The Panama Canal, American Sovereignty and Self-Defense, Part II of III
Also see
Part 1
Part 3
In part I, we covered the history of the Panama Canal from its exploration as a place to build a transoceanic waterway to transport Spanish gold in 1534 to the nineteenth century when British and French governments for reasons related to their own interests sought to achieve the same, and finally the concept's successful realization by the United States after ten years of toil and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment. As we know, the Panama Canal was subsequently opened to shipping in 1914.
We then touched on the canal's vital importance as a strategic waterway for the United States by pointing out just a small example of its use as such in World War II by the U.S. Navy (the battleship depicted therein was the USS New Jersey, which was in the Atlantic at the time of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and made its way through the canal, as shown, shortly after to join the battle in the South Pacific). Also mentioned was the role Panama played for the U.S. in drug interdiction and we hinted at how that was impacted once U.S. troops withdrew from control of the area.
Now we will look at some of the details surrounding the handover; the atmosphere in Panama and the politics at home. Naturally, it would be impossible to fit every important fact and nuance of the time into this blog, however we will touch on a few of the key items you need to know. As history raced towards the deadline at the end of the millennium, what safeguards had been put in place to insure the smoothest transition possible and what provisions were being made to leave the Canal Zone open to U.S. shipping would be two of the biggest questions Americans would have to ask when American forces left the Zone.
The Time of Y2K
31. December 1999, 11:59 PM. While back in the States, where people stood with champagne at the ready, "2000" sunglasses seated firmly on their noses, and some feared the end of the world as all fell victim to the allegedly ubiquitous millennium bug that was feared to wreak havic on computer systems at the dawn of the year 2000, in one minute the history of Panama and the Western Hemisphere would change more than it had in 99 years for completely other reasons. 99 years ago Panama won its independence from Columbia and carved out a place for itself on the world stage. Tonight, for the first time, Panama north and south would be united. Emotions among local residents and U.S. citizens working in Panama covered the gamut from elation and pride, to angst, melancholy, ambivalence and outright opposition.
Some of the locals saw the handover filled with nationalistic pride. Leftist groups and drug lords in Columbia saw it with eager anticipation. Protests had risen to a feverish pitch from both corners in the late 70’s against the American presence. Now no more would the mammoth superpower be in their backyard, no more interfering in their affairs, altering their history. Many no doubt thought back twenty two years to the day the Panama Canal Treaty and the Neutrality Treaty were signed, 7 September 1977 by then U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader General Omar Torrijos. In 1999, many had only read about it in school books. Others were old enough to remember for themselves. At the time of the signing and until now, I’m sure, all of it for them seemed so far away. Americans stationed in Panama had grown to call the Canal Zone their home away from home. They had become a part of the fabric of the local culture and economy. They would now be leaving, many of them, all that they knew. They had friends in Panama and neighbors, acquaintances at the local pub and so forth, whom they realized they may never see again one minute past right now. It would be a world of difference.
The More Things Change...
In America, things had changed a great deal since the 1970’s. So much had changed and yet seemed to come full-circle twenty years later in the 1990's. When the treaty was signed by American President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, video games were the latest rage, the Dallas Cowboys were world champions in American Football and the cult film Star Wars hit the scene with its first iteration. Somehow sandwiched between that time and the stroke of midnight, the last day of 1999, America had changed and accomplished so much. The U.S., with a renewed sense of national pride and purpose under two-term Republican president Ronald Reagan and Republican successor George H.W. Bush, had helped the world cast off Soviet domination, had seen the return to Space, the liberations of Grenada and Kuwait, the reunification and democratization of all of Germany and a revived U.S. and global economy. Americans also lived to see New Wave come…and go off the music charts. Under President Bill Clinton the age of the Internet, cell phones and the definition of "is" had finally come of age. Now, Bill Clinton was nearing the end of his second and final term as American President; the eighties were a distant memory and the nineties were nearing their close. Once more a Democrat was president, as when the post-signing saga started. America’s military power had once more begun to retract and the Star Wars saga was again the cult-movie favorite. To be sure, by this time in history the Panamanian economy had grown to rely on the heavy American presence in the Canal Zone. The footprint was much more than military. In fact, with the Naval presence at either end and along the canal and the massive zone economy serving thousands of servicemen, zone workers and their families, the presence meant an economic stability the region would not have otherwise seen. The pullout meant folks who lived in the area would be severely tightening their belts in times soon to come. And for a country just north of its drug-lord-driven neighbor to the south, the economic downturn likely would cause a great deal of apprehension for many. According to one BBC article at the time, dated 19 December 1999, “There have already been several cases of the Colombian army pursuing guerrillas into the jungles of southern Panama. Also, several thousand peasant farmers fleeing the conflict have crossed the border into Panama.” “There are also fears that the illegal drug trade from Colombia and other South American countries could undermine Panama's new-found independence”.
