Duty Honor Country

Douglas MacArthur

As I was leāving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, “Where are you bound for, General?” And when I replied, “West Point,” he remarked, “Beauti ful place. Hāve you ever been there before?”

No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this ayer Award. Coming from a profession I hāve served so long, and a people I hāve loved so well, it fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this award is not in tended primarily to honor a personality, but to symbolize a great moral code — the code of conduct and chivalry of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent. That is the animation of this medallion. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics of the American soldier. That I should be integrated in this way with so noble an ideal arouses a sense of pride and yet of humility which will be with me always: Duty, Honor, Country.

Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for f aith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. txt小说上传分享

序言（5）

Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagi nation, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean. The unbe lievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Ever y pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.

But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. T hey mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. Th ey make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brāve enough to face yo urself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest f ailure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, n ot to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty an d challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to hāve compassion on those w ho fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to hāve a heart th at is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to wee p; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simpl icity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true stre ngth. They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predom inance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an office r and a gentleman.

And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brāve? Are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man瞐t瞐rms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then as I regard him now — as one of the world's noblest figures, not only as one of t he finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless. His name a nd fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gāve all that mortality can give.

He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own his tory and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But when I think of his patien ce under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to h istory as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He b elongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by hi s achievements. In 20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand ca mpfires, I hāve witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self瞐bnegati on, and that invincible determination which hāve carved his statue in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the c halice of courage.

序言（6）

As I listened to those songs the glee club, in memory's eye I could see thos e staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs, on many a weary march from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle瞕eep through the mire of shell瞫hocked roads, to form grimly for the attack, blue瞝ipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their d eath.

They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on t heir lips the hope that we would go on to victory.

Always, for them: Duty, Honor, Country; always their blood and sweat and tea rs, as we sought the way and the light and the truth.

And 20 years after, on the other side of the globe, again the filth of murky foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts; those boiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms; t he loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails; the bitterness of long sepa ration from those they loved and cherished; the deadly pestilence of tropical di sease; the horror of stricken areas of war; their resolute and determined defens e, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and de cisive victory — always victory. Always through the bloody haze of their last r everberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men reverently following your pa ssword of: Duty, Honor, Country.

The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and wi ll stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restrain ts are from the things that are wrong.

The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act o f religious training: sacrifice.In battle and in the face of danger and deat h, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gāve when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.

However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of man kind.

You now face a new world — a world of change. The thrust into outer space o f the satellite, spheres, and missiles mark the beginning of another epoch in th e long story of mankind. In the five or more billions of years the scientists te ll us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of deve lopment of the human race, there has never been a more abrupt or staggering evol ution. We deal now not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier.

序言（7）

We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us; of creating unheard synthetic materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; to purify sea water for our drink; of mini ng ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to e xpand life into the hundreds of years; of controlling the weather for a more equ itable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of space ships to the m oon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an e nemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all time.

And through all this welter of change and development, your mission remains fixed, determined，inviolable: it is to win our wars.

Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital d edication. All other public purposes, all other public projects, all other publi c needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishment. But you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory; that if you lose, the nation will be destroyed; that the very obsession of your public service must be: Duty, Honor, Country.

Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, whi ch divide men's minds; but serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war瞘 uardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as it s gladiator in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you hāve defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.

Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of governm ent; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogan t, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown to o low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our per sonal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great nati onal problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a ten瞗old beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Cou ntry.

You are the leāven which binds together the entire fabric of our national sy stem of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's d estiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has n ever failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khak i, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

This does not mean that you are war mongers.

On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for h e must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato that wisest of all ph ilosophers: “Only the dead hāve seen the end of war.”

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old hāv e vanished, tone and tint. They hāve gone glimmering through the dreams of thing s that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxe d and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ear s, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beatin g the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musk etry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point.

Always there echoes and re瞖choes: Duty, Honor, Country.

Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.

I bid you farewell.

西点军校简介（1）

美国西点军校全称“美国陆军军官学校”。200年来，一直是美国培养领导人的重要场 所。学校因位于纽约市北郊的哈得孙峡谷河上肘状的三角岩石坡地上，该点被当地人称为“ 西点”，故习惯上又被称为“西点军校”。西点军校的教官们和军校生们也常常被称为“西 点人”。

西点校园及附属教学区位于哈得孙河上游的高山，依山傍水，风光秀丽，总面积为1600 0公顷。一系列哥特式建筑风格的建筑物从内向外被起伏的群山环抱。内圈为主要校园区， 由教学大楼、学员区、运动场与活动中心等组成。其中教学大楼及其周围的建筑被命名为“ 华盛顿楼”，楼前于1916年建立了一座展现华盛顿马上得天下的塑像。号称世界最大可容纳 全校五六千官兵同时就餐的军校大餐厅，就在华盛顿楼内。外圈则由冬季滑雪场、高尔夫球 场、训练与野营区等构成。整体建筑以学校的大运动场为中心展开，而校长的宿舍就坐落在 大运动场边上，象征着校长与学员的亲密关系。校长一般由三星级中将担任。西点第三任校 长塞耶上校被称为“西点之父”。

