Arms Wrestle: Capitol Hill Fight Over Carter’s 1978 Middle East “Package” Airplane Sale*
- d.p.strieff{at}lse.ac.uk
Abstract
This article examines the domestic politics of President Jimmy Carter’s 1978 “package” sale of advanced warplanes to Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Based on newly available documents from the Carter Presidential Library, the Israel State Archives, private collections, and media and public opinion material, it argues that Carter was so eager to demonstrate he had the strength to overcome domestic opposition to pursue his international agenda that the means used to gain support for the package virtually eclipsed the end itself. The White House based its decision to pursue the sales on strategic imperatives. However, the tactics employed to push the package through Congress stemmed as much from Carter’s political imperatives as from the need to meet the Saudis’ request. The episode underscored the reflexive nature of Carter’s domestic political standing and his Arab-Israeli policy, with his position in one serving to reinforce the other.
- © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
