经济学人下载:美国第41任总统乔治·H.W.布什逝世 享年94岁(1)

Obituary
讣告

George H.W. Bush
乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什

Doing his darnedest
尽心竭力

George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st president of the United States, died on November 30th, aged 94
美国第41任总统乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什逝于11月30日，享年94岁

Wherever he went, as America’s president or before it, George Herbert Walker Bush usually carried a felt-tipped pen and a supply of notecards. On these he wrote letters. Some were thank-yous; others a clumsy, but courteous, attempt to get his views across to other people; yet others just a “good to see you” kind of thing. When the time came to write his presidential memoirs, to salve some of that desperate hurt after Bill Clinton thrashed him in 1992, he published instead 600-plus pages of correspondence. They ranged from doting letters to newborn grandchildren to his worries, as a young seaman in 1943, that his girlfriend Barbara, “so darn attractive”, would drop him while he was away; from his attempt to explain the Watergate scandal to his four young sons, to his mortified account of throwing up in 1992 on the Japanese prime minister, “the damnedest experience”. He admitted that some of the letters were nutty. But they were also of the moment. As he said, “It’s all about heartbeat.”
乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什在成为总统后或在此之前，无论去哪儿，通常带着签字笔和便签。他就用这两样写小纸条。有些写着“谢谢你”；另一些潦草却不失礼貌，试图向别人说明自己的观点；还有一些只是写着“很高兴见到你”之类的客套话。为抚平1992年比尔·克林顿轻松击败他后的绝望伤痛，到了撰写总统回忆录的时候，他却出版了600多页的书信集。有的表达对新生的孙子孙女的宠爱；还记录了1943年，身为年轻海军的老布什担心当时还是女友的芭芭拉“太有吸引力”，怕不能在她身边的时候抛弃自己；有的写给四个年轻的儿子，试图解释水门事件；将1992年向日本首相吐痰的经历尴尬解释为“最糟糕的经历”。他承认有些写的很荒唐。但也是当时的一种真实记录。正如他所言，“都是心跳时刻。”

In one letter he happened to mention a childhood rebuke from his mother: “Now, George, don’t walk ahead.” He took her words to heart, staying, for most of his political career, loyally behind and modestly to one side. As chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1974, he stuck by Richard Nixon until it became more urgent to save the party; at which point, he publicly asked him to resign. He felt afterwards as though someone had died. In his eight years as Ronald Reagan’s vice-president, though they had sparred bitterly in the 1980 primaries over Reagan’s “voodoo economics” and his callow Hollywood sparkle, he never criticised or upstaged him. During the Iran-contra affair of the 1980s, though present at many salient meetings, he declared himself out of the loop, and it was hard to prove otherwise.
其中有封书信碰巧提到了童年时母亲的责备：“现在记住，乔治，不要当出头鸟。”他把母亲的话铭记在心，在大部分政治生涯里，他总是忠诚对上、谦虚对下。1974年担任共和党全国委员会主席的他，在拯救共和党变得更加紧迫之前，一直支持理查德•尼克松；而到了关键时刻，则公开要求尼克松辞职。随后他感觉好像某人已经死了。在罗纳德·里根担任副总统的八年里，尽管他们在1980年的初选中就里根的“巫毒经济学”和他幼稚的好莱坞光芒进行了激烈的辩论，但是老布什从没有批评里根或是抢其风头。在20世纪80年代的伊朗门事件期间，虽然出席了很多重要会议，但是他宣称自己已脱离了这个圈子，很难证明不是这样。