ABSTRACT
When Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as president of the United States in January of 1977 and took his famous walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, the question of revising the existing treaties governing the Panama Canal was already more than twenty years old. Under the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal, Panama and the United States have the responsibility to assure that the Panama Canal will remain open and secure to ships of all nations. The DeConcini reservation complicated matters considerably. Torrijos had made some painful compromises with the United States, particularly the language in the Neutrality Treaty that gave the United States the right to defend the canal after the year 2000, and preferential canal passage for American warships. In 1955 a number of revisions in the 1903 treaty were approved in Washington and Panama City, but they involved no fundamental changes.
