Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and President Carter begin a Middle East peace conference at Camp David, Maryland

The three heads of state met for 13 days of secret meetings at Camp Devid, the Presidential Retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland, about 100 kilometers north of Washington DC. The result of this conference would be the historic Camp David accords,  the first negotiated peace treaty between Israel and any of its Arab neighbors. The official agreement was signed on Mar. 26, 1979, in Washington, D.C. by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, with U.S. President Jimmy Carter signing as a witness.  The treaty was denounced by other Arab states. Under the agreement, Israel agreed to return the Sinai to Egypt, a transfer that was completed in 1982. The two nations also agreed to negotiate Palestinian autonomy measures in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, but virtually no progress was made on this issue until the 1990s. The Camp David Accords would be the signature accomplishment of the Carter administration.  President Carter's employed a number of insightful and novel negotiation tactics. His overall strategy was to limit the place and time of these face-to-face negotiations and to involve only those who had the authority to make agreements.  While at Camp David, the day's events were orchestrated down to the minute; encouraging, perhaps even forcing the participants to become acquainted on a personal level. For their efforts, Sadat and Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.