美国百大英语演讲 Thayer Award Acceptance Address "Duty, Honor, Country" by 道格拉斯·麦克阿瑟

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General Westmoreland, General Grove¹, distinguished² guests, and gentlemen of the Corps³!

 

As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, "Where are you bound for, General?" And when I replied, "West Point," he remarked, "Beautiful place. Have you ever been there before?"

 

No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this [Thayer Award]. Coming from a profession I have served so long, and a people I have loved so well, it fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this award is not intended primarily to honor a personality, but to symbolize⁴ a great moral code -- the code of conduct and chivalry⁵ of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent. That is the animation⁶ of this medallion. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics⁷ of the American soldier. That I should be integrated in this way with so noble an ideal arouses a sense of pride and yet of humility⁸ which will be with me always

 

Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently⁹ dictate¹⁰ what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain¹¹ faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

 

Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence¹² of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance¹³ of metaphor¹⁴ to tell you all that they mean.

 

The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant¹⁵ phrase. Every pedant¹⁶, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker¹⁷, and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely¹⁹ different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule²⁰.

 

But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians²¹ of the nation's defense²². They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble²³ and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion²⁴ on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity²⁵ of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness²⁶ of true strength. They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor²⁷ of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.

 

And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then as I regard him now -- as one of the world's noblest figures, not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless²⁸. His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty²⁹, he gave all that mortality can give.

 

He needs no eulogy³⁰ from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty³¹ in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration³² I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism³³. He belongs to posterity³⁴ as the instructor³⁵ of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues³⁶ and by his achievements. In 20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude³⁷, that patriotic³⁸ self-abnegation, and that invincible³⁹ determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice⁴⁰ of courage.

 

As I listened to those songs [of the glee club], in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs, on many a weary march from dripping dusk to drizzling⁴¹ dawn, slogging ankle-deep through the mire⁴² of shell-shocked roads, to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment⁴³ seat of  God.

 

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always, for them: Duty, Honor, Country; always their blood and sweat and tears, as we sought the way and the light and the truth.

 

And 20 years after, on the other side of the globe, again the filth⁴⁴ of murky⁴⁵ foxholes⁴⁶, the stench of ghostly trenches⁴⁷, the slime of dripping dugouts; those boiling suns of relentless⁴⁸ heat, those torrential rains of devastating⁴⁹ storms; the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails; the bitterness of long separation from those they loved and cherished; the deadly pestilence⁵⁰ of tropical disease; the horror of stricken areas of war; their resolute⁵¹ and determined⁵² defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory -- always victory. Always through the bloody⁵³ haze⁵⁴ of their last reverberating⁵⁵ shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men reverently following your password of: Duty, Honor, Country.

 

The code which those words perpetuate⁵⁶ embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated⁵⁷ for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong.

 

The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice.

 

In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker¹⁸ gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute⁵⁸ instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.

 

However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

 

You now face a new world -- a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres, and missiles mark the beginning of another epoch⁵⁹ in the long story of mankind. In the five or more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of development of the human race, there has never been a more abrupt⁶⁰ or staggering evolution. We deal now not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless⁶¹ frontier.

 

We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us; of creating unheard synthetic⁶² materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; to purify sea water for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundreds of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable⁶³ distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of space ships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister⁶⁴ forces of some other planetary galaxy⁶⁵; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all time.

 

And through all this welter of change and development, your mission remains⁶⁶ fixed⁶⁷, determined, inviolable: it is to win our wars.

 

Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication⁶⁸. All other public purposes, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishment⁶⁹. But you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms,  the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory; that if you lose, the nation will be destroyed; that the very obsession⁷⁰ of your public service must be: Duty, Honor, Country.

 

Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds; but serene⁷¹, calm, aloof⁷², you stand as the Nation's war-guardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena⁷³ of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.

 

Let civilian⁷⁴ voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit⁷⁵ financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty⁷⁶, by power groups grown too arrogant⁷⁷, by politics grown too corrupt⁷⁸, by crime grown too rampant⁷⁹, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great national problems are not for your professional participation⁸⁰ or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon⁸¹ in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.

 

You are the leaven⁸² which binds⁸³ together the entire fabric⁸⁴ of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

 

This does not mean that you are war mongers.

 

On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

 

But always in our ears ring the ominous⁸⁵ words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

 

The shadows are lengthening⁸⁶ for me. The twilight⁸⁷ is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint⁸⁸. They have gone glimmering⁸⁹ through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous⁹⁰ beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed⁹¹ and caressed⁹² by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles⁹³ blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle⁹⁴ of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

 

But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point.

 

Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.

 

Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.

 

I bid you farewell.

 

delivered 12 May 1962, West Point, NY

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