Harry Truman:Atomic

VOA Learning English presents America’s Presidents.
美国之音慢速英语介绍美国总统栏目。

Today we are talking about Harry S. Truman. He became president of the United States in 1945, a few weeks before the end of World War II in Europe.
今天，我们来谈论哈里·S·杜鲁门。他于1945年成为总统，也就是二战时欧洲战场结束的前几周。

Truman took office after Franklin Roosevelt died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage.
杜鲁门在富兰克林·罗斯福死于突发脑溢血后接任了总统。

Roosevelt had been president for 12 years. But Truman was new to the position of vice president. Two other men had earlier served in the office under Roosevelt.
罗斯福当了12年总统，但杜鲁门是刚刚担任副总统职位，其他两个人早些时候曾在罗斯福政府任职。

On April 12, 1945 – less than three months after he became vice president – Truman was called to the White House. There, Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor, told Truman about her husband’s death. Truman was quickly sworn-in as president.
1945年4月12日，距离杜鲁门担任副总统不到3个月的时间，他被叫到了白宫。罗斯福的妻子埃莉诺告诉杜鲁门，她的丈夫去世了。随即，杜鲁门宣誓就任了总统。

Shortly after the ceremony, the secretary of war privately told Truman about a secret project involving American scientists. They were building an extremely destructive atomic bomb.
典礼结束后不久，战争部长私下告诉杜鲁门一个关于美国科学家的秘密计划，他们正在建造一个极具毁灭性的原子弹。

Historians debate whether Truman already knew about the project, or whether the information was a complete surprise.
历史学家就杜鲁门是否已经知道这项计划，还是这个消息是否完全出乎意料而争论不休。

In either case, the new president had to decide whether to use the weapon, which he called “the most terrible bomb in the history of the world.”
在这两种情况下，新总统都得决定是否使用他称之为“世界历史上最具毁灭性的炸弹”。

Early life 早年生活

Harry Truman came from simple beginnings. He was born in the state of Missouri. He, his parents, a brother and a sister lived in the town of Independence.
哈里·杜鲁门出生简单。他出生在密苏里州，和父母、弟弟以及妹妹生活在独立城。

As a boy, Harry Truman helped his father on the family’s farm, but he did not enjoy the work. And he could not play sports because he could not see very well; from the time he was a child, Truman wore eyeglasses.
哈里·杜鲁门还是个小男孩的时候，就帮助父亲在家庭农场干活，但他不喜欢这项工作。因为眼睛近视的缘故，他也不能进行体育运动；杜鲁门从小就戴眼镜。

So he developed his interests in reading and music. He was an especially good piano player.
因此，他的兴趣投向了阅读和音乐。他是一位出色的钢琴演奏家。

Truman was also a good student, but his parents did not have enough money to send him to a four-year college.
杜鲁门也是一位好学生，但他的父母没有足够的学费送他去读四年大学。

Instead, Truman worked in a number of jobs, including as a bank clerk, mining company operator, and partner in an oil business.
因此，杜鲁门做了很多工作，包括银行职员，经营矿业公司，以及合伙开炼油公司。

When the United States became involved in World War I, Truman decided to re-join the National Guard. His guard unit became part of the U.S. Army, and Truman earned a position as a captain.
美国参加一战时，杜鲁门决定再次加入国民警卫队。警卫队被编入了美国陆军，杜鲁门被任命为连长。

Truman experienced real success in the military. He was an able soldier and leader, and he and his troops fought in battle. When the war ended, Truman kept both the feeling of self-confidence¹ and the friendships with the other solders he had formed.
杜鲁门在军事上取得了真正的成功。他是一位有能力的士兵以及领导，他和他的部队并肩作战。当一战结束后，杜鲁门既保持了自信，又与其他士兵保持了友谊。

One of Truman’s first acts after the war was to get married. He married a woman from his hometown. They had been romantically² linked for a long time. Her name was Elizabeth Wallace, but she was called Bess. The Trumans remained happily married for more than 50 years and had a daughter named Mary Margaret.
战争之后，杜鲁门第一件事就是结婚。他迎娶了家乡一位深爱已久的女人伊丽莎白·华莱士，人们常称她贝丝。杜鲁门夫妇婚后一直幸福生活了50多年，并有一个女儿玛丽·玛格丽特。

In the first years after the war, Harry Truman opened a men’s clothing shop with a friend from the military. But the shop – called a haberdashery³ – eventually failed.
战后的前几年，哈里·杜鲁门和一位战友合伙开了一间男子服饰用品店，但最后倒闭了。

Truman soon found a new line of work. An operative from the Democratic Party asked Truman to be a candidate for a position as a judge.
杜鲁门很快找到了一份新工作。民主党的一名特工让杜鲁门做一名法官的候选人。

Truman won the seat, as well as a public reputation⁴ for being an honest, effective public servant.
杜鲁门赢得了该职位，而且还树立了诚实，有效率的公职人员的声望。

