Copyright Bruce Lesh
What is President Theodore Roosevelt doing in his
autobiography?
• Truth
• A lie
• A half-truth
• An exaggeration
• Obfuscation (hiding the truth)
Copyright Bruce Lesh
President Theodore Roosevelt
“No one connected with the American Government had any part in preparing,
inciting, or encouraging the revolution, and except for the reports of our
military and naval officers, which I forwarded to Congress, no one
connected with the American government had any previous knowledge
concerning the proposed revolution…”
“From the beginning to the end our course was straightforward and in absolute
accord with the highest of standards of international morality…I did not lift
my finger to incite the revolutionists…I simply ceased to stamp out the
different revolutionary fuses that were already burning…”
~~~~~Theodore Roosevelt
Copyright Bruce Lesh
Panama Canal Timeline
1850
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty : The United States and Britain agree
to seek an independent canal.
1898
20-year French effort to build a canal fails after 300
million dollars and thousands of lives are lost
1901
Hay-Poncefote Treaty: British relinquish their rights to
construct a canal
1903 : Convinced by French construction manager, Philippe
Bunau-Varilla, the United States agrees to construct a
Colombian canal rather than one in Nicaragua.
1903
1903
Hay-Herran Treaty: United States and Columbia
agree to lease the United States a strip of land for 100 years
for $40 Million.
Rejected by the Colombian Parliament.
What happens between the treaties rejection and the
construction of the canal?
1904
Canal construction begins
Philippe-Jean BunauVarilla
Copyright Bruce Lesh
“I took Panama”: President Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal
Written in protest of the presence of United States Navy and Marines in Panama at the
outset of the Panamanian Revolution. Marroquin supported the Hay-Herran Treaty but felt
mistreated by the United States after the revolution as worried that the loss of Panama
might lead to his loss of power in Columbia.
Source B
From a letter by Jose Marroquin, President of Colombia
“The Rights of Colombia- A Protest and Appeal”
(November 28, 1903)
“The Government of the United States is treating
Colombia in a manner that seems dishonorable to all
the people of that country. American Secretary of State
Hay has astonished the world by finding a right to
exclude the troops of Colombia from the Isthmus of
Panama.
The United States violated international law by
recognizing the independence of Panama only days
after the revolution and before the nation of Colombia
had a chance to put down the insurrection. Colombia
did not recognize the southern states which seceded
during the American Civil War- why should the United
States recognize the seceding states of Panama?
How are you to escape the condemnation of
history? Never has any nation dealt with a weak one in
a way that seemed dishonorable to any considerable
part of its own people but that history has affirmed the
judgment of the protesting minority.”
Copyright Bruce Lesh
Source
Source A: “Panama
or Bust”
The New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source B: From a
letter by Jose
Marroquin, President
of Colombia
“The Rights of
Colombia- A Protest
and Appeal”
(November 28, 1903)
Source C: “The Man
Behind the Egg,” The
New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source D: Private
letter from President
Roosevelt to his
former Secretary of
State, John Hay
July 2, 1915
Source E: Philippe
Bunau-Varilla. The
Great Adventure of
Panama: Wherein
Are Exposed Its
Relation to the Great
War and also the
Luminous Traces of
The German
Conspiracies Against
France and the
United States.
Doubleday, Page &
Company: Garden
City, New York, 1920.
Source F: Eric
Sevaried, “The Man
Who Invented
Panama – Interview
of Bunau-Varilla.”
American Heritage
Magazine, August
1963, Vol. 14, No. 5.
Impact of the subtext and
context
Information
Provided
Support/Challenge
Copyright Bruce Lesh
“I took Panama”: President Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal
The interview was given to an investigative journalist 37 years after the events. BunauVarilla was almost 90 years old at the time of the interview. The story of the interview was
then retold in American Heritage Magazine.
Source F: Eric Sevaried, “The Man Who Invented Panama –
Interview of Bunau-Varilla.” American Heritage Magazine,
August 1963, Vol. 14, No. 5.
“It was his [Buna-Varillia’s] memories that interested me that winter in
Paris. A cable from CBS in New York requested me to find out if the Colonel
was still alive and if so, to have him make a five-minute broadcast on the
Robert Ripley “Believe It or Not” radio program about his role in the
Panama Canal…
[Buana-Varilla told me that] First he had to be sure that if the revolt
came off successfully, the United States would give her protection to the new
nation…as I sat one day in the old Colonel’s apartment, he told this story, as
closely as my memory retains it:
I called [visited] on Mr. Roosevelt [at the White House] and asked him
point blank if, when the revolt broke out, an American war ship would be
sent to Panama to “protect American lives and interests.” The President
just looked at me; he said nothing. Of course, a President of the United
States could not give such a commitment, especially to a foreigner and
private citizen like me. But his look was enough for me. I took the gamble.
“He is a very able fellow,” Roosevelt later wrote about the encounter,
“and it was his business to find out what he thought our Government would
do. I have no doubts that he was able to make a very accurate guess, and to
advise his people accordingly. In fact, he would have been a very dull man if
he had been unable to make such a guess.”
