Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember This week in our series, we begin the story of President Lyndon Johnson. "From Dallas Texas, the flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 PM Central Standard Time, two o'clock Eastern Standard Time. Lyndon Baines Johnson became America's thirty-sixth president suddenly. "Vice President Lyndon Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas. Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly, and become the thirty-sixth President of the United States." On November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three, President John Kennedy was murdered. Kennedy and Johnson, his vice president, were in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was shot as his open car drove through the city. Within a few hours, Johnson was sworn into office. The swearing-in took place on the presidential plane, Air Force One, at Dallas' Love Field.
歡迎收聽VOA慢速英語之建國史話節目，我是史蒂夫·恩伯。我們在本周的系列節目中，將開始講述林登·詹森總統的故事。「來自德克薩斯州達拉斯的消息，甘迺迪總統在美國中央標準時間下午一點去世，這顯然是官方消息。」林登·貝恩斯·詹森突然成為美國第三十六任總統。「副總統林登·詹森已經離開達拉斯的醫院，他很快就會宣誓就職，成為美國第三十六任總統。」1963年11月22日，約翰·甘迺迪總統遇害。甘迺迪及其副總統詹森，當時正在德克薩斯州的達拉斯。甘迺迪的敞篷車駛過這座城市時，遭遇槍擊。幾小時後，詹森宣誓就職。宣誓儀式在達拉斯愛田機場的總統專機空軍一號上舉行。
The plane returned to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington carrying the new president and the body of the former president. At Andrews, President Johnson read a brief statement. He ended with these words: "I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help, and God's." Before he was vice president, LBJ had served for many years in the Senate and the House of Representatives. He grew up in small towns in Texas. He finished high school at age fifteen. He traveled and worked for a few years before he entered Southwest Texas State Teachers College. There he was a student leader and a political activist. In nineteen thirty-one a newly elected congressman asked Johnson to work for him as his secretary in Washington. Four years later, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Johnson as Texas director of Roosevelt's National Youth Administration. Two years after that, in nineteen thirty-seven, Johnson won a special election for a seat in the House of Representatives. He served in the House for twelve years. When the United States entered World War Two, Johnson was the first member of Congress at that time to volunteer for active duty. After the war, he ran for the Senate, where he also served for twelve years.
飛機載著新總統和前總統的遺體，返回華盛頓附近的安德魯斯空軍基地。在安德魯斯，詹森總統宣讀了一份簡短的聲明。他最後說：「我會竭盡全力，這就是我所能做的事情。我請求你們和上帝的幫助。」詹森擔任副總統之前，曾在參議院和眾議院任職多年。他在德克薩斯州的小城鎮長大，十五歲高中畢業。他在進入西南德克薩斯州立師範學院之前，曾旅行並工作數年。他在那是一名學生領袖，還是一位政治活動家。1931年，一位新當選的國會議員請詹森，到華盛頓給他做秘書工作。四年後，富蘭克林·羅斯福總統任命詹森為德克薩斯州羅斯福國家青年管理局局長。兩年後，在1937年，詹森贏得了眾議院席位的特別選舉。他在眾議員任職十二年。當美國捲入二戰時，詹森是當時第一個志願服現役職務的國會議員。他在戰後競選參議員，並在參議院任職十二年。
Johnson loved politics and became an expert in the operations of government. He would need all of that knowledge as president of a nation facing problems near and far. When Johnson took office, communist forces were fighting South Vietnamese troops supported by the United States. Also there were continuing worries about nuclear war with the Soviet Union. At home, there was racial conflict. Many Americans were out of work, and there was the threat of a railroad strike. Johnson began his presidency by working hard for legislation that President Kennedy had proposed. Johnson had voted against civil rights legislation when he served in the Senate. But now he urged Congress to support the idea, and Congress agreed. The nineteen sixty-four Civil Rights Act barred discrimination against minorities in jobs and in restaurants and other businesses. "We believe that all men are created equal. Yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet millions are being deprived of those blessings -- not because of their own failures -- but because of the color of their skin."
