These are the four U.S. presidents who have won the Nobel Peace Prize
Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to a US president for the most part has been a controversial move with the exception of one.
President Trump has been pushing to get a Nobel Peace Prize since his first term in office. While several have been nominated over the years, he would be in exclusive company were that to happen as only four men that have resided in the White House have ever received the honor.
The decision to give the award to the US presidents that received them came with controversy in all but one instance. Which may have in part to do with when they received them.
Theodore Roosevelt
The 26th President of the United States was given the prestigious international award in 1906 while still in office. The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose to honor Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt with the Nobel Peace Prize “for his role in bringing to an end the bloody war recently waged between two of the world’s great powers, Japan and Russia.”
The decision was the first controversial decision by the committee with the Norwegian Left arguing that “Roosevelt was a ‘military mad’ imperialist who completed the American conquest of the Philippines.”
Woodrow Wilson
The 28th President of the United States was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 “for his role as founder of the League of Nations.” The Nobel committee also recognized Woodrow Wilson’s efforts to keep the US out of World War I and later his Fourteen Points program for peace.
However, there was controversy over the decision after the peace negotiations in Paris saw Britain and France force Germany to pay enormous war reparations and the US Senate refused to approve US membership in the new League of Nations, and the initiative ultimately failed.
Jimmy Carter
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, after reportedly being nominated five previous times, gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Jimmy Carter in 2002, over twenty years after leaving the White House. His finally being honored with the prestigious prize didn’t come as much of a surprise given his tireless work during his post-presidency.
The 28th President of the United States was recognized “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Barack Obama
Just nine months into the job, and a relatively newcomer to the world stage, the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. Even he found being chosen slightly questionable, noting the controversy that surrounded the decision during his acceptance speech.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee in a press release at the time said that when they made their decision they “attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”
The committee also mentioned his work as president to create “a new climate in international politics,” bringing multilateral diplomacy back to a central position and emphasizing “the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play.”
“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said.
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