The Panama Canal is back in the news. President-elect Donald Trump, a few days before Christmas, suggested that he might try to regain control of the Panama Canal, saying that it was “foolishly” ceded to Panama by President Jimmy Carter.

Writing in the National Interest, Alexander Gray, who served on the National Security staff in the first Trump administration, agrees that the Canal should be under American control because it “serves essential military purposes for the United States.” Gray argues that “the preponderance of U.S. naval power in a crisis from the East Coast to West Coasts and eventually into the Pacific Theater itself will require unobstructed access to the canal.” The canal today is “on the front lines” of our geopolitical rivalry with China (which has acquired ports on both ends of the canal), and U.S. control of the canal is directly related to the continuing legitimacy of the Monroe Doctrine. (RELATED: Rejuvenating the Monroe Doctrine)
Gray, in his article, mentions a fascinating debate over ratification of the Panama Canal Treaties that was aired on William F. Buckley’s Firing Line in January 1978. It is worthwhile watching that debate (on YouTube courtesy of the Hoover Institution) when judging whether Trump and Gray have a point. The participants in the debate make the program educational and entertaining.
The main debaters were William F. Buckley Jr., who led the team that favored ratification of the treaties that would eventually surrender control of the canal to Panama, and then-former California Governor Ronald Reagan (two years before he won the presidency) who argued for U.S. retention of the canal.
Buckley’s team included the great James Burnham (Buckley’s colleague at National Review and the author of seminal books on U.S. foreign policy), George Will (conservative syndicated columnist), and retired Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (former chief of naval operations). (RELATED: James Burnham: the Sage of Kent, Connecticut)
Reagan’s team included Pat...