Past Nobel Peace Prize Winners (PHOTOS, POLL)

US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday. The prize has been awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo since 1901, with breaks during both World Wars. It is awarded to those the committee feels have done the most to further world peace.

Obama's win has prompted a range of responses in the United States and around the world, from ecstasy in Kenya to condemnation from the Taliban. Did he deserve the prize? Look at the slideshow below to see previous winners, and help us judge where Obama ranks amongst them.

Jean Henri Dunant

The Swiss founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross was the first winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. He won with Frederic Passy, a french economist.

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Comments

[3blueeggs]

So now we are going to have a vote as to who deserves the 'Peace Prize' the most. Then we can all argue with each other about it. What a great way to celebrate peace makers!

[naluca]

Obama should turn it down. But NOT share it with someone else: it would be like him to usurp the power of the Nobel committee. Turn it down, period. You got it like you got the Presidency, under false pretenses.

[SueMVetforObama]

"I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota," wrote Erick Erickson, of the site RedState.com, "but that is the only thing I can think of for this news."


Now look at the pictures. Repubs are m0r0ns.

[yankees]

Moore is so right!

[MagicJack]

Mohammad Gandhi was considered by the Nobel committee thrice and rejected the peace prize.

But they felt the IsIamist PLO Arafat deserved it...and Oshama deserved it.

Ha Ha!

[MagicJack]

It should read Mohandas Gandhi not Mohammad Gandhi

[redsongia]

MLK deserved it and so does Obama.

And Taylor Swift deserves her grammy, even if it's not my kind of music.

[MagicJack]

Obama did not deservit...like Arafat did not.

But Gandhi deserved it yet the committee rejected him three times/ LOL

[NickfromCali]

I saw Kissinger and I was wondering if I could have awarded him negative points

[Godweiser]

Before he was assassinated, conservatives argued that MLK didn't deserve one either -- they tended to view him as a harbinger of urban chaos and rioting and upsetting the applecart.

Of course, back in those days, there were a lot of conservative Democrats in the South who promptly switched parties to join the other side for the 1968 election over civil rights and MLK, but there was a strong, 'anti rabble rouser' sentiment and for many of these guys, MLK embodied what they didn't like.

Not that Republicans will admit this now -- the ones that thought that way back then are in denial and the ones who were too young don't know any better.

Someday, Obama's award will hopefully be viewed as a good thing also.

[redsongia]

I think republicans these days would publically take that position.

[Ken114]

Amen to that Godweiser

[Lal Thanga]

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded for 1991 not 1990. She has being put under House Arrest for 16 years out of 21 years of her living in Burma. Currently being restricted and the only one winner in house-jail.

[pfc1369]

The French philosopher-writer Jean Paul Sartre refused the Nobel for literature some decades ago ( the only one ever to do so, as far as I know) because he considered these prizes propaganda instruments of the ruling classes in the West.

[munki]

He was hysterical...

I read some of his books in Paris... reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe in many ways...

Satire... (not the same, but... you know...)

[Hirnlego]

One of the least deserving must be Kissinger:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/CaseAgainst1_Hitchens.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/CaseAgainst2_Hitchens.html

[LMPE]

The Nobel Committee needs to create a posthumous category and award the following people:

Norman Bethune
Frida Kahlo
Patrice Lumumba
Salvador Allende
Harvey Milk
John Lennon
Cesar Chavez
Rosa Parks

Also, there should be a Condemnation anti-Prize. Winners/targets would include Rush Limbaugh.

[Godweiser]

Why bother with the anti-prize? Ignoring them is so much easier. They'd merely feel validated by such a prize. This way, Limbaugh has to bang on the glass and beg to be let in. That's much preferable.

[Rescisco]

Controversy is the reckless companion of of uninformed disagreement. It manufactures discontent, distorts facts, and destroys all good intentions. "Deserving" the peace prize is a silly consideration inasmuch as the world has never really been at peace. The good that may come from the recognition in the way of encouraging progres toward the elusive ideal of peace is the more relevant concern.

[eden4barack08]

Well said!

[Aksamake]

That's right!
Thank you

[mollybeejay]

Cosign

[DCato]

I'm amused that the choice is between "Deserved" and "Most Deserved". There is no way in which Kissinger's prize was deserved. I mean, imagine, a man being awarded the prize merely for his gestures at peace even while his country continued to wage unpopular and unjust war in Asia and his government continued sabre-rattling against other nations. It couldn't happen today...

[FirstShirt]

So you are saying the committee made a mistake in giving it to a man who had decades on the international stage but was right on in picking a man nominated after about 60 days as president?

[Carol Snow]

Huffpost will you participate in the fodder as well?