Up until the handover of the Canal Zone back to Panama, the U.S. had used its presence, most notably the Howard Naval Base on the Pacific side of the crossing, as an important staging ground against narco-traffickers in South and Central America.
Would Panama become completely over-run by the cartels or South American insurgents? What had seemed so far off not that long ago, was now at hand. Change, for better or worse, had come. Americans back home continued to hope for the best as the moment for the handover drew near. Back In 1977 most Americans polled were against the turnover, which was ratified by the Senate by a margin of just one vote. In 1999, the public sentiment had mostly gone unchanged- it remains fairly the same even today. Nevertheless, Americans are an optimistic lot who when unable to get their way, try to find some good in the situation. It was arguably that self-same optimism that built the canal to begin with.
Happening in Pairs
Interestingly, the Panama turnover happened to nearly coincide with (and was largely overshadowed by) another significant turnover of sovereignty set in motion years ago by a treaty which came of age in 1997. On this occasion, it was on the other side of the globe and it was the United Kingdom which ceded all control over the land and people that made up the proud water-front metropolis of Hong Kong, to the Peoples Republic of China. The two events on either side of the ocean marked the transfer from one era to the next. This time, like no other time, was truly one that would punctuate and embody a decade of immeasurable rebalancing and re-alignment among global superpowers, that would shape the world's history to come.
As the clocks in Panama wound down to 12:00 midnight Central America Time (GMT -06:00), the baton changed hands, officially, and the responsibility to guard and keep the canal open for commerce and Naval passage was gently handed to those who called Panama home. Would it be safe? Would they take pride worthy of maintaining such a monument to human achievement by keeping it the vital link between the waters it had been until that point?
We will find out when we conclude with part three of our series next time.
Additional Resources
More information on the Panama Canal can be found at the Library of Congress
http://search.loc.gov:8765/query.html?qt=panama+canal
You can find and read the complete Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 by following the link below
http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rlnks/11936.htm
Quick facts
Teddy Roosevelt (in white) inspecting the progress
Did you know that Theodore Roosevelt was one of America’s youngest presidents?
He indeed was! Although he had not planned on it, in 1900 the New York governor was tapped to be President William McKinley’s Republican running mate as he made his bid for a second term. The ticket won McKinley a second term, but just six months later it all ended at the point of an assassin’s bullet. Roosevelt was then sworn in as the 26th commander-in-chief. Teddy Roosevelt later went on to win re-election three years later to serve through 1909.
On the side
Well, weather (of all things) has not been too kind for the second part of this series, but here it is at last. I was forced to shut down all of my systems for the past day or so due to the severe thunderstorms which continued to pound the area. And shutting down all of Blogbat’s systems is no small feat! Blogbat has 13 state-of-the-art desktop PCs, laptops, small devices, routers and servers in all with a wired and wireless network spanning four floors, basement to loft. Redundant power supplies are a good thing to have, but when things get severe in North Texas, me takes no chances. By the time I started booting everything back up, it was around midnight. When I finally got into my office to work on the article, it was nearly 2:am, and then I realized I had forgotten to type in the bios password on my file server...up in the loft. Well, it went without saying that it was time to call it a night, and so I did. I popped an action flick into the DVD player of my Toshiba Portégé M200 (it's still a new toy), flopped down on the bed (with Dogbat taking up his usual half out of the middle) and quickly managed to fall asleep before the movie had nary begun.
-Blogbat
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