Former President Jimmy Carter was placed on hospice and, as of this writing, is not expected to live much longer. This statement led to public reconsideration of his presidency and life.
As a Carter fan, I’m used to underestimating his presidency. After all, he presided over a deteriorating economy, a hostage crisis, blamed America’s problems on “malaise,” and was humiliated by a landslide around Ronald Reagan while running for a second term.
This sounds like a failed presidency.
Nevertheless, I am shocked by the disregard for Carter’s greatest achievement – and arguably the most successful American foreign policy initiative since the creation of the international system after World War II – the Panama Canal Treaties.
In recent column for example, in The New York Times, author Kai Bird praised Carter for the political courage in pressing the Canal issue during his first term, but did not cite the treaties as one of his major foreign policy achievements.
Americans do not realize how close we were to an endless conflict over the canal, the consequences of which were much more hazardous and the stakes much higher than in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, the Treaties brought peace and prosperity.
Just consider the importance of the Panama Canal.
Strategically, the canal allowed the United States to become a world power with a two-ocean navy. Economically, the canal facilitated the worldwide supply chains that we now consider so significant to economic development.
The potential for conflict over the canal’s roots in its imperialist beginnings. In the 19thvol century, the Isthmus of Panama, where the Canal was to be built, was part of Colombia. When Colombia refused to allow the construction of a canal on American terms, President Teddy Roosevelt supported Panama’s ongoing efforts to secede from Colombia. The modern Panamanian government, after some pressure, was more accommodating. In 1903, a treaty granted the United States indefinite control of the canal and the surrounding Canal Zone.
The canal was completed in 1914.
Many Panamanians viewed the treaty as illegal from the beginning, which led to ongoing tensions between the United States and Panama. In 1964, riots over the display of the Panamanian flag in the Canal Zone led to a transient suspension of relations between the two countries.
This convinced President Lyndon Johnson’s administration to continue negotiations on a modern treaty. However, political changes in the Panamanian government prevented an agreement from being reached.
President Richard Nixon continued negotiations, leading to the draft agreement that became the basis for later treaties.
During the 1976 presidential primaries, President Gerald Ford supported the modern treaty, while Ronald Reagan opposed it, accusing Ford of dedication of the canal.
Ironically, during the subsequent presidential election campaign, Carter expressed some skepticism about the modern treaty. Nevertheless, once in office, Carter quickly reversed course and pursued a final agreement with Panama.
Ratification of the treaty requires a two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate, and even among Democrats there was considerable opposition to the modern canal treaty. In an attempt to persuade the country, the Carter administration held hundreds of forums across the country to explain the proposed treaty.
I attended one such forum in Knoxville, Tenn. The political pressure on Howard Baker, the Republican minority leader in the US Senate, was enormous. Baker deserves great credit for taking political risks for the good of the country and not only supporting the treaty, but also winning 15 additional Republican votes.
Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd managed to keep Democratic defections to a minimum.
The final score was 68 to 32, one vote more than needed. The support of actor John Wayne, a friend of Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos, turned out to be crucial.
The entire agreement was divided into two parts. The first, called the Neutrality Treaty, allowed the United States to apply military force to defend the neutrality of the canal, thus ensuring indefinite access to the canal. The second, the Panama Canal Treaty, eliminated the American zone by 1979 and transferred control of the canal to Panama in 1999.
It is not challenging to imagine what the world would be like if the treaties had not been ratified. In 1989, President George H. W. Bush invaded Panama to remove Manuel Noriega from power.
This type of conflict would continue if the United States continued to occupy Panamanian territory. There would undoubtedly be guerrilla attacks and terrorist attacks in the Canal Zone, as there are in other occupation areas of the world today.
The ongoing conflict in Panama would hamper U.S. relations elsewhere, but especially in Latin America.
And just think how much easier life would be for Russian leader Vladimir Putin if the United States occupied a foreign country.
In contrast to these horrors, since Panama took over the canal in 1999, relations with Panama have been peaceful and operations of the canal have remained uninterrupted.
Carter had other foreign policy successes, but their results were not as momentous. The well-known Camp David Accords did not resolve the fundamental conflict in the Middle East, and even without these agreements, Egypt would have eventually achieved stable relations with Israel, just as Saudi Arabia did.
Indeed, it is challenging to imagine any single foreign policy action since World War II that has so completely achieved U.S. goals. This success is probably why Carter Canal’s achievement is overlooked.
In the case of treaties, there is one more thing that stands out. Carter was probably the last US president who would negotiate this change and could achieve ratification. In 1978, there was still a foreign policy establishment that could identify U.S. interests, develop policies to meet those national needs, and convince recalcitrant senators of their importance.
Also in 1978, there was still a feeling that the president should be able to count on cross-party support from political opponents in achieving foreign policy goals.
Thus, the Panama Canal Treaties were not only Carter’s greatest achievement, but also the great achievement of a very different America.
