美国国家公共电台 NPR Military Victory But Political Defeat: The Tet Offensive 50 Years Later
时间：2018-12-02 作者：英语课 分类：2018年NPR美国国家公共电台1月
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
All this year, we are looking at the events of 1968 that continue to shape our world today. It was 50 years ago this week when thousands of North Vietnamese troops and their Viet Cong allies launched an audacious attack sweeping 1 into cities throughout South Vietnam, even slipping through the gates of the American embassy in Saigon. This was a stealthy, coordinated 2 attack that became known as the Tet Offensive. NPR's Tom Bowman reports that the offensive solidified 3 American opposition 4 to the Vietnam War and began the slow erosion of trust that Americans have in their government leaders.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
HOWARD PRINCE: What I saw was probably the most intense ground fighting of...
MIKE DOWNS: We didn't know exactly where the enemy was and which direction he...
JIM COOLICAN: We were under fire - under heavy fire.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE 5: Howard Prince and Mike Downs and Jim Coolican were all young American officers caught up in the fight of their lives. They were in the city of Hue 6, the old imperial capital north of Saigon. It was the bloodiest 7 battle of the Tet Offensive and also the entire war. And it all took American officials completely by surprise, says author Mark Bowden.
MARK BOWDEN: You had the incredibly rose-colored reports coming from General William Westmoreland - who was the American commander in Vietnam - assuring the American people that the end was near, that the enemy was really only capable of small kind of ambushes 9 in the far reaches of the country.
BOWMAN: But then came Tet. Enemy troops breached 10 the U.S. embassy grounds in Saigon.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Viet Cong snipers and suicide commandos were holed up inside the embassy compound.
BOWMAN: Back in Washington, Lyndon Johnson called his defense 11 secretary, Robert McNamara, and asked for an explanation.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LYNDON JOHNSON: What was your evaluation 12?
ROBERT MCNAMARA: I think it shows two things, Mr. President - first, that they have more power than some credit them with. I don't think it's a last gasp 13 action. They will remain a substantial force.
BOWMAN: A substantial force. But just six weeks earlier, a top White House official told New York Times reporter Gene 8 Roberts the war was already over. Roberts was heading off to Vietnam, so National Security Adviser 14 Walt Rostow gave him a tip. It was a new U.S. agricultural program Roberts recall being told.
GENE ROBERTS: Which would double the rice yields in Vietnam and would win the peace now that Americans had won the war.
BOWMAN: Far from winning, the Americans were barely holding on to Hue. Gene Roberts saw terrified refugees, wounded Marines and heavy gunfire. His first story said the Marines controlled just two blocks. Reinforcements were needed, not just troops but artillery 16. That was slow in coming. Jim Coolican, the Marine 15 captain, said his own military superiors didn't understand how desperate they were. The Americans were badly outnumbered.
COOLICAN: And the reaction we've got - and I'm paraphrasing 17 now - but the reaction we got was that we were overreacting. This isn't that bad.
BOWMAN: More reporters showed up at Hue, including some from NBC. The pictures showed a terrifying scene.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: What's the hardest part of it?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Not knowing where they are. That's the worst thing. Riding around, they're running in sewers 18, in the gutters 19 - anywhere, could be anywhere - just hope you stay alive from day to day.
BOWMAN: Still, General Westmoreland downplayed the situation, telling reporters the real enemy objective was a large and remote Marine base at Khe Sanh.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WILLIAM WESTMORELAND: In my opinion, this is diversionary to his main effort, which he had planned to take place in Quang Tri Province from Laos toward Khe Sanh and across the demilitarized zone.
BOWMAN: But Howard Prince, the young Army officer fighting at Hue, said Westmoreland headed backwards 20. Khe Sanh was the diversion.
PRINCE: Westmoreland and his staff, the people who were advising him, became fixated on Khe Sanh to the point where they simply were not capable of entertaining other information.
BOWMAN: Others were willing to entertain the importance of the Tet Offensive. Among them was Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchor who arrived in Hue and quickly realized he'd been deceived by his official sources back in Washington. What Cronkite saw on the ground led him to say it was time for the U.S. to end the war.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WALTER CRONKITE: The only rational way out then will be to negotiate not as victims but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could.
