Assassination Anniversary: 30th Anniversary of Heinous Murder of Egypt’s President, Anwar Sadat (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 6, 2011
Pres. Gerald Ford meeting with Egyptian Pres. Anwar Sadat in Salzburg, Austria, June 2, 1975 | Credit: Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, MI :: Photo A4843-5
Thirty years ago today, on October 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat was shot to death by radical Islamic militants while he was reviewing a military parade in Cairo celebrating the 1973 Suez crossing.
In his 11 years serving as president — his elected appointment followed the sudden death of Gamal Abdel Nasser — Sadat changed Egypt’s direction, departing from some of the political and economic principles of Nasserism by re-instituting the multi-party system, and launching the Infitah economic policy. His efforts to secure peace with Israel led to the joint presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978, which he shared with Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel. This prize was awarded them for their contributions to the two frame agreements on peace in the Middle East.
Following his assassination, Sadat was succeeded by his vice president, Hosni Mubarak, whose hand was injured during the attack. Sadat’s funeral was attended by a record number of global dignitaries, including a rare simultaneous attendance by three former US presidents: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon. Sadat’s body was laid to rest in the unknown soldier memorial in Cairo, just across the street from the viewing stand where he was murdered.
Shortly after Sadat’s murder, Pres. Ronald Reagan addressed the American nation via television and radio from the White House:
Today the people of the United States join with the people of Egypt and all those who long for a better world in mourning the death of Anwar Sadat.
President Sadat was a courageous man whose vision and wisdom brought nations and people together. In a world filled with hatred, he was a man of hope. In a world trapped in the animosities of the. past, he was a man of foresight, a man who sought to improve a world tormented by malice and pettiness.
As an Egyptian patriot, he helped create the revolutionary movement that freed his nation. As a political leader, he sought to free his people from hatred and war. And as a soldier, he was unafraid to fight. But most important, he was a humanitarian unafraid to make peace. His courage and skill reaped a harvest of life for his nation and for the world.
Anwar Sadat was admired and loved by the people of America. His death today —- an act of infamy, cowardly infamy —- fills us with horror.
America has lost a close friend; the world has lost a great statesman; and mankind has lost a champion of peace. Nancy and I feel that we have lost a close and dear friend; and we send our heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. Sadat, to his children, who were here such a short time ago.
Thank you very much.
The video below provides stunning footage of Pres. Sadat’s assassination and the chaos that ensued after the assassination.
As air force Mirage jets flew overhead, distracting the crowd, a troop truck halted before the Presidential reviewing stand, and a lieutenant strode forward. Sadat stood to receive his salute, whereupon the assassins rose from the truck, throwing grenades and firing assault rifle rounds. Sadat was shot in the head when he stood and he fell to the floor.
The Assassination of President Anwar Al-Sadat
Moment of the Assassination of Anwar Sadat & Survival of Hosni Mubarak
From Scott MacLeod at Los Angeles Times, Anwar Sadat’s vision for Egypt:
Egyptians have hardly noticed as the 30th anniversary of Anwar Sadat’s death approached this week. It isn’t only because they’re too busy with ongoing political protests and labor strikes as the country zigzags toward democratic elections.
They just don’t care.
To the young people who made the January 25 “revolution” in Tahrir Square, Sadat is a figure from a distant past. If they think of him at all, many are quick to curse him for making peace with Israel. There is little regret or grief over his assassination by Islamic extremists at a military parade in a Cairo suburb on Oct. 6, 1981.
And yet, Sadat was a remarkable warrior-statesman. As Egypt’s vice president in 1970, he became president upon the sudden death of Egyptian icon Gamal Abdel Nasser. The country was still reeling from its humiliating defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War three years earlier. Sadat increased Egypt’s ties with the U.S. and unceremoniously expelled Soviet military advisors in 1972. Then he put together the brilliant plan that led to the surprise Egyptian-Syrian attack on Israel in 1973 — the October War to Egyptians and the Yom Kippur War to Israelis.
That attack, as Sadat intended, restored Egyptian pride and shattered the Middle East stalemate. Four years later, he undertook the single most extraordinary diplomatic gesture in the region’s modern history, when he flew to Israel and told the Knesset: “We really and truly welcome you to live among us in peace and security.”
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