新浪尚文

　　美国的军事力量总是能够激起世界其它国家的综合反应；正如以艾森豪威尔(Dwight Eisenhower)总统为题的新书中所说的那样，这也是美国国内深刻矛盾情绪的来源。

　　美国《新闻周刊》2月20日撰文介绍了一本以美国前总统艾森豪威尔著名卸任演讲为主线的新书，名为《无根据的影响：德怀特-艾森豪威尔和军工联合体》。

　　《无根据的影响》一书回顾了总统1961年发表的美国历史上最著名的告别演说，将“军工联合体”这个短语馈赠于世界政治辞典。该书的作者詹姆斯-莱德贝特(James Ledbetter)是路透社的网络编辑，他以艾森豪威尔总统的告别演讲为出发点，探索现代战争、大企业以及美国政府之间的联系，并且尝试寻找到这些关系(通常是有利可图的)同美国民主理想之间的契合点。并且，针对那些非常难以理解其背后含义的标志性政治演讲，他还提供了一种有价值的思考方式。                                              

　　《无根据的影响》近期成为研究主要历史变化演讲的焦点。于此类的其他书籍对比，莱德贝特的新书结构像是一个“沙漏”，在书中，艾森豪威尔的演讲就像脖子一样连接着上下文、重点，其中包括对其进行独特的综合解释，以及最终在真实世界所造成的影响。

　　在莱德贝特“沙漏”的顶端：众多的观点都形成和发展于上世纪20年代至50年代，战争对于社会造成的可怕影响力；其中一些还形成于艾森豪威尔演讲的发展和延伸。同时，笔者还为大家提供了自己的深刻理解，这些观点如何变成美国战后政治上的华丽词藻的“试金石”；且其影响力之大使得一个保守派战争英雄一举变身为一国总统。

　　在为艾森豪威尔的演讲设立一个意识形态的背景之后，《无根据的影响》将矛头转向演说者自己。这本书中拥有许多得意之处，它向读者揭示了总统的完整肖像，以及他对于战争和和平的独到理解。莱德贝特笔下的艾森豪威尔是一个现实主义者——意识到战争的人类损耗、政治怀疑论、技术问题等等。

　　在经历了两次世界大战之后，美国不断扩张军队，形成了规模庞大的军火工业。如今，美国的军队和军火工业更是达到了空前的规模，国防预算也呈现逐年递增的趋势。看上去，艾森豪威尔论断军工联合体绑架政府的预言将在50年之后成为现实。

　　在艾森豪威尔看来，军工联合体会对美国政府的检查和平衡造成严重的威胁。那时，这是一个颇具争议的想法；然而时至今日，这一论断仍然极具争议。就像莱德贝特的书中所示，艾森豪威尔的言论向我们证明，在他卸任的半个世纪之后，仍然没有任何其他政治演说能够在影响力上与之匹敌。

　　A Speech That Changed History

　　American military power has always provoked mixed reactions from the rest of the world. It has also been a source of deep ambivalence at home, as a deft new book on President Dwight Eisenhower shows. Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex examines the leader’s 1961 farewell address to the American people, which bequeathed the phrase “military-industrial complex” to the world’s political lexicon. Author James Ledbetter, editor of Reuters.com, uses Eisenhower’s speech as a springboard to explore the modern links between war, big business, and the U.S. government, as well as attempts to reconcile these (often lucrative) relationships with American democratic ideals. He also offers a valuable meditation on the difficulty of understanding the intentions behind (and predicting the impact of) any landmark political oratory。

　　Unwarranted Influence is the latest in a worthwhile genre aimed at examining major, history-changing speeches (the most famous being Garry Wills’s Lincoln at Gettysburg). Like other books of its kind, Ledbetter’s is structured like an hourglass, with the speech as the neck that links the contexts, forces, and individuals involved in its concoction to the interpretations and real-world consequences it generates. (The reader ought to first tackle Eisenhower’s address, reprinted in an appendix, before starting the book。)

　　At the top of Ledbetter’s hourglass: ideas that developed between the 1920s and 1950s about the terrifying and total impact of war on society (including “merchants of death” and “the garrison state”) and that formed the mulch from which Eisenhower’s speech grew. (Ledbetter might well have extended his analysis further back in time to discuss the age-old fear of standing armies and permanent military establishments that agitated U.S. politics from the Revolution through the Civil War。) The author also offers insights into how these ideas—usually associated with the left—became touchstones of postwar U.S. political rhetoric, influencing even a conservative war hero turned president。

　　After setting up the ideological background for Eisenhower’s speech,Unwarranted Influence turns to the orator himself. Among the book’s many virtues is its thoughtful portrayal of the president (including his little-known stint as a War Department speechwriter) and his evolving ideas on war and peace. Ledbetter’s Eisenhower is a realist—all too aware of the human costs of war; skeptical of political, technological, or economic quick “fixes” for problems of daunting complexity; and open to ideas and arguments from a wide range of sources beyond the bounds of his own party. (It is a shock, and a pleasant one, to learn that the stalwart Republican read and pondered editorials by noted liberal journalist Norman Cousins, and that the two enjoyed an intermittent correspondence。)

　　Unwarranted Influence also recaptures Eisenhower’s troubled second term, and his sense of urgency about distilling his political legacy and giving some final, informed counsel to the American people. That counsel, delivered in January 1961, stressed the need for balance, a key virtue in Eisenhower’s thinking. Above all, it sought to demonstrate the need for a wise balance between American liberties and national security, a tug of war that troubles the country even to this day。

　　In Eisenhower’s view, the military-industrial complex posed a grave risk to the checks and balances of the American government. It was a controversial thought at the time, and it still is. As Ledbetter’s book shows, Eisenhower’s words still speak to us, a full half century after he left office—an impact few other political speeches can claim。

　　Bernstein, distinguished adjunct professor of law at New York Law School, is author of The Founding Fathers Reconsidered。

　　(新闻周刊)

　　(斯年)