德怀特ˇDˇ艾森豪威尔威尔
(DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER)

告别演说
Farewell Address

    我们必须警惕军事ˇˇ工业联合体取得无法证明爲正当的影ˇ力ˇ不论它这样追求与否。

        德怀特ˇDˇ艾森豪威尔威尔(1890一1969)先是在第二次世界大战中任盟军最高统帅ˇ以后又连任两届颇有人缘的美国总统ˇ以此达到一生权力的顶峰。艾森豪威尔威尔生于得克萨斯州的丹尼森ˇ在他家七个儿子中排行第三。他在堪萨斯州阿比林长大ˇ家境贫困ˇ但家人勤劳且笃信宗教。1915年艾森豪威尔威尔毕业于美国军事学院。 

        第二次世界大战后ˇ他作爲一名妇孺皆知的英雄凯旋而归ˇ短期担任哥伦比亚大学校长ˇ1952年当选总统。在他的总统任期内ˇ民主党人埋怨他回避种族问题的争论ˇ在国内外事务中采取基本上是保守主义的立场ˇ甚至讨厌他所用句法。但是这位被称爲“艾克”的人物始终很受公衆欢迎。

         l 961年1月l 7日ˇ在他离开总统职位前ˇ艾森豪威尔威尔作告别演说。他在讲话中描述了因一个“军事ˇ工业联合体”和一个“科学一技术精英阶层”的崛起在美国政治生活中引起的变化。正是他的保守主义使他蔑视由军备竞赛和冷战造成的权力集中的情况。他的开明的批评者开始觉得ˇ对艾森豪威尔威尔的某一方面他们并不了解。

 再过三天ˇ在我爲我国服务半个世纪之后ˇ随着总统的权威按传统的隆重仪式归属我的继任者ˇ本人将卸下公职。…… 

    我们ˇ在的日期距本世纪中点已过十年ˇ这个世纪经历了大国之间四次大的战争ˇ我们自己的国家卷入其中三次。尽管发生了这些大规模的战祸ˇ当今美国乃是世界上最强大、最有影ˇ、生産力最高的国家。我们自然爲此卓越成就感到自豪ˇ但我们也意识到ˇ美国的领导地位和威信不仅取决于我们举世无双的物质进步、财富和军事力量ˇ而且取决于我们如何爲世界和平与人类福利使用我们的力量。

    纵观美国在自由政府体制上的探索历程ˇ我们的基本目的始终是维护和平ˇ促进人类进步ˇ在人民中和国家之间增进自由权ˇ提高尊严ˇ宏扬正直的品质。追求较低的目标会辱没一个自由、有虔诚宗教信仰的民族。任何由于骄傲自大或理解力不强或缺乏奉ˇ精神的失败都将在国内外给我们带来严重损害。 

    走ˇ这些崇高目标的进程一直受到ˇ在正席卷全球的冲突的威胁。这种冲突迫使我们全神贯注ˇ全力以赴。我们面对一种敌对的意识形态ˇˇ具有世界性规模和无神论性质ˇ目标残忍ˇ手段阴ˇ。不幸的是ˇ它所造成的危ˇ将长期存在。欲成功地对付它ˇ所要求的与其说是危急关头感情上短暂的痛苦ˇ毋宁说是作出牺牲以使我们能坚定踏实、任劳任怨地承担一场长期复杂斗争的重任ˇˇ与自由共存亡。只有这样我们才能战胜一次又一次的挑衅ˇ始终朝着世界持久和平和人类美好未来的方ˇ前进。…… 

    我们的军队是维护和平必不可少的要素。我们的武装力量必须强大ˇ随时准备投入行动ˇ以使任何潜在的侵略者都不敢贸然以卵击石。

    我们今天的军事组织与我的任何一位和平时期前任所了解的ˇ与第二次世界大战或朝鲜战争中的军人所了解的军事组织大ˇ径庭。

    直至最近的一次世界性冲突之前、美国仍没有军事工业。美国的犁铧制造商们在必要时也能制造剑。但是ˇ在我们不能再以临阵磨枪的方式承担国防上的风ˇˇ我们已被迫创建一个规模宏大的永久性军事工业。此外ˇ350万男人和妇女直接服务于国防机构。我们每年在军事安全上的开支超过了美国所有的公司的纯收入。

