Word: waterway
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...French explorer, the Marquis de Montcalm, advised King Louis XV that a waterway linking the Tennessee and Tombigbee rivers should be built to promote trade. Phooey said Louie. But the idea remained alive, and in 1870 a U.S. Government study was completed by an esteemed engineer who concluded that the project was technically feasible but asked, "From whence cometh the commerce" to justify it? More studies were done-in 1880, 1890, 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1938-but always the answer was the same: "Whence cometh...
Though U.S. conservatives have made the canal something of a political issue, public support for American control has waned somewhat in the U.S. because the waterway is not so important as it used to be. Some 10% of all American exports and imports pass through the waterway; if the canal was shut down, American commerce would be hurt but not disrupted in a major way. Increasingly, traffic is diverted from the canal, whose locks are too small to accommodate the growing fleet of supertankers. Since 1973, the Panama Canal has been losing money, and its deficit in the past fiscal...
...soon as he took office, Jimmy Carter put the canal at the top of the agenda of the National Security Council, although in the presidential campaign he had pledged "never to give up complete control or practical control" of the waterway. Vance subsequently held a wellpublicized, two-hour meeting with then Panamanian Foreign Minister Aquilino Boyd. To give the talks a boost, Sol Linowitz, 53, the skilled former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, was added to the American negotiating team. The aim was to make him head of the effort, but he insisted on deferring to Veteran...
...major remaining issue: while the U.S. is willing to turn over some of its 14 military bases to Panama and operate the others jointly with the Panamanian army, it insists on keeping some kind of residual force to protect the waterway in case of armed attack or sabotage. Panama, on the other hand, wants to entrust such a peace-keeping mission to the U.N.-a proposition that the U.S. views with skepticism...
...Greene sees what he calls a "charisma of desperation." It communicates an impatience with the inert diplomacy over the Canal issue, but also a desire to leave a mark on history. If he doesn't do so on the dotted line on the document that restores sovereignty over the waterway to Panama, Greene hints he plans to leave it in blood...