Nobel Laureate American presidents
UNTIL now only three American presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize while in office -- Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Barack Hussein Obama. No one outside the Nobel Committee knows exactly what criteria are used to award the prize. But what everybody knows is that its decisions have often been controversial.
In the case of Barack Obama, there has been a lot of hue and cry over the Nobel Committee's decision. In most cases, there is huge jubilation in the country of the prize winner. When Professor Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel, even his adversaries in Bangladesh celebrated the fact that a Bangladeshi has been honoured with such a prize. But the United States is different. The most virulent criticisms of the decision have come from the Americans -- that it is premature or that it is politically motivated etc. etc.
President Obama's decision to send thirty thousand additional troops to the Afghan quagmire has caused even more criticism and unease. No one is satisfied. Those in favour of withdrawal are disappointed and have accused him of being a hypocrite and a warmonger. Cartoons have been published across the nation mercilessly lampooning the president. Of course, the American Right, who want total victory in Afghanistan -- whatever that means -- have called him a defeatist and are overjoyed at his predicament
In all this, few seem to remember that although Obama has become a war-time president he did not start these wars. Obama is "cool, calculated and cerebral," and definitely prefers negotiations to open-ended confrontations. Fewer seem to appreciate that when violence on such a massive scale is unleashed, even with the best of intentions, it takes time to bring it under control. This is precisely what Obama is trying to do. I am sure he realises that the US cannot win the Afghanistan war, at least not in the way Bush wanted it. He is trying to get out with some dignity as soon as possible. The American political system is very complex and Obama is constrained by many adverse circumstances.
One of the major criticisms levelled against the award has been that it is premature, that Obama has started many things but finished nothing yet. True, on the international front, Obama has taken great initiatives, but has not yet been able to achieve his goals. Time will tell whether he will achieve them. But I think the main reasons why he has been awarded this prize are that he is the fulfilment of Martin Luther King's dreams (Remember King's speech, "I have a dream…") and because of his quest for peace. He has certainly set the stage for major changes in American foreign policy. He has created a new climate in international co-operation. After eight years of Bush's arrogance and arbitrariness, it is, indeed, a welcome change.
Actually, relentless pursuit of peace was the principal reason why the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Woodrow Wilson. The American Right denounced him as "hesitating and cowardly." Like Obama, he was a reluctant warrior. German bellicosity and its unprovoked acts of war against American interests forced him to declare war on Germany in April, 1917. But from the very beginning, he worked for a "just and lasting peace" and campaigned for the establishment of the League of Nations with American participation, which would ensure collective security.
Unfortunately, on both these counts, he failed. Despite his relentless search for reconciliation, a humiliating treaty, (the Versailles Treaty), was imposed by his European allies on Germany, which laid the foundation of an even more violent confrontation only a few years later. Although a watered-down version of the League of Nations came into existence, Wilson was so disappointed that he decided to keep United States out of it. Yet, in spite of all this or may be because of all this, in December 1920, the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to him. He left office in 1921 and died in 1924.
In character, personality and above all, in their attitude towards war and peace, one can find many similarities between Wilson and Obama. But President Theodore Roosevelt, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, was a very different person. While Wilson and Obama can be considered as reluctant warriors, Theodore Roosevelt was a swashbuckling adventurer and an expansionist (read imperialist). He became a national hero in the US because of his adventures in Cuba at the head of the1st Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders.
Under the McKinley-Roosevelt administration, the Platt Amendment was forced upon the Cuban people, converting Cuba into a virtual colony of the United States. Roosevelt consolidated America's hold on the Philippines by killing hundreds of thousands of Filipino civilians and fighters. He acquired the Panama Canal Zone in 1903. In foreign affairs, his motto was: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." He was guided by this principle in his dealings with Venezuela, Panama, the Dominican Republic and even Canada. He later opposed President Wilson's League of Nations.
I think that, by this time, readers are wondering as to why the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to a man like him. Well, because he was a crafty politician and knew how to hide his real intentions..
The Peace Prize was awarded to Roosevelt for his efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, which was fought for the control of North Asia. But in all this, Roosevelt was not guided by altruistic motives. He had a hidden agenda. He preferred the Japanese to the Russians because he thought that it would be easier for the US to control Japan's territorial ambitions than those of the Russians. He wanted the Japanese to recognise the American conquest and occupation of the Philippines, which they did. In a reciprocal gesture, Roosevelt approved the Japanese conquest and occupation of Korea.
Roosevelt's ultimate goal was to ensure US domination of not only the Americas but also of the Pacific. He had hoped that Japan's imperial ambitions would be restricted only to North Asia, leaving the rest of East Asia to the Americans and the British. As we all know now, the Japanese had other plans. But I am sure the Nobel Committee, while considering Roosevelt as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, had no knowledge of his hidden agenda or of Japan's imperial ambitions in Asia.
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