建国史话之尼克松访华(英语精度).docxVIP

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. Im Steve Ember.?Today, we continue the story of the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard Nixon.?(MUSIC)?The year is nineteen sixty-nine. Richard Nixon, a Republican, is in the first year of his first term in office. His biggest foreign policy problem is the continuing war in Vietnam. During the election campaign, Nixon had promised to do something to end the war.共和党籍美国总统尼克松1969年走马上任。在外交上，尼克松面临的最棘手的问题是仍在继续的越战。竞选期间，尼克松曾保证要设法结束越战。The question was: what?关键是怎样结束。?Some Americans want him to withdraw troops from Vietnam immediately. Bring the soldiers home, they say. Others believe the United States should take whatever measures are necessary to win. Expand the ground war, they say, or even use nuclear weapons.一部分美国人主张立即撤军，让美军将士回家，另外一部分美国人则认为，美国应该不惜一切代价打赢这场战争，扩大地面战争的规模，甚至动用核武器。?Withdrawing troops would leave South Vietnam alone to resist communist North Vietnam. Yet that was the reason the United States had entered the conflict -- to prevent the communists from capturing the south.撤军就意味着放弃南越不管，让他们单枪匹马对付北越的共产力量。而美国参加越战的初衷，就是不想让南越落入共产主义阵营。?Expanding the war would not be an easy decision either. Already, by nineteen sixty-nine, more Americans had died in Vietnam than had died during the Korean War.另一方面，扩大战局也没有那么简单，1969年时，越战阵亡的美军将士人数就已经超过韩战了。?For Richard Nixon, the war is a terrible test. If he fails, his presidency could end the way Lyndon Johnsons presidency ended. Johnson decided not to run for re-election after he lost public and political support for his war policies.对尼克松来说，越战是一次严峻考验。如果失败，他的总统生涯就会跟前任约翰逊总统有一样的结局，约翰逊就是因为自己的越战政策失去了公众和政界的支持，才决定不参选连任的。?Presidents have advisers, and Nixons most important adviser was Henry Kissinger. Kissinger was an expert on foreign relations. He later served as Nixons secretary of state. Together, they tried many ways to settle the conflict in Vietnam. It took several years before the involvement of the United States would finally end.