20世纪90年代，有一位中将校长在感叹之余，曾留下这样一句名言：我们所教的历史的 大部分其实都是由我们教过的学生创造的。在西点军校200年的历程中，为美国培养了众多 的军事人才，其中有3700人成为将军。著名的有：美国南北战争中的北方联邦军总司令格兰 特，南部联盟军总司令李将军，第一次世界大战中美国远征军总司令潘兴，第二次世界大战 中的太平洋盟军统帅麦克阿瑟，欧洲战场盟军总司令艾森豪威尔，第12集团军司令布瑞德利 ，第3集团军司令巴顿，中印缅战区司令史迪威，侵越美军司令威斯勃兰特，海湾战争中央 总部司令施瓦茨科普夫，科索沃战争美军指挥官克拉克将军等。除此之外，西点军校在培养 大批军事家的同时，还为美国培养和造就了众多的政治家、企业家、教育家和科学家。其中 著名的有：美国第18任总统格兰特，第24任总统艾森豪威尔，第59任国务卿黑格，国际银行 主席奥姆斯特德，军火大王杜邦，巴拿马运河的总工程师戈瑟尔斯，第一个在太空中行走的 宇航员怀特，现任国务卿鲍威尔等。在西点军校建校200周年庆典上，西点人骄傲地喊出这 样一个口号：“西点军校，永恒的领袖。”

凡报考西点军校的青年，条件必须是美国公民（盟军学员除外），年龄在17～22岁，身 高～米，未婚，在军校学习期间不许结婚，亦不能有任何子女或其他人需要抚养， 不论种族、肤­色­、宗教信仰和­性­别。报考生必须在当地高中学习成绩名列本班前茅，且身体 健康，具有一定的组织领导才能，在参加考试的前一年还必须得到美国总统、副总统、参议 员、众议员、州长、市长或部队主管的推荐。即使有这样严格的报考条件，每年登记报考的 人仍然在12000人左右，能得到推荐并参加考试的约5000人。获得正式报考资格的青年，还 必须参加并通过国家统一组织的大学入学考试，经过一轮轮考试和测验，剩余2000多人。然 后，各军种学员入学资格评审委员会从德、智、体等方面全面衡量，择优录取，最后仅1400 人有幸被录取。从1976年7月初起，按总统法令规定，西点军校首次开始招收女生，首批为1 19名，90年代已增至800余人，占学员总数的1/6。

西点军校简介（2）

录取入学后，并不意味着“万事大吉”了。每个学员在考入西点前都要做好被淘汰的思 想准备并作出相应保证。其父母也应保证做好工作，不留后患。西点军校学员自入校之日起 ，就要接受严格的检验与筛选，实行优化与淘汰制。第1学年新生淘汰率为23％，最终能学 完4年毕业的学员占入学总人数的70％左右，女生淘汰率更高。学员经过4年学习毕业后，获 理科学士学位，授少尉军衔。学员毕业后，至少应在军队连续服役5年。在校期间，开支主 要由国会拨款支付，每月可领取津贴。1年级学生每月70美元，到4年级每月可达200美元左 右。

西点军校4年制本科学员的课程共40门，其中30门为必修课程，主要有数学、工程、英 语、历史、社会科学、心理学与国家安全课题。10门选修课包括基础科学、应用科学、工程 学、人文学、国家安全事务与公共事务等。各学科还分细目。在教学中，西点重视采用新技 术辅助教学，使军校的课堂教学达到高水平，尤其在教学技术方面实现了电教一体化。

西点的教学方法，往往与众不同，有着独特的魅力。西点的第3任校长西尔韦纳斯?塞 耶在任内15年中，为西点创建了完善的教育训练制度，第一次为西点军校的图书馆系统地从 欧洲大规模购置图书。他把西点的准则、西点的气质、西点的信念传到了全国。其中最著名 的做法是：在西点按照德、智、军、体的教学目标建立起了严格而单调的生活制度。而“野 兽营”则成了新生入学教育阶段的过滤器，这一阶段淘汰率为15％以上。

在“野兽营”中，­精­力旺盛的中高年级学员把捉弄新学员当做发泄的最好方法。中高年 级学员可以随意对新学员进行身体上的惩罚、­精­神上的摧残和人格上的侮辱，以至于很多人 在心灵和­肉­体上留下了严重的创伤。直至麦克阿瑟当校长，这种情况才有所改变。然而，这 时“兽营”已经成为美军严格训练的传统——不但在西点，而且在全美军。所以麦克阿瑟所 能做到的也只能是使“野兽营”稍微温和一些罢了！再有就是模拟敌对状态。在西点，学员 和战术教官之间还存在着一种模拟的敌对状态，这样有利于保持美国军人在战场上的紧张感 。

西点的校训是“责任、荣誉、国家”。西点军校培养的不仅是一名军人，而且是美国社 会的­精­英，这是它办学过程中最为引人注目的地方。

西点军校之所以充满活力、永葆青春、经久不衰、始终受到世人的关注，一个根本的原 因就是它坚持了内部机制的改革。

在战场上，“决定­性­”的动力是“相信自己的赢家力量”。因此，第30任校长麦克阿瑟 认为：军校教育“应着眼于不断变化的世界，着眼于复杂的未来，着眼于军事技术的不断现 代化”。后人在评价他的改革时说：是他把传统的西点军校带进了现代化的20世纪。他所培 养的现代化高才生们，大多成为第二次世界大战的美军领导群体。但无论西点怎样发展，西 点人都会铭记他们的校训：责任、荣誉、国家。这实际上是西点的­精­神，也是美国的国训。 因为西点的学生们深知：在“兽营”中，你只有保持警觉的头脑、灵敏的反应，你才能坚持 下来。这实际上又成了美国军队改革的“芯”动力。

今天的美国军队中大多数将校军官出自西点，其­精­神力量也来自西点。这种­精­神使他们 在拥有最强大军事力量的同时，仍然保持着­精­神上的危机感和挣扎感。不知哪个美国名人的 名言就是：挣扎，挣扎，再挣扎。而美国军队今天的发展正是：强大，强大，更强大。

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