The day I won the Nobel Peace Prize
Posted: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 2:19 PM by Sam Go
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Notes from the field
by Mike Mosher, Nightly News Senior based in Los Angeles
Mosher was based in the Middle East from 1974-1980
Imagine the knock on the door early in the morning to be told, “You’ve won the Nobel Peace Prize. It happened to me.
Cairo, Egypt October 27, 1978, (BC) -- before cable and before Twitter there was telex, often the only means for my New York headquarters to relay breaking news to the field reporters. The telex machine was especially important in places like Cairo where an international phone call required booking a day in advance.The machine punched out and received lines of text messaging on a roll of paper. If the news was really urgent there was a bell key. The sender could ‘ding’ ‘ding’ ding’ until someone woke up on the other end.
Ahmad was the overnight doorman in the Cairo news bureau. During the day Ahmad made tea for the staff, but at night he knew if the telex ‘dinged’ he was to find someone from the news staff.
“Dr. Mosher”, Ahmad said with excitement, (Egyptians are generous with titles), “Bell is beating! Bell is beating!” I thanked Ahmad for his diligence.
‘Now Ahmad read it to me slowly.’
“It is saying …URGENT URGENT, MOSHER SADAT AND BEGIN HAVE WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE MILLIS”
Millis was Walter Millis the New York desk editor that day. Telex talk often omitted punctuation.
After Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s startling announcement a year earlier that he would talk peace with Israel, it became NBC Cairo duty to keep a reporter and camera team with Sadat everywhere he went. I knew this urgent message meant hurry and get to the president for his reaction to the award.
I gathered NBC correspondent David Burrington and the camera crew and told them the news. “I just won the Noble Peace Prize and we need to get Sadat’s reaction.”
At the presidential palace, we learned Sadat was surprised too! He told Burrington he was honored but the timing was not good. At that moment talks with Israel were stalled and there was Arab world and domestic opposition to peace. Sadat even questioned why he had to share the prize with Israeli Prime Minister Manachem Begin. Our report from Cairo was the lead story on Nightly News with John Chancellor that night.
On December 10, 1978, President Sadat accepted the Nobel Prize alongside Prime Minister Begin. Sadat spoke of breaking with the past and stepping forward into a new age.
“I am convinced,” Sadat said at the Oslo ceremony, “ that we owe it to this generation and the generations to come, not to leave a stone unturned in our pursuit of peace. The ideal is the greatest one in the history of man, and we have accepted the challenge to translate it from a cherished hope into a living reality, and to win through vision and imagination, the hearts and minds of our peoples and enable them to look beyond the unhappy past.”
A few weeks later Sadat took a respite on board the presidential yacht ‘Al-Houriya ‘ in the Suez Canal. He often took time alone to think and focus before he made decisions.
Journalists were told there would be a few days of no news. Still our New York editors insisted we go. There wasn’t much room on the ship so the foreign press assembled a ‘pool’ to accompany the president, ‘just-in-case.’
For three days on the ship we never saw the president. There was nothing for us to do but sunbathe, read, and play cards. We begged the press spokesman for an audience and finally Sadat agreed. On day four, there would be a ‘family’ photo but under no circumstances were we to ask ‘news’ questions.
President Mohammad Anwar Sadat met us on deck. He was wearing admiral dress whites with the highest honors displayed on his chest. With tremendous poise and dignity he invited us all to stand for the photo. He knew our names and he thanked each of the journalists for covering him everyday and relaying his message of peace to the world.
Photo: The foreign press pool aboard the Al-Houriya in Suez Canal December 1978
Top left to right : Mohammad Gohar (NBC), Bill Foley (AP), Mike Mosher (NBC) , President Anwar Sadat , Doreen Kays (ABC), Rick Hull (ABC), Ali Ashmawy (ABC), Mike Lee (CBS) ; Bottom : Ali Abed (NBC) , Magna (UPI)
Then to our surprise he presented each of us with a medal… it was the Nobel Peace Prize 1978, stamped in Arabic, ‘The Hero of Peace Anwar Sadat.’ It was a small replica, too small to include Begin or Mosher but such an honor to receive. I’ll always treasure my Nobel Peace Prize.
