罗纳德里根演讲《邪恶帝国》节选

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标题:网友推荐：罗纳德.里根演讲《邪恶帝国》节选，中英对照背诵后四级一次考过，^^.

由此我将谈及今天的最后一个话题。在我作为总统举行的第一次记者招待会上，在回答一个直率的问题时，我曾指出：苏联领导人是不错的马列主义者，他们开诚布公地宣称，他们所承认的唯一道德就是推动他们的事业，就是世界革命。我想我应该指出，这里我只引用了他们的精神导师列宁的话，他在1920年曾说，他们摒弃一切源于超自然观念的道德——那是他们给宗教下的定义——或与阶级学说无关的观念。道德完全服务于阶级斗争的需要。一种东西是否道德，取决于它是否为消灭旧的、剥削性的社会秩序和统一无产阶级的事业所必需。

是的，我想许多有影响的人士拒绝接受苏联教条的这一基本观点体现了对于极权主义本质的历史性抗拒。我们在30年代就目睹了这种抗拒。今天我们依然到处可见这种抗拒。

但这不意味着我们应该自我孤立并且拒绝寻求与他们的谅解。我打算尽一切努力去使他们相信我们的和平意愿，我要提醒他们，是西方在四十年代和五十年代拒绝利用其在核技术方面的垄断地位以扩张领土，同样是西方在今天提议削减50％的战略弹道导弹，以及销毁全部的陆基中程核导弹。

但是同时，他们也必须明白，我们永远不会拿我们的原则和准则讨价还价。我们永远不会出让我们的自由。我们永远不会背弃对上帝的信仰。我们也永远不会停止谋求一种真正的和平。但我们不能保证美国所支持的这些东西能够通过某些人士提出的所谓核冻结方案得到维护。

真实情况却是，现在的冻结将会成为一种非常危险的欺诈，因为它仅仅是和平的幻象。实际上我们必须通过实力来寻求和平。

只有当我们能够冻结苏联的全球野心时，我才会同意某种冻结。在当前水平的武器冻结将使苏联在日内瓦与我们进行认真谈判的动机不复存在，事实上它会断送我们提出的削减主要军备的机会。更有甚者，他们会通过冻结来达成他们的目的。

一次冻结给予苏联的奖赏就是它庞大而且无与伦比的军事积累。却会阻止美国及盟国的国防现代化，使我们日趋老化的军事力量弱不禁风。一种诚实的冻结会就限制的系统和数量、确保有效性核查和执行的措施等问题进行广泛的先行谈判。而现在提出的冻结实际上不可能进行核查。这样一种努力会使我们完全偏离目前进行的达成实质性削减的谈判。

几年前，我在加利福尼亚州一个人数众多的集会上听到一位年轻人的演讲。他是位年轻的父亲并且在娱乐圈名声大噪。在冷战期间，共产主义和我们自己的生活方式成为许多人萦绕心头的一个问题。当时他所谈的就是这个题目。突然，我听到他说：“我爱我的女儿们甚过一切。”我自言自语道：“哦，别那么说。你不能那么说，别说那个。”但是我低估了他。他接着说道：“但我宁可看到我的孩子们现在怀着对上帝的信念阖然长逝，也不愿她们在共产主义的阴影下成长，并且有朝一日带着对上帝无所信仰的心态死去。”

听众当中也有好几千年轻人。他们站起身来，欢呼雀跃。他们立即就明白了他的话中所包含的深刻真理，即物质与精神何者是真正重要的。

是的，让我们为所有那些生活于极权主义黑幕中的人祈祷。祝愿他们发现认识上帝的喜乐。但是在他们认识上帝之前，我们必须警觉，只要他们继续鼓吹国家的至高无上、宣扬国家对于个体的万能、并预言它将最终统治全人类，他们就是现代世界的邪恶中心。


