历史上的尼克松 真的是演说家和骗子?

“I am not a crook.” Richard Nixon resigned as president of the US 40 years ago this week, and of all the things he said in his political career this quote is the one that lives on. He did also popularise the phrase “the silent majority”, although it is seldom attributed to him.

“我不是骗子。”40年前的这一周，理查德•尼克松(Richard Nixon)辞任美国总统，他在政治生涯发表的所有言论中，这一句流传下来。他也让“沉默的大多数”这个短语广为人知，不过人们很少提到这是他说的。

To state the obvious: we remember the first quote because it seems to us in hindsight to have been so audacious a lie. It takes its place with “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky” (another US president, Bill Clinton) and the promise to “cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play”, by a man jailed after admitting perjury and perverting the course of justice (Nixon biographer Jonathan Aitken).

说一句显而易见的话：我们之所以记住前面那一句，是因为事后看来，那是一句如此大胆的谎言。可以跟这句话媲美的还有，“我没跟那个女人、莱温斯基(Lewinsky)女士发生性关系”（出自另一位美国前总统比尔•克林顿(Bill Clinton)），和承诺“以简单的真理之剑和英国式公平竞争的信任之盾，切除腐败扭曲的资讯业之癌”，说这话的人在承认伪证罪和妨碍司法公正罪之后被投入监狱，他就是尼克松传记的作者乔纳森•艾特肯(Jonathan Aitken)。

But in the moment it was uttered, it is reasonable to assume it would have been pretty effective as a piece of rhetoric. “I am not a crook” is a special use of ethos (the speaker’s connection with the audience). Logically speaking, it is redundant: if you are accused of X, to say X is untrue is to deny, rather than to disprove, the charge. But by adding the barefaced lie to the mix you raise the stakes. It puts doubt in your audience’s mind. Indignation sounds – even though it is not – like evidence of innocence.

但在尼克松说出那句谎话时，人们可以合理地假定它作为一种辞令是有效的。“我不是骗子”是一种对精神特质（发言者与听众之间的联系）的特殊使用。从逻辑上讲，它是多余的：如果你被指控犯有X罪，表态称X罪不属实，是在否认指控，而不是在证明指控不正确。但加上一句厚颜无耻的谎言，你就加大了赌注。这让听众心里产生不确定性。愤慨听上去像是（即便实际上不是）无辜的证据。

Something in all of us resists believing that people can look into a camera, or into our eyes, and shamelessly fib. Hitler argued that “the big lie” was effective with ordinary people because it “would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously”. Can anyone think that the fierceness of Lance Armstrong’s repeated doping denials was not part of what kept his lie afloat for so long?

在我们所有人心里，都有些东西让我们拒绝相信，有人竟可以瞪眼对着镜头或我们的眼睛，不知羞耻地撒谎。希特勒(Hitler)曾主张，“弥天大谎”能骗得过普通人，是因为“他们从未想过撒大谎，他们也不相信别人放肆到如此无耻地扭曲真相的地步”。有谁会认为，兰斯•阿姆斯特朗(Lance Armstrong)情绪激动地反复否认吸毒，不是使他的谎言延续那么久的原因之一？

Nixon welcomed the Watergate investigation because “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook”. He had triumphed by going on the offensive in a tight spot before. Whatever his ethical shortcomings, he was a brilliant speaker. Take his 1952 “Checkers Speech” – delivered to counter criticism of an election-expense slush fund when he was running for vice-president. He used the accusation to turn the tables on his accusers: making himself a spokesman for the honest common man against the corrupt Washington establishment. His wife Pat didn’t own a mink coat, he said, but “a respectable Republican cloth coat. And I always tell her that she’d look good in anything.”

尼克松欢迎水门(Watergate)调查，是因为“民众必须知道他们的总统到底是不是一个骗子”。他以前曾在困境中采取攻势，结果取胜了。无论他在道德上有何瑕疵，不可否认他是一个杰出的演说家。以他在1952年发表的“跳棋演讲”为例，那次演讲是为了回应他竞选副总统时一个竞选费用小金库招致的批评。他巧妙利用对方的指控猛轰对方：把自己包装成诚实普通人的代言人，对抗着华盛顿的体制内人士。他说，他妻子帕特(Pat)连一件貂皮大衣都没有，只有“一件像样的共和党式布外衣。我总是告诉她，她穿任何衣服都很靓丽。”

He famously poured on the pathos, revealing that a political supporter had sent him a gift: a cocker-spaniel puppy. “Our little girl – Tricia, the six year old – named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.” Now that really was shameless. And without Checkers, we probably would never have had “I am not a crook”.

广为人知的是，他竭力引起人们的怜悯，透露一名政治支持者送了他一件礼物：一只可卡犬幼崽。“我们的小女儿，6岁的特里西娅(Tricia)给它起名叫‘跳棋’。你们知道，孩子们，就像所有的孩子那样，都喜欢狗，我现在想说的是，不管他们怎么说，我们都要把它留下。”现在看来，那真是太无耻了。而且，要不是“跳棋演讲”的话，我们很可能根本没有机会听到他说出“我不是骗子”。

The personal, flat, categorical denial is the all-or-nothing bet: a manoeuvre of absolute last resort. If you are lucky it works and the caravan moves on. But when the wheels fall off: oh boy.

个人层面发出的断然而明确的否认属于孤注一掷：拼命的最后一搏。如果你够幸运，这办法管用了，大篷车将继续前行。但如果车轮掉下来，那就惨了。

The high-stakes poker player who goes all-in with 7-2 unsuited, the worst hand possible, and comes unstuck is the one we remember. We do not even notice the one who does the same thing and quietly wins the pot when his opponent folds.

这个高筹码扑克玩家把一切筹码都押进去了，拿到的是最差的牌7-2非同花，于是我们记住了这个赌输的家伙。我们甚至没有注意那个做了同样的事、然后在对手罢手时悄悄赌赢的那个人。

That is why Nixon’s quote lives on. It might just as easily not have. And had he not been a crook, he might have been remembered as a great orator.

这就是尼克松那句知名谎话流传至今的原因。这句话也很有可能不会流传下来。如果他不是骗子，那么他可能被人们铭记为一位伟大的演说家。