ot 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, theCanal 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'simperialistic 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 the United Stat...
