The Lesson of "Camp David"
But nine days in, with the parties at loggerheads, Rosalynn bucks him up: "Just remember, you're the one who told me you can always guarantee that you'll never fail if you never try -- but you'll also guarantee you never succeed."
"Yeah," Jimmy replies. "I used to love saying things like that."
In the final, most affecting scene, the summit has collapsed. Carter arrives at Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin's cabin with inscribed photographs for his grandchildren.
Begin recites their names. "Ayelet. Osnat. Orit. Mayrav ... "
"I had hoped to write, 'This is where your grandfather and I made peace in the Middle East,'" Carter says.
"It is not a failure," Begin replies, weeping. "We will sign."
Determination prevails. The tennis ball skims the net. History records the Carter presidency differently. When Carter decided to bring the leaders to Camp David, "Everybody told him what McCain said, 'Don't do it,'" Rafshoon told me. Carter's attitude, he said, was "like what Lyndon Johnson said about civil rights: 'What the hell's the presidency for?'"
Rafshoon would take the lesson of "Camp David" to its obvious conclusion: Only presidential leadership can accomplish the monumental feat. I'm less certain that the moment calls for intensive presidential involvement.
But to revisit "Camp David" is to be reminded that history is both unknowable and malleable, and to recall the essential role of, as Kerry so diplomatically put it, the person in the arena.
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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.
Copyright 2014 Washington Post Writers Group
