Document III-66

"The Report [of the International Commission of Jurists] Exonerates the United States of the Charge That We Violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [in Panama]": STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE, JUNE 9, 1964 76

We welcome this detailed study by an impartial body giving an objective account of the unfortunate events of January." The report exonerates the United States of the charge that we violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations,78 a charge which the International Commission of Jurists was asked to investigate by the National Bar Association of Panama.

The report also states that U.S. authorities were entitled to use force to meet a real threat to life and security in the Canal Zone, and it regrets that Panamanian authorities "made no attempt during the critical early hours as well as for almost three days thereafter to curb and control the violent activities of the milling crowds."

We believe that the tragic loss of lives and the destruction of property would have been avoided had adequate measures been taken at the outset.

The report concludes with the hope that the work of the ICJ "will contribute to the growth of understanding, cooperation, and amity between the two countries and their peoples, so that they may move forward in the furtherance of their mutual vital interests." We fully subscribe to this sentiment.

Document III-67

"Meetings [Between the United States and Panamanian Delegations] Will Continue on a Day-to-Day Basis": STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE, JUNE 23, 1964 79

Ambassadors [Jorge] Illueca and [Robert B.] Anderson announced today [June 23] that they have been conferring on a continuing basis with reference to the procedural matters involved in the meetings between the Panamanian and United States delegations in order to resolve any differences that might exist between the two countries.80 They are formulating the substantive problems which will be the subjects of their proceedings. There is a high degree of cordiality and understanding between the two delegations, each appreciating the problems of the other. Meetings will continue on a day-to-day basis.

"Department of State Bulletin, June 29, 1964, p. 1000. The statement was read to news correspondents by Richard I. Phillips, Director of the Office of News. The report was released on June 9 at Geneva.

77 See ante, doc. III-41.

Text in A Decade of American Foreign Policy: Basic Documents, 1941–49, pp. 1156-1159.

"Department of State Bulletin, July 13, 1964, p. 54. * See ante, doc. III-63.

At such times as there are significant developments appropriate news releases will be made in order to keep the people of both Republics informed.

Document III-68

An Act To Provide for an Investigation and Study To Determine a Site for the Construction of a Sea-Level Canal Connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: PUBLIC LAW 88-609, APPROVED SEPTEMBER 22, 1964 81

Document III-69

United States Decision To Plan a New Sea-Level Canal and To Negotiate a New Treaty on the Existing Panama Canal: STATEMENT MADE BY THE PRESIDENT (JOHNSON), DECEMBER 18, 1964

82

This Government has completed an intensive review of policy toward the present and the future of the Panama Canal. On the basis of this review I have reached two decisions.

First, I have decided that the United States should press forward with Panama and other interested governments in plans and preparations for a sea-level canal in this area.

Second, I have decided to propose to the Government of Panama the negotiation of an entirely new treaty on the existing Panama Canal.

These decisions reflect the unanimous judgment of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They are based on the recommendations of Ambassador Robert Anderson, Secretary [of the Army] Stephen Ailes, Secretary Thomas Mann [Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs], and our Ambassador in Panama, Ambassador Jack Vaughn. They have the full support of Mr. Truman and General Eisenhower. They have been reported to, and in most instances sympathetically received by, the leadership of the Congress.

These two steps, I think, are needed now-needed for the protection and the promotion of peaceful trade for the welfare of the hemisphere-in the true interests of the United States-and in fairness and justice to all.

For 50 years the Panama Canal has carried ships of all nations in peaceful trade between the two great oceans-on terms of entire equality and at no profit to this country. The canal has also served the cause of peace and freedom in two world wars. It has brought great economic contributions to Panama. For the rest of its life the

81

78 Stat. 990. For the text of a statement by President Johnson, issued Sept. 24, regarding this legislation, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-64, vol. II, p. 1116.

82

Department of State Bulletin, Jan. 4, 1965, pp. 5-6. The President's statement was carried by the major television and radio networks.

canal will continue to serve trade, and peace, and the people of Panama.

But that life is now limited. The canal is growing old, and so are the treaties for its management, which go back to 1903.83

The Panama Canal, with its limiting locks and channels, will soon be inadequate to the needs of our world commerce. Already more than 300 ships built or building are too big to go through with full loads. Many of them-like our own modern aircraft carriers-cannot even go through at all.

Such

So I think it is time to plan in earnest for a sea-level canal. a canal will be more modern, more economical, and will be far easier to defend. It will be free of complex, costly, vulnerable locks and seaways. It will serve the future as the Panama Canal we know has served the past and the present.

The Congress has already authorized $17 million for studies of possible sites and of the other practical problems of a sea-level canal. There seem to be four possible routes-two in Panama, one in Colombia, and one which goes through Nicaragua and possibly Costa Rica as well.

I have asked the Secretary of State to begin discussions immediately with all the governments concerned with these possible new routes. In these discussions we will be prepared to work on the terms and the conditions of building and operating a new canal, and if preliminary arrangements can be reached, we will be ready to go ahead with selected site surveys.

