What price did Sadat pay for the Middle East accords?
JC: Hm. Well, Sadat, who is the leader I most admire that I’ve ever met, was a man of great personal courage and wisdom and generosity, and he was quite knowledgeable about the broad aspects of diplomacy on a global basis. Sadat was a little bit too self-assured, a little maybe too free of concern about what his neighbors thought. He would sometimes made derogatory remarks about the royal family in Saudi Arabia, and I would caution him, “Don’t say this because, you know, they’re part of the people that most support you.” He anticipated, I think, at Camp David that if the accords were signed, that Egypt would suffer from an economic boycott of sorts from the other Arab countries. I don’t think that he anticipated as severe a boycott effort or an embargo on trade as did materialize; but he was willing to accept this. And of course, I think he also underestimated the animosity toward him personally within his own country, and this was demonstrated tragically when he was assassinated by hi