Not that a single man can produce a rebellion; there were plenty of
disgruntled Panamanians ready to help, and various meetings with their
representatives took place at Bunau-Varilla’s Waldorf-Astoria suite. They
wanted six million dollars, chiefly to pay their ragged guerrilla force. BunauVarilla got the price down, he said, to 1100,000, and paid it out of his own
pocket. Next he busied himself drafting a Panamanian declaration of
independence and a constitution. He even bought silk at Macy’s for a
Panamanian flag, which he designed and which his wife and a family friend
stitched together at a Westchester County estate.”
Copyright Bruce Lesh
Source
Source A: “Panama
or Bust”
The New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source B: From a
letter by Jose
Marroquin, President
of Colombia
“The Rights of
Colombia- A Protest
and Appeal”
(November 28, 1903)
Source C: “The Man
Behind the Egg,” The
New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source D: Private
letter from President
Roosevelt to his
former Secretary of
State, John Hay
July 2, 1915
Source E: Philippe
Bunau-Varilla. The
Great Adventure of
Panama: Wherein
Are Exposed Its
Relation to the Great
War and also the
Luminous Traces of
The German
Conspiracies Against
France and the
United States.
Doubleday, Page &
Company: Garden
City, New York, 1920.
Source F: Eric
Sevaried, “The Man
Who Invented
Panama – Interview
of Bunau-Varilla.”
American Heritage
Magazine, August
1963, Vol. 14, No. 5.
Impact of the subtext and
context
Information
Provided
Support/Challenge
Copyright Bruce Lesh
Source
Source A: “Panama
or Bust”
The New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source B: From a
letter by Jose
Marroquin, President
of Colombia
“The Rights of
Colombia- A Protest
and Appeal”
(November 28, 1903)
Source C: “The Man
Behind the Egg,” The
New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source D: Private
letter from President
Roosevelt to his
former Secretary of
State, John Hay
July 2, 1915
Source E: Philippe
Bunau-Varilla. The
Great Adventure of
Panama: Wherein
Are Exposed Its
Relation to the Great
War and also the
Luminous Traces of
The German
Conspiracies Against
France and the
United States.
Doubleday, Page &
Company: Garden
City, New York, 1920.
Source F: Eric
Sevaried, “The Man
Who Invented
Panama – Interview
of Bunau-Varilla.”
American Heritage
Magazine, August
1963, Vol. 14, No. 5.
Impact of the subtext and
context
Information
Provided
Support/Challenge
Copyright Bruce Lesh
“I took Panama”: President Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal
The New York Times was developed to counter the yellow journalism of other New York newspapers. The paper was not
supportive of American imperial efforts. The cartoon appeared in the immediate aftermath of the Panamanian
Revolution and the American acquisition of the land upon which the canal was built.
President Roosevelt
Panama Revolution
Source A: “Panama or Bust” The New York Times, 1903, artist unknown.
Precedent: an earlier event or action that is regarded as an
example or guide to be considered in subsequent similar
Copyright Bruce Lesh
Treaty with the United States
“I took Panama”: President Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal
Published in the New York Times investigative story on the events in Panama. The cartoon was a muckraking attempt to
investigate the president. The cartoon appeared in the immediate aftermath of the Panamanian Revolution and the
American acquisition of the land upon which the canal was built.
Source C: “The Man Behind the Egg,” The New York Times, 1903, artist unknown.
Copyright Bruce Lesh
Source
Source A: “Panama
or Bust”
The New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source B: From a
letter by Jose
Marroquin, President
of Colombia
“The Rights of
Colombia- A Protest
and Appeal”
(November 28, 1903)
Source C: “The Man
Behind the Egg,” The
New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source D: Private
letter from President
Roosevelt to his
former Secretary of
State, John Hay
July 2, 1915
Source E: Philippe
Bunau-Varilla. The
Great Adventure of
Panama: Wherein
Are Exposed Its
Relation to the Great
War and also the
Luminous Traces of
The German
Conspiracies Against
France and the
United States.
Doubleday, Page &
Company: Garden
City, New York, 1920.
Source F: Eric
Sevaried, “The Man
Who Invented
Panama – Interview
of Bunau-Varilla.”
American Heritage
Magazine, August
1963, Vol. 14, No. 5.
Impact of the subtext and
context
Information
Provided
Support/Challenge
Copyright Bruce Lesh
“I took Panama”: President Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal
This was a private letter (not intended for public consumption) between the former
President and his former Secretary of State. The letter was written in 1915, after Roosevelt
failed in his bid to win the presidency as a Progressive and is the former President’s
reflections on the events leading up to the Panamanian Revolution.
