President Sadat, President Carter, and Prime Minister Begin at the signing of the Camp David accords, in the East Room of the White House,
Washington, DC, September 17, 1978. (Photo courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Library)
walked back to meet once again with Sadat, briefing him on
to qualify for the Nobel Peace Prize.”16
10:30 p.m., all three men were on U.S. television signing the
the pantheon of America’s youngest former presidents. He
what then seemed like the summit’s grim prospects. Not long
after that, however, Carter received a call from Begin, who said,
“I will accept the letter you have drafted on Jerusalem.”13 By
Framework for Peace in the Middle East, in the East Room of
the White House.14
Three months later, the Nobel Peace Prize was jointly
awarded—a first in the 80-year history of the prize—to Sadat
and Begin. And in 2002 Jimmy Carter also received the Nobel
Peace Prize “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.”15 The Nobel Committee noted that “Carter’s
mediation was a vital contribution to the Camp David accords
between Israel and Egypt, in itself a great enough achievement
Carter, Keeping Faith, 399.
Daily Diary of President Jimmy Carter, September 12, 1978.
15
“The Nobel Peace Prize 2002,” Nobel Prize. 2013. Accessed March 25, 2014 - http://
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2002/
13
14
By January 1981, two decades before he was honored by the
Nobel Committee, 56-year-old Carter found himself among
spent most of that year writing his memoir, Keeping Faith,
planning his presidential library, and pursuing his hobby of
woodworking. But it wasn’t enough. “I had the same kind of
thoughts about alleviating tensions in the troubled areas of
the world,” he noted in his book, “promoting human rights,
enhancing environmental quality, and pursuing other goals
that were important to me. These were hazy ideas at best, but
they gave us something to anticipate which could be exciting
and challenging during the years ahead.”17
Early in 1982, the former president had an epiphany. “One night
I woke up and Jimmy was sitting straight up in bed,” Mrs. Carter
“The Nobel Peace Prize 2002.” - http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/
laureates/2002/press.html
17
Carter, Keeping Faith, 575.
16
NATIONAL HISTORY DAY 2015
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