Theodore Roosevelt wrote to a friend at the British Foreign Office that just as British rule in Egypt and India benefited those countries and the world, so American hegemony would be good for the Panamanians.
On October 1, 1979 my hometown was given to Panama. I was young but it was a sad day for us. The Canal Zone police force would be disbanded a year later. We thought that Panama would never be able to run the Canal. We thought once we left that Panama would be doomed. That they couldn't do it on their own.
There were valid reasons for thinking this at the time. Panama did a very bad job of running the railroad and, I believe, tried to give it back to the U.S. to run. But the Panama Canal Treaty did some things right. Slowly Panamanians were hired to key position on the Panama Canal Company. By the time they fully took control of the Canal Zone and the Canal on December 31, 1999 they possessed enough institutional knowledge to keep the canal running.
I went back in 2008 and met an elderly man who went to school in the Zone but was Panamanian. Rich Panamanians could pay tuition to come to the American run schools. He said, "When you Americans left we had to grow up." Panama has done very well as far as I can tell. I'm impressed and glad for them.
I'm on the fence about whether or not we were a net positive for Panama but one thing seems clear to me, giving them the Canal Zone set them on a good path. I was sad to lose the Zone and not be able to live where I grew up but it was good for Panama.
