top american diplomat Henry Kissinger and awarded to Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam Nobel Peace Prize In spite of being involved in 1973 the authorities were fully aware that Vietnam was It was not likely to end any time in the near future.
This comes after the newly released nomination papers for the Peace Prize, which were kept secret for 50 years. The documents were provided to the chief negotiator, who represented Kissinger and Hanoi, on 1 January after they were requested.
Kissinger, who served as US National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under Pres. richard nixonIt is credited with playing a major role in US military strategy in the final phase of the war in 1955–75, in which Washington recorded 58,220 fatal casualties.
The committee’s decision to award the highest peace prize to someone aware of the possibility of a prolonged war has been criticized by experts.
After reviewing the documents, Steen Tonnesen, a professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, said, “I am more surprised than ever that the committee could come to such a bad decision.”
There was also the awareness that the award might prove disqualifying as the nomination came just two days after Kissinger and Thomas signed the Paris Agreement aimed at ending years of war.
Papers show that both leaders were nominated on 29 January 1973 by Norwegian academic and Nobel committee member John Sunnes.
Sunnes said: “My argument is that this option would underline the positive that the negotiations have led to an agreement that will end the armed conflict between North Vietnam and the United States.”
The letter, typed by Sunnes, who died in 1984, said: “I know that it will only become clear (what kind of) practice the agreement will have in practice.”
The nomination paper and the report drawn up on Kissinger and Thomas for the committee’s deliberations showed it was “fully aware” that the agreements were “unlikely to be held”, Professor Tonneson said.
He added: “Kissinger was rewarded for getting America out of Vietnam … in South Vietnam without any peaceful settlement.”
Thomas was nominated alongside the American official because the panel felt it “couldn’t give it to Kissinger alone”, Mr Tonneson said.
“He (Kissinger) needed a partner and then he added Le Duc Tho, about whom he knew very little. The reports about (him) are very weak,” Tonneson said.
Tho sent a telegram from Hanoi saying it was “impossible” for him to accept the Peace Nobel, the original copy of the information found in the released documents shows.
A member of the North Vietnamese Politburo had said, “When the Paris Agreement on Vietnam is respected, the guns fall silent and peace is truly restored in South Vietnam, I will consider accepting the award.”
The US military intervention in Vietnam in the early 1960s was dubbed as a move to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.
Kissinger asked for the award to be returned on 1 May 1975 after the fall of Saigon, saying that “the peace we sought through negotiations has been overturned by force”.
The committee refused to withdraw the award.
The war in Vietnam ended as the Paris Accords sealed America’s exit from the besieged country, which was widely maligned at home as a hugely costly and divisive quagmire, but did not silence the guns or Vietnam. I did not bring peace through talks.