Reference News Network November 13 report: On November 1, the French magazine "Le Point" website published an article titled "The Panama Canal: The Old Dream of American Empire," introducing the book "Panama: A Memory of a Canal" by Jean-Yves Mole. The full translation is as follows:

In February this year, US President Donald Trump claimed to want to "reclaim" the Panama Canal, which he still viewed as American property. He was merely repeating Ronald Reagan's earlier outburst against Jimmy Carter's 1977 negotiations to return the canal (which would take effect in 1999): "We built it, we paid for it, it's ours, and we will keep it." Reagan ultimately gained nothing from this.

Evidently, Americans have a deep memory of this massive engineering project built between 1904 and 1914, which symbolizes the victory of American engineering. The "greatness" in "Make America Great Again" comes from that era.

With this feat, this nation that once boasted of its "Manifest Destiny" not only firmly controlled the entire continent of America but also looked early on toward the Indo-Pacific trade. This canal was Washington's first opening in Latin America, initiating a long period of "bloodletting"—as described by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano in his famous work "The Open Veins of Latin America." On August 5, 1914, the day the canal opened, the United States stepped onto the world stage.

As early as the 1850s, Americans invested in building a railway across the Isthmus of Panama, transporting gold seekers to California. After the Civil War, the Southern states pushed even harder for the construction of a canal in Central America, aiming to open multiple sea routes for themselves. In the United States, George Washington Goethals, an engineer who was said to be able to move mountains, was as well-known as Thomas Edison. Alongside him was President Theodore Roosevelt, who ultimately decided to build the canal—this president, along with Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, is carved into the Mount Rushmore National Monument. However, this "American memory" is just one of many versions.

Jean-Yves Mole views Panama as "the land of the world"—a gathering point for ships and a crossroads where the histories of various countries intertwine—and uses this as a coordinate to write a monumental work: "Panama: A Memory of a Canal." He first turns to the Colombians: in 1903, the United States orchestrated the "timely" independence of the Panama province just before the construction began, causing Colombia to lose this territory. He then questions the Nicaraguans further north—Americans had long promised them light promises that the canal would be built there.

Mole also revisits the French memory of this canal. Due to the portrayal in cartoons and songs, it has long been associated with the "Panama Scandal" that erupted in 1892, an event that became the "mother of all scandals" for subsequent French scandals. Clemenceau paid the price of ten years away from the political core; and the so-called "checkers"—parliamentarians and journalists who received kickbacks and promoted bonds for the earliest Panama Canal Company—gave the incident a Jewish coloration, as two key figures, Cornelius Herz and Joseph de Reiner, were Jews, which also set the stage for the Dreyfus Affair in 1894.

People even view this experience as a major setback for France on the international stage: having once been prominent in the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, they now had to surrender at Panama. Due to both technical and financial difficulties, France was forced to hand over the right to excavate the canal to Washington in 1903, and the conditions of the transaction were so ambiguous and dark that they continue to raise doubts to this day.

A complex and fascinating drama led by the Binot-Vallier brothers: they were both investors and diplomats, under the covert funding of Lyon Credit Bank, persuaded a group of American politicians who were as corrupt as they were to pressure Congress to take over this "newborn Panama," while also acquiring their 1894-established "New Panama Company." After the scandal, it was necessary to prove to the somewhat naive French public that the new company had "no connection" with the old rotten system.

To piece together this memory mosaic, Mole also brings in two more unique and tragic memories. The most tragic belongs to the tens of thousands of laborers sent to the site. They flocked in, only to face yellow fever. Most came from the Caribbean islands—French, British, and Spanish. Today, in Panama, patches of cemeteries still bear witness to this catastrophe. Historians strive to count the death toll as accurately as possible to silence those who spread exaggerated numbers.

The death toll during the French period is now confirmed to be between 7,000 and 10,000 people. During the American construction period, the death toll also exceeded 5,000 people: as early as 1869, when building the transcontinental Pacific Railroad in the United States, Americans already paid a high price with Chinese, Indian, and Irish laborers. The conditions on the canal site were almost like a labor camp: wages were indeed high, but the "American Dream" promised to the workers was actually that they had to work for 500 days to pay off their travel costs. Their suffering experiences only surfaced much later.

Today, Chinese immigrants in Panama also jointly commemorate this history with the descendants of these laborers. At this point, only one final memory remains—the memory of the country itself where the canal is located. From being almost completely subservient to the United States yet gaining prosperity as a result, to signing an agreement in 1977 and formally regaining sovereignty in 1999, Panama gradually took control of its destiny. The climax of the sovereignty return occurred on June 26, 2016: after a decade-long expansion project led by local companies, Panama held a ceremony to inaugurate the new giant locks for its "national treasure."

Certainly, the United States has not given up the idea of making a comeback. History has shown that when Washington considers it necessary, it knows how to bring down a Panamanian president: Noriega in 1989, and the nationalist leader Torrijos who signed the agreement to return the canal to Carter in 1977—whose death in 1981 was an "accident," because he decided to cooperate with Japan to expand the canal. (Translated by Pan Geping)

Cover of the book "Panama"

Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7572155525207573002/

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