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Remembering Richard Nixon
回忆尼克松
■逸云 整理编写
Y: Yang Rui, Presenter of the CCTV English Program
Dialogue
J: Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of Richard Nixons
D: David Eisenhower, Professor, Foreign Policy Research Institute,
grandson of Dwight David Eisenhower
D: Well, it's a wonderful place to be whether
it's a shadow or not. Julie and I married just before President Nixon
took office. So we share this adventure which was Richard Nixon's presidency.
You asked about the three days and they are all connected in my mind.
China is the high point5. He approached the presidency as a mission.
To fulfill mission he had a vision to go into the office and fulfilled
it when he arrived and shook hands with Zhou Enlai on Feb. 19th, 1972.
That marked the moment when China resumed its actual place in world
affairs. And this was the grand design that all three were, in our mind,
connected with an adventure. It was a shadow and I am pleased to be
in it.
J: Not only was I impressed but my father has written about that in
his books. Recalling in his book Leaders, he credited Zhou Enlai as
the number-one person who deserves praise for making the Shanghai Communiqu�7
a possibility. He has tremendous admiration for Zhou as a diplomat8
and as a leader. And I invite you to come to California to my father's
presidential museum and there you will see in the hall of leaders a
statue of Zhou Enlai.
D: And in America we got a very strong feel for the importance of Zhou
Enlai in China. On our earlier trip —Dwe don't travel a great deal but
we've been to China twice and there's been an interval of 27 years since
our last trip—the day we left China in 1976 is the day when Zhou's death
was announced to Chinese people. And we were in Shanghai at that time.
We were the only Americans there. We were able to watch the waves of
grief pass over everyone who was around. We grasped9 what Premier Zhou
meant to China.
J: His message was simple and profound10. He said we must have more
face-to-face communication. I thought that was a very moving message.
He truly believes that the road to peace and the road to respecting
other cultures is to sit down with people of other nations and listen
to them and talk with them.
D: I think that the relationship between China and the US is one of
the most important relationships in the 21st century. What the US and
China decide between themselves will probably set the pattern for peace
and development in the 21st century. The people-to-people point is a
very important one. My grandfather was a lawyer. He was the supreme
commander of WWII. And one thing that he understood is that the way
to create an enemy out of somebody is to put them at a distance and
to deny they are human beings. This is something that doesn't withstand
person-to-person contact. So his favorite gift for his 63rd birthday
was that he was named chairman of an organization called "People
to People," which was formed in his honor. And this is the organization
that continues to perform very good work 50 years later.
J: This book was finished two weeks before my father's death. It's his
last book. The title of this book is inspired by Chairman Mao at their
last meeting in 1976. Chairman Mao asked, "What do you do to achieve
peace in the world? Is that your only goal?" And my father answered
immediately, "Well, we seek peace with justice." A decade
later he decided that in his book—he didn't know it would be his last
book—he would address this question: what does a nation do once peace
is achieved? And his answer was you must go beyond peace and look at
yourself internally and become a strong nation internally and renew
what's important to you. That was his legacy to his country.
J: Well, my father said that the great regret of his life was letting
down11 the American people because of the mistakes he made during the
Watergate12 period. And he said, "This is a burden that I'll carry
to the day I die." So I think he's a great man who can publicly
admit that he has disappointed his followers. But putting that aside,
as I travel and meet people, what they remember is that Richard Nixon
was a fighter and he didn't let his mistakes and his disappointment
consume him. He went on with his life. He wrote nine books after he
left the White House and after his resignation. So he stayed in the
arena. And that's what is important for everyone. He thought he could
play a role in the world's personal diplomacy. He really cared deeply
about meeting with foreign leaders and traveled to foreign places. He
came to China seven times and there are some beautiful pictures of him
when he was 80 years old—his wonderful Chinese hosts helping him downstairs,
because he was old. But he kept traveling and he kept coming.
D: I knew my grandfather very well. And as I got to know Julie and became
part of the family, my grandfather who had been president, Nixon being
the vice president, talked to me about this man. One of the things I
picked up very early is that Nixon was regarded as a kind of "boy
genius."
D: No, no...
J: Instead, he said "You two are
too young to get married."
D: But what I recognized almost immediately is that Nixon's presidency
would be unprecedented in many ways. We faced many unprecedented problems
in the late 70s. So everything about Nixon's presidency was going to
be different. The idea of turning up in Beijing was very surprising.
And that might be another wise idea like his resignation, which had
never happened before. It was also very surprising. He was a pivot13
in American history. Nixon was that kind of man who did make14 that
pivot. And that's his uniqueness to the US and even to the world.
1. contain: 阻止，遏制。
2. withdrawal: 撤军，撤退。
3. 1972年中美双边关系正常化。
4. farewell speech: 告别演说。
5. high point: 顶点。
6. 美国前国务卿基辛格博士。
7.《中美上海联合公报》。
8. diplomat: 外交家。
9. grasp: 理解，领会。
10. profound: 深刻的。
11. let down: 使……失望。
12. Watergate: 水门事件，发生在尼克松任美国总统期间，导致了美国历史上首次总统辞职。Watergate
是美国华盛顿一综合大厦，1972年6月17日夜间共和党争取总统连任委员会有关人员因潜入大厦内民主党全国委员会总部而被捕，暴露了共和党政府在总统竞选中的非法活动，尼克松因此而被迫辞去总统职务。
13. pivot: 关键人物。
14. make: <口>算作。
