Quiet Path to Camp David

Abstract This chapter describes how Rosalynn suggested to Jimmy that if they invited Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin to come to isolated and serene Camp David, it might be the right environment for them to be able to negotiate a peace treaty between their two nations. Carter was skeptical but agreed to try, and some say that thus Rosalynn became the architect of the Camp David Accords. The chapter goes on to show that Walter Mondale thought the time was right for such a conference, though when, at a summit in Bonn, Germany, Carter tried to convince the allies of this he had little luck doing so, especially in reaching Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany who did not like Carter’s insistence that he should bear more of the cost of NATO and that an arms treaty with the Soviet Union would not endanger Western Europe. Carter invited Begin and Sadat to Camp David, but kept it low key and took a major vacation the month beforehand.