--- title: Nobel Peace Prize Winner History: Why it Was Once Rejected description: In 1973, one of the honorees refused to accept a Nobel Peace Prize canonical: https://time.com/4061794/nobel-peace-prize-winner-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-09T10:00:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:40.280Z article:section: History og:title: Why a Nobel Peace Prize Was Once Rejected og:description: In 1973, one of the honorees refused to accept a Nobel Peace Prize og:url: https://time.com/4061794/nobel-peace-prize-winner-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17e0d12097bbb30c/698866e7bc6cfc120b3d9c25/tho.jpeg?branch=production&width=608&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 608 og:image:height: 342 og:image:alt: Kissinger and Le Duc Tho og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why a Nobel Peace Prize Was Once Rejected twitter:description: In 1973, one of the honorees refused to accept a Nobel Peace Prize twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17e0d12097bbb30c/698866e7bc6cfc120b3d9c25/tho.jpeg?branch=production&width=608&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why a Nobel Peace Prize Was Once Rejected > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Memorable Nobel Peace Prize Speeches [Watch (HLS stream): Memorable Nobel Peace Prize Speeches](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HMrEJltm.m3u8) (2:27)  _Published 2015-10-08. Memorable Nobel Peace Prize Speeches_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 9, 2015 10:00 AM UTC  Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger in France on May 18, 1973. Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger in France on May 18, 1973. Gamma-Keystone / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 9, 2015 10:00 AM UTC With the announcement Friday morning that the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet [will be the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize](http://time.com/4067712/nobel-peace-prize-winners-tunisian-national-dialogue-quartet/), the number of Peace Prize laureates will tick up to [129](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel%5Fprizes/peace/laureates/index.html). That figure doesn’t match up with the number of years the prize has been given, as some years have multiple honorees and others–historically times of war–have none. But it also wouldn’t match up with the number of prizes announced. That’s because in 1973 Le Duc Tho became the first and only person ever to voluntarily refuse a Nobel Peace Prize. The prize had been awarded jointly to Tho, a North Vietnamese politician and diplomat, and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for their work negotiating a [ceasefire](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-02-05/page/16/) in the Vietnam War. As TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-10-29/page/66/), the Nobel committee’s decision “aroused an unprecedented storm of criticism”: --- > “” --- The biggest reason for the controversy was the obvious one: despite Tho and Kissinger’s work, the war in Vietnam continued (as it would for more than a year after the Nobel announcement). And many argued that Tho and Kissinger had been just as responsible for creating war, not stopping it. One TIME reader [wrote in](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-11-19/page/20/) to say that “The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho is like granting Xaviera Hollander (the Happy Hooker) an award for extreme virtue.” Though Tho would probably not have agreed with the second half of that argument, he did agree that Vietnam was not at peace—and, further, as the Nobel Committee [puts it,](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel%5Fprizes/peace/laureates/1973/tho-facts.html) “his opposite number had violated the truce.” He declined to accept the prize. He [said](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2245&dat=19731024&id=L98zAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PDIHAAAAIBAJ&pg=6907,4385856&hl=en) that he might reconsider if peace were restored to his country eventually, but his decision stood. But, as TIME [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1978-11-06/page/71/) in 1978 when Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin controversially received the prize, lasting peace was obviously not a prerequisite. Past winners included “Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann, the French and German statesmen who won the 1926 prize for the ill-fated Locarno peace treaties, in which Belgium, France and Germany agreed never to fight again” and “American Diplomat Frank Kellogg, who was the originator of the utopian Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, in which 15 powers, including Germany and Japan, agreed to renounce war as an instrument of national policy.” **_Read more:_** [_The Tragic Nobel Peace Prize Story You’ve Probably Never Heard_](http://time.com/3484975/nobel-peace-prize-ossietzky/) ### See the 20 Most Famous Nobel Peace Prize Laureates  Barack Obama, 2009 "For his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Mohamed ElBaradei, 2005Shared with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way" Patrick Piel—Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images  Jimmy Carter, 2002"For his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development" Mario Tama—Getty Images  Kofi Annan, 2001Shared with the United Nations "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world" Courtney Kealy—Getty Images  Shimon Peres, 1994"To honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East" Thomas Imo—Photothek/Getty Images  Yitzhak Rabin, 1994"To honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East" MENAHEM KAHANA—AFP/Getty Images  Yasser Arafat, 1994"To honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East" AHMED JADALLAH—Reuters  Nelson Mandela, 1993Shared with Frederik Willem de Klerk "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa" TREVOR SAMSON—AFP/Getty Images  Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991"For her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights" EMMANUEL DUNAND—AFP/Getty Images  Mikhail Gorbachev, 1990"For his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community" Diana Walker—The TIME & LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Dalai Lama, 1989"In his struggle for the liberation of Tibet \[he\] consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people." Chris Langridge—Sygma/Corbis  Desmond Tutu, 1984"\[A\] renewed recognition of the courage and heroism shown by black South Africans in their use of peaceful methods in the struggle against apartheid" David Levenson—Getty Images  Elie Wiesel, 1986"His belief that the forces fighting evil in the world can be victorious is a hard-won belief... based on his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's death camps" Robert Maass—CORBIS  Mother Teresa, 1979"The loneliest, the most wretched and the dying have, at her hands, received compassion without condescension, based on reverence for man" Jean-Claude FRANCOLON—Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images  Anwar Sedat, 1978"For the Camp David Agreement, which brought about a negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel" Sahm Doherty—The TIME & LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Henry Kissinger, 1973"For the 1973 Paris agreement intended to bring about a cease-fire in the Vietnam war and a withdrawal of the American forces" Diana Walker—Getty Images  Martin Luther King, Jr., 1964"First person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence" Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images  Jane Addams, 1931"\[F\]or her social reform work" and "leading the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom" Universal History Archive/Getty Images  Woodrow Wilson, 1919"\[F\]or his crucial role in establishing the League of Nations" Bettmann/Corbis  Theodore Roosevelt, 1906"\[F\]or his successful mediation to end the Russo-Japanese war and for his interest in arbitration, having provided the Hague arbitration court with its very first case" Hulton Archive/Getty Images ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace [ BLANK_AUDIO ] At a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Are engaged in a creative battle When the long night of racial injustice- Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscious of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief And freedom from fear and want, has been proclaimed as a highest aspirations of the common people. We speak here of the challenge, of the dichotomies of war and peace, violence and nonviolence. Racism and human dignity. Oppression and repression. And liberty and human rights. We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency, a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential, even as we. Gathered here. But there is hopeful news as well. We have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst, though not all, of its consequences if we act boldly, decisively, and quickly. I represent millions of those children who are left And that's why I have kept an empty chair as to remind us a reminder. I have come here only to share the voices and dreams of our children. Because they're all of our [ UNKNOWN ] It does not matter what's the color the skin, what language that you speak, what religion you believe it. It is that we should all consider each other as human beings and we should respect each other. We should all fight for our rights, for the rights of children, for the rights of woman, and for the rights for every human being. 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