The 1903 Intervention of the United States in Panama

That the Monroe Doctrine and the policy of interference by the United States in Latin American affairs did not pass out of existence in 1903 is portrayed at the present time in Nicaragua. Under the Bryan-Chamorro treaty of 1915 the United States obtained concessions for the Nicaraguan canal route and for a naval base on Tigre Island. These two concessions together with the present enlarged interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine form the bases upon which the Coolidge Administration justifies its recent action in Nicaragua. A direct and timely analogy may be drawn between this intervention and the intervention by which the Roosevelt Administration obtained control of the Panama Canal zone in 1903. The action of the United States in Panama forms a long and interesting story which has been set forth in the following pages. In addition brief chapters have also been added on international law as it pertains to this subject and public opinion as expressed through the periodical press. Necessarily, each nation must develop its own foreign policy, and from this policy intervention in the affairs of others often results. With this in view, an attempt has been made to bring out in the first two chapters the principal types of intervention recognized by the world powers and more particularly the relation of these types of intervention to the foreign policy of the United States. Furthermore, in addition to the readily accessible source material narrating the facts underlying the Panama situation in 1903, the writer has been particularly fortunate in obtaining access to hitherto untouched correspondence in the files of the State Department. This correspondence accurately showed the reaction of the principal European Powers to the Roosevelt Administration's policy in Panama. Whether or not the policy of our Government in Panama was justified is, it is believed, a matter for personal decision and concerning which no strict opinion has been offered in this study. The last chapter is a compendium of feature articles and editorial cement from the leading periodicals of the day. From the discussion thus presented, it is believed that a clear picture of the principal factors surrounding the Panama intervention can be obtained by the reader. Thus he will be enabled to more easily come to his own conclusion as to the relative merits and demerits of the Panama controversy.