STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
Britain was once the most powerful nation in the world. It ruled a wide-reaching empire. This week in our series, we look at how British power gave way to American influence after World War Two.
第二次世界大战前，英国是世界上最强大的国家，统治着地域广阔的大英帝国。本周建国史话系列节目，我们回顾一下二战后英国的地位如何逐步被美国取代。
One can almost name the day when this happened. It was February twenty-first, nineteen forty-seven. British diplomats in Washington called the State Department. They had two messages from their government.
1947年2月21日是一个历史性的日子。当天，英国外交官员打电话给美国国务院，转达了两个来自英国政府的消息。
The first was about Greece. The situation there was critical. Greece had been occupied by Germany during the war. Now it was split by a bitter civil war. On one side of the fighting was the Greek royal family supported by Britain. On the other side were communist-led rebels supported by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
第一件事是希腊内战。二战期间，希腊曾被德国占领，如今陷入了激烈的内战，情况紧急。一方面是英国支持的希腊皇室，另一方面是南斯拉夫和苏联支持的共产党反叛武装。
British forces had helped keep Greece from becoming communist at the end of World War Two. A few years later, Britain could no longer help. It needed all its strength to rebuild after the war. So, on that February day in nineteen forty-seven, Britain told the United States it would soon end all support for Greece.
二战结束时，希腊在英国部队的帮助下，没有被共产力量所控制，但是几年后，英国已经力不从心，因为英国要把全部力量投入自己的战后重建中去。这样就有了1947年2月21号那通电话。英国政府通知美国，很快就要结束对希腊的支持。
Britain's second message that day was about Turkey. Turkey was stronger than Greece. But the concern was that it, too, could become communist unless it received outside help.
电话里的第二个消息事关土耳其局势。跟希腊比，土耳其情况稍好，但是英国担心，如果没有外界帮助，土耳其也可能被共产力量所控制。
Britain warned the United States that the Soviet Union would soon extend its control all the way across eastern Europe to the eastern Mediterranean. It called on President Harry Truman to provide strong American support to help Greece and Turkey resist the communist threat.
英国警告美国说，苏联不久就会把势力从东欧扩展到东地中海，要求美国总统杜鲁门帮助希腊和土耳其抵制共产力量的影响。
Britain, in effect, was asking the United States to take over leadership of the Western world. The United States was ready to accept this new responsibility.
其实说白了，英国这是在要求美国接管西方世界的领导权，而美国也已经做好了承担起这一新责任的准备。
For months, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had been growing worse and worse.
很长时间来，美国和苏联关系不断恶化。
The two countries had fought together as allies in the Second World War. But Soviet actions after the war shocked the American people.
美苏两国在二战期间协同作战，但是苏联战后的种种表现却让美国感到震惊。
The Soviet Union wanted to block western political and economic influence in central and eastern Europe. It wanted to extend its own influence instead. So, after the war, it forced a number of countries to establish communist governments. The Soviets sent troops into Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia to make sure its political demands were met.
苏联试图将东欧和中欧控制在自己手中，不让西方政治和经济影响力渗透进来，苏联战后强迫好几个国家建立了共产政权。
WINSTON CHURCHILL: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent."
Britain's prime minister, Winston Churchill, described the situation in a speech in March of nineteen forty-six at Westminster College in the American state of Missouri.
WINSTON CHURCHILL: "Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in some cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow."
英国首相丘吉尔1946年3月在美国密苏里州的威斯敏斯特学院发表演讲时说，“从波罗的海的什切青到亚得里亚海的里雅斯特，整个欧洲大陆已落下铁幕。中欧和东欧所有古老国家的首都都在这层铁幕之后，包括华沙、柏林、布拉格、维也纳、布达佩斯、贝尔格莱德、布加勒斯特和索非亚，所有这些著名城市和周围居民都位于苏联势力范围之内，都以某种形式不仅受到苏联影响，在某些情况下，甚至受到莫斯科日益加强的控制。”
Churchill warned that the Soviet Union was trying to expand its power. He described it as an "iron curtain" falling across the middle of Europe. This iron curtain divided Europe into a communist east and a democratic west.
丘吉尔警告说，苏联是在试图扩展自己的势力范围，他所说的横贯欧洲落下的“铁幕，”将欧洲一分为二，西边是民主的西方国家，东边是共产主义阵营。
The situation was made even more tense by news coming from China. China was a divided nation at the end of World War Two. The forces of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek controlled the southwestern part of the country. Communist forces under Mao Zedong controlled the north.
