U.S. Presidents to Win the Nobel Peace Prize

Tend to agree. Not certain about TR. Carter - probably though. Not only an actual 'good guy' but the Egypt/Israel peace deal was not only a big deal then but it lasted. PS when I say 'good guy' I don't mean 'good president'. He had too many domestic policy failures for that.

Well, I don't think Wilson should have won the award since he did enact many Jim Crow laws so... Yeah, it seems Teddy is the only one on their who earned it

Jimmy Carter 100% deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. He's accomplished more in his post-Presidential career than while he was President. The Carter Center has done tons in terms of supporting development, eradicating disease (look up "Guinea Worm" and you'll see what I mean), and overseeing elections in the developing world.

Roosevelt got it for helping end the Russo-Japanese War, which makes sense to me. Wilson wasn't great as a person, but he got it for making the League of Nations, which was a noble (no pun intended!) endeavor, even if it didn't really do much.

So yeah, I'd say most of them deserve it, just not Obama. Although at the very least, he deserves it more than Henry Kissinger and Yasser Arafat.

Maybe I should be nominated, I'm very good at not being George Bush.

Mostly inaccurate oversimplification. But all presidents have to try and work within the system. Unless they're simply too stupid to figure out how like the current one.

dbyeti, so if that's the criteria, would it be reasonable that Trump would also qualify considering the middle east talks that were brokered under his presidency?

very true, some limiting of the options all helps. Just in case you have no other knowledge it helps. Just tried this quiz again and once again had the same one left.

Obama and Saudi Arabia started a genocide in Yemen that Trump continued. Obama was the first president to have a full presidency of war. He got the award before he did these things but Obama should not have gotten it

“Obama was the first president to have a full presidency of war.”

I don’t even know where to begin with that one...

I hate US support for the war in Yemen as much as the next guy... but insinuating Obama is genocidal? For one, the blockade and subsequent famine in Yemen doesn't really fit under the definition of genocide--Saudi Arabia and its allies aren't doing it to selectively kill off an ethnic/religious group, they're doing it to gain control and a military advantage over Yemen. Also, it's not as though the US is the main perpetrator of this, and the US has even tried to send aid through the blockade.

I'm not trying to let Obama or Trump off easy--both of them gave aid to a country that actively committed war crimes in Yemen, which is really not acceptable at all (although I am pleased with Biden's attempts to emphasize human rights in his foreign policy more, which includes ending support for the Saudi coalition). It's wrong to call either of them actively genocidal though.

I wish I could like this comment twice.

He also signed the Panama Canal Treaty with Omar Torrijos, an under appreciated accomplishment that defused a major source of tension between the US and Latin America

These presidents (except Carter) did that. But because they were good, moral men (a big part of the reason they won the prize), they enforced the laws without stomping their feet and inciting hatred toward other groups. Look at how many illegal immigrants were deported under Obama. It was a lot, and he prioritized deporting people with criminal records. The difference is that Obama is compassionate enough and smart enough to know that you can deport them without getting on television and railing about how terrible immigrants are, because that is likely to stir up bigotry and xenophobia (but of course this is just a guess. No president would actually behave so irresponsibly...). Smart people understand that protecting the US and exercising great leadership are the results of sound and thoughtful policies, not grandstanding and pandering to the lowest common denominator with trite and simplistic notions about "America First." And that is why these men are esteemed.

*Insert Generic Republican Comment* I think Reagan or Kennedy should have got one

I sort of meant the same years that Wilson and Carter won. Were there better candidates those years?

Well in 2002 Reagan was still alive and for Wilson's 1919 prize, there really isn't any other presidential contender other than Teddy who already won, so I guess Wilson just shouldn't have got the prize in the first place

Was Reagan working as much as Carter after leaving office toward world peace? No. And you're saying that the prize should not have been awarded in 1919 because you dislike Wilson?

It's not that I just dislike Wilson, he was not a good person or president. He enacted many Jim Crow laws such as segregation in government workplaces while he was president.

It's no secret that Wilson was a racist, but he wasn't given the Nobel for his views on racial equity or for his achievements as US president, it was because he was the leading architect of the League of Nations, an organization dedicated to preserving world peace. He deserved it.