Panama

"What time the Lord drew back the sea And gave thee room, slight Panama, "I will not have thee great," said he, "But thou shalt bear the slender key Of both the gates I builded me, And all the great shall come to thee For leave to pass, O Panama!" (Flower of the Holy Ghost, white dove, Breathe sweetness where he wrought in love.)"

"A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!"

"You aint no noble hero, an you leave no gallant name— Youre a fightin Natures army, an it aint no easy game!"

"Yea, the gateway shall be free Unto all, from sea to sea; And no fratricidal slaughter Shall defile its sacred water; But—the hand that oped the gate shall forever hold the key!"

"Chuff! chuff! chuff!" An a mountain-bluff Is moved by the shovels song; "Chuff! chuff! chuff!" Oh, the grade is rough A liftin the landscape along!"

"Here on this ridge I do foresee fresh birth. That which departed shall bring side by side, The sea shall sever what hills did divide; Shall link in love." And there was joy on earth; Whilst England and Columbia, quitting fear, Kissed—and let in the eager waters there."

"Of all the thousands of rulers, potentates, strongmen, juntas, and warlords the Americans have dealt with in all corners of the world, General Manuel Antonio Noriega is the only one the Americans came after like this. Just once in its 225 years of formal national existence has the United States ever invaded another country and carried its ruler back to the United States to face trial and imprisonment for violations of American law committed on that rulers own native foreign turf."

"Panama was part of Colombia when the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, who directed construction of the Suez Canal, decided to build a canal through the Central American isthmus, to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Beginning in 1881, the French undertook a mammoth effort that met with one catastrophe after another. Finally, in 1889, the project ended in financial disaster—but it had inspired a dream in Theodore Roosevelt. During the first years of the twentieth century, the United States demanded that Colombia sign a treaty turning the isthmus over to a North American consortium. Colombia refused. In 1903, President Roosevelt sent in the U.S. warship Nashville. U.S. soldiers landed, seized and killed a popular local militia commander, and declared Panama an independent nation. A puppet government was installed and the first Canal Treaty was signed; it established an American zone on both sides of the future waterway, legalized U.S. military intervention, and gave Washington virtual control over this newly formed "independent" nation. Interestingly, the treaty... was not signed by a single Panamanian. In essence, Panama was forced to leave Colombia in order to serve the United States."

"For more than half a century, Panama was ruled by an oligarchy of wealthy families with strong connections to Washington. They were right-wing dictators who took whatever measures they deemed necessary to ensure that their country promoted U.S. interests. In the manner of most of the Latin American dictators who allied themselves with Washington, Panamas rulers interpreted U.S. interests to mean putting down any populist movement that smacked of socialism. They also supported the CIA and NSA in anti-Communist activities throughout the hemisphere, and they helped big American businesses like Rockefellers Standard Oil and United Fruit Company (which was purchased by George H. W. Bush). These governments apparently did not feel that U.S. interests were promoted by improving the lives of people who lived in dire poverty or served as virtual slaves to the big plantations and corporations. Panamas ruling families were well rewarded for their support; U.S. military forces intervened on their behalf a dozen times between the declaration of Panamanian independence and 1968."

"We shall never know many of the facts about the invasion, nor shall we know the true extent of the massacre. Defense Secretary Richard Cheney claimed a death toll between five hundred and six hundred, but independent human rights groups estimated it at three thousand to five thousand, with another twenty-five thousand left homeless... Noriega was arrested, flown to Miami, and sentenced to forty years imprisonment; at that time, he was the only person in the United States officially classified as a prisoner of war... The world was outraged by this breach of international law and by the needless destruction of a defenseless people at the hands of the most powerful military force on the planet, but few in the United States were aware of either the outrage or the crimes Washington had committed. Press coverage was very limited. A number of factors contributed to this, including government policy, White House phone calls to publishers and television executives, congress people who dared not object, lest the wimp factor become their problem, and journalists who thought the public needed heroes rather than objectivity."

"I am interested in the Panama Canal because I started it. If I had followed traditional, conservative methods, I should have submitted a dignified state paper of probably two hundred pages to the Congress, and the debate would have been going on yet. But I took the Canal Zone, and let Congress debate, and while the debate goes on the canal does also."

"There are 20,000 British coloured people working on the canal & they gave me a good welcome; they are mostly from Jamaica & smell too revolting for words, poor brutes!! ... Panamanians are a very queer people, all dagoes of course, though very pompous and dirty."