(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about the period known as the Cold War. The Cold War began after World War Two. The main enemies were the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly. In a "hot war," nuclear weapons might destroy everything. So, instead, both sides fought each other indirectly. They supported opposing sides in conflicts in different parts of the world. They also used words as weapons. They threatened and denounced each other. Or they tried to make each other look foolish. Over the years, leaders on both sides changed. Yet the Cold War continued. It was the major force in world politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century. The Cold War world was separated into three groups. The United States led the West. This group included countries with democratic political systems. The Soviet Union led the East. This group included countries with communist political systems. The non-aligned group included countries that did not want to be tied to either the West or the East.
Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the Cold War. He used several policies. One was the Truman Doctrine. This was a plan to give money and military aid to countries threatened by communism. The Truman Doctrine effectively stopped communists from taking control of Greece and Turkey. Another policy was the Marshall Plan. This strengthened the economies and governments of countries in western Europe. A major event in the Cold War was the Berlin Airlift. After World War Two, the United States and its allies divided Germany. Berlin was a part of communist East Germany. The city was divided into east and west. In June nineteen forty-eight, Soviet-led forces blocked all roads and railways leading to the western part of Berlin. President Truman quickly ordered military airplanes to fly coal, food, and medicine to the city. The planes kept coming, sometimes landing every few minutes, for more than a year. The United States received help from Britain and France. Together, they provided almost two and one-half million tons of supplies on about two hundred-eighty thousand flights.
The United States also led the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in nineteen forty-nine. NATO was a joint military group. Its purpose was to defend against Soviet forces in Europe. The Soviet Union and its east European allies formed their own joint military group -- the Warsaw Pact -- six years later. In nineteen fifty-three, Soviet leader Josef Stalin died. His death gave the new American president, Dwight Eisenhower, a chance to deal with new Soviet leaders. In July nineteen-fifty-five, Eisenhower and Nikolai Bulganin met in Geneva, Switzerland. The leaders of Britain and France also attended. Eisenhower proposed that the Americans and Soviets agree to let their military bases be inspected by air by the other side. The Soviets later rejected the proposal. Yet the meeting in Geneva was not considered a failure. After all, the leaders of the world's most powerful nations had shaken hands. Cold War tensions increased, then eased, then increased again over the years. The changes came as both sides attempted to influence political and economic developments around the world. For example, the Soviet Union provided military, economic, and technical aid to communist governments in Asia. The United States then helped eight Asian nations fight communism by establishing the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, known as SEATO.
In the nineteen fifties, the United States began sending military advisers to help South Vietnam defend itself against communist North Vietnam. That aid would later expand into a long and bloody period of American involvement in Vietnam. The Cold War also affected the Middle East. In the nineteen fifties, both East and West offered aid to Egypt to build the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. The West cancelled its offer, however, after Egypt bought weapons from the communist government in Czechoslovakia. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser then seized control of the company that operated the Suez Canal. A few months later, Israel invaded Egypt. France and Britain joined the invasion. For once, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on a major issue. Both supported a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. The Suez crisis was a political victory for the Soviets. When the Soviet Union supported Egypt, it gained new friends in the Arab world. In nineteen fifty-nine, cold war tensions eased a little. The new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, visited Dwight Eisenhower in the United States. The meeting was very friendly. But the next year, relations got worse again. An American U-2 reconnaissance airplane was shot down over the Soviet Union. The plane and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, were captured. Eisenhower admitted that such planes had been spying on the Soviets for four years. In a speech at the United Nations, Khrushchev got so angry that he took off his shoe and beat it on a table.
John Kennedy followed Eisenhower as president in nineteen sixty-one. During his early days in office, Cuban exiles invaded Cuba. It came to be known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. The forces wanted to oust the communist government of Fidel Castro. America's Central Intelligence Agency had provided training for the exiles. But the United States failed to send military planes to protect them during the invasion. As a result, almost all were killed or taken prisoner by Cuban forces trained and supported by the Soviet Union and its allies. At the same time in Europe, tens of thousands of East Germans had fled to the West. East Germany's government decided to stop them. It built a wall separating the eastern and western parts of the city of Berlin. Guards shot at anyone who tried to flee by climbing over. During Kennedy's second year in office, American intelligence reports discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba. "This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the western hemisphere."
