美国前国务卿贝克在老布什葬礼致辞，我的荣耀在于有你这样的总统朋友（附视频&演讲稿）|163

点击上方“精彩英语演讲”，选择“设为星标”

英语演讲视频，第一时间观看

美国当地时间12月5日，美国在华盛顿国家大教堂为11月30日去世的前总统老布什举行国葬。美国目前所有在世的前总统及夫人，现总统和夫人，以及查尔斯王子，意大利前总理等政要出席了葬礼。葬礼之隆重，规格之高，全球少见。

当中还有一位与老布什总统相识50年的最好朋友，也是老布什总统任期内的国务卿詹姆斯·贝克出席了葬礼并致悼词。有网友听完这个视频，了解到贝克和老布什一生的友谊，都惊呼：这才是真正友谊的样子。

老布什当选后，他们仍是心心相印的工作搭档，直至最后在医院，他们都像老顽童一样保持着终生的友谊。就是上面这个演讲中的老人，他和那个灵柩中的前总统，他们用自己的一生友谊的传奇，为人类做出了最好的表率。美国总统动不动就说美国是一个Great nation，其他国家应该总有一些人听着不是滋味，其实从太多的人和事看，至少目前是担得起这两个字的，虽然人家也会主动说自己国家还有很多缺点和不足。

如果该视频不幸被河蟹

请点击下方小程序观看

长期辅佐老布什的前国务卿贝克在2013年接受采访时，曾评价道：“乔治.H.W.布什是美国历史上最好的未连任总统，也是最被低估的总统之一，我认为历史会给他一个非常好的评价。”

贝克还说：“你没见过有谁去唾弃这位总统。无论在具体某个政策立场上是否认同他，人们都会尊重他，喜欢他。”

“然而回顾这许多的瞬间，布什呈现了一种优雅的气度和诚挚。他是华盛顿的一个异类：一个没有敌人的男人—或者说敌人少之又少。”很少对政治家表现出宽宏大量的《纽约时报》则说：“无论以什么标准，布什都是一名贵族，康涅狄格州格林尼治富有阶层的产物，那里的潜移默化给了他一种不可磨灭的高贵姿态。”

但从某种程度上讲，高贵的形象在政治上也曾给老布什带来不利，他在待人接物上的优雅仪态和用语招来过嘲弄。“他的批评者认为他不识民间疾苦，他们的一个事例是：在任总统期间，布什曾参加一个食品杂货商展会，在看到超市扫码器演示时表情十分诧异。（他后来坚称自己并没有感到意外。）”

老布什总统在任时的国务卿贝克在老布什总统葬礼上的讲话英文版

My friends, we're here today in the house of the lord to say goodbye to a man of great faith and great integrity, a truly beautiful human being, and to honor his noble character, his life of service, and the sweet memories he leaves for his friends, his family, and for our grateful nation.

For more than 60 years, George Herbert Walker Bush has been my friend, and he's been my role model. Today, as we entrust his soul to heaven, his name to history, and his memory to our hearts, I must begin with an apology. Jefe, I'm about to do something you always hated, and that your mother always told you not to do: brag about yourself. I will do this because it must be done.

And because, as a lawyer, I see that thing beloved by all lawyers, a loophole. Now, “don't brag about yourself,” you once wrote. “Let others point out your virtues, your good points.”

Well, today, Mr. President, I am that other with the special privilege and joy of sharing your good points. As we have heard and as we know, George Bush was a charter member of the greatest generation. As we gather here to salute him, his incredible service to our nation and the world are already etched in the marble of time.

After becoming the youngest naval aviator, he served in increasingly responsible positions on behalf of his country: Congressman, Ambassador to China, and to the United Nations. Director of the CIA and Vice President. Then, as history will faithfullyrecord, he became one of our nation's finest presidents, and beyond any doubt, our nation's very best one-term president.

For millions and millions across the globe, the world became a better place because George Bush occupied the White House for four years.

BUSH AND BAKER IN NOVEMBER OF 1998, SHORTLY AFTER BAKER WAS APPOINTED SECRETARY OF STATE.

