Say Yes to Panama Invitation

Panama is ready to celebrate the transfer of the Panama Canal next month, but it’s having trouble getting the U.S. guest of honor to come to the party. President Clinton has yet to reply to a personal invitation from President Mireya Moscoso. Vice President Al Gore, the designated representative at many overseas functions, pleads other commitments. From Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has come only silence.

One administration official candidly concedes that “simple politics are holding this up for who knows how long.” No one, it seems, cares to be involved politically with the hand-over of territory that, as the original 1903 treaty stated, was to remain in U.S. hands in perpetuity. This is rude and craven behavior. The canal’s future was resolved more than 20 years ago. The nearly century-long U.S. association with the canal demands that this country be represented, at a high level, when sovereignty passes to Panama.

The 51-mile waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific and the 550-square-mile Canal Zone that abuts it are no longer of compelling strategic and commercial importance. The oceans are now crossed by giant supertankers and huge cargo carriers that are too big to transit the canal. The Canal Zone military bases long maintained by the United States are far less vital now that air and sea power can be rapidly deployed. A fortified canal is no longer essential to U.S. or hemispheric defense.

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter signed two treaties negotiated with Panama. The first abrogated the pact that gave the United States the right to build and govern the canal and its environs. The second, providing for the canal’s permanent neutrality, gave the United States and Panama, either together or--significantly--unilaterally, the right to defend the canal after 2000.

The building of the Panama Canal, begun by the French in the late 19th century but completed by the United States, was an epic engineering feat. But politically and strategically, possession of the canal has become an anachronism. The Clinton administration should stop worrying about possible political fallout and do the right thing. When Panama asserts its sovereignty over the canal next month, a high-level U.S. official should be there to graciously congratulate the Panamanians and to mark the passing of an era.