来自中国的消息更加剧了情势的紧张。二战结束时，中国处于分裂状态，蒋介石率领的国民党控制着中国西南地区，毛泽东领导的共产党控制着北方。美国和苏联都以为蒋介石能够统一中国。
Both the United States and the Soviet Union expected that Chiang Kai-shek would be able to unite China. Chiang and the Nationalists won several early victories over the Communists. But Mao and his forces used a growing hatred of the Nationalist government to win support. Slowly, they began to win battles and capture arms.
起初，蒋介石领导的国民党占上风，打了很多胜仗，但是毛泽东领导的共产党武装利用国民党政府引起的民愤，越来越受到老百姓的拥护，逐渐开始反败为胜。
Early in nineteen forty-nine, communist forces took control of Peking -- now Beijing -- and Tientsin. They captured Shanghai and Canton. By the end of the year, Chiang and his Nationalist forces had to flee to the island of Taiwan.
1949年年初，共产党夺取了北平和天津的控制权，占领了上海和广州，1949年年底，蒋介石和国民党将领逃往台湾。
The fall of the Nationalist government on the mainland caused a bitter political debate in America. Some critics of the Truman administration thought the United States had not done enough to help the Nationalists.
国民党政府的垮台在美国引起了激烈的政治辩论，杜鲁门的一些批评者认为美国没有采取足够措施，帮助国民党保住政权。
The Truman administration rejected the charges. It said Chiang caused his own defeat by failing to reform and win the support of the Chinese people. Secretary of State Dean Acheson described the defeat this way:
"The unfortunate but inescapable fact is that the ominous result of the civil war in China was beyond the control of the government of the United States. Nothing that this country did or could have done within the reasonable limits of its capabilities could have changed that result; nothing that was left undone by this country has contributed to it. It was the product of internal Chinese forces, forces which this country tried to influence but could not. A decision was arrived at within China, if only a decision by default."
杜鲁门政府对此不屑一顾，说蒋介石不推行改革，争取民众支持，国民党政府垮台是自食其果。当时的国务卿艾奇逊说：“不幸的，但同时也是不可避免的事实是，中国内战的结果是美国政府无法控制的。美国政府在能力范围内所能做到的任何事情，都无法改变这种结果，美国没做的事情也不是这种结果的成因。这完全是中国内部力量的产物，美国也曾试图施加影响，但是没有成功。这种结果是中国人的决定，也是一种自动的选择。”
The United States was more successful in its policies toward Europe. The British warnings about the communist threat in Greece and Turkey led President Truman to speak to Congress. He said, "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."
相对而言，美国在欧洲的政策更为成功。英国对希腊和土耳其所面临的共产主义威胁提出的警告，促使杜鲁门总统向国会发表讲话。杜鲁门说：“我认为，美国应该采取的政策是，支持自由的人民，帮助他们抵抗内部少数武装力量或是外部势力对他们施加控制的企图。”
Truman called on Congress to give him four hundred million dollars in aid for Greece and Turkey. After a brief but intense national debate, Congress agreed. Truman then launched an effort to save the Greek economy and reorganize the Greek army. Soon after that, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union ended their aid to Greek rebels. The civil war in Greece ended.
杜鲁门要求国会拨款四亿美元，向希腊和土耳其提供援助。美国国内就此展开了激烈辩论，国会最后接受了杜鲁门的请求。杜鲁门立即行动，挽救希腊经济，重建希腊军队。此后没过多久，南斯拉夫和苏联就结束了他们对希腊反叛武装的支持，希腊内战宣告结束。
American help for Greece and Turkey was the first step in what became known as the "Truman Doctrine." The goal of this policy was to stop Soviet aggression anywhere in the world.
美国对希腊和土耳其的帮助是后来被称为“杜鲁门主义”的第一步，“杜鲁门主义”的核心目标是阻止苏联在全球各地的扩张。
Truman was willing to use military force to stop the spread of communism. But he also believed it was equally important to build up western European nations so they would be strong enough to defend themselves.
