for freedom entail, leaders who can inspire in their men the same sense of obligation to duty which you bring to it.

但尽管未来的日子再艰难，你们仍能得到一份慰藉：当美国总统和美国人民要求你们为国服役时，你们作出了斩钉截铁的肯定回答。正是这种高尚品质把你们带到了这里，也是你们军旅生涯的第一课。西点军校设立，并不是只是为了培训技术专家。它设立的目的，是为美国培训更多能保家卫国的勇士，能指挥千军万马、运筹帷幄之中的领导者，敢于拿起武器，肩负起捍卫自由重任的指挥官，能够激励下属，让他们同样具备这份高尚品质，薪火相传。

There is no single slogan that you can repeat to yourself in hard days or give to those who may be associated with you. In times past, a simple phrase, "54-40 or fight" or "to make the world safe for democracy"-that was enough. But the times, the weapons, and the issues are now more complicated than ever.

如今，你们已经不能靠一两句口号来振奋自己和战友。虽然在过去，一句的简单的“北纬54度40分或战争”，“为民主打造一个安全世界”便足矣。但现在，无论是我们的武器还是我们面临的问题各都更加复杂。

Eighteen years ago today, Ernie Pyle, describing those tens of thousands of young men who crossed the "ageless and indifferent" sea of the English Channel, searched in vain for a word to describe what they were fighting for. And finally he concluded that they were at least fighting for each other.

18年前，厄尼·派尔曾描述，上万名青年跨过“不知老幼、冷酷无情”的英吉利海峡，不知道自己在为何而战。但最后他说，他们起码是在为互为浴血袍泽的彼此而战。

You and I leave here today to meet our separate responsibilities, to protect our Nation's vital interests by peaceful means if possible, by resolute action if necessary. And we go forth confident of support and success because we know that we are working and fighting for each other and for all those men and women all over the globe who are determined to be free.

你我今日告别后，会去各自履行自己的职责，有可能的话，我希望我们是一起通过和平方式捍卫我国核心利益，如果必要的话，我们也要采取坚决行动保卫国家。我们势在必得，因为我们知道，我们是为了互为袍泽的彼此而战，也是为了全球渴望自由的人民而战。

声明：本人仅按照原文翻译内容，演讲内容不代表本人观点。此专栏仅供历史和英语交流学习使用，任何读者皆可引用本人的译本。

希望来学习英语的观众明白：我觉得这些专栏的主要精华在于英语原文，而并非我的译本，我的译本很大程度上只是供来学习历史的观众使用的。本人的英语水平一般，翻译得并不会多么精彩，只能在你看不懂时来帮助你了解这些演讲内容最基本的意思，而且翻译时难免会出现差错，切勿直接完全以我的译本为标准。如发现有翻译错误或者歧义内容，欢迎指正。

希望来学习历史的观众明白：任何历史人物都有一定的局限性，随着时代发展，很多观点看法可能已经不再适用今天的世界，西方的观点也不一定适用于我们。通过了解这些演讲，仅可给我们提供一个更全面了解过去和世界的渠道。我们可以从优秀的历史、当代人物身上学到很多，但是请保持独立思考，理性看待演讲内容，切勿全信或将其奉为真理。