General Douglas MacArthur's Farewell Speech

Given to the Corps of Cadets at West Point
May 12, 1962

General Westmoreland, General Groves, distinguished guests, and gentlemen of the Corps. As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, "Where are you bound for, General?" and when I replied, "West Point," he remarked, "Beautiful place, have you ever been there before?"

No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this, coming from a profession I have served so long and a people I have loved so well. It fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this award is not intended primarily for 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 meaning 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 want to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.

The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every 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. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.

They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for action; not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness; the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

They give you a temperate will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, 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 officer and a gentleman.

And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory?

Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man at arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefields 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 the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless.

His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me, or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast.

But when I think of his patience 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 history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs 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 his achievements.

In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people.

From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage. As I listened to those songs of the glee club, in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs on many a weary march, from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through mire of shell-pocked roads; to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, 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 death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always for them: Duty, Honor, Country. Always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as they saw the way and the light.

And twenty years after, on the other side of the globe, against the filth of dirty foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts, those boiling suns of the relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms, the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails, the bitterness of long separation of those they loved and cherished, the deadly pestilence of tropic disease, the horror of stricken areas of war.

Their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory - always victory, always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men, reverently following your password of Duty, Honor, Country.

The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will 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 restraints are from the things that are wrong. The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training - sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave 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 mankind.

You now face a new world, a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres and missiles marked the beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind - the chapter of the space age. In the five or more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of development of the human race, there has never been a greater, a more abrupt or staggering evolution. 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. 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; of purifying sea water for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundred of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of space ships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, 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 dedication. All other public purpose, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishments; 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, which divide men's minds. But serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war guardians, as its lifeguards from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiators in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have 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 government. Whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as firm and complete as they should be.

These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.

You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the Nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds.

The long gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he 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 philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished - tone and tints. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen then, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll.

In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: 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.

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[參考譯文]
五星上將道格拉斯·麥克阿瑟82歲時的西點告別演說

　　今天早晨，當(dāng)我走出旅館時，看門人問道：“將軍，您上哪去？”一聽說我要去西點，他說：“那是個好地方，您從前去過嗎？”

　　這樣的榮譽是沒有人不深受感動的。長期以來，我從事這個職業(yè)，又如此熱愛這個民族，能獲得這樣的榮譽簡直使我無法表達(dá)我的感情。然而，這種獎賞主要并不意味著對個人的尊崇，而是象征一個偉大的道德準(zhǔn)則——捍衛(wèi)這塊可愛土地上的文化與古老傳統(tǒng)的那些人的行為與品質(zhì)的準(zhǔn)則。這就是這個大獎?wù)碌囊饬x。無論現(xiàn)在還是將來，它都是美國軍人道德標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的一種體現(xiàn)。我一定要遵循這個標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，結(jié)合崇高的理想，喚起自豪感，同時始終保持謙虛……

　　責(zé)任一榮譽一國家。這三個神圣的名詞莊嚴(yán)地提醒你應(yīng)該成為怎樣的人，可能成為怎樣的人，一定要成為怎樣的人。它們將使你精神振奮，在你似乎喪失勇氣時鼓起勇氣，似乎沒有理由相信時重建信念，幾乎絕望時產(chǎn)生希望。遺憾得很，我既沒有雄辯的詞令、詩意的想象，也沒有華麗的隱喻向你們說明它們的意義。懷疑者一定要說它們只不過是幾個名詞，一句口號，一個浮夸的短詞。每一個迂腐的學(xué)究，每一個蠱惑人心的政客，每一個玩世不恭的人，每一個偽君子，每一個惹是生非之徒，很遺憾，還有其他個性不甚正常的人，一定企圖貶低它們，甚至對它們進(jìn)行愚弄和嘲笑。

　　但這些名詞確能做到：塑造你的基本特性，使你將來成為國防衛(wèi)士；使你堅強起來，認(rèn)清自己的懦弱，并勇敢地面對自己的膽怯。它們教導(dǎo)你在失敗時要自尊，要不屈不撓；勝利時要謙和，不要以言語代替行動，不要貪圖舒適；要面對重壓和困難，勇敢地接受挑戰(zhàn)；要學(xué)會巍然屹立于風(fēng)浪之中，但對遇難者要寄予同情；要先律己而后律人；要有純潔的心靈和崇高的目標(biāo)；要學(xué)會笑，但不要忘記怎么哭；要向往未來，但不可忽略過去；要為人持重，但不可過于嚴(yán)肅；要謙虛，銘記真正偉大的純樸，真正智慧的虛心，真正強大的溫順。它們賦予你意志的韌性，想象的質(zhì)量，感情的活力，從生命的深處煥發(fā)精神，以勇敢的姿態(tài)克服膽怯，甘于冒險而不貪圖安逸。它們在你們心中創(chuàng)造奇妙的意想不到的希望，以及生命的靈感與歡樂。它們就是以這種方式教導(dǎo)你們成為軍人和君子。

