78-05-A1
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Canal[edit]
Transcript[edit]Perhaps by the time you hear this the long debate in the Senate will have ended and the decision made regarding the Panama Canal. Regardless, here are some things I jotted down out of sheer frustration while listening to the debates on radio. In spite of the fact that Panama could never have become a nation without the canal; that we gave a disease-ridden, jungle swamp a lower death rate than our own and provided the only solid economic base Panama can count on, treaty proponents droned on and on about how we'd taken advantage of that country of 1,700,000 people. No mention was made of the fact that over the decades we patiently negotiated changes in the 1904 treaty in response to Panamanian complaints. Always the changes benefitted Panama. Well whether this is after the fact or not here are some the treaty proponents never acknowledged. In 1935 we handed Panama a housing enclave: 25 two-bedroom homes in a walled area with paved streets and all facilities. Cost $300,000. Note that all the cash figures I use are not todays inflated dollars but actual construction cost. In 1953 Panama was given a seaside hotel built for $5 million. In 1955 there was a treaty readjustment that resulted in the following gifts to Panama; the 300-bed George Washington hospital, fully equipped, with all surgical equipment and a one year supply of hospital supplies. Cost, $15 million. The railroad stations, yards, yard houses, cargo trains plus track -- $50,000,000. One half of the town of Amcon including the post office building and commissary, two-and-a-half million dollars. And the railroad annuity which had been almost doubled in 1936 was more than quadrupled in 1955. That alone has amounted to $33 million over these past 22 years. This was done by us even though the 1955 treaty said there was no obligation to alter the annuity. We also built the Boyd-Roosevelt Highway--$50 million. In 1963 the Thatcher Ferry International Bridge across the canal--$227 million and we've been maintaining and painting it every year since at a cost of $700,000 a year. In 1975 our State department without Congressional authorization, gave the use of Old France Field (in the canal zone) to the Free Port Authority of the Panamanian government for 15 years, free of charge with an option for another 15 years at the same price. A value of $3,000,000 could be put on this. I don't pretend this is a complete list, these just happen to be the ones I know about. There have also been grants of A.I.D. funds totalling some $550 million. Adding it all up, the donations I've listed come to almost a billion actually $966,500,000. You know giving up the Canal itself might be a better deal if we could throw in the State department. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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