Mayor Edward I. Koch and New york’s municipal foreign policy, 1977-1990

Democratic mayoral nominee Ed Koch wanted a public showdown with Jimmy Carter when the president came to New York to endorse him in October 1977.¹ Koch believed that Carter had made "a complete sellout of Israe" by pursuing a joint declaration with the Soviet Union calling for a multilateral Middle East peace conference in Geneva, which aimed at the creation of a Palestinian state. As Carter disembarked at the LaGuardia heliport to meet the press, Ed Koch was there with a surprise: a letter that he had already distributed to the media surrounding the president.² Photos of the event show Koch eye-to-eye with the much-shorter Carter, who was standing on a platform. Incumbent Mayor Abraham D. Beame, a former bureaucrat who was famously orthodox when it came to political manners, looked up at them uneasily; his eyes were focused on the letter. The mayoral candidate had been scheduled to drive back into the city with the president. Instead, Carter stranded him on the tarmac.