　　你所率領(lǐng)的是哪一類士兵？他可靠嗎？勇敢嗎？他有能力贏得勝利嗎？他的故事你全都熟悉，那是一個美國士兵的故事。我對他的估價是多年前在戰(zhàn)場上形成的，至今沒有改變。那時，我把他看作是世界上最高尚的人；現(xiàn)在，我仍然這樣看他。他不僅是一個軍事品德最優(yōu)秀的人，而且也是一個最純潔的人。他的名字與威望是每一個美國公民的驕傲。在青壯年時期，他獻(xiàn)出了一切人類所賦予的愛情與忠貞。他不需要我及其他人的頌揚，因為他已用自己的鮮血在敵人的胸前譜寫了自傳�？墒�，當(dāng)我想到他在災(zāi)難中的堅忍，在戰(zhàn)火里的勇氣，在勝利時的謙虛，我滿懷的贊美之情不禁油然而升。他在歷史上已成為一位成功愛國者的偉大典范；他在未來將成為子孫認(rèn)識解放與自由的教導(dǎo)者；現(xiàn)在，他把美德與成就獻(xiàn)給我們。在數(shù)十次戰(zhàn)役中，在上百個戰(zhàn)場上，在成千堆營火旁，我親眼目睹他堅韌不拔的不朽精神，熱愛祖國的自我克制以及不可戰(zhàn)勝的堅定決心，這些已經(jīng)把他的形象銘刻在他的人民心中。從世界的這一端到另一端，他已經(jīng)深深地為那勇敢的美酒所陶醉。

　　當(dāng)我聽到合唱隊唱的這些歌曲，我記憶的目光看到第一次世界大戰(zhàn)中步履蹣跚的小分隊，從濕淋淋的黃昏到細(xì)雨蒙蒙的黎明，在透濕的背包的重負(fù)下疲憊不堪地行軍，沉重的腳踝深深地踏在炮彈轟震過的泥濘路上，與敵人進(jìn)行你死我活的戰(zhàn)斗。他們嘴唇發(fā)青，渾身污泥，在風(fēng)雨中戰(zhàn)抖著，從家里被趕到敵人面前，許多人還被趕到上帝的審判席上。我不了解他們生得高貴，可我知道他們死得光榮。他們從不猶豫，毫無怨恨，滿懷信心，嘴邊叨念著繼續(xù)戰(zhàn)斗，直到看到勝利的希望才合上雙眼。這一切都是為了它們——責(zé)任一榮譽一國家。當(dāng)我們瞞珊在尋找光明與真理的道路上時，他們一直在流血、揮汗、灑淚。 20年以后，在世界的另一邊，他們又面對著黑黝黝骯臟的散兵坑、陰森森惡臭的戰(zhàn)壕、濕淋淋污濁的坑道，還有那酷熱的火辣辣的陽光、疾風(fēng)狂暴的傾盆大雨、荒無人煙的叢林小道。他們?nèi)淌苤�與親人長期分離的痛苦煎熬、熱帶疾病的猖獗蔓延、兵桌要地區(qū)的恐怖情景。他們堅定果敢的防御，他們迅速準(zhǔn)確的攻擊，他們不屈撓的目的，他們?nèi)�面徹底的勝�?mdash;—永恒的勝利——永遠(yuǎn)伴隨著他們最后在血泊中的戰(zhàn)斗。在戰(zhàn)斗中，那些蒼白憔悴的人們的目光始終莊嚴(yán)地跟隨著責(zé)任一榮譽一國家的口號。

　　這幾個名詞包合著最高的道德準(zhǔn)則，并將經(jīng)受任何為提高人類道德水準(zhǔn)而傳播的倫理或哲學(xué)的檢驗。它所提倡的是正確的事物，它所制止的是謬誤的東西。高于眾人之上的戰(zhàn)士要履行宗教修煉的最偉大行為——犧牲。在戰(zhàn)斗中，面對著危險與死亡，他顯示出造物主按照自己意愿創(chuàng)造人類時所賦予的品質(zhì)。只有神明能幫助他、支持他，這是任何肉體的勇敢與動物的本能都代替不了的。無論戰(zhàn)爭如何恐怖，召之即來的戰(zhàn)士準(zhǔn)備為國捐軀是人類最崇高的進(jìn)化�！‖F(xiàn)在，你們面臨著一個新世界 ——一個變革中的世界。人造衛(wèi)星進(jìn)入星際空間。衛(wèi)星與導(dǎo)彈標(biāo)志著人類漫長的歷史進(jìn)入了另一個時代——太空時代。自然科學(xué)告訴我們，在50億年或更長的時期中，地球形成了；300萬年或更長的時期中，人類形成了；人類歷史還不曾有過一次更巨大、更令人驚訝的進(jìn)化。我們不單要從現(xiàn)在這個世界，而且要從無法估算的距離，從神秘莫測的宇宙來論述事物。我們正在認(rèn)識一個嶄新的無邊無際的世界。我們談?wù)撝�不可思議的話題：控制宇宙的能源；讓風(fēng)力與潮汐為我們所用；創(chuàng)造空前的合成物質(zhì)以補充甚至代替古老的基本物質(zhì)；凈化海水以供我們飲用；開發(fā)海底以作為財富與食品的新基地；預(yù)防疾病以使壽命延長幾百歲；調(diào)節(jié)空氣以使冷熱、晴雨分布均衡；登月宇宙飛船；戰(zhàn)爭中的主要目標(biāo)不僅限于敵人的武裝力量，也包括其平民；切結(jié)起來的人類與某些星系行星的惡勢力的最根本矛盾；使生命成為有史以來最扣人心弦的那些夢境與幻想。

