Panama Canal Did President Roosevelt 'Steal' the Canal or Obtain It Fairly? Library of Congress The issue
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- The USS Arizona passes through the locks along the Panama Canal in 1921.
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Critics argued that Roosevelt's actions in Panama also violated the Spooner Act, whereby the U.S. was obliged to build a canal in Nicaragua if the government could not reach an accord with Colombia in a timely manner. Roosevelt either should have taken more time to negotiate with Colombia, which had shown willingness to renegotiate a canal treaty, or should have begun negotiations with Nicaragua, they insisted. Most critics of Roosevelt recognized the need for a canal. They just disapproved of the way the U.S. had gone about securing the Panama Canal, which Senator Thomas Patterson (D, Colorado) concluded "was stolen in the most bare-faced manner from Colombia." The only honorable course, critics insisted, was to abandon the Panama project. The New York Times elaborated in a November 6, 1904, editorial: [See President Roosevelt's Actions in the Panama: 'A National Disgrace' (primary document)] We ought to build the canal, we must control it. But the right to build and the authority to control will be acquired at a cost far too great to be borne if we get it in this way. Our only safety, our one honorable course, is to abandon the Panama project at once in order that with clean hands, and freed from the suspicion of sordid and interested motives, we may make good our treaty guarantee of the neutrality of Isthmian transit. U.S. Returns the Canal to Panama Nearly four centuries after Spain first envisioned building a canal across Central America, the U.S. completed the Panama Canal. It officially opened on August 15, 1914. The effort took 10 years at a cost of nearly $400 million and employed some 70,000 workers, 5,000 of whom were American. Roughly 5,600 people died from disease and accidents while building the canal; 25,000 Frenchmen had died during the earlier French effort, mostly from mosquito-borne diseases, like yellow fever and malaria; mosquito-control measures, however, were in place by the time the U.S. canal was built. Despite widespread support for the canal, claims that the U.S. had wronged Colombia in obtaining the canal persisted. Critics accused the U.S. of encouraging the Panamanian revolt after Colombia appeared unwilling to allow the U.S. to build a canal. Defenders countered that the government had nothing to do with the revolt, and had simply negotiated for rights to build the canal with its rightful owner—Panama. In an effort to improve relations with Colombia, in 1914 the administration of Woodrow Wilson (D, 1913-21) drew up a treaty that would give Colombia $25 million in compensation for the loss of Panama and offer "sincere regret" for the strain the incident had placed on U.S.-Colombian relations. Congress rejected the treaty, which former President Roosevelt strongly opposed. However, on April 21, 1921, the Senate approved a treaty that would pay $25 million to Colombia but would not issue any expressions of regret. After the treaty was approved, Colombia-U.S. relations began to improve.
The canal also resulted in strained relations with Panama. Many Panamanians resented the treaty, and in particular claimed that Panama had given up too much in granting the U.S. sovereignty over the Canal Zone. Anti-American sentiment grew, and in 1964 a riot broke out after American students at Balboa High School, located in the Canal Zone, raised an American flag over the school but refused to fly a Panamanian flag next to it. Thousands of people rioted for three days, and Panama briefly severed ties with the U.S. as a result of the incident. In light of the increasing tension, the U.S. government opened negotiations for a new canal treaty that would eventually give control of the canal to Panama. On September 7, 1977, President Jimmy Carter (D, 1977-81) and Panama's leader, General Omar Torrijos Herrera, signed a treaty under which the U.S. would hand over the canal to Panama by December 31, 1999. They also signed a treaty pledging to maintain the canal's neutrality. The handover occurred as scheduled on December 31, 1999. [SeeAmericans Hand over the Panama Canal (sidebar); Panama Canal Treaty (1977) (primary document)] In his autobiography, Roosevelt claimed that the canal was "by far the most important action I took in foreign affairs during the time I was President." He addressed criticism of his actions in Panama in a speech on March 23, 1911, at the University of California, Berkeley. "I took the Isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me," he stated. A century later, Roosevelt and his actions in Panama are still being debated.
Bishop, Joseph. Theodore Roosevelt and His Time Shown in His Own Letters. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1920. "The Canal Debate Begins." Time, October 10, 1977. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915565,00.html?iid=chix-sphere (accessed August 31, 2008). Dolan, Edward. Panama and the United States: Their Canal, Their Stormy Years. New York: Franklin Watts, 1990. Dutemple, Lesley. The Panama Canal. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publications, 2003. Hogan, J. Michael. The Panama Canal in American Politics: Domestic Advocacy and the Evolution of Policy. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986. LaFeber, Walter. The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. "Making Dirt Fly on Panama Canal." New York Times, August 24, 1908, 2. McCullough, David. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977. "A National Disgrace." New York Times, November 6, 1903, 8. "The Panama Danger." New York Times, November 5, 1903, 8. "Panama's Declaration: Gives Her Reasons for Separating Herself from Her 'Alliance' with Colombia." New York Times, November 5, 1903, 1. Parker, Matthew. Panama Fever: The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time—The Building of the Panama Canal. New York: Doubleday, 2007. Download 374.24 Kb. Share with your friends:
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