    一支庞大的军队和一个大规模军事工业ˇ结合ˇ在美国是史无前例的。它的全部影ˇˇˇ经济的、政治的ˇ甚至精神的ˇˇ在每个城市、每座州议会大楼、每一联邦政府机构内都能感觉到。我们承认这种发展绝对必要ˇ但我们不应忽视其重大的影ˇ。它涉及我们的人力、资源、生活ˇ乃至我们社会的结构。

    在政府各部门ˇ我们必须警惕军事ˇ工业联合体取得无法证明是正当的影ˇ力ˇ不论它这样追求与否。极不适当的权力恶性增长的可能性目前已经存在并将继续存在。

    我们决不能让这一联合体的势力危害我们的自由或民主进程。我们不应心存侥幸。只有警觉而明智的美国公民才能强迫庞大的工业和军事的国防机构与我们和平的手段和目标恰当配合ˇ以使安全和自由并驾齐驱ˇ同获成功。

    近几十年的技术革命与我们的工业ˇ军事状况的巨大变化有ˇ似之处ˇ而且对这种巨大变化起了很大作用。 

    在这场技术革命中ˇ研究工作已趋于集中ˇ它也变得更正规ˇ更复杂ˇ更昂贵。爲联邦政府而实施ˇ由联邦政府实施ˇ或在联邦政府指导下实施的研究工作份额正逐步增加。

    由联邦政府雇用而形成支配全国学者的局面ˇ以及统一分配ˇ目ˇ统一控制财力ˇ这种前景一直存在ˇ而且应当引起严重关注。

    我们应该尊重科学研究和探索ˇ但与此同时我们必须对这一同样严重的负面危ˇ保持警惕ˇ即政府政策本身可能沦爲一个科学ˇˇ技术精英阶层的俘虏。

    治国之才的任务ˇ是在我们民主制度的原则范畴内ˇ塑造、平衡和融合这些和其它新旧力量ˇˇ始终以实ˇ我们自由社会的最高目标爲目的。

    另一个保持平衡的因素涉及时间这一要素。当我们展望社会的未来时ˇ我们ˇˇ你、我和我国政府ˇˇ必须避免一种只顾今日生活的冲动ˇ不应爲了我们自己的舒适和便利巧取豪夺明天的宝贵资源。我们不可能以孙儿辈的物质财富作抵押ˇ而又不冒使他们丧失政治和精神遗産的风ˇ。我们要让民主代代ˇ传ˇ它不该成爲明天无力还债的鬼魂。 

    展望有待书写的未来历史长卷ˇ美国深知我们这个越来越小的世界决不应变成一个充满恐惧和仇恨的可怕的群体ˇˇ反ˇ它应成爲一个ˇ互信任、ˇ互尊重的光辉的联盟。

    这样一个联盟必定是平等国家间的联盟。最弱小的国家一定以与我们ˇ同的自信心来到会议桌旁ˇ和我们一样受到我们的道德、经济和军事力量的保护。那会议桌虽然留下历史坎坷的累累伤痕ˇ但我们不能将它抛弃以换来战场的惨剧。

    以ˇ互尊敬和信任实行裁军仍是一ˇ迫切任务。我们必须一起学习怎样不用武力ˇ而是以理智和公正的意图去解决纷争。因爲裁军的紧迫性如此明ˇ突出ˇ我承认我是怀着某种失望的心情卸下我的总统职责的。作爲一个目睹过战争的恐怖及其难以愈合的创伤的人ˇˇ深知另一场战争会彻底毁掉历经数千年缓慢而又艰苦地建成的人类文明ˇˇ我但愿自己今晚能说ˇ持久和平已遥遥在望。

    幸好我可以说ˇ已经避免发生战争了。朝我们的终极目标已迈开坚实的步伐。但是任重而道远。作爲一个普通公民ˇ我将始终不渝地爲推动世界沿着这条道路前进贡ˇ一份绵薄。……

Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. . . .

   We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of them involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world.

Understandably proud of this pre-eminence we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

    Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.

    Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology―global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle―with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment. ...

    A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

    Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

    Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

    This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence―  economic, political, even spiritual― is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

    In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

    We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

   Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

    In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the federal government....

    The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present ― and is gravely to be regarded.

   Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

    It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system― ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

    Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we― you and I, and our government― must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

    Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

    Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

    Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war― as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years― I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

    Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road. . . .