鲁益师在他令人难忘的《地狱来鸿》中写道：当今最大的邪恶并非是在狄更斯所热衷描绘的、肮脏的“罪恶之窟”中炮制出来的，它甚至不是在集中营和劳改营犯下的，那些地方只是邪恶发作的最终结果。当今最大的邪恶是在整洁豪华、温暖明亮的办公室里构思和安排的；是由那些衣着光鲜、言谈斯文的人鼓动、支持、散布和记录的。

结果，由于这些人言谈斯文、由于他们有时流利自如地畅谈手足之情与和平、由于他们能象某些以前的独裁者一样总是在“最后才提出领土要求”，一些人就会要求我们相信他们的表白并且顺从他们的非份之想。但是，如果历史教会了我们什么，那就是对对手一味妥协或一厢情愿实属愚不可及。它意味着背叛我们的过去、虚掷我们的自由。

因此，我敦促你们大声反对那些将美国置于军事和道德劣等地位的人士。我一直相信你们这些教会人士才是鲁益师书中那个老魔鬼的眼中钉。因此，在你们讨论核冻结提议时，我要提醒你们谨防傲慢的诱惑，那是一种洋洋自得地宣称自己凌驾于一切之上、并对双方各打五十大板的诱惑。它无视一个邪恶帝国的历史和勃勃野心，径自宣布军备竞赛不过是一场巨大的误会，由此而使自己游离于对与错、善与恶之外。

本届政府在尽力使美国保持强大和自由，当我们正在为真正和可靠地削减核武库、并在上帝的帮助下最终彻底消灭核武器而进行谈判时，有些人会使你们撤回对我们努力的支持，我请求你们抵制这种诱惑。

虽然美国的军事实力是重要的，但我在这里要补充一点：我始终确信，当前为世界而进行的抗争从来不取决于炸弹或火箭，也不取决于军队或军事力量。我们今天所面临的真正危机是精神上的；从根本上说，它是对道德意志和信仰的检验。

惠特克•钱伯斯——这位希斯-钱伯斯间谍案中的主角、这位以其自身的变节而见证了我们时代可怕创伤的人——曾写道，某种程度上，西方世界的危机在于它对上帝漠不关心，从而配合了共产主义将人与神疏离开来的尝试。他又说道，马列主义实际上是人类第二种最为古老的信仰，第一种信仰则是伊甸园中的诱惑之音：“你们会像神一样。”

他写道：西方能够回应这种挑战，“但这只有假定西方对上帝及天赋自由的信念与共产主义对人的信念一样伟大才行。”

我相信我们能够迎接这种挑战。我相信共产主义是人类历史上一个悲惨而诡异的篇章——即使这一章已经临近终结。我相信这个是因为我们探求自由的力量源泉不是物质上的，而是精神上的。而且由于它是无尽的，所以它必然对那些奴役同类的人形成威慑并最终战胜他们。因为以赛亚书这样写道：“疲乏的，他赐气力；无力的，他加力量。但那些仰望主的人，必重新得力；他们必像鹰一样展翅上腾；他们奔跑，决不困倦。”

是的，改变你们的世界。我们的国父之一潘恩曾说：“我们拥有重塑世界的内在力量。”我们能做到这一点，让我们协力同心来完成这项仅凭一己之力无法完成的事业。

愿上帝保佑你们，谢谢大家。


And this brings me to my final point today. During my first press conference as president, in answer to a direct question, I pointed out that, as good Marxist-Leninists, the Soviet leaders have openly and publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is that which will further their cause, which is world revolution. I think I should point out I was only quoting Lenin, their guiding spirit, who said in 1920 that they repudiate all morality that proceeds from supernatural ideas–that’s their name for religion–or ideas that are outside class conceptions. Morality is entirely subordinate to the interests of class war. And everything is moral that is necessary for the annihilation of the old exploiting social order and for uniting the proletariat.

Well, I think the refusal of many influential people to accept this elementary fact of Soviet doctrine illustrates an historical reluctance to see totalitarian powers for what they are. We saw this phenomenon in the 1930s. We see it too often today.

