Anwar Al-Sadat Essay, Research Paper
Born into a family of 13 children in 1918, Anwar al-Sadat grew up among average Egyptian villagers in the town of Mit Abul
Kom 40 miles to the north of Cairo. Having completed a grade school education, Sadat’s father worked as a clerk in the local
military hospital. By the time of his birth, Anwar’s Egypt had become a British colony. Crippling debt had forced the Egyptian
government to sell the British government its interests in the French engineered Suez Canal linking the Mediteranian Sea with the
Indian Ocean. The British and French had used these resources to establish enough political control over Egyptian affairs to
refer to Egypt as a British colony.
Four figures affected Sadat’s early life. The first, a man named Zahran, came from a small village like Sadat’s. In a famous
incident of colonial rule, the British hanged Zahran for participating in a riot which had resulted in the death of a British officer.
Sadat admired the courage Zahran exhibit on the way to the gallows. The second, Kemel Ataturk, created the modern state of
Turkey by forcing the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. Not only had Ataturk thrown off the shackles of colonialism, but he
established a number of civil service reforms, which Sadat admired. The third man was Mohandas Gandhi. Touring Egypt in
1932, Gandhi had preached the power of nonviolence in combating injustice. And finally, the young Sadat admired Adolf Hitler
whom the anticolonialist Sadat viewed as a potential rival to British control.
In 1936 as part of a deal between the British and the Wafd party, the British agreed to create a military school in Egypt. Sadat
was among its first students. Besides the traditional training in math and science, each student learned to analyze battles. Sadat
even studied the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point in America’s civil war. Upon graduating from the academy, the
government posted Sadat to a distant outpost. There he met Gamal Abdel Nasser, beginning a long political association which
eventually led to the Egyptian presidency. At this outpost, Sadat, Nasser and the other young officers formed a revolutionary
group destined to overthrow British rule.
Commitment to their revolution led Sadat to jail twice. During his second stay in jail, Sadat taught himself French and English.
But the grueling loneliness of jail took its toll. After leaving prison, Sadat returned to civilian life. He acted for a bit, and he
joined in several business deals. Through one of his deals, Sadat met Jihan whom he would eventually marry.
Sadat recontacted his old associate Nasser to find that their revolutionary movement had grown considerably while he was in
prison. On July 23, 1952, the Free Officers Organization staged a coup overthrowing the monarchy. From the moment of the
coup, Sadat began as Nasser’s public relations minister and trusted lieutenant. Nasser assigned Sadat the task of overseeing the
official abdication of King Farouk.
Working with Nasser Sadat learned the dangerous game of nationbuilding in a world of superpower
rivalries. Egypt eventually became the leading “non-aligned” country in the world, giving a voice, through
Nasser, to the desires of the undeveloped and post-colonial societies. Their most important trial came over
the Suez Canal, which Nasser nationalized in 1956. In a coordinated effort, the British, French, and the
new nation of Israel launched an attack on Egypt hoping to reestablish colonial control over the Canal and
its profits. The 1956 war ended only after the United States pressured its allies to withdraw. Egypt
emerged from the war a hero of the non-alligned countries, having successfully resisted colonial powers
and maintained its control of the Suez.
Nasser’s prominence suffered greatly from the debacle of the Six Day War. In it, the Israeli military completely destroyed the
Egyptian air forces (mostly caught unawares on the ground) and swept through the Sinai to the Suez Canal routing the Egyptian
army, killing at least 3,000 soldiers. The devastation also threatened to bankrupt the government. Internal squabbling among
Arab nations and the growing Palestinian movement eventually strained Nasser’s abilities to the limit. Under the strain, Nasser
collapsed and died on 29 September 1970.
When he succeeded Nasser, Sadat was completely unknown and untested. Over the next 11 years, however, Sadat proved his
leadership abilities. His first trial on the international scene involved the aftermath of the Six Days War. Sadat openly offered the
Israelis a peace treaty in exchange for the return of the Siani lands taken in the attack.
Domestic crisis and international intrique presented Sadat with seemingly insurmountable problems. The Egyptian economy
continued to real from war with Israel and the Egyptian’s continuing relationship with the Soviet Union deteriorated as the
Soviet’s proved unreliable allies. When pressed for more military support to replace the devastation of the Six Days War, the
Soviets simply ignored Sadat’s requests. In a bold move, which soon became his trademark, Sadat expelled the Soviets. This
grand gesture solidified Egyptian internal support at a time when the average Egyptian suffered greatly.
Behind the scenes, however, Sadat plotted to retake the Egyptian Siani if the Israelis continued to refuse the Egyptian peace
initiative. On 6 October 1973, Sadat struck. With exceptional military precision, the Egyptian army crossed the Suez back into
the Sinai and began driving the Israeli army into the desert. Though short-lived, the attack created a new momentum for peace
both in Egypt and in Israel. These pressures coincided with continued domestic problems in Egypt.
The deteriorating economy in Egypt, accomplanied by a growing distance between rich and poor, led to internal strife, riots,
strikes, attacks on the rich. These internal pressures raised the attention of the international community, particularly the United
States, concerned that internal strife would weaken Sadat’s moderate policies.
Convinced that peace with Israel would reap an enormous “peace dividend,” Sadat initiated his most important diplomatic ploy.
In a speach to the Egyptian parliament in 1977, Sadat affirmed his desire to go anywhere to negotiate a peace with the Israelis.
Even, he affirmed, he would go to the Israeli parliament to speak for peace. The Israeli’s responded with an invitation to do just
that and Sadat’s speech to the Israeli Knesset initiated a new momentum for peace that would eventually culminate in the 1978
Camp David Accords and a final peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
For his efforts, Sadat won the Nobel Prize for Peace.
At home, Sadat’s new relationship with the west and his peace treaty generated considerable domestic
opposition, especially among fundamentalist Muslim groups. In 1980 and in 1981, Sadat took desperate
gambles to respond to these new internal problems. He negotiated a number of loans to support improvements
in everyday life. And he simultaneously enacted laws outlawing protest and declared that the Shari’a would be
the basis of all new Egyptian law. October 6, 1981, Sadat died at the hands of fundamentalists assassins during
a military review celebrating the 1973 Suez crossing.
Bibliography
metalab.unc.edu/sullivan/bios/Sadat-bio.html