Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama

by John Lindsay-Poland

Emperors in the Jungle is an exposé of key episodes in the military involvement of the United States in Panama. Investigative journalism at its best, this book reveals how U.S. ideas about taming tropical jungles and people, combined with commercial and military objectives, shaped more than a century of intervention and environmental engineering in a small, strategically located nation. Whether uncovering the U.S. Army’s decades-long program of chemical weapons tests in Panama or recounting the invasion in December 1989 which was the U.S. military’s twentieth intervention in Panama since 1856, John Lindsay-Poland vividly portrays the extent and costs of U.S. involvement. Analyzing new evidence gathered through interviews, archival research, and Freedom of Information Act requests, Lindsay-Poland discloses the hidden history of U.S.–Panama relations, including the human and environmental toll of the massive canal building project from 1904 to 1914. In stunning detail he describes secret chemical weapons tests—of toxins including nerve agent and Agent Orange—as well as plans developed in the 1960s to use nuclear blasts to create a second canal in Panama. He chronicles sustained efforts by Panamanians and international environmental groups to hold the United States responsible for the disposal of the tens of thousands of explosives it left undetonated on the land it turned over to Panama in 1999. In the context of a relationship increasingly driven by the U.S. antidrug campaigns, Lindsay-Poland reports on the myriad issues that surrounded Panama’s takeover of the canal in accordance with the 1977 Panama Canal Treaty, and he assesses the future prospects for the Panamanian people, land, and canal area. Bringing to light historical legacies unknown to most U.S. citizens or even to many Panamanians, Emperors in the Jungle is a major contribution toward a new, more open relationship between Panama and the United States.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Paul Froehlich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I was reasonably well informed about US history in Panama. While reading Emperors in the Jungle, I realized how many major events I hadn’t know about such as these:

• The US military intervened 20 times since 1856.

• The US wrote the one-sided 1903 canal treaty and basically imposed it on Panama.

• The leading cause of death in building the canal was due to pneumonia and TB because of poor working and living conditions for the West Indian workforce.

• The US invasion in 1989 was the most violent event since Panama became independent in 1903.

• The US conducted extensive testing of chemical weapons in Panama.

• The US conducted a 14-year investigation (1956-1970) of using 250 nuclear weapons to excavate a new sea-level canal.

• The US decided to invade and remove Noriega in 1989 even as we supported far more brutal generals in El Salvador and Guatemala.

• When the US departed at the end of 1999, it left behind more than 800,000 acres adjacent to growing communities contaminated with tens of thousands of explosives, despite the fact that the 1977 canal treaty obligated the US to first remove all threats to life, health and safety.

John Lindsay-Poland obviously knows his subject well, especially his first-hand knowledge about negotiations in the 1990s to clean up the shooting ranges, which contained many generations of unexploded ordinance.

In short, this book is an eye-opener for Americans who enjoys history, but have settled for the heroic American version of the canal construction and who didn’t understand it when President Carter agreed to give back the canal zone.

Some other reviewers take umbrage with a version of history where the US role is not always heroic. If the facts in this book were fabricated, I would share their outrage. In this case, it's better to recognize that history is not always the sanitized version we were taught and wish it were.

[Carlton Phelps · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was stationed in Panama Canal Zone in the early 70s. I had read all of the military and library books I could find, about the history of the Panama Canal.
Needless to say, Mr. Lindsay-Poland's book, made the U.S. military book about the canal and surrounding area look like a work of fiction.
The history surrounding the U.S.'s, involvement in Panama was anything but cordial.
When military bases were built along the canal to provide bases for security.
We did that, but we did so much more damage than good in the long run.
The DoD tested many, many chemicals to use in warfare, chemical bombs, and munitions that had depleted uranium.
Firing ranges and bomb sites were and are littered with unexploded munition, including gas bombs.
Agent Orange and DDT was used up until the late 70s.

[Charles Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history of the evil empire in Panama. Bright boys in the US military looking for civilian uses for atomic bombs suggested enlarging the canal with A bombs used for excavation. 'Morica!

Anyone want to learn about what is happening at the border? Just teach yourself US IMPERIALISM AND INTERVENTIONS IN LATIN AMERICA SINCE the 1850s.

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

The content was interesting, but this was torture to get through.

[Natalie Hest · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟

[Rubye Strickland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this right before my trip to Panama to better understand America’s impact on the country. Super informative and interesting.

[David Corleto-Bales]

A devastating look at American relations with Panama over the last hundred or so years, a century of manipulation, abuse and domination by "El Norte" over the isthmus which Theodore Roosevelt wrested from Colombia in 1903 to be America's puppet. Roosevelt dug a canal through Panama and set into motion a hundred years of treating the Panamanians as second-class citizens in their own country. The American military dominated, even outside the "Canal Zone" which until 1999 was more or less American soil. Particularly onerous abuses included the testing of chemical weapons, the expropriation of Panamanian land and the typical, manipulation of the political system. All this happened long before our invasion of Panama in 1989 to overthrow our client dictator, Manuel Noriega, who had been hired by the CIA as long ago as the 1950s to be an informer, and whose drug connections were well known and concealed. Not our finest record; very disgusting but informative.

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This guy leads the reader on and never tells them that he was a participant in much of what he is writing about. This has really colored his views. He believes that all white Americans are racists, and that our government acts based on racist beliefs. He is not objective at all, nor is he any sort of nationalist. In fact, while I learned a lot of good basic information from the book, I am certain this guy is a huge "Leftist". Yes, the US makes mistakes and made plenty in Panama. but this guy has NOTHING good to say about anything that we did in Panama, except to build a good sewer system at Howard and pave roads well in the interior of the country.

More liberal tripe here, but it laid out a sequence of events that I can now use for further research.

[Tom LaVenture · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read.
An eye-opening account of the American involvement in Panama since before creating a military coup to stage a paid independence movement from Columbia to acquire the land for the Panama Canal in the early 20th century. Then, the ecological damage to a century of military occupation, to discarded munitions including chemicals that have rendered islands inhabitable, to lead poisoning in the hillsides of firing ranges, all left uncleaned in a pressured effort of the military to hint at breaching the 1999 handover contract of the Canal Zone unless they agreed to let them walk out without any responsibilities to the land as they did in the Philippines.

[Traci · Rating 2 out of 5]

All in all a good overview of US involvement in Panama--the whole crazy story including medical experimentation, commercial interests, and every form of the US military. But somehow still kinda dull.

[Blake Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

John is not a fan of U.S. imperialism.