　　為了迎接所有這些巨大的變化與發(fā)展，你們的任務(wù)將變得更加堅定而不可侵犯，那就是贏得我們戰(zhàn)爭的勝利。你們的職業(yè)要求你們在這個生死關(guān)頭勇于獻(xiàn)身，此外，別無所求。其余的一切公共目的、公共計劃、公共需求，無論大小，都可以尋找其他辦法去完成；而你們就是受訓(xùn)參加戰(zhàn)斗的，你們的職業(yè)就是戰(zhàn)斗——決心取勝。在戰(zhàn)爭中最明確的目標(biāo)就是為了勝利，這是任何東西都代替不了的。假如你失敗了，國家就要遭到破壞，因此，你的職業(yè)唯一要遵循的就是責(zé)任一榮譽一國家。其他人將糾纏于分散人們思想的國內(nèi)外問題的爭論，可是你將安詳、寧靜地屹立在遠(yuǎn)處，作為國家的衛(wèi)士，作為國際矛盾怒潮中的救生員，作為硝煙彌漫的競技場上的格斗士。一個半世紀(jì)以來，你們曾經(jīng)防御、守衛(wèi)、保護(hù)著解放與自由、權(quán)利與正義的神圣傳統(tǒng)。讓平民百姓去辯論我們政府的功過：我們的國力是否因長期財政赤字而衰竭，聯(lián)邦的家長式傳統(tǒng)是否勢力過大，權(quán)力集團是否過于驕橫自大，政治是否過于腐敗，犯罪是否過于猖獗，道德標(biāo)準(zhǔn)是否降得太低，捐稅是否提得太高，極端分子是否過于偏激，我們個人的自由是否像應(yīng)有的那樣完全徹底。這些重大的國家問題與你們的職業(yè)毫不相干，也無需使用軍事手段來解決。你們的路標(biāo)——責(zé)任一榮譽一國家，比夜里的燈塔要亮十倍。

　　你們是聯(lián)系我國防御系統(tǒng)全部機構(gòu)的紐帶。當(dāng)戰(zhàn)爭警鐘敲響時，從你們的隊伍中將涌現(xiàn)出手操國家命運的偉大軍官。還從來沒有人打敗過我們。假如你也是這樣，上百萬身穿橄欖色、棕色、藍(lán)色和灰色制服的靈魂將從他們的白色十字架下站起來，以雷霆般的聲音喊出那神奇的口號——責(zé)任一榮譽一國家。

　　這并不意味著你們是戰(zhàn)爭販子。相反，高于眾人之上的戰(zhàn)士祈求和平，因為他忍受著戰(zhàn)爭最深刻的傷痛與瘡疤。可是，我們的耳邊經(jīng)常響起那位大智大慧的哲學(xué)之父柏拉圖的警世之言：“只有死者才能看到戰(zhàn)爭的終結(jié)。”

　　我的生命已近黃昏，暮色已經(jīng)降臨。我過去的音調(diào)與色彩已經(jīng)消失，它們已經(jīng)隨著往事的夢境模糊地溜走了。往日的回憶是非常美好的，是以淚水洗滌，以昨天的微笑撫慰的。我渴望但徒然地聆聽著遠(yuǎn)處那微弱而迷人的起床號聲，和那咚咚作響的軍鼓聲。在夢境里，我又聽到隆隆的炮聲，劈啪的步槍射擊聲，戰(zhàn)場上古怪而悲傷的低語聲。然而，在我黃昏的記憶中，我總是來到西點，耳邊始終回響著：責(zé)任一榮譽一國家。

　　今天標(biāo)志我對你們的最后一次點名。但我希望你們知道，當(dāng)我死去時，我最后自然想到的一定是你們這支部隊——這支部隊——這支部隊。

　　我向你們告別了。