Phyllis Schlafly was one of the foremost critics of President Jimmy Carter’s giveaway of the Panama Canal. In fact, Volume 1, Number 1 of the famous Phyllis Schlafly Report, was dedicated to this issue. Of course, in August of 1967, Phyllis was raising the alarm that Johnson’s Administration was secretly drafting a giveaway of our U.S. rights and property.
She continued to write about this issue, staunchly and rightly criticizing any plans until the Carter Administration finally gave it all away in the 1978 Panama Canal Treaty. She sounded the alarm throughout the next ten years until control of the Canal Zone was officially transferred in 1989. She wrote then in a column titled “Renounce the Panama Canal Non-Treaty” that it was “time to declare the 1978 Panama Treaty a non-Treaty, admit our country’s most costly diplomatic mistake, and stand up for our national security interests.” She concluded: “This may be a costly move, but the cost of not doing this will be even higher. Cowardice and failure of leadership are always expensive.”
I have no doubt that Phyllis would be thrilled as President Donald Trump makes the right moves to reclaim what we rightfully never should have relinquished. “Panama’s promise to us has been broken,” Trump said. “The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated.”
The straight truth is that China has muscled their way into nearly total dominance of the supposedly Panamanian-controlled Canal Zone. Phyllis Schlafly was correct in her predictions about just how vulnerable this would make the United States both economically and in national security. President Trump is correct to assert U.S. ownership and control of the Panama Canal, and he wasted no time in sending newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to begin talks with Panama’s president. Now as the wheels of change are moving in Panama, we see yet again that Phyllis Schlafly was right and now President Trump is making it right.
This post originally appeared at https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/national-sovereignty/reclaiming-the-panama-canal/