84

Last January there was violence in Panama. As I said then, "... violence is never justified and is never a basis for talks.” 85 But while the people of the United States have never made concessions to force, they have always supported fair play and full respect for the rights of others. So from the very first day, as your President, I made it clear that we were ready to sit down and to seek answers, to reason together, and to try to find the answers that would be just, fair, and right, without precondition or without precommitment on either side.

On that basis, relations between our two countries-negotiationswere resumed in April,se and on that basis I chose Mr. Robert Anderson, the distinguished former Secretary of the Treasury under President Eisenhower, to be my special ambassador on this problem. Since then Ambassador Anderson has been working with the American Ambassador, Mr. Vaughn, with the Secretary of the Army, Mr. Ailes, and with Secretary Mann of the State Department. They have recommended that we should propose a new treaty for the existing canal. After careful review with my senior advisers, I have accepted this recommendation.

Today we have informed the Government of Panama that we are ready to negotiate a new treaty. In such a treaty we must retain the rights which are necessary for the effective operation and the protection of the canal and the administration of the areas that are necessary for these purposes. Such a treaty would replace the treaty of 1903 and its amendments. It should recognize the sovereignty of Panama. It should provide for its own termination when a sea-level canal comes into operation. It should provide for effective discharge of our common responsibilities for hemispheric defense. Until a new agreement is reached, of course, the present treaties will remain in effect.

In these new proposals we will take every possible step to deal fairly and helpfully with the citizens of both Panama and the United States who have served so faithfully through the years in operating and maintaining the canal.

These changes are necessary not because of failure but because of success; not because of backwardness but because of progress. The age before us is an age of larger, faster ships. It is an age of friendly partnership among the nations concerned with the traffic between the oceans. This new age requires new arrangements.

The strength of our American system is that we have always tried to understand and meet the needs of the future. We have been at our best when we have been both bold and prudent in moving forward. The planning of a new canal and the negotiation of a new treaty are just such bold and prudent steps. So let us today in friendship take them together.

C. Implementation of the Alliance for Progress, the Charter of Punta del Este, and Related Economic and Political Developments

Document III-70

"Latin America Realizes That a More Equitable Distribution of Wealth Among Nations Is a Moral Imperative That Cannot Be Disregarded": RESOLUTION (ENTITLED "THE CHARTER OF ALTA GRACIA") ADOPTED AT THE MEETING OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE FOR LATIN AMERICAN COORDINATION OF IA-ECOSOC, ALTA GRACIA, ARGENTINA, MARCH 6, 19641

1OAS doc. UP/CIES; 7/CECLA/47, Rev. Mar. 6, 1964. The meeting lasted from Feb. 24-Mar. 7, 1964. The Special Committee for Latin American Coordination (CECLA) was created at the Second Annual Meeting of the InterAmerican Economic and Social Council (Nov. 1963) to consolidate the position of the Latin American countries at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (see ante, doc. II-32). The Charter of Alta Gracia was submitted to that conference.

Document III-71

"It Is Very Difficult To Get 21 Nations . . . To Blend Into Their Governmental Philosophy the Modernization . . . Required To Make the Alliance for Progress a Success": REPLY MADE BY THE PRESIDENT (JOHNSON) TO A QUESTION ASKED DURING A TELEVISION AND RADIO INTERVIEW, MARCH 15, 1964 2

Document III-72

...

"There Is No Magic Formula To Avoid the Complex . . . Task of Basic Social Reform and Economic Advance [in Latin America]": ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT (JOHNSON) BEFORE A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE OAS, MARCH 16, 1964 3

Thirty-one years ago this month Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed the policy of the Good Neighbor. Three years ago this month John Kennedy called for an Alliance for Progress among the American Republics. Today my country rededicates itself to these principles and renews its commitment to the partnership of the hemisphere to carry them forward.

We meet as fellow citizens of a remarkable hemisphere. Here, a century and a half ago, we began the movement for national independence and freedom from foreign rule which is still the most powerful force in all the world. Here, despite occasional conflict, we have peacefully shared our hemisphere to a degree unmatched by any nation, anywhere.

Here, and in this very room, we have helped create a system of international cooperation which Franklin Roosevelt called "the oldest and the most successful association of sovereign governments anywhere in the world." Here are 20 nations who, sharing the traditions and values of Western civilization, are bound together by a common belief in the dignity of man. Here are 20 nations who have no desire to impose a single ideology or system on anyone else, who believe that each country must follow its own path to fulfillment with freedom, who take strength from the richness of their diversity.

So it is on this-this history and this accomplishment, these common values and this common restraint-that we base our hope for our future. Today these hopes center largely on the Alliance for Progress that you are all so interested in.

John F. Kennedy has been taken from us. The alliance remains a source for our faith and a challenge to our capacity. The Alliance for

Lyndon B. Johnson, major networks on

* Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: 1963-64, vol. I, p. 373. The text was broadcast over the Mar. 15, after being recorded on video tape the previous day. 'Department of State Bulletin, Apr. 6, 1964, pp. 535–538. meeting was to install Dr. Carlos Sanz de Santamaría as Chairman of the InterAmerican Committee on the Alliance for Progress (CIAP).

The purpose of the

Text in Samuel I. Rosenman, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, vol. II, pp. 11-16.

See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1961, pp. 343–347.