Today in Labor History January 16, 2001: President Clinton gave former President Teddy Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for the war crimes he committed during the Spanish-American War. He was the only president to have earned the Medal of Honor. Roosevelt also won the Nobel Peace Prize, 1906, for his efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War. However, Roosevelt was no man of peace. Indeed, he had plenty of blood on his hands, like nearly every U.S. president before and after him. The Panama Canal project was acquired under his presidency, in part through “gunboat diplomacy” in support of separatist rebels fighting the Colombian government. Up to 30,000 workers died in the construction of the canal, though the majority of these occurred under the French, prior to the U.S. takeover of the project.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #roosevelt #nobelprize #cuba #warcrimes #slaughter #panamacanal #medalofhonor #clinton #potus