Anwar el-Sadat

President of Egypt (1970-1981)

• Born: December 25, 1918
• Birthplace: Mit Abūal-Kum, Egypt
• Died: October 6, 1981
• Place of death: Cairo, Egypt

Sadat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for his role in preparing the first permanent peace between Israel and an Arab country (Egypt). Beyond this recognition for his efforts as a statesman, however, there is no doubt that Sadat was an excellent military strategist, a fact that was clearly illustrated in the first stage of the October, 1973, Arab-Israeli War.

Early Life

Anwar el-Sadat (ahn-WAHR ehl-seh-DAHT), who was destined to become president of Egypt in 1970 and to die by an assassin’s hand in 1981, was born in the modest Nile delta village of Mit Abūal-Kum. His father, who was then stationed with the Anglo-Egyptian army in the Sudan, had at least completed basic-level public schooling. This made it possible for him to follow his military service with an appointment as a senior clerk in the Department of Health. These modest accomplishments qualified him and his own children, all of whom also attended school, for effendi status in the eyes of Mit Abūal-Kum commoners. Sadat’s education began when his family moved, and he was enrolled first in the private Islamic Benevolent Society School in Cairo, then in the Sultan Hussein School. By 1930, despite the heavy weight of tuition charges for his father’s modest budget, Sadat entered Fu՚ād I Secondary School. It was only after considerable difficulty (and transfer to another school) that he finally earned his general certificate of education.

Sadat’s first attempts to gain entry to the Royal Military Academy were unsuccessful, obliging him to fill a short interim by becoming enrolled first at the Faculty of Law and then the Faculty of Commerce. Once admitted to the military academy, and especially after being commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1938, Sadat met and conversed with a number of cadets and young officers who harbored strong nationalist political sentiments. Their aim was to rid Egypt of all remaining indirect controls that the British (foreign occupants of Egypt between 1882 and 1914, and holders of a formal protectorate from 1914 to 1922) had redefined in an Anglo-Egyptian treaty in 1936. As international conditions deteriorated and the outbreak of World War II came closer, politically active officers formed a group called the Free Officers Organization, whose members included Sadat and another officer who would become famous earlier: Gamal Abdel Nasser. This group not only believed that Egypt’s vital nationalist interests demanded that it should not tie itself irrevocably to Great Britain but also that it should deal directly with Germany, then very near to winning the North African War at Egypt’s borders. Sadat’s association with political nationalism led to his arrest and imprisonment in 1942, until his escape in 1944. Continued radical political activity, this time involving plots against high-level postwar Egyptian political figures, brought another two-year prison term in 1946.

Between 1948 and 1951, when Sadat renewed ties with the underground Free Officers Organization, he was reinstated in the army, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. By 1952, he had become one of Nasser’s confidants, participating in the coup that overthrew Egypt’s corrupt monarch, King Farouk I, in July, 1952. One year later, the Egyptian monarchy was abolished by the Free Officers Organization, now transformed into the Revolutionary Command Council.

Life’s Work

Sadat’s political career should be divided into two main periods: from 1952 to 1970, during which time he rose gradually to become one of the most important members of the Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council organized by Nasser, and from 1970 to the end of his presidency in 1981. During the first years of the first period, Sadat held a number of significant but not key policy-making posts, including that of minister of state without portfolio (1954-1955) and secretary-general of Egypt’s Islamic Congress (an unprecedented and largely ineffective body). By the time of Egypt’s attempted “revolutionary” union with Syria (1958-1961), he had gained enough of Nasser’s confidence to serve as speaker of the union’s joint parliament. From that point on, Sadat’s responsibilities tied him ever more closely to Egypt’s real power center. His appointment as speaker of the Egyptian National Assembly (1966) was significant but was overshadowed in real political terms by other tasks he carried out personally for Nasser. These included membership in Egypt’s special delegations to both the Soviet Union and the United States in 1966.

Although Sadat played no direct role in the disaster of the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, it is clear that his predictable loyalty to Nasser was a vital support for the latter during the difficult three years to 1970. Nasser made him vice president in 1969, a responsibility that became very serious when, during Nasser’s “summit” meeting with the Soviets in December, 1969, and again when the president was incapacitated by illness at several points in 1970, Sadat served as acting president.

Thus, when Nasser died (September, 1970), Sadat seemed to have had many of the qualifications required to succeed him, but he also had critics and even enemies. Primary among these was another former vice president of Egypt, Ali Sabri, then head of Egypt’s single revolutionary party, the Arab Socialist Union. Sabri was the primary spokesperson of the pro-Soviet wing of the Egyptian regime. Within less than a year, in May, 1971, Sadat was able to isolate the political and military clique headed by Sabri and remove the members from positions of prominence, even while assuring the Soviets that his actions were not aimed against them.

