President Carter and the Role of Intelligence in the Camp David Accords

This collection consists of more than 250 previously classified documents, totaling over 1,400 pages, including some 150 that are being released for the first time.  These documents cover the period from January 1977 through March 1979 and were produced by the CIA to support the Carter administration’s diplomatic efforts leading up to President Carter’s negotiations with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David in September 1978. The declassified documents detail diplomatic developments from the Arab peace offensive and President Sadat’s trip to Jerusalem through the regionwide aftermath of Camp David. Newly released items include:

• Two National Intelligence Estimates on Egypt and the Middle East Military Balance.
• Selections from CIA’s briefing book on Camp David created for President Carter.
• Leadership profiles from the Directorate of Intelligence on the key personalities of the Camp David summit.
• Intelligence on informal and formal inter-Arab negotiations and divisions between Israeli political parties with regard to the peace initiative and summit.
• The role of Jordan in the peace process
• Over four hundred pages of Foreign Broadcast Information Service reporting, capturing the press coverage of the negotiations, summit, and global reaction.

The documents convey a sense of the personalities, perils, and ambiguities that pervaded the lead-up to the Camp David Accords, which despite the many obstacles has had an enduring influence in the precarious peace between Israel and its largest Arab neighbor.

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