从第二次世界大战的结束开始 From the end of World War II,
美利坚合众国与她的西欧盟友 the United States and its Western European allies,
卷入了一场 长达差不多半个世纪 were involved in a nearly half-century long,
泰坦尼克式的 titanic struggle,
与苏联之间的斗争 with the Soviet Union,
即为众所周知的“冷战” known as "the Cold War".
之所以冷 仅仅是在那层意义上 It was cold only in the sense,
即 俄国人和美国人之间 从未发生过直接的军事对抗 that the Russians and the Americans never came to direct blows.
但它肯定又不冷 But it was certainly not cold,
对于古巴人 for the Cubans,
朝鲜人 Koreans,
越南人 Vietnamese,
以及其他那些 被共产主义信念所感染的人而言 and others who got caught up in the Communists',
在冷酷无情力量的驱使下 relentless drive,
他们试图颠覆那个自由的 to destabilize the free,
民主的 democratic,
资本主义的世界 capitalist world.
其中存在 可以肯定的是 There were, to be sure,
许多 many,
道德层面 纷繁复杂的时刻 morally complex moments,
在这场漫长的斗争期间 during this long struggle,
但是 曾经的冷战 but the Cold War was,
就其核心而言 at its core,
是一场善与恶的对决与冲突 其清晰与分明 as clear a conflict of good versus evil,
就如同第二次世界大战一样 as World War II had been.
就象那场战争一样 Just like that war,
冷战是一场死亡竞赛 the Cold War was a death match,
发生在代表自由的力量 between the forces representing freedom,
与代表极权主义的力量之间 and the forces representing totalitarianism.
因为有数十万人 —— Because hundreds of thousands —
可能是数百万 —— perhaps millions —
死于此战 died in it,
冷战可以 —— 有充分的理由 —— the Cold War can, with good reason,
被描述为“第三次世界大战” be described as "the Third World War".
这场战争的煽动者 是约瑟夫·斯大林 The instigator of this war was Josef Stalin,
这位制造了大屠杀的俄罗斯独裁者 the mass-murdering dictator of Russia,
也是许多非俄罗斯人的独裁者 and of the many non-Russian peoples,
他把他们并入了 he had incorporated,
那个众所周知 叫做苏维埃社会主义共和国联盟的玩意儿 into what was known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
或者 简称为苏联 or Soviet Union for short.
斯大林知道 Stalin knew,
他的苏联武装力量 没有可能对抗 that his Soviet armed forces could not take on,
西方自由世界所拥有的实力 the might of the free West.
反其道而行 Instead,
他决定通过采用代理人的方式 来进行这场对抗 he decided to wage this fight through the use of proxies,
另一种方法 是通过大量使用 and by a massive use,
虚假情报 of disinformation,
以及 错误情报 and misinformation.
首先作为他牺牲品的是东欧： His initial prey was Eastern Europe:
波罗的海诸国 —— the Baltic States —
立陶宛 Lithuania,
爱沙尼亚 Estonia,
和 拉脱维亚 —— and Latvia—
以及 波兰 as well as Poland,
罗马尼亚 Romania,
匈牙利 Hungary,
保加利亚 Bulgaria,
和 捷克斯洛伐克 and Czechoslovakia.
至这场战争的末期 斯大林在所有这些国家都派驻有军队 Stalin had troops in all these countries at the end of the war.
尽管他 Despite what he,
在雅尔塔会议上 向美国总统 富兰克林·罗斯福 作出了承诺 promised American President Franklin Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference,
这位苏联领导人却并没有意图 the Soviet leader had no intention,
要撤除它们 of removing them.
并且其结果显示 可以因此轻而易举地获得 对它们政府的控制权 And gaining control over their governments proved to be quite easy.
1946年3月 In March 1946,
温斯顿·丘吉尔发表了著名的宣告 Winston Churchill famously declared,
“从波罗的海之什切青 that "From Stettin in the Baltic,
到亚得里亚海之的里雅斯特 to Trieste in the Adriatic,
一道铁幕 an iron curtain,
已经落下 has descended,
它横贯这片大陆” across the continent."
当斯大林同时威胁着希腊和土耳其 When Stalin threatened both Greece and Turkey,
哈里·杜鲁门总统终于不再容忍 President Harry Truman finally had enough.
那项所谓的 The so-called,
杜鲁门主义 Truman Doctrine,
诞生了 was born.
美利坚合众国和她的盟国 将不会再允许 The United States and its allies would not permit,
任何进一步扩张 any further expansion,
共产帝国疆域的行为 of the communist empire.
冷战 The Cold War,
开始了 was on.
在接下来的五十年间 For the next five decades,
同时 遍及四个大陆 —— and across four continents —
欧洲 Europe,
非洲 Africa,
亚洲 Asia,
以及 南美洲 —— and South America —
美国和苏联为争夺影响力 而大打出手 —— the US and the Soviet Union battled for influence —
有时是公然对抗 sometimes overtly,
例如在朝鲜 like in Korea,
以及 越南 and Vietnam;
而有的时候 and sometimes,
则秘密角力 covertly,
通过它们各色各样的间谍机构 through their various spy agencies.