In time, Truman successfully won election to a seat in the U.S. Senate. For the most part, he earned a good public image there, too. He supported the social programs of President Roosevelt, and he tried to prevent big businesses or large labor unions from misusing public money.
最终，杜鲁门成功赢得了美国参议院的一个席位。他在参议院大多数情况下也赢得了良好的公众形象。他支持罗斯福总统的社会事业，并试图阻止大企业和大工会滥用公共资金。

Both voters and Democratic officials liked Truman enough to accept him as the party’s vice presidential candidate in 1944. Truman performed well as a candidate, but he did not have a close relationship with Roosevelt or play much of a part in his government.
选民和民主党官员都很喜欢杜鲁门，并且推举他为1944年民主党副总统候选人。杜鲁门作为候选人表现很出色，但他与罗斯福的关系并不密切，也没有在他的政府中发挥多大作用。

Yet in a few weeks, following Roosevelt’s death, Truman was leading the country.
然而，罗斯福死后的几周之后，杜鲁门领导了这个国家。

Presidency 总统任期

Truman faced a number of difficult decisions during his two terms as president. Many of them involved foreign policy. His actions helped shape the second half of the 20^th century.
杜鲁门在他的两届总统任期当中面临着许多重要抉择，许多都是涉及到外交政策。他的许多举措形成了20世纪下半叶的格局。

In his first months after taking office, Truman watched the end of World War II in Europe.
杜鲁门就任总统的头几个月里，目睹了二战欧洲战场的结束。

He then had to decide how to deal with the war in the Pacific. Japan did not want to accept the Allied forces’ demand for total surrender. And Truman did not want to extend the war.
然后，他必须决定如何处理太平洋战场。日本不接受同盟国的无条件投降，杜鲁门不想延长战争。

So he approved using the atomic bomb on Japan. Truman directed the secretary of war to drop the weapon on military targets and try to reduce civilian deaths. But the destruction was still terrible.
所以，他批准对日本使用原子弹。杜鲁门指示战争部长向军事目标投放原子弹，要减少平民伤亡。但原子弹的摧毁仍然可怕。

An estimated 192,000 people died in the attack or the effects of the bomb in Hiroshima. Most of the city was destroyed.
估计有19.2万人死于广岛的原子弹袭击或影响，大部分城市被摧毁了。

Three days later, the U.S. military dropped another atomic bomb, this time on the city of Nagasaki. More than 70,000 people died instantly.
3天后，美国军方向长崎投放了另一枚原子弹，7万多人当场死亡。

The emperor of Japan called the weapon “a new and most cruel bomb.” He agreed to his country’s surrender on August 14, 1945. World War II came to an end.
日本天皇称原子弹是“一种新式的并且是最残忍的炸弹”。1945年8月14日，天皇同意日本投降，二战结束了。

Truman and his government quickly had to make other decisions about how to react to the new international situation. One of the most pressing concerns was the Soviet Union.
杜鲁门政府需要就如何应对新的国际形势迅速做出其他决定。其中最迫切的问题之一就是苏联。

Soviet officials sought to expand their influence around the country’s borders, especially in Eastern Europe, Turkey and Iran. Truman and other U.S. officials believed those moves threatened American interests. The United States supported democracy and capitalism. It did not want the Soviet Union’s form of communism to spread.
苏联官员寻求扩大该国周边地区的影响力，尤其是东欧，土耳其和伊朗。杜鲁门和其他美国官员认为这些举动威胁到美国的利益。美国支持民主主义和资本主义，不希望苏联的共产主义扩大。

So Truman’s government put in place two measures to answer the Soviet Union’s influence.
所以，杜鲁门政府实施了两项措施来应对苏联的影响。

One was a policy known as the Truman Doctrine. It promised American support to Greece, Turkey and other democratic nations against authoritarian⁵ forces. The measure was a new step for the United States. In the past, the country had tried to avoid conflicts that did not directly involve it.
其一是杜鲁门主义。杜鲁门主义承诺，美国会支持希腊，土耳其和其他民主国家来对抗独裁统治。该举措是美国迈出的新一步。过去，美国一直试图避免没有直接牵涉到本国的冲突。

Under Truman, the U.S. government was committed to helping “free peoples” anywhere by improving their living conditions.
在杜鲁门主义下，美国政府致力于帮助全世界的“自由人民”来改善他们的生活条件。

A second measure came to be called the Marshall Plan, after Truman’s secretary of state, George Marshall. Marshall wanted the United States to invest a large amount of money in rebuilding Europe after World War II. Because the Soviet Union controlled much of Eastern Europe, the money eventually went to improving the market economy of Western Europe.
其二是马歇尔计划，该计划是以杜鲁门的国务卿乔治·马歇尔而命名。马歇尔希望投资大量资金来重建战后欧洲。因为苏联控制了大部分东欧地区，这些资金最终改善了东欧的市场经济。

