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(3)

What he lacked, as he more or less admitted, was “the vision thing”. Ideologically, he was flexible: moderate sometimes (indeed, in one Texas race, left of the Democrat), while at others he would traipse round pandering to conservatives, as George Will cruelly put it, with a thin tinny “arf”, like a lap-dog. On domestic policy, as president, he inclined to the hard right (prayer in schools, gun rights, anti-abortion), while also loosening immigration policy and expanding the rights of the disabled. Wearing his mild Episcopalian hat, he mentioned a thousand points of light, a kinder, gentler America, and a new breeze blowing away the leaves of an old tree. It was all as vague as it was all deeply hoped for.
正如他或多或少承认的那样，他缺少“远见”。在意识形态上，他是灵活的：有时是温和派（事实上，在德克萨斯州的一场竞选中，民主党左派），而在其他时候，他会不情愿地迎合保守派，正如乔治•威尔残酷的描述：如果加上细声的“汪”，就像哈巴狗一样。在国内政策上，作为总统，他倾向于强硬右派(在学校祈祷、持枪权、反堕胎)，同时放宽移民政策、扩大残疾人权利。他戴着温和的主教帽，提出“千万光芒”项目，力求一个更友善、更温和的美国，他提倡新风吹走老树枯叶。这些都很含糊，如同人们热切希望的东西遥不可及。

His forte, and first love, was foreign policy. He had been ambassador to the UN for Nixon, an envoy to China for Gerald Ford (he and Barbara riding round delightedly on bicycles) and head of the CIA, besides, as vice-president, a follower-of-the-hearse at dozens of state funerals. Instinctively, he thought in terms of global power games; fortuitously, his time as president coincided with the end of the cold war, a heady and fascinating moment. With Mikhail Gorbachev he struck up an easy working friendship, and in 1991, in the wake of the Gulf war, he even had a moment of comprehensive vision: a new world order, based not on force but on the rule of law, which America would strongly lead.
外交政策是他的特长和初恋。他曾任尼克松的驻联合国大使、杰拉尔德•福特的中国特使(他和妻子芭芭拉愉快地骑着自行车四处逛)、美国中央情报局局长，此外，任职副总统时，他在数十场国葬上追悼过灵车。他本能地从全球权力博弈的角度思考问题；幸运的是，他担任总统的时间正好赶上冷战的结束，这是一个令人兴奋和着迷的时刻。他和米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫建立了轻松的合作友谊，在1991年，海湾战争之后，他甚至提出全面愿景：不基于武力建立新世界秩序，而是建立在美国强有力领导下的法治基础上。

Such grandiloquence, like eloquence, was rare in him. He was schooled in modesty, fond of the small behind-the-scenes gesture rather than the large public show. He belonged to a generation that had no patience for today’s blowhards who, putting self before nation, always push themselves forward. But when the times and events demanded he could, perhaps to his own surprise, find the right words and walk confidently ahead.
这种类似雄辩的豪言壮语在他身上是罕见的。他一直接受的教育是谦虚，喜欢在幕后做贡献，而不是在公众面前显摆。他属于对如今的吹牛大王没有耐心的一代人，吹牛大王们总是把自己利益放在国家前面，推动自己前进。但是，当时代和事件需要时，（也许他自己意想不到）又能够正确抉择，稳操胜券。