The Soviet Union denied the missiles were there. Yet American photographs, taken from high in the air, proved they were. America's ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson: "Let me ask you one simple question: Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the USSR [Soviet Union] has placed and is placing medium- and intermediate-range missile and sites in Cuba. Yes or no? Don't wait for the translation. Yes or no?" "Mr. Stevenson, would you continue your statement, please? You will receive the answer in due course, do not worry." "I'm prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision. And I'm also prepared to present the evidence in this room." The Cuban missile crisis easily could have resulted in a nuclear war. Americans felt especially threatened, with those missiles just one hundred fifty kilometers from the Florida coast. But the crisis ended after a week. Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if the United States agreed not to interfere in Cuba. Some progress was made in easing Cold War tensions when Kennedy was president. In nineteen sixty-three, the two sides reached a major arms control agreement. They agreed to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water, and in space. They also established a direct telephone link between the White House and the Kremlin.
Relations between East and West also improved when Richard Nixon was president. He and Leonid Brezhnev met several times. They reached several arms control agreements. One reduced the number of missiles used to shoot down enemy nuclear weapons. It also banned the testing and deployment of long-distance missiles for five years. A major change in the Cold War would take place in nineteen eighty-five, when Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union. He met four times with President Ronald Reagan. Gorbachev withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan. And he signed an agreement with the United States to destroy all middle-distance and short-distance nuclear missiles. By nineteen-eighty-nine, there was widespread unrest in eastern Europe. Gorbachev did not intervene as one eastern European country after another cut its ties with the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall, the major symbol of communist oppression, was torn down in November of that year. In less than a year, East and West Germany became one nation again. A few months after that, Warsaw Pact countries officially ended the alliance. The Cold War was over. The Cold War years were also the time of the "space race" – when the United States and the Soviet Union competed in space exploration. That will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.be afraid of 害怕某物；害怕某事
Don't be afraid of losing face.
不要怕丢面子。
2.lead to 导致；引起