Source D: Private letter from President Roosevelt to his former
Secretary of State, John Hay
July 2, 1915
To talk of Columbia as a responsible power to be dealt with
as we would deal with Holland or Belgium or Switzerland or
Denmark is a mere absurdity. The analogy is with a group of
Sicilian or Calabrian bandits…You could no more make an
agreement with the Columbian rulers than you could nail
currant jelly to a wall…I did my best to get them to act
straight. Then I determined that I would do what ought to
be done without regard to them. The people of Panama were
a unit in desiring the canal and wishing to overthrow the rule
of Columbia. If they had not revolted, I should have
recommended to Congress to take possession of the Isthmus
by force of arms; and, as you will see, I had actually written
the first draft of my message to this effect. When they
[Columbians living in Panama] revolted, I promptly used the
Navy to prevent bandits, who had tried to hold us up, from
spending months of futile bloodshed in conquering or
endeavoring to conquer the isthmus, to the lasting damage of
the Isthmus, of us, and of the world. I did not consult
[Secretary of State] Hay or [Secretary of War] Root, or
anyone else as to what I did, because a council of war does
not fight; and I intended to do the job once and for all.
Copyright Bruce Lesh
Source
Source A: “Panama
or Bust”
The New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source B: From a
letter by Jose
Marroquin, President
of Colombia
“The Rights of
Colombia- A Protest
and Appeal”
(November 28, 1903)
Source C: “The Man
Behind the Egg,” The
New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source D: Private
letter from President
Roosevelt to his
former Secretary of
State, John Hay
July 2, 1915
Source E: Philippe
Bunau-Varilla. The
Great Adventure of
Panama: Wherein
Are Exposed Its
Relation to the Great
War and also the
Luminous Traces of
The German
Conspiracies Against
France and the
United States.
Doubleday, Page &
Company: Garden
City, New York, 1920.
Source F: Eric
Sevaried, “The Man
Who Invented
Panama – Interview
of Bunau-Varilla.”
American Heritage
Magazine, August
1963, Vol. 14, No. 5.
Impact of the subtext and
context
Information
Provided
Support/Challenge
Copyright Bruce Lesh
“I took Panama”: President Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal
Written after Roosevelt’s death by the former French engineer and first Panamanian
Minister to America. Written as a personal narrative of what happened in Panama, and
was the second book written by Bunau-Varilla about the Panamanian Revolution.
Source E: Philippe Bunau-Varilla. The Great Adventure of Panama: Wherein Are
Exposed Its Relation to the Great War and also the Luminous Traces of The German
Conspiracies Against France and the United States. Doubleday, Page & Company:
Garden City, New York, 1920.
From the Books: Introduction: [Readers] will see that the Panama
Revolution of November, 1903, was nothing but the legitimate expression of the
right of a nation to dispose of herself. They will be convinced that the United
States Government had no more hand in it than had the French Government…
In spite of the concealed, disguised, or open accusations against the
Roosevelt policy, nothing has been brought for sixteen years to support the
slightest shadow of a proof of complicity between the American Government and
the Panama revolutionists.
…The reader will now also completely understand that the President of the
United States was absolutely free from secret connivance with the revolutionists.
He will understand, now, Mr. Roosevelt's meaning when he said: "I took
Panama."
The dissemination of the truth about the Panama Revolution will also help
to eliminate the pressure exercised on the conscience of some people by the idea
that Colombia was wronged. They will see that since the Revolutionary War of the
English colonies of America, there never was a clearer case of the right of a nation
to dispose of itself. Colombia has, not and never had, the slightest title to receive
an indemnity for the separation of Panama.
From a Later Chapter: “In preparing the revolution I avoided anything that
could be interpreted as a connivance [done secretly] between Washington and the
insurgents. If President Roosevelt went with the high speed which was
indispensable for final success, after the revolution became a fact, it was because
I had carefully respected his independence.
People may smile while speaking of a Roosevelt "staged revolution"; their
smile will simply expose their own gullibility in believing the tales of imaginative
wickedness.
I wish to caution the reader in advance against the impression that the
American Government had a hand in the Panama Revolution, because such a
statement is absolutely fabricated—and devoid of any foundation in fact.
Copyright Bruce Lesh
Source
Source A: “Panama
or Bust”
The New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source B: From a
letter by Jose
Marroquin, President
of Colombia
“The Rights of
Colombia- A Protest
and Appeal”
(November 28, 1903)
Source C: “The Man
Behind the Egg,” The
New York Times,
1903, artist unknown.
Source D: Private
letter from President
Roosevelt to his
former Secretary of
State, John Hay
July 2, 1915
Source E: Philippe
Bunau-Varilla. The
Great Adventure of
Panama: Wherein
Are Exposed Its
Relation to the Great
War and also the
Luminous Traces of
The German
Conspiracies Against
France and the
United States.
Doubleday, Page &
Company: Garden
City, New York, 1920.
Source F: Eric
Sevaried, “The Man
Who Invented
Panama – Interview
of Bunau-Varilla.”
American Heritage
Magazine, August
1963, Vol. 14, No. 5.
Impact of the subtext and
context
Information
Provided
Support/Challenge
Copyright Bruce Lesh