Book Review: 'The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914'
© 1977 Simon and Schuster On September 7, 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian General Omar Torrijos signed two treaties, The Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal and The Panama Canal Treaty, in Washington, D.C. Known as the Carter-Torrijos Treaties, these documents guaranteed Panamanian sovereignty over what had been the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone as of 1979 and sole ownership of the Panama Canal as of December 31, 1999. In essence, these agreements - which were highly controversial in American conservative circles before, during, and even after they were negotiated, signed, and ratified by both countries, replaced the 1903 Hay– Bunau-Varilla Treaty, a document which, in essence, ceded the canal and the land adjacent to it (including islands within the canal itself) to the United States. Earlier in the year, Simon and Schuster of New York published The Path Between the Seas: The...
