ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of three presidents — Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, and Jimmy Carter — and their administrations on the Panama Canal Treaty negotiations. It focuses on several executive activities that typically occur during the formulation phase: setting priorities, setting basic policy guidelines, selecting negotiators, timing initiatives, and resolving interdepartmental conflicts. The chapter describes executive activity during the advice and consent phase, particularly consensus and coalition building, and examines the Carter administration's campaign to successfully ratify the 1977 Canal treaties. Carter's transition team thus viewed the Panama Canal Treaty negotiations as part of a larger foreign policy program. Members of the transition team agreed that the Carter administration should restructure US foreign policy commitments through a series of bold initiatives. The groundwork for the Carter administration's plans for ratification of the Panama Canal Treaties was laid during the transition period in late 1976.
