Anwar el-Sadat, a former Egyptian leader, was a staunch ally of the United States in the search for peace in the Middle East. This alliance with America made him very unpopular at home, especially with radical elements. He was assassinated in a spectacular fashion by fundamentalist army officers on October 6, 1981.
The assassination of Sadat jolted the establishment in Washington DC, who saw it as a moral obligation on their part to honour his memory by attending the funeral in Cairo. For security reasons, America’s then sitting President, Ronald Reagan, could not attend Sadat’s funeral. He, however, summoned the then three surviving former presidents – Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter – to represent America and its people at the funeral. It was an historic convergence of former presidents, albeit of different political persuasions, at the White House on…
Read More…..Punch Newspapers