A lack of prudence may lead to financial problems.
不够谨慎可能会导致财政上出现问题。
3.after all 究竟；到底
So you did make it to America, after all.
那么，你终究还是成功地来到了美国。
4.shoot down 击落，射落
Admiral, I'm authorizing you to shoot down that plane.
将军，我授权你击落那架飞机。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目，我是史蒂夫·恩伯。今天，我们要讲述的是冷战时期的内容。冷战始于二战之后，主要的敌人是美国和苏联。冷战之所以得名，是因为双方都害怕直接交战。在“热战”中，核武器可能摧毁一切。所以，双方就间接开战。他们在世界各地的冲突中支持对立双方，还用文字作为武器，互相威胁和谴责，或者试图让对方看起来很愚蠢。多年来，双方领导人都已经变更。然而，冷战仍在继续。20世纪下半叶的大部分时间里，冷战成为世界政治的主要力量。冷战世界被分成三组，美国领导西方，这一群体包括拥有民主政治制度的国家；苏联领导东方，该团体包括有共产主义政治制度的国家；不结盟组织包括不想与西方或东方联系在一起的国家。
哈里·杜鲁门是第一位参加冷战的美国总统，他采用几项政策。一个是杜鲁门主义，这是向受到共产主义威胁的国家提供资金和军事援助的计划。杜鲁门主义有效地阻止了共产主义者控制希腊和土耳其。另一项政策是马歇尔计划，该计划加强了西欧国家的经济和政府。冷战中的一个重大事件是柏林空运。二战后，美国及其盟国使德国分裂。柏林是共产主义东德的一部分，这座城市被分为东西两部分。1948年6月，苏联领导的军队封锁了通往柏林西部的所有公路和铁路。杜鲁门总统很快下令动用军用飞机，向该市空运煤炭、食品和药品。飞机不停地往来，有时每隔几分钟就降落一次，持续了一年多的时间。美国得到了英国和法国的援助。这两个国家共计动用大约28万次航班，提供将近250万吨的补给。
1949年，美国还领导组建了北大西洋公约组织（北约）。北约是一个联合军事组织，旨在防御欧洲的苏联军队。六年后，苏联及其东欧盟国成立了自己的联合军事集团——华沙条约。1953年，苏联领导人约瑟夫·斯大林去世。他的去世，给美国新总统德怀特·艾森豪威尔一个与苏联新领导人打交道的机会。1955年7月，艾森豪威尔和尼古拉·布尔加宁在瑞士日内瓦会面，英法两国领导人也出席会议。艾森豪威尔提议，美国和苏联同意对方对其军事基地进行空中视察。苏联后来拒绝了该提议。然而，在日内瓦举行的会议并没有被视为一场失败。毕竟，世界上最强大国家的领导人已经握手。多年来，冷战紧张局势不断加剧，随后缓和，然后再次加剧。这些变化发生之际，双方都试图影响世界各地的政治和经济发展。例如，苏联向亚洲的共产主义政府提供了军事、经济和技术援助。随后，美国通过建立东南亚条约组织（SEATO）帮助八个亚洲国家打击共产主义。
20世纪50年代，美国开始派遣军事顾问帮助南越防御由共产主义势力控制的北越南。这项援助后来扩大到美国介入越南的漫长而血腥的时期。冷战也影响了中东。20世纪50年代，东西方都向埃及提供援助，在尼罗河上修建阿斯旺大坝。然而，在埃及从捷克斯洛伐克共产党政府购买武器后，西方取消了这一提议。埃及总统加麦尔·阿卜杜勒·纳赛尔，随后控制了经营苏伊士运河的公司。几个月后，以色列入侵埃及，法国和英国也加入了此次入侵。美国和苏联就一个重大问题达成一致，双方都支持联合国要求立即停火的决议。苏伊士危机是苏联的政治胜利。当苏联支持埃及时，它在阿拉伯世界结交到新朋友。1959年，冷战的紧张局势有所缓和。苏联新领导人尼基塔·赫鲁晓夫访问了美国的德怀特·艾森豪威尔。会议气氛很友好。但第二年，两国关系再次恶化。一架美国U-2侦察机在苏联上空被击落，该架飞机及其飞行员弗朗西斯·加里·鲍尔斯被抓获。艾森豪威尔承认，这种飞机已经监视苏联长达四年之久。赫鲁晓夫在联合国的一次演讲中非常气愤，他脱下鞋子在桌子上敲打。
约翰·肯尼迪在1961年接替艾森豪威尔担任总统。在他执政初期，古巴流亡者入侵古巴，这次入侵被称为猪湾入侵。军队想推翻菲德尔·卡斯特罗的共产主义政府。美国中央情报局为流亡者提供培训，但美国在入侵期间，没有派出军用飞机保护他们。结果，几乎所有人都被苏联及其盟国训练和支持的古巴军队杀害或俘虏。同时在欧洲，成千上万的东德人逃到了西德。东德政府决定阻止他们。它修建了一堵墙，把柏林城的东西两部分隔开，卫兵向任何试图爬过这堵墙逃跑的人开枪。肯尼迪执政的第二年，美国情报报告在古巴发现了苏联导弹。 “正如所承诺的那样，本届政府对苏联在古巴岛的军事集结保持着最密切的监视。在过去的一周里，确凿的证据证实了这样一个事实：在这个被囚禁的岛屿上，一系列进攻性导弹基地正在筹备之中。这些基地的目的，是向西方世界提供核攻击能力。”
苏联否认导弹的存在。然而，从高空拍摄的美国照片证明了这一点。美国驻联合国大使阿德莱·史蒂文森：“我来问你一个简单的问题：佐林大使，你是否否认苏联已经并正在古巴部署中程导弹和基地，是还是不是？不要等待翻译，是还是不是？”“史蒂文森先生，请你继续你的陈述好吗？您将在适当的时候得到答案，不用担心。”“如果这是你的决定，我准备等待答案，等多长时间都在所不辞。我也准备在这个房间里出示证据。”古巴导弹危机很容易导致核战争，特别是美国人感受到威胁，这些导弹距离佛罗里达海岸只有150公里。但是，危机在一周后结束。赫鲁晓夫同意，如果美国同意不干涉古巴的情况，就撤走这些导弹。肯尼迪任总统期间，在缓和冷战紧张局势方面取得了一些进展。1963年，双方达成了一项重要的军控协议。他们同意禁止在地面、水下和太空进行核武器试验，还建立了白宫和克里姆林宫之间的直接电话联系。
理查德·尼克松任总统时，东西方关系也有所改善。他和勃列日涅夫见过几次面，达成了几项军控协议。一是减少用于击落敌方核武器的导弹数量，此外还禁止在五年时间里测试和部署远程导弹。冷战的一个重大变化将发生于1985年，戈尔巴·乔夫当时成为苏联领导人。他会见了里根总统四次。戈尔巴乔夫从阿富汗撤军，他还与美国签署了销毁所有中短程核导弹的协议。到1989年，东欧发生大范围动乱。戈尔巴乔夫并未进行干预，因为东欧国家一个个地切断了与苏联的联系。当年11月，象征共产主义压迫的柏林墙被拆除。在不到一年的时间里，东德和西德再次成为一个国家。数月后，华沙条约国家正式结束了联盟。冷战结束冷战时期也是“太空竞赛”时期。当时，美国和苏联在太空探索方面展开竞争。这将是我们下期要讲述的故事。
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