The Nobel Peace (and War) Prize

by John McGrane

The most recent recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is United States President Barack Obama. Almost immediately upon the announcement, criticism spouted around the world.  In his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, Obama recognized the irony of being ordain with such an award saying, “Perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars.  We are at war, and I’m responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill, and some will be killed.”  Obama then casually went on, not only justifying the war in Afghanistan but war anywhere saying, “Over time…The concept of a “just war” emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when certain conditions were met.”  This was not so shocking to me considering the past recipients of the Nobel Peace (and War) Prize.

Theodore Roosevelt's statue on Mt. Rushmore

The United States, the nation that President George W. Bush called, “the most peaceful country on earth,” has had four Presidents that have received the Nobel Peace Prize. Theodore Roosevelt was the first laureate.  Roosevelt’s thirst for war was no secret.  On January 18, 1909, at a church in Washington D.C., Roosevelt boasted, “One feature in the expansion of the peoples of white, or European, blood during the past four centuries which should never be lost sight of, especially by those who denounces such expansions on moral ground, the movement has been fraught with lasting benefit to most of the peoples already dwelling in the lands over which the expansion took place.  Moreover, mere savages, whose type of life was so primitive as to be absolutely incompatible with the existence of civilization. . .they died out for the simple reason that there were so little advanced that the conditions of life necessary to their existence were incompatible with any form of high and better existence.” In a speech given in Washington D.C., on April 15, 1906, Roosevelt said, “There are in the body politic, economic, and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them.  There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil.”  In 1886 he said: “I suppose I should be ashamed to say that I take the Western view of the Indian.  I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”

Roosevelt’s imperialist ideology was executed through his actions.  Roosevelt forced Panama through military force to sign a treaty in 1904, giving the U.S. occupancy of the Panama Canal Zone. Later, Roosevelt self-appointed himself the general of the Navy during the Spanish-American War, a war which ultimately gave the U.S. indefinite control of Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam and temporary control over Cuba.   It was during this war that Roosevelt formed the First U.S. Volunteer Calvary Regiment, a group of soldiers which would become known as the ” Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.”  Upon their formation, Roosevelt stated, “I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.”  The expansion killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Woodrow Wilson, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, thirteen years after Roosevelt.  In 1915, Wilson sent U.S. troops to invade Haiti and overthrow the government there in order to “protect American interest.”  Haiti was in debt to the U.S. for a loan that eventually went in to default. The U.S. re-wrote the Haitian constitution to include what it called “progressive legislation” which allowed U.S. corporations to buy up the land. The occupation killed an estimated 20,000 and restored virtual slavery, as Haitians were forced to build new infrastructure.  The U.S. Marine occupation lasted until 1934.  In 1914, prior to the U.S. invasion of Haiti, Wilson sent troops to Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, where Marines conquered the city of Veracruz and declared Marshall Law. Wilson also sent troops to Nicaragua and used military force to take control of Nicaragua’s finances for failure to pay back a large loan to the U.S. The Wilson Administration also appointed a new president then forced the new Nicaraguan president to sign the Brian-Chamorro Treaty, which granted the U.S. exclusive control of the canal routes and established  military bases  in Nicaragua.  In 1916, Wilson ordered the invasion of the Dominican Republic under the pretense of the Monroe Doctrine which, according to the U.S. State, was used to justify “unilateral U.S. broadening in Latin America.”

In 2002, Jimmy Carter became the third U.S. President to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.  Carter was probably the least violent of all the American Presidents.  However, his administration was heavily involved in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century, the East Timorese genocide in the 1970’s. In 1975, Suharto, the Indonesian president, decided to invade East Timor upon Portugal’s decision to leave the area.  On the eve of the Invasion, President Gerald Ford’s Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger met with Suharto and gave him the green like to invade.  Kissinger originally denied meeting with Suharto, but that ultimately came out as a lie. About 90% of Indonesia military arms used in the invasion came from the United States.  The U.S.-back invasion of East Timor claimed the lives of 200,000 – 300,000 people, roughly one-third of the population. The Jimmy Carter administration continued to support Suharto after Gerald Ford left office, increasing U.S. military aid to Indonesia.  Military aid to Suharto peaked in 1978, the same year that the number of East Timorese casualties peaked. By that point about $1 billion in military aid had given Suharto.  In August of 1977, Carter’s Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke traveled to Indonesia to meet with Suharto and praised him for “the steps that Indonesia had taken to open East Timor to the West.”