BOWMAN: Johnson is said to have told an aide - if I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America. And maybe more than that. Bowden says Tet spurred not just a lack of trust about Vietnam policy but a more general disregard for government officials that continues to this day.
BOWDEN: On the heels of Hue, on the heels of Tet then came the Pentagon Papers, came the Watergate break-in - you know, a series of kind of catastrophic events in terms of the public's perception of its own leaders.
BOWMAN: A month after the Tet Offensive, Johnson went on TV and said he would press for peace, stop the bombing in North Vietnam. Then he dropped his own bombshell.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: I shall not seek, and I will not accept the nomination 21 of my party for another term as your president.
BOWMAN: Howard Prince watched it from his hospital bed in Texas recovering from wounds he suffered at Hue.
PRINCE: I was ready to throw a bedpan at the television set because, to me, what that was was an admission of defeat and the denial of the sacrifice that all those young men have made and that I had made.
BOWMAN: The Tet Offensive was an American military victory, says Prince. And Johnson should've taken the fight to North Vietnam, gone after the enemy safe havens 22 in Laos and Cambodia.
PRINCE: We're doing the same thing today with the Taliban in Afghanistan. We're allowing you to run over into the borderlands in Pakistan and do the same thing.
BOWMAN: Bowden agrees that even today there are military parallels to what he wrote in his recent book, "Hue 1968."
BOWDEN: We often find ourselves mired 23 in situations where we don't have the cultural understanding. We don't have the historical understanding. We can't gain the support of the people, whether it's in Iraq or Afghanistan. And it stems from a kind of an arrogance 24 and a general ignorance.
BOWMAN: For his part, Mark Downs, another young Marine officer, will only say he and his men did their best. This week, Downs will remember those from Fox Company who were killed or wounded.
DOWNS: The killed were - I think, he was a PFC, Stanley Murdock, D.I. Collins, a corpsman by the name of Gooslin (ph). Doc Gooslin had been in the Army...
BOWMAN: Their names are carefully written in a small notebook he carried during those days a half century ago. Tom Bowman, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLENN CARTER'S "(SITTIN' ON) THE DOCK OF THE BAY")
- The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
- Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？
- The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
- The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
- Her attitudes solidified through privilege and habit. 由于特权和习惯使然，她的看法变得越来越难以改变。
- When threatened, he fires spheres of solidified air from his launcher! 当危险来临，他就会发射它的弹药！
- The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
- The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
- His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
- We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
- The diamond shone with every hue under the sun.金刚石在阳光下放出五颜六色的光芒。
- The same hue will look different in different light.同一颜色在不同的光线下看起来会有所不同。
- The Russians were going to suffer their bloodiest defeat of all before Berlin. 俄国人在柏林城下要遭到他们的最惨重的失败。 来自辞典例句
- It was perhaps the bloodiest hour in the history of warfare. 这也许是战争史上血腥味最浓的1个小时。 来自互联网
- A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
- The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。
- He was a specialist in ambushes, he said, and explained his tactics. 他说自己是埋伏战斗方面的专家，并讲述了他的战术。 来自互联网
- It makes ambushes rather fun. 它使得埋伏战术非常有趣。 来自互联网
- These commitments have already been breached. 这些承诺已遭背弃。
- Our tanks have breached the enemy defences. 我方坦克车突破了敌人的防线。
- The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
- The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
- I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
- The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。
- She gave a gasp of surprise.她吃惊得大口喘气。
- The enemy are at their last gasp.敌人在做垂死的挣扎。
- They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
- Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。
- Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
- When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
- This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
- The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。
- I'm paraphrasing but this is honestly what he said. 我是在转述，但这的确是他说的意思。 来自柯林斯例句
- The sewers discharge out at sea. 下水道的污水排入海里。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- Another municipal waste problem is street runoff into storm sewers. 有关都市废水的另外一个问题是进入雨水沟的街道雨水。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
- Gutters lead the water into the ditch. 排水沟把水排到这条水沟里。
- They were born, they grew up in the gutters. 他们生了下来，以后就在街头长大。
- He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
- All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。
- John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
- Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。
- Your twenty havens would back out at the last minute anyhow. 你那二十个避难所到了最后一分钟也要不认帐。 来自辞典例句
- Using offshore havens to avoid taxes and investor protections. 使用海面的港口避免税和投资者保护。 来自互联网