The office of the historian at the State Department notes that one effect of the Marshall Plan was to introduce⁶ foreign aid programs as an official part of U.S. foreign policy.
国务院历史办公室指出，马歇尔计划的一个影响是将对外援助项目作为美国外交政策的正式组成部分。

Truman also sought to guarantee peace and contain communism in other ways. He supported the United Nations, which was officially launched during his presidency.
杜鲁门还试图寻求其他方式来保证和平以及遏制共产主义。他支持在他担任总统期间正式成立的联合国。

And he negotiated a military alliance among Western, democratic nations. The group became known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.
而且，他通过谈判在西方民主国家之间建立了军事联盟。该联盟即大众所熟知的北大西洋公约组织，即NATO。

Military alliances became especially important in 1950 when communist forces in North Korea invaded South Korea. The U.N. agreed to send troops to help South Korea – although many of the troops were American, and they were led by an American general.
1950年，朝鲜共产主义军事力量入侵韩国，军事联盟变得尤为重要。联合国同意出兵帮助韩国，尽管大多数部队都是由一位美国将军率领的美军部队。

Fighting in the Korean War lasted until 1953. As many as 5 million people died in the conflict. Neither side gained much territory.
朝鲜战争持续到1953年。至少500万人死于这场战争，双方都没有得到太多领地。

But the Korean War had other effects. It fueled the Cold War between communist and democratic forces. It showed the U.S. would really defend other countries against authoritarian forces. It sharply increased Americans’ spending on the defense industry.
但朝鲜战争还产生了其他影响。它加速了共产主义和民主主义力量之间的冷战，彰显了美国会真正保护其他国家免受独裁统治，急剧增加了美国在国防工业上的支出。

And it helped make President Truman very unpopular.
而且，它使杜鲁门总统失去了欢迎。

Many Americans believed Truman was losing the battle against communism. During his presidency, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear weapon, and China officially became a communist country under Mao Zedong.
许多美国人认为杜鲁门输给了共产主义。他在总统任期内，苏联成功试验了核武器，中国在毛泽东的领导下正式成为了一个共产主义国家。

Some U.S. lawmakers even accused Truman’s government of protecting communist spies. Senator Joseph McCarthy was the most famous of these critics. He launched investigations against thousands of U.S. government employees, as well as movie actors and directors in Hollywood.
一些美国议员甚至指控杜鲁门政府保护共产党间谍，其中最出名的是参议员约瑟夫·麦卡锡。他调查了数千名美国政府雇员以及好莱坞演员和导演。

McCarthy did not have evidence that these people were secretly working for the Soviet Union. But his campaign helped fuel the public’s concerns over communism, a fear that came to be called the Red Scare.
麦卡锡并没有找到证据证明这些人为苏联秘密工作，但他的行为加剧了公众对共产主义的担忧，这种担忧后来被称之为红色恐慌。

Truman grew tired of the accusations, as well as other political battles. He decided not to seek re-election in 1952.
杜鲁门疲于应对指控以及其他政治斗争。1952年，他决定不再寻求连任。

Instead, he retired with his wife to their home in Missouri.
相反，他退休后和妻子一起回到了密苏里州的家中。

Legacy 遗产

At first, many Americans had mixed emotions about Truman’s presidency. For the most part, they did not support the Korean War. And they remained suspicious that his government had included communist supporters.
起初，许多美国人对于杜鲁门的任期有着复杂的情感。他们大多数不支持朝鲜战争，而且一直怀疑杜鲁门政府包含亲共分子。

But Truman’s public reputation rose over time. He became known as a down-to-earth person who would and could fight if needed. His supporters liked to say, “Give ‘em Hell, Harry.”
但杜鲁门的公众声誉随着时间逐渐提高。他成了一个如果需要，他会战斗，也能战斗的讲求实干的人。他的支持者喜欢说：“哈里，让他们见鬼去吧。”

Truman is also remembered for taking some steps toward ensuring equal rights for all Americans. Truman supported the racial desegregation of the military⁷ and banned racial discrimination in the civil service.
杜鲁门还因采取措施确保所有美国人享有平等权利而被人铭记，他支持军队废除种族隔离，禁止行政部门种族歧视。

But Truman is probably best remembered for the difficult decisions he made during his presidency, especially the one to drop atomic bombs on Japan. To the end of his life, he accepted responsibility for the decision and did not apologize for it.
但杜鲁门最令人难忘的可能还是他在总统任期内所做出的艰难决定，尤其是向日本投放原子弹。杜鲁门晚年承认他负有该责任，但并没有为之道歉。

Truman died of natural causes at the age of 88. His remains are buried at his presidential library in Independence, Missouri.
杜鲁门88岁时去世，属于自然死亡。他的遗体安葬于密苏里州独立城的杜鲁门总统图书馆。

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https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/americas-presidents-harry-truman/4067702.html

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