Anwar Sadat but was dismissed, since the alleged slanders, having taken place outside the country, fell outside the Egyptian courts' jurisdiction. The film was critically acclaimed in America, but was unpopular among Egyptians and in the Egyptian press. Western authors attributed the film's poor reception in Egypt to racism – Gossett being African American – in the Egyptian government or Egypt in general. Either way, one Western source wrote that Sadat's portrayal by Gossett "bothered race-conscious Egyptians and wouldn't have pleased [the deceased] Sadat," who identified as Egyptian and Northeast African, not black or African American. The two-part series earned Gossett an
VC-137C SAM 26000 wanted to join in—40,000 people paid their respects when the former president lay in state, even though the mood during the state funeral was one of intense recrimination because the wounds of the Vietnam War were still raw. Because of SAM 26000, the final services honoring LBJ on January 25 were completed in one day, despite taking place in different parts of the country. On October 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Because of security concerns, then-President Ronald Reagan did not attend the funeral. Instead, he sent Secretary of State Alexander Haig and the living former presidents—Nixon, Ford,