STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm 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 Johnson's 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 Nixon's most important adviser was Henry Kissinger. Kissinger was an expert on foreign relations. He later served as Nixon's 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.
每个总统身边都有出谋划策的人。尼克松最重要的智囊是亨利.基辛格。基辛格是外交事务专家，后来曾任尼克松的国务卿。尼克松和基辛格为结束越战尝试了很多办法，花了好几年才终于脱身。
The American efforts were both diplomatic and military. Peace talks were taking place in Paris. But the Nixon administration started secret peace talks in Paris at the same time. The administration also withdrew some troops from Vietnam. Yet -- secretly -- it sent other troops into Cambodia. And it began bombing Laos.
美国在外交和军事上双管齐下。巴黎举行和谈的同时，尼克松政府也在巴黎举行秘密和谈。他们从越南撤回了一部分兵力，但同时又秘密派兵前往柬埔寨，并开始轰炸老挝。
AUDIO: Bombing
The Nixon administration also started bombing North Vietnam again. Lyndon Johnson had stopped the raids a few years earlier.
约翰逊几年前下令停止的对北越的空袭，也在尼克松任期内重新开始。
(MUSIC)
Efforts to end American involvement in Vietnam did not begin immediately. For his first eight months in office, President Nixon made no major policy changes. Then, in October nineteen sixty-nine, he ordered the withdrawal of sixty thousand troops.
尼克松上任头八个月，没有做出任何重大的政策变动。1969年10月，他才下令撤回六万美军。
He said he acted to speed the peace talks. He also ordered American commanders to give the South Vietnamese most of the responsibility for fighting.
并下令美军指挥官将大部分作战任务交给南越方面。尼克松说，他这样做是为了加快和谈的进程。
Americans were happy that fewer troops would be involved. But many were unhappy that the withdrawal was not complete. Huge anti-war demonstrations took place in the United States in the autumn of nineteen sixty-nine. On November fifteenth, several hundred thousand people protested in Washington.
撤军是美国民众希望看到的，但是部分撤军又让很多人感到不满。1969年秋天美国出现了大规模反战抗议，11月15号首都华盛顿也发生了几十万人的示威游行。
Nixon tried to explain to the American people why he was not ordering an immediate withdrawal. In his words: "It is not the easy way. It is the right way."
尼克松试图向美国民众解释，他为什么没有下令全部撤军，按他的话说，“这样做不是最简单的做法，但却是正确的做法。”
In the spring of nineteen seventy, American and South Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia.
1970年春天，美国和南越部队进攻柬埔寨。
RICHARD NIXON: "Tonight, American and South Vietnamese units will attack the headquarters for the entire communist military operation in South Vietnam."
Nixon described to the American public why he had decided to order the actions in Cambodia.
NIXON: "This key control center has been occupied by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong for five years, in blatant violation of Cambodia's neutrality. This is not an invasion of Cambodia. The areas in which these attacks will be launched are completely occupied and controlled by North Vietnamese forces. Once enemy forces are driven out of these sanctuaries, and once their military supplies are destroyed, we will withdraw."
尼克松就这一行动向美国民众做出解释说：“那里的重要控制中心已经被北越和越共控制了五年，公然违背柬埔寨的中立地位。这次行动不是侵略柬埔寨，行动领域都是北越部队控制的地带，一旦将他们赶出这些避难处，一旦他们的军事供给被彻底摧毁，我们马上撤军。”
(MUSIC)
Early in nineteen seventy-one, the Nixon administration decided to provide air and artillery support for a South Vietnamese invasion of Laos. The goal was to stop supplies from reaching North Vietnam through that neighboring country.
1971年初，尼克松政府决定为南越进攻老挝提供空中和炮火支持，目的是阻止军用供给途经老挝进入北越。
South Vietnamese forces destroyed many enemy weapons. But they also suffered heavy losses, and many American planes were shot down. After six weeks, the South Vietnamese were forced to withdraw.
南越部队摧毁了敌军的很多武器，但自身也损失惨重，很多架美军战斗机被击落。六个星期后，南越部队就被迫撤退了。
Many members of the United States Congress were angry. They said the invasion of Laos was another in a long series of failures. Nixon's administration had said the United States was winning the war. Opposition Democrats in Congress said the administration was lying. Criticism by the American public grew louder, as well.
美国国会很多议员都感到气愤。他们说，入侵老挝是一系列失败中的又一次。尼克松政府一直说，美国正在打赢这场战争，但是国会里的反对派民主党议员指出，政府在撒谎，美国民众的批评声浪也不断提高。
Demonstrations took place across the country, including on college campuses.
全国各地抗议示威不断，包括大学校园。
AUDIO: Kent State shooting
On May fourth, nineteen seventy, National Guard troops shot and killed four students during protests at Kent State University in Ohio.
1970年5月4日，国民警卫队在俄亥俄州的肯特州立大学学生抗议活动中开枪打死了四个学生。
This is what Neil Young means when he sings of "four dead in Ohio" in a famous protest song that he wrote in reaction to the killings.
歌手尼尔.扬还专门为这件事写过歌。
(MUSIC: "Ohio"/Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)
President Nixon said again that the United States must not permit North Vietnam to take over South Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson had said the same thing when he was president.
尼克松总统再次强调，美国不能允许北越吞噬南越，他的前任约翰逊总统也曾说过同样的话。
Many Americans had accepted the war, but as it continued, and as more Americans died in Vietnam, public opinion changed.
很多美国人一度接受了这场战争，但是随着战争的继续，随着美军官兵阵亡人数的增加，公众舆论发生了变化。