On this Day in History - Lester B. Pearson Nobel Peace Prize Winner

On this day fifty years ago, Lester Bowles Pearson was honored with the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for his vision, wisdom, perseverance and skillful success in establishing an international police force to resolve the 1956 Suez Crisis. In effect, creating the UN's first designated peacekeeping mission, and the blue print for the UN's now well-recognized role in peacekeeping and, subsequently, peace building as well.

Throughout his career and lifetime, Pearson was a strong advocate of the UN's role in peacekeeping, and in strong Canadian involvement in UN peacekeeping operations. He firmly believed that Canada had a responsibility, indeed a vital national interest, in active participation in any international activity that would lessen the chances of another world war, and in robust intervention to end ongoing conflict. As such, he was a strong and effective advocate for peaceful resolutions to several major international crises that faced the UN during his tenure as a leading Canadian diplomat - from the Korean War to the Suez Crisis to the Cyprus Crisis. Through his involvement in early UN conflict solving, both Pearson and Canada emerged with distinction.

In addition to his unwavering belief in the role of the UN in fostering international cooperation and peace, Pearson was a strong advocate for the UN's role in the very issues that can directly influence the delicate balance between peace and unrest - economic issues, social issues, development issues, human rights, and environmental degradation. His vision of a peaceful and cooperative world.

"Threats to global survival, though they are sometimes exaggerated in apocalyptic language which makes our flesh creep, are real. The prophets of doom and gloom may be proved wrong but it is a chilling fact that man can now destroy his world by nuclear explosion or ecological erosion." "The stark and inescapable fact is that today we cannot defend our society by war since total war is total destruction, and if war is used as an instrument of policy, eventually we will have total war. Therefore, the best defense of peace is not power, but the removal of the causes of war, and international agreements which will put peace on a stronger foundation than the terror of destruction." Pearson served as Canada's prime minister between 1963 and 1968. Pearson whom was always called Mike is among a small number of politicians who earned their stripes first in diplomacy. For younger people, I would imagine they know his name through the one of a few airports in Toronto called the Pearson International Airport.