GETTY IMAGESDIRCK HALSTEAD

He was not considered a skilled speaker, but his deeds were quite eloquent. And he demonstrated their eloquence by carving them into the hard granite of history. They expressed his moral character, and they reflected his decency, his boundless kindness and consideration of others, his determination always to do the right thing, and always to do that to the very best of his ability. They testify to a life nobly lived. He possessed the classic virtues of our civilization and of his faith. The same virtues that express what is really best about this country. The same ideals were known to and shared by our founding fathers. George Bush was temperate in thought, in word, and in deed. He considered his choices and then he chose wisely.

The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, less than one year into his presidency. It was a remarkable triumph for American foreign policy. As joyous east and west Germans danced on the remains of that hated wall, George Bush could have joined them metaphorically, and claimed victory for the west, for America, and frankly, for himself.

But he did not. He knew better. He understood that humility toward and not humiliation of a fallen adversary was the very best path to peace and reconciliation, and so he was able to unify Germany as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, not withstanding the initial reservations of France, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union.

Thus, the Cold War ended, not with a bang but with the sound of a halliard rattling through a pulley over the Kremlin on a cool night in December 1991 as the flag of the Soviet Union was lowered for the very last time. Need we ask about George Bush's courage? During World War II, he risked his life in defense of something greater than himself. Decades later, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and began to brutalize Kuwaitis, George Bush never wavered.

This will not stand, he said, and he got the rest of the world to join him in reversing that courage of a warrior. But when the time came for prudence, he always maintained the greater courage of a peacemaker. He ended the wars in Central America; he signed two nuclear arms reduction treaties; and he brought Israel and all of its Arab neighbors together face-to-face for the first time to talk peace.

His deeds for his fellow man always spoke for him. “Give someone else a hand,” he would say. And he did. “When a friend is hurting, show that you care,” he would say. And he did. “Be kind to people, he would say.” And he was.

To the parents of a young son who lost -- of a young son lost to cancer, he wrote "I hope you will live the rest of your lives with only happy memories of that wonderful son who is now safely tucked in god's loving arms around him.” His wish for a kinder, gentler nation was not a cynical political slogan. It came honest and unguarded from his soul.

After they left the White House, George and Barbara Bush continued to display their compassion for others. Their dedication to the Points of Light, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, and countless other charities, is a model for all former first families past, present, and future.

To these virtues, we can add one more source of his character: his family. As a friend once put it, George Bush believed that family is a source of both personal strength and the values one needs to face life. And of course, history has shown that few families have accomplished as much as his has.

Barbara wrote the book on how to be a great first lady. His legacy lives on with his children, who have contributed so very much to making our nation great. And who knows what the future will bring for his grandchildren and their children.

I have always been proud that George Bush used to describe our relationship as one of big brother and little brother. He used to say that one of the things he liked best about me was that I would always tell him what I thought, even when I knew he didn't want to hear it. Then we would have a spirited discussion about that issue.

But he had a very effective way of letting me know when the discussion was over. He would look at me and said “Baker, if you're so smart, why am I President and you're not?”

He was a leader, and he knew it. My hope is that in remembering the life of George Herbert Walker Bush and in honoring his accomplishments, we will see that we are really praising what is best about our nation, the nation he dearly loved and whose values he embodied.

There is more to say than time permits, and anyway, when measured against the eloquence of George Bush's character and life, our words are very inadequate. And so I conclude these remarks with his words, written some years ago to his old tennis buddy.

“We have known each other a long time,” he wrote to me. “We have shared joy and sadness. And time has indeed gone swiftly by. Now it races on even faster, and that makes me treasure even more this line of William Butler Yates about where man's glory begins and ends, namely with friends. My glory is, I have you as such a friend.”

To which I reply on behalf of his friends here today, across America, and throughout the world, we rejoice, Mr. President, that you are safely tucked in now and through the ages, with god's loving arms around you. Because our glory, George, was to have had you as our President and as such a friend.

往期精彩英语演讲集

小布什深情追忆“最棒父亲”！12分钟葬礼致辞既风趣幽默，又感人至深（附视频&演讲稿）
加拿大前总理在老布什葬礼上化身段子手，引发全场阵阵笑声（附视频&演讲稿）
老布什总统夫人的葬礼上，儿子致辞竟引全场爆笑...（附视频&演讲稿）
克林顿在德国前总理科尔葬礼上演讲：政治并非为了统治，而是为了让更多人过上平凡生活（附视频&演讲稿）
趣闻 | 为什么撒切尔夫人的葬礼会传出笑声?（附视频）
超长待机的英国女王秘密排练“驾崩葬礼”，绝密细节曝光（附视频）