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Newest Jrouble Spot
forU.S.-
PANAMA CANAL
Attention is again focusing on the one of the
world's most vital seaways. Here is the real meaning of the
crisis and the background behind the recent United Nations
Security Council meeting in
Panama.
by
Gene H. Hogberg
A MERICANS ARE
waking up to a
..t-\..
new international crisis, one
that
is
a lot closer to home
than Vietnam.
The major trading nations of the
world are also deeply involved in
the issue. At stake is their continued
access, at reasonable cost, to the
strategic Panama Canal - the "fun–
nel for world commerce."
Zone of Contention
At the heart of the dispute is the
Republic of Panama's insistence on
establishing its sovereignty and ju–
risdiction over the U.S.-owned and
administered Canal Zone. This 558-
square-mile strip of territory bisect–
ing the tiny Central American na–
tion has been in U.S. hands since its
formation in 1903. Within its
boundaries, in a virtual "Little
America," live sorne 40,000 United
States civilian workers and rnilitary
personnel and their dependents.
Their combined task is to operate,
maintain and defend the vital
Atlantic-to-Pacific waterway wbich
courses through the middle of the
10-mile-wide Zone.
20
For the United States, the brew–
ing Canal crisis comes ata very poor
time. Most Americans, agonized by
the twelve-year experience in Viet–
nam, are in no mood to get em–
broiled in another international
dispute. But for Panamanian na–
tionalists, the moment could not be
more opportune.
In a shrewd política! move, the
Panamanian government persuaded
the 15-member U.N. Security Coun–
cil to move its March 1973 meeting
from New York to Panama City. The
Canal dispute took preerninence
among a host of hemispheric prob–
lems. Predictably, the U.S. presence
in the
Canal
Zone was soundly de–
nounced as perpetuating "colonialism."
Treaty Deadlock
The Panamanian situation has
been sirnmering on the back burner
of the U.S. foreign policy hot stove
for over fifteen years. The trouble
reached boiling point in January
1964, when anti-American riots
broke out in Panama involving a
dispute over the display of Pan–
amanian and U. S. ftags in the Zone.
Rioting Panamanians also de–
manded the replacement of the
1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty un–
der which Panama granted the
United States exclusive control of
tbe Canal Zone "in perpetuity."
Since that time, relations between
Panama City and Washington bave
been strained. Negotiations between
the two nations broke down in 1967,
just when it appeared that both
sides were about to approve a new
treaty relationship governing the
Canal 's future status. But legislative
resistance in both countries pre–
vented ratification. Willingness on
the part of the American negotiators
to cede sovereignty over the Zone to
Panama sent up a stream of protest
in the U. S. House of Representa–
tives. In Panama, the feeling was
that the United States had not given
in enough in the negotiations.
A long period of stagnation set in.
Highly Emotional lssue
General Ornar Torrijos, Panama's
strongman since a 1968 revolution,
has made it clear in recent months
that Panama is more insistent than
ever in its demands for jurisdiction
PLAIN TRUTH Moy 1973
,