Woodrow Wilson receives Nobel Peace Price, Dec. 10, 1920 - POLITICO
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Woodrow Wilson received the award for his efforts to end WWI.
Woodrow Wilson receives Nobel Peace Price, Dec. 10, 1920
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On this day in 1920, President Woodrow Wilson received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end World War I and create the League of Nations. Wilson, who had suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919, could not attend the ceremony in Oslo. U.S. Ambassador to Norway Albert Schmedeman read a telegram from Wilson to the Nobel Committee and invited guests.
In his telegram, Wilson said he was grateful and moved by the recognition of his work for the cause of peace. But he emphasized the need for further efforts to “rid [mankind] of the unspeakable horror of war.” Wilson’s efforts in devising a plan to prevent future international conflict began in January 1918 when he laid out his Fourteen Points.
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During the 1919 selection process, the five-member Nobel Committee, chosen by the Norwegian Parliament, voted not to award a prize. In such cases, the foundation’s rules allow the prize to be reconsidered a year later.
On Nov. 19, 1919 the Republican-led U.S. Senate, for the first time in its history, rejected a peace treaty, a bitter blow to the partially paralyzed lame-duck president, who had played a major role in drafting the document. The Senate’s failure to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and to allow the U.S. to join the League of Nations embittered Wilson. It also caused a division within the Nobel Committee on whether he deserved to win the prize. However, after the year-long deferment, a majority of the members voted to award the 1919 prize to Wilson.
Wilson thus became the second sitting U.S. president to win a Nobel Peace Prize, which was established in 1901. Theodore Roosevelt won it in 1906 for helping broker an end to the Russo-Japanese War. Subsequently, President Barack Obama received the 2009 peace prize. Former President Jimmy Carter was similarly honored in 2002.
SOURCE: WWW. HISTORY.COM