This doesn’t mean we should isolate ourselves and refuse to seek an understanding with them. I intend to do everything I can to persuade them of our peaceful intent, to remind them that it was the West that refused to use its nuclear monopoly in the forties and fifties for territorial gain and which now pr-proposes 50 percent cut in strategic ballistic missiles and the elimination of an entire class of land-based, intermediate-range nuclear missiles. [Applause]

At the same time, however, they must be made to understand: we will never compromise our principles and standards. We will never give away our freedom. We will never abandon our belief in God. [Long Applause] And we will never stop searching for a genuine peace, but we can assure none of these things America stands for through the so-called nuclear freeze solutions proposed by some.

The truth is that a freeze now would be a very dangerous fraud, for that is merely the illusion of peace. The reality is that we must find peace through strength. [Applause]

I would a-[Applause continuing]…I would agree to a freeze if only we could freeze the Soviets’ global desires. [Laughter, Applause] A freeze at current levels of weapons would remove any incentive for the Soviets to negotiate seriously in Geneva and virtually end our chances to achieve the major arms reductions which we have proposed. Instead, they would achieve their objectives through the freeze.

A freeze would reward the Soviet Union for its enormous and unparalleled military buildup. It would prevent the essential and long overdue modernization of United States and allied defenses and would leave our aging forces increasingly vulnerable. And an honest freeze would require extensive prior negotiations on the systems and numbers to be limited and on the measures to ensure effective verification and compliance. And the kind of a freeze that has been suggested would be virtually impossible to verify. Such a major effort would divert us completely from our current negotiations on achieving substantial reductions. [Applause]

I, a number of years ago, I heard a young father, a very prominent young man in the entertainment world, addressing a tremendous gathering in California. It was during the time of the cold war, and communism and our own way of life were very much on people’s minds. And he was speaking to that subject. And suddenly, though, I heard him saying, “I love my little girls more than anything–” And I said to myself, “Oh, no, don’t. You can’t — don’t say that.” But I had underestimated him. He went on: “I would rather see my little girls die now; still believing in God, than have them grow up under communism and one day die no longer believing in God.” [Applause]

There were…There were thousands of young people in that audience. They came to their feet with shouts of joy. They had instantly recognized the profound truth in what he had said, with regard to the physical and the soul and what was truly important.

Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness–pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.

It was C.S. Lewis who, in his unforgettable “Screwtape Letters,” wrote: “The greatest evil is not done now…in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint. It is…not even done in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result, but it is conceived and ordered; moved, seconded, carried and minuted in clear, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.”

Well, because these “quiet men” do not “raise their voices,” because they sometimes speak in soothing tones of brotherhood and peace, because, like other dictators before them, they’re always making “their final territorial demand,” some would have us accept them at their word and accommodate ourselves to their aggressive impulses. But if history teaches anything, it teaches that simpleminded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.

So, I urge you to speak out against those who would place the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority. You know, I’ve always believed that old Screwtape reserved his best efforts for those of you in the Church. So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride–the temptation of blithely..uh..declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.

I ask you to resist the attempts of those who would have you withhold your support for our efforts, this administration’s efforts, to keep America strong and free, while we negotiate–real and verifiable reductions in the world’s nuclear arsenals and one day, with God’s help, their total elimination. [Applause]

While America’s military strength is important, let me add here that I’ve always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith.

Whittaker Chambers, the man whose own religious conversion made him a witness to one of the terrible traumas of our time, the Hiss-Chambers case, wrote that the crisis of the Western world exists to the degree in which the West is indifferent to God, the degree to which it collaborates in communism’s attempt to make man stand alone without God. And then he said, for Marxism-Leninism is actually the second-oldest faith, first proclaimed in the Garden of Eden with the words of temptation, “Ye shall be as gods.”

The Western world can answer this challenge, he wrote, “but only provided that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as communism’s faith in Man.”

I believe we shall rise to the challenge. I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last–last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow man. For in the words of Isaiah: “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no…might He increased strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary.” [Applause]
Yes, change your world. One of our founding fathers, Thomas Paine, said, “We have it within our power to begin the world over again.” We can do it, doing together what no one church could do by itself.

God bless you, and thank you very much. [Long Applause]