但这场搏杀的道德方向 But the moral lines of this battle,
从未改变： never changed:
来自西方世界的自由 the freedom of the West,
对决 versus,
共产主义暴政 the communist tyranny,
来自于苏维埃东方 of the Soviet East.
尽管如此 存在有 —— There are, nonetheless,
就象 即便在当时 也存在 —— as there were even at the time,
一些人 他们主张 those who argue,
冷战是一种 由西方发起的过度反应： that the Cold War was an over-reaction by the West:
即 苏维埃阵营的野心 以及实力 that the ambitions and strength of the Soviet bloc,
被严重地夸大了 were greatly exaggerated;
以及 美国 and that America,
以其大规模强化防御能力的行为 with its massive defense build-up,
恰恰应该为冷战这段历史 负担起与苏联同样的责任 was just as responsible for the Cold War as was the Soviet Union.
但这绝对不是事实 —— But this simply isn't true —
因为来自于俄罗斯 数量庞大的 一系列文件档案证据 as an immense amount of archival evidence from Russia,
它们无法获得 直至冷战的结束 not available until after the Cold War ended,
现已作出确证 now proves.
尼基塔·赫鲁晓夫 Nikita Khrushchev,
斯大林的继任者 Stalin's successor,
清晰无误地表述了苏联的意图 stated Soviet intentions plainly,
于1956年： in 1956:
“我们将埋葬你们！” "We will bury you!"
他告诉西方 he told the West.
而且 无论举行多少次的谈判 —— Nor would any amount of negotiation —
“缓和政策”（注释：法语） "détente",
如同它当时的称谓那样 —— as it was called then —
也不会达成一个 have led to a,
这场战争应有的终结 just conclusion of the war.
那位美国的外交官 乔治·坎南 The American diplomat George Kennan,
恰如其分地警告说 rightly warned,
除了变成一个共产主义的国家 that short of becoming a Communist country,
美利坚合众国做不了任何其它事 there was nothing the United States could do,
以赢得克里姆林宫的信任 to gain the Kremlin's trust.
苏联没有可能 被安抚 The Soviets could not be appeased;
只能 only,
被遏制 contained.
但甚至连遏制 都不是一项足够的战略 But even containment was an inadequate strategy.
没错 苏联没有可能 击败美国 Yes, the Soviet Union could not have beaten the US,
若在一场短兵相接的冲突中交锋 in a head-to-head confrontation,
但它不必那么做 but it didn't have to.
在冷战中赢得胜利 Victory in the Cold War,
或将已经让它实现 —— would have allowed it —
通过胁迫和颠覆的手段 —— through intimidation and subversion —
主宰全球的野心 to dominate the globe,
让共产主义 making Communism,
而不是 民主制度和资本主义 rather than democracy and capitalism,
成为意识形态的领导者 the preeminent ideology.
在这场战争持续的五十年中 存在有很多次机会 There were many times during the five decades of the war,
让这种状况的发生 成为一种可能 that it seemed like this would be the case.
但首要归功于 那些强大的领导力 But thanks primarily to the strong leadership,
它们由罗纳德·里根 shown by Ronald Reagan,
玛格丽特·撒切尔 Margaret Thatcher,
和教皇约翰·保罗二世所展现 and Pope John Paul II,
冷战结束了 the Cold War ended,
并非随着一声怦然的巨响 not with a bang,
而是一场低声的啜泣 but a whimper.
那时的苏联是 The Soviet Union was,
在1980年代的末期 at the close of the 1980s,
用历史学家保罗·约翰逊的话来描述 to use historian Paul Johnson's description,
“一个混乱不堪的巨人”—— "a bewildered giant" —
经济上愁云惨雾 economically bereft,
军事上筋疲力竭 militarily exhausted,
不再有能力 或者意愿 行使它的意志 no longer able or willing to enforce its will.
共产主义在每一个可能的方面 都已经失败 —— Communism had failed in every possible way —
经济上 economically,
政治上 politically,
道德上 morally.
它曾经试图在地球上 打造一个乌托邦 It had tried to create a Utopia on earth,
然而与之相反 制造出了 and instead created,
地狱 hell,
献给了所有的那些 for all of the nations,
投身于其统治之下的国家 that came under its sway.
没错 自由的力量 最终赢得了冷战的胜利 Yes, the forces of liberty eventually won the Cold War.
但这场胜利提供不了什么慰藉 给数百万 But this triumph offers little consolation to millions,
死去的 who died,
或白白受难的人们 or suffered needlessly,
其死难 非因他们自己的过错 through no fault of their own,
而是因为一项永不可行 for a never-viable,
并且 现如今 声名甚是狼藉的理念 and now badly discredited cause.
我是安德鲁·罗伯茨 I'm Andrew Roberts,
为普拉格大学制作 for Prager University.