Presidential Papers, Doc#2003 To John Foster Dulles, 28 September 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #2003; September 28, 1956
To John Foster Dulles
Series: EM, AWF, International Series: Panama
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVII - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part X: Cracks in the Alliance; May 1956 to September 1956
Chapter 21: "Grave difficulties in the Suez crisis"

 

Approved.1

We should be generous in all small adm details. Our firmness should be in holding fast to basic principles and purposes of treaty.

1 Eisenhower was approving a report that advocated continuing United States policies regarding the interpretation of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1955 (Dulles to Eisenhower, Sept. 28, 1956, AWF/I: Panama). The Panamanian delegate to the Conference of Inter-American Presidential Representatives (formed following Eisenhower's visit to Panama) had raised these questions of interpretation in a memorandum (State, Foreign Relations, 1955-1957, vol. VII, American Republics: Central and South America, pp. 307-17; see also nos. 1925 and 1926). The Panamanians had demanded that Panamanian workers who were being deprived of the right to purchase deeply discounted goods in the Canal Zone commissary be given a wage increase in compensation. The State Department responded that their wages would go up only as part of their regular cost-of-living pay increases.

The Panamanian delegate also complained that the Americans were reneging on a treaty commitment to maintain the same "basic wage rate" for Americans and Panamanians. Under the American interpretation, only employees from the United States could receive special allowances in addition to their basic wages (Report to the President on the Memorandum of the Government of Panama Dated Sept., 1956, AWF/I: Panama; see also Coniff, Panama and the United States, p. 111).

The third point raised by the Panamanian delegate had to do with a treaty provision limiting the importation of merchandise for resale to items from either United States or Panamanian sources, unless it was not "feasible" to find goods from those two countries. The Panamanians interpreted "feasible" to mean "possible." The Americans insisted that feasibility included the reasonableness of the price (ibid.).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To John Foster Dulles, 28 September 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 2003. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/2003.cfm

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