Volume 25, Number 9 · June 1, 1978
Panama: A New Peril
By Garry Wills
Those were President Carter's words just after the second Panama treaty passed the Senate. But I was in Panama shortly before that vote, and I had lengthy interviews with thirty or so American residents there. I found only one couple that supported the treaties, and their friends accused them of supporting them because they are about to leave the Zone. Others said they would retire early, or transfer out under the civil servants' 'adverse action' provision, if the second treaty passed. It is hard to know which poses the greater threat to orderly transition under the treaties' provisions—abrupt drainage of civilian skills from the Zone or a lingering population whose emotional stake is in making the treaties fail. Some senators who opposed the treaties talked of unruly Panamanians, but the real trouble in the past has been caused by unruly American citizens in the Zone. That is a factor still to be considered as the Senate and the House take up implementing legislation on the treaties. 'Zonians' have, from the start, thought of the House as their last refuge.
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