詹森酷愛政治，成為了政府運作方面的專家。當國家遭遇內憂外患時，作為總統，他需要所有這些知識。詹森上任時，共產黨軍隊正在與美國支持的南越軍隊作戰。此外，人們對與蘇聯的核戰爭仍心存憂慮。在美國國內，存在種族衝突。許多美國人失業了，鐵路罷工也構成了威脅。詹森在總統任期開始時，就為甘迺迪總統提出的立法而努力工作。詹森在參議院任職時，曾投票反對民權法案。但現在，他敦促國會支持這一想法，國會也表示同意。1964年的《公民權利法》中規定，禁止在工作場所、餐館和其他企業中歧視少數民族。「我們相信，人人生而平等。然而，許多人被剝奪了平等待遇。我們相信，所有人都擁有某些不可剝奪的權利。然而，許多美國人並不享有這些權利。我們相信，所有人都有權獲得自由的祝福。然而，數以百萬計的人被剝奪了這些幸福，不是因為他們自己的失敗，而是因為他們的膚色。」
The president said that such a situation could not continue in America. To treat people unfairly because of their race, he said, violated the Constitution and the idea of democracy. Lyndon Johnson succeeded in getting Congress to pass more civil rights legislation in nineteen sixty-five and sixty-eight. "Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can -- and should be -- no argument. Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote... There is no reason that can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right." Many southern states used so-called literacy tests as a way to deny blacks the right to vote. "The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists and, if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name, or because he abbreviated a word on the application. "And if he manages to fill out an application, he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test. He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of state law.
總統表示，這種情況不能在美國繼續下去了。他說，因為種族而不公平地對待人民，違反憲法和民主理念。林登·詹森成功地使國會在1965年和1968年，通過了更多的民權立法。「許多公民權利問題，都非常複雜、棘手。但關於這一點而言，可以而且應該不存在爭論。每位美國公民都必須擁有平等的投票權。沒有任何理由，可以為剝奪這項權利辯解。確保這一權利的責任，是重中之重。」許多南部州採用所謂的讀寫測試，來剝奪黑人的選舉權。「黑人公民去登記時，可能會被告知日期不對，或時間晚了，或主管官員不在。如果他堅持投票，如果他設法向書記官長表明自己的身份，他可能會因為沒有拼出中間名，或因為在申請書上把一個詞進行了縮寫，而被取消資格。「如果他成功填寫完申請表，會進行一項測試。登記員是判斷他是否通過這項考試的唯一評判人。他可能要求這位黑人背誦整部憲法，或者解釋州法律中最複雜的條款。
And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that he can read and write." The Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-five said states could not prevent citizens from voting just because they could not read very well. The nineteen sixty-eight law barred discrimination against blacks in housing. Johnson was from the South. That -- and his ability to persuade people -- helped him get southern conservatives in Congress to support the civil rights legislation. He also had other ideas for a better America. He called his plan the Great Society. He talked about it in a speech at the University of Michigan: "The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents." Johnson launched the War on Poverty, a series of bills designed to help the poor. But his efforts to pay for social programs and a war overseas led to inflation.
