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Book Review
| Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U. S. in Panama. By John Lindsay-Poland. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003. x + 265 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, index. Paper $18.95.
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| Readers with a general knowledge of Latin American history will be quite familiar with much of Lindsay-Poland's findings in Emperors in the Jungle. Most no doubt will know of the proposal for constructing a sea-level canal through the detonation of hundreds of nuclear bombs, though the details of "Project Plowshare" do provide a vivid reminder of the Cold War era. They might, however, learn for the first time of the extensive chemical-weapons testing program in the Canal Zone after the Second World War and the successful methods employed by the United States to avoid the de-contamination of the Zone prior to its withdrawal in 1999. |
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On the other hand, readers who know little of the behavior of the United States in Latin America might be shocked by this well-documented and convincing critique of the naked use of brute force in the region. The author is an experienced activist who knows first hand the effects of that power. The passion of his commitment permeates this very readable examination of "the manner in which Panama served as an instrument for the grander U. S. aims and the role of ideas about race and the tropics ... [in] several key episodes in the history of U.S. military experimentation and intervention in Panama" (p. 3). |
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The narrative of how U.S. military activities in the Isthmus reflected changing strategic interests constitutes a strength of this book. For example, the acquisition of the Canal Zone becomes the crown jewel in Alfred Thayer Mahan's vision of sea power, leading to the blatantly interventionist period of Dollar Diplomacy. Lindsay-Poland focuses much of his attention in the early years of the Zone upon the racial attitudes associated with U.S. activities, as well as the environmental dimensions of tropical medicine. The testing of chemical weapons in the Zone began toward the end of World War II and lasted until 1968, making chemical weapons the less-spoken counterpart to nuclear weapons in the Cold War arsenal. Thousands of rounds of unexploded chemical and other ordnance left a legacy of weapons testing that plagued negotiations to exit the Zone in the 1990s. In this, Panama refused the U.S. proposal to clean up its mess in exchange for tenure past the 1999 treaty deadline. The United States's reaction to the 1964 Flag Riots and the resulting discussions to eliminate the Zone are discussed in passing, as are the School of the Americas and the training of Latin American military leaders that sustained so many dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s. The recasting of U.S. security threats in Latin America from communism to drugs is presented with admirable clarity, enabling the author to explore the 1989 invasion of Panama in great contextual detail. Surprisingly, the "nation building" of the early 1990s is glossed over, despite its importance in U.S. foreign policy in the last decade. |
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Readers seeking an environmental history of the U.S. emperor in the Panamanian jungle will not find it in this book. Nor will they find the Panamanian allies (or puppets) of the United States. Lindsay-Poland's Panama is largely a passive victim of U.S. imperialism, an analysis that will satisfy some readers, but which will leave others asking for a more nuanced critical analysis. |
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Professor David Sowell teaches Latin American history and international studies at Juniata College. He has published on medical, social, and urban history of nineteenth-century Colombia. |
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