281. Editorial Note
According to President Jimmy Carter’s diary, Carter decided at the meeting of his weekly foreign affairs breakfast group on July 31, 1978, to send Secretary of State Vance to Israel and Egypt and offer invitations for President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin to meet directly with Carter at Camp David. Carter wrote that “the situation is getting into an extreme state and I’m concerned that Sadat might precipitate a conflict in October, as he has hinted several times.” This was apparently a reference to Sadat’s frequent reminders in 1978 that the 1975 Sinai II agreement would expire in October 1978 and that without an agreement, hostilities between Egypt and Israel could occur. (Jimmy Carter, White House Diary, page 210)