Camp David with Lillian GIsh co-star Richard Thomas and Hallie Foote

Camp David by playwright Lawrence Wright at Kreeger Theater, Arena Stage, May 2014, Washington DC

Carter’s Georgia Wisdom at Camp David

James Patterson

 

At the LBJ Presidential Library sponsored Civil Rights Summit in April, former President Jimmy Carter spoke warmly of the historical drama Camp David, a Washington play based on his personal diplomacy that brought peace to the Middle East during the second year of his presidency.

 

While in Washington in May, I saw the final performance of the excellent production and I suspect you will see it soon on a cable channel. Richard Thomas and Hallie Foote are convincing as President and Mrs. Carter. Ron Rifkin as Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Khaled Nabawy as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat are less convincing in their roles. The play was directed by Molly Smith.

 

Camp David is set at the Maryland presidential retreat over 13 days in September 1978. During those days Carter used his natural Georgia wisdom and deep religious faith to negotiate an important peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

 

Playwright Lawrence Wright has superbly captured the intensity of the negotiations between the three leaders. The play is about negotiation and diplomacy and Wright succeeds in dramatizing the intricacies of these notoriously unentertaining subjects.

 

One of Camp David’s best scenes takes place early in the play. On a darkened stage, a spotlight focuses on Sadat as he prays for peace in Egyptian with another spotlight on Begin as he prays for peace in Hebrew and another spotlight shines on Carter as he prays for peace in English.

 

It is a fascinating scene of three men from three religions seeking a single purpose to a problem based on religion. The scene illustrates the complexity of the task before the three men.

 

It is also early in the play when Begin reminds Carter there has been no peace between Israel and Egypt in 2,000 years. In the 30 years before Camp David the two nations had warred five times including the so-called 1969/70 War of Attrition.  The international stakes escalated during each war and led to the historic 1973 Arab oil embargo which caused severe economic and political problems for President Richard Nixon.

 

Historically, Camp David occurred while the U.S. economy suffered with high unemployment, record inflation and record interest rates. Carter also realized his brother Billy had mismanaged the family peanut business in Plains, Georgia. The president had major political and personal problems as he patiently negotiated with Begin and Sadat. There were other problems as well.

 

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo alerted Carter’s Secretary of State Cyrus Vance that Egyptian government officials had issued assassination orders to Sadat’s Egyptian security detail at Camp David. They feared Sadat would concede too much to Begin in a peace deal. Carter had to provide Sadat Secret Service security against the Egyptian president’s own security detail.

 

The stakes at Camp David were high and the risks great. Each leader wanted to end terrorist violence in the region that had spread to other parts of the world. There was then, as there is now, the possibility of nuclear war in the region. In 1978 nuclear conflict between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R .was a threat. Today, Iran is the nuclear threat in the region.

 

The Camp David peace talks nearly broke down several times as Sadat brought the Palestinians into the talks and Begin threatened to walk out. The Israeli Prime Minister insisted the Palestinians were not at the bargaining table and he refused to permit Sadat to advance the Palestinian cause at his expense.

 

The Camp David Peace Accord between Israel and Egypt is one of the great diplomatic accomplishments of the 20^th century thanks almost entirely to President Jimmy Carter with an occasional assist from a concerned Mrs. Carter.

 

In one scene, as Carter is in a shouting match with his guests, Mrs. Carter steps out of the presidential cottage and offers a cheerful, loud and helpful, “How’s the peacemaking going?”  It breaks the tension, causes the leaders to offer their equally cheerful responses to her and reminds them of their purpose.

 

According to Wright, “The Middle East, from distant times till now, is a cautionary story of the failure of war to impose a lasting and just peace. There is never a perfect time or ideal people to bring an end to bloody conflicts; and unlike the talent for war, the ability to make peace has always been rare.”

 

At the LBJ Library, Carter dramatically related the highpoint of Camp David. Sadat and Begin angry at each other angrily gave Carter one last chance to find peace. Seemingly without hope, Carter found a way.

 

The world premiere of Camp David reportedly drew an impressive array of Washington political and diplomatic powerbrokers.  President and Mrs. Carter had front row seats. Mr. Carter, now 90, I am told by reliable sources, cried throughout the performance.

 

Camp David is a fine artistic and historic tribute to Jimmy Carter, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for using his Georgia wisdom, gentle demeanor, and religious faith to succeed where so many others failed.

 

Longtime Washington diplomat and Valleyan James Patterson is now a San Francisco-based writer and speaker. Patterson is a nonfiction editor and reviewer with National Book Critics Circle.