only did the United States manipulate factors isolating Panama from .
other world powers through the Monroe Doctrine; but it committed troops .
aiding the revolutionaries against another sovereign state. The reason .
this is a surprise is because the Roosevelt administration normally held .
a position favoring stability. The United States had no legal right to .
use force against Columbia. .
Nationalism came back to haunt the United States. With the .
treaty signed and a 99-year lease given to the United States, the Canal .
was built. Since then, the United States has varied on its stance of .
ownership and the principles of sovereignty concerning the Canal. The .
ever persistent debate of who owns the Canal and who should have .
sovereign control over it, has not been solved. The United States has .
occasionally attempted to "claim" the Canal zone through various methods .
such as military occupation, exclusion of Panamanians for important jobs .
in Canal operations and even through the customary aspect of .
international law. However, each time the Panamanians have managed to .
maintain claim to the Canal despite the United State's imperialistic .
posturing to get it. .
The most recent and notorious of the United States' attempts to .
annex the Canal Zone was during the Reagan administration. President .
Reagan said that the Canal Zone could be equated as a sovereign .
territory equal to that of Alaska. The question here is, was he .
correct? LaFeber points out that, "the United States does not own the .
Zone or enjoy all sovereign rights in it." He uses the treaty of 1936 in .
Article III that states, "The Canal Zone is the territory of the .
Republic of Panama under the jurisdiction of the United States." The .
entire topic was summed up neatly by Ellsworth Bunker, a negotiator in .
the region, when he said, "We bought Louisiana; we bought Alaska. In .
Panama we bought not territory, but rights." .
A second important question, is the Canal a vital interest to .