即使擁有大學文憑，也無法證明黑人能夠讀寫。」1965年的民權法案中規定，各州不能僅因為公民無法很好地閱讀，就阻止他們投票。1968年的法律，禁止在住房方面歧視黑人。詹森來自南部。這一點，以及他說服人們的能力，幫助他在國會爭取南方保守派支持民權立法。他還對建設更美好的美國，抱有其他想法。他把自己的計劃稱為偉大的社會，他在密西根大學的演講中談到了這一點：「偉大的社會依賴於所有人的富裕和自由，它要求終結貧窮和種族不公，我們在這個時代完全致力於此。而這只是個開始。偉大的社會，是每個孩子都能找尋知識來充實自己的思想，和擴展自己才能的地方。」詹森發起了反貧困戰爭，這是一系列旨在幫助窮人的法案。但是，他為社會項目和海外戰爭買單，導致了通貨膨脹。
Vietnam was not the only place where Johnson used military force. In nineteen sixty-five he sent more than twenty thousand troops to intervene in the Dominican Republic. He worried that a revolution could lead to a communist takeover of that Caribbean nation. Lyndon Johnson served the last fourteen months of President Kennedy's term. Then in nineteen sixty-four he ran for a full term. The Democratic Party strongly supported him and accepted his choice of Hubert Humphrey for vice president. Humphrey was a liberal senator from the state of Minnesota. Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans had a difficult time choosing their presidential candidate. Delegates at the party's nominating convention finally chose Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was a strongly conservative senator from Arizona. "Certainly, simple honesty is not too much to demand of men in government. And let our Republicanism, so focused and so dedicated, not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels. I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
越南並不是詹森動用武力的唯一地方。在1965年，他派遣兩萬多軍隊幹預多米尼加共和國，他擔心革命會導致共產黨接管這個加勒比國家。林登·詹森在甘迺迪總統任期的最後十四個月裡任職。1964年，他參加了總統完整任期的競選。民主黨大力支持他，並接受他選擇休伯特·漢弗萊為副總統。漢弗萊是明尼蘇達州的自由派參議員。與民主黨人不同，共和黨人在選擇他們的總統候選人方面遇到了困難。參加該黨提名大會的代表們，最終選擇巴裡·戈德沃特。戈德沃特，是來自亞利桑那州的一位非常保守的參議員。「當然，誠實對在政府中任職的人來說並不過分。讓目標明確、具有專門用途的共和制，不要因為不加思考和愚蠢的標籤，而被曲解，變得無益。我要提醒你們，捍衛自由的極端主義並非罪惡。我還要提醒你們，在追求正義時適度並非美德。」
The Republican candidate for vice president was William Miller, a congressman from New York State. Americans voted in November of nineteen sixty-four. Lyndon Johnson won more than sixty percent of the popular vote. Still he had hoped for an even bigger victory. He wanted proof that Americans were voting for him, and not the shadow of John Kennedy. In his inaugural speech, Johnson said his Great Society would never be finished -- it would keep growing and improving. "I do not believe that the Great Society is the ordered, changeless and sterile battalion of the ants. It is the excitement of becoming -- always becoming, trying, probing, falling, resting and trying again -- but always trying and always gaining." In nineteen sixty-five, he won congressional approval of Medicare, a health insurance program for Americans age sixty-five and older. President Harry Truman had called for such a plan twenty years earlier. Johnson presented Truman and his wife, Bess, with Medicare cards numbers one and two. Under Johnson, Congress also approved Medicaid, a health care program for the poor and disabled. In nineteen sixty-seven, President Johnson appointed the nation's first black justice to the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall. "Hell no, we won't go!" Around the country, President Johnson faced growing opposition to the war in Vietnam. More and more American troops were dying. Lyndon Johnson may have wanted to be remembered as a great president, but the war came to redefine his presidency. That will be our story next week.
共和黨副總統候選人是來自紐約州的眾議員威廉·米勒。美國人在1964年11月投票，林登·詹森贏得了超過60%的普選。儘管如此，他還是希望能取得更大的勝利。他想要證明，美國人投票支持的是他，而不是作為跟隨約翰· 甘迺迪的人。詹森在就職演說中表示，他描述的偉大的社會永遠不會終結，它將不斷成長和進步。「我認為，偉大的社會不是有秩序、一成不變、缺乏新意的螞蟻大軍。它是，一直都是成為、嘗試、探索、失敗、休憩、再嘗試——總是嘗試、獲取的興奮感。」1965年，他贏得了國會對聯邦醫療保險的批准。這是一項針對65歲及以上美國人的健康保險計劃。20年前，哈裡·杜魯門總統曾呼籲制定這樣一項計劃。詹森向杜魯門及其妻子貝絲贈送了一號和二號醫療保險卡。在詹森的領導下，國會還批准了醫療補助計劃，這是一項針對窮人和殘疾人士的醫療保健項目。在1967年，詹森總統任命美國最高法院第一位黑人法官，瑟古德·馬歇爾。「不，我們不去！」在全國範圍內，詹森總統面臨著越來越多反對越南戰爭的呼聲，更多的美軍部隊在戰爭中犧牲。林登·詹森可能想讓人們將他銘記為一位偉大的總統，但這場戰爭重新界定了他的總統任期，這將是我們下期節目中要講述的故事。
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