Part of the reason behind Sadat’s success in challenging his critics was his insistence that the “Year of Decision” in Egypt’s confrontation with Israel was at hand and that internal unity of purpose had to be maintained. As the new president searched for the means to prepare for a show of force against Israel, however, he discovered that Egypt’s Soviet allies, by this date engaged in the spirit of détente with Washington, were unwilling to escalate their military commitment to Cairo. Sadat made history, therefore, in deciding to expel thousands of Soviet technicians and military personnel from Egypt in 1972. For more than a year, plans were laid for a carefully coordinated surprise attack on heavily fortified Israeli positions along the Suez Canal the opening phase of the Yom Kippur War of October, 1973.

Although the October War was not entirely successful from the Arab point of view, it had enormous consequences, especially because it caused the United States to play a more active role in seeking a negotiated settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. From the Egyptian point of view, these consequences would make President Sadat a figure of internationally recognized importance. Within two years of the 1973 conflict, the good offices of, among others, United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had led to the Sinai Agreement, providing for Israeli withdrawal to strategically defensible fortifications in the interior of the Sinai Peninsula.

Most spectacular, however, were Sadat’s decisions, between 1975 and 1977, first to declare a reversal of Nasserian policies of state socialism in Egypt (which was to be replaced by economic liberalization, or “opening,” with foreign assistance), and then personally to open peace negotiations with Israel. His November, 1977, visit to Jerusalem, where he addressed the Israeli Knesset, represented an unprecedented action by an Arab leader to prepare the way for a lasting peace in the Middle East. It was followed in stages by United States sponsorship, through the personal offices of President Jimmy Carter, for direct negotiations between Sadat and Israeli prime ministerMenachem Begin, which took place at Carter’s Camp David retreat in September, 1978. The dramatic outcome of the Camp David Accords was a bilateral Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, signed at the White House on March 26, 1979. By this treaty, Israel committed itself to withdraw from the Egyptian Sinai. Both parties were to initiate full normal bilateral relations. A separate document, which proved to be quite ineffective, called for progress toward solving the Palestinian political and territorial dilemma.

Although Sadat gained worldwide recognition for his peace initiative and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978, Egypt’s political and economic situation was not a peaceful one. In his attempt to deal with various forms of unrest at home, including criticism of the Egyptian-Israeli peace and growing religious fanaticism, Sadat assumed extraordinary presidential powers in May of 1980. In a little more than a year, following riots in June, 1981, and mass arrests in September, Sadat was assassinated by splinter elements of the extremist Islamic underground.

Significance

Sadat’s career illustrates several key aspects of nationalism as it has operated in the Middle East since World War II. His early career was obviously marked by extremist positions against perceived enemies of Egypt’s national destiny: Great Britain, Israel, and, by 1952, insufferable internal corruption. Although Sadat followed a revolutionary path to make gains against these obstacles, ultimately he proved to be a pragmatist, tying Egypt’s destiny to the necessity to compromise. This was visible not only in his dealings with Israel but also in his attempt to bring Egypt’s economy, badly displaced by twenty years of revolutionary socialism and the massive costs of war, back into a situation of internal and international equilibrium. This latter decision was not an independent one but was tied to the assumption that foreign participation in Egypt’s economic future would be essential.

Bibliography

Beattie, Kirk J. Egypt During the Sadat Years. New York: Palgrave, 2000. A balanced analysis of Sadat’s accomplishments and failures based on a wide variety of sources.

Blaisse, Mark. Anwar Sadat: The Last Hundred Days. London: Thames & Hudson, 1981. This mainly pictorial volume contains a textual narrative based on the author’s own conversations with Sadat.

Cullen, Bob. “Two Weeks at Camp David.” Smithsonian, September, 2003, 56-64. Discusses the 1978 peace conference at Camp David between Sadat, Menachem Begin, and Jimmy Carter, which resulted in a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Hirst, David, and Irene Beeson. Sadat. London: Faber & Faber, 1981. Following an abbreviated summary of Sadat’s earlier career under Nasser’s presidency, the authors of this book offer the most detailed account of the period from the 1973 Yom Kippur War to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

Israeli, Raphael.“I, Egypt”: Aspects of President Anwar al-Sadat’s Political Thought. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1981. This survey of Sadat’s views contains numerous citations of his speeches and writings. Commentary is organized under eight topics, including “Concepts of Leadership,” “Sadat Between Arabism and Africanism,” and “Peace Strategy.”

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Man of Defiance: A Political Biography of Anwar Sadat. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble Books, 1985. A complete biography and scholarly analysis of both Sadat and the political issues that affected his life in all of its stages.

Sadat, Anwar el-. In Search of Identity: An Autobiography. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. Sadat’s life based on his personal reflections. The narrative includes valuable descriptions, not only of Sadat’s own personal ideas but also of the roles played in his career, up to 1977, by other Egyptian and foreign personalities.

Sadat, Camelia. My Father and I. New York: Macmillan, 1985. This is a combined biography/autobiography by Sadat’s daughter, who was born in 1949. In addition to recollections concerning her father, it contains valuable views on the status of women in Egypt both before and during his presidency.