杜鲁门不惜动用军事力量，阻止共产主义的蔓延，但他同时相信，重建西欧各国，让他们有能力自卫同样重要。
Europe was suffering terribly after World War Two. There were severe shortages of food and fuel. Crops were destroyed. Many Europeans were beginning to look to the communists -- to anybody -- to save them.
二战让欧洲伤痕累累，粮食和燃料严重短缺，庄稼彻底被破坏。很多欧洲人四处寻找帮助，哪怕是共产党人，也在所不惜。
This is one reason why Truman and his advisers developed a plan to rebuild the economies of Europe.
这就是为什么杜鲁门和他的顾问们要着手制定计划，重建欧洲经济。
After the war, President Truman made George Marshall his secretary of state. Marshall had led American troops as a general in World War Two. Now, as the nation's top diplomat, he proposed the idea for rebuilding Europe. This idea became known as the "Marshall Plan."
二战结束后，杜鲁门总统任命乔治.马歇尔担任他的国务卿。马歇尔二战期间曾担任美军指挥官，驰骋疆场。如今，他做为美国最高外交官，又提议重建欧洲，这就是所谓的“马歇尔计划。”
President Truman explained why there had to be a Marshall Plan. People were starving, he said. There had been food riots in France and Italy. There was not enough fuel. People were cold and sick. Tuberculosis was breaking out.
杜鲁门总统解释了马歇尔计划的必要性。他说，人们在挨饿，法国和意大利都因为食物短缺而发生暴乱，燃料也很缺乏，使大家受冻生病，结核病开始出现。
As Truman said later, "Something had to be done."
正像杜鲁门后来所说的，“必须采取措施。”
Secretary of State Marshall described the plan during a congressional hearing in Washington.
马歇尔国务卿后来在华盛顿举行的一次国会听证会是这样解释欧洲重建计划的。
GEORGE MARSHALL: "Why must the United States carry so great a load in helping Europe? The answer is simple. The United States is the only country in the world today which has the economic power and productivity to furnish the needed assistance. The six and eight-tenths billion proposed for the first fifteen months is less than a single month's charge of the war.
To be quite clear, this unprecedented endeavor of the new world to help the old is neither sure nor easy. It is a calculated risk. It is a difficult program. And you know, far better than I do, the political difficulties involved in this program.
But there's no doubt whatever in my mind that, if we decide to do this thing, we can do it successfully. And there's also no doubt in my mind that the whole world hangs in the balance as to what it is to be."
他说：“美国为什么要承担帮助欧洲的重任呢？答案很简单。美国是今天世界上唯一有足够经济实力和生产效率，有能力向欧洲提供必要帮助的国家。一上来的15个月所需要的68亿美元还不到一个月的战争经费。老实说，新世界帮助旧世界的这一重建努力是前所未有的，不保证成功，也并非易事，带有风险，很难落实，你们对这里面夹带的政治困难一定比我更清楚，但我毫不怀疑，只要我们决心去做，就一定能成功，我也坚信，我们的决定事关整个世界的未来。”
The United States offered aid through the Marshall Plan to all countries in Europe. The Soviet Union and its allies refused help. Sixteen other countries, however, welcomed the aid.
美国通过马歇尔计划向所有欧洲国家提供援助。苏联及其盟国拒绝接受，但另外16个国家对美国的援助表示欢迎。
From nineteen forty-eight to nineteen fifty-two, administrators of the Marshall Plan worked with these countries. The United States spent thirteen billion dollars.
1948年到1952年间，马歇尔计划的执行者跟这些国家合作，美国总共出资130亿美元。
The plan worked. Agricultural production in Marshall Plan countries increased by ten percent. Industrial production increased by thirty-five percent. Production in some industries, such as steel, increased by much more.
马歇尔计划取得了成效。受援国的农业产量增加了百分之10，工业产量提高了百分之35，钢铁等产业的涨幅更为明显。
There were political results, as well. Stronger economies helped prevent communists from gaining control of the governments in France and Italy.
马歇尔计划同时有产生了政治效应。在强大经济体的帮助下，法国和意大利政府最终没有被共产主义所控制。
Some Europeans criticized the Marshall Plan. They said it increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years after the war. Yet few could deny that the plan was one of the most successful international economic programs in history.
有些欧洲人批评马歇尔计划，说马歇尔计划增加了战后几年里美国和苏联之间的紧张关系。但是没人能否认，马歇尔计划是历史上最成功的国际经济援助计划之一。
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