62. Letter From the Chairman of the Department of Defense Panama Canal Negotiations Working Group (Koren) to Ambassador at Large Bunker1
In response to your 22 November note and accompanying memorandum, the Panama Canal Negotiations Working Group has given the most careful consideration to U.S. citizen employees of the Canal Administration under a new treaty.2 The views of Governor Parker and General Rosson were considered in the process.
We examined the primary objectives of the American work force under a new treaty, and then the minimum requirements to achieve those goals. Throughout we kept in mind the difficulties which you cited concerning obtaining Panamanian agreement to an acceptable level of privileges and immunities for Canal Administration U.S. citizen employees.
The Department of Defense considers there to be no feasible alternative to uniform coverage of Canal Administration U.S. personnel, to include their dependents, wholly under a Status of Forces Agreement. Options, such as securing a right to pay a cost of living allowance in lieu of seeking commissary and PX privileges, are not considered viable [Page 171] because much more is involved than the cost of living aspect. For example, a cost of living allowance instead of SOFA purchase privileges would violate the fundamental principle of uniformity of treatment of U.S. and non-U.S. citizen employees. Moreover, it would increase Canal operating costs as well as further increase and highlight the disparity between the compensation of U.S. and Panamanian workers.
To operate the waterway efficiently and effectively and concurrently to increase progressively Panamanian participation in Canal Administration, it is essential that there be no disparity between the privileges and rights enjoyed by the U.S. citizen employees of the Forces and those of the Canal Administration. Therefore, the Defense Department considers it necessary that the SOFA must embrace the total U.S. citizen work force because to do otherwise would be patently unfair and inequitable. More significantly, it would place in serious jeopardy the Canal Administration’s ability to accomplish its operation and training missions while the treaty is in force.
The detailed position paper attached explains the position of the Defense Department.3
It is recommended that:
1. benefits, privileges, and immunities for U.S. Government personnel who are U.S. nationals engaged in the operation and defense of the Canal apply equally and uniformly to all U.S. citizen personnel, to include their dependents, whether DoD or Canal Administration, without any reservations or exceptions.
2. uniform treatment be achieved by application of the contemplated SOFA to all Canal Administration U.S. civilian employees as well as DoD personnel.
3. the SOFA or other treaty provisions not restrict the right of the United States to provide to U.S. citizen personnel whatever pay or other incentive, differentials, or allowances it deems necessary to recruit and retain the number of U.S. citizen personnel with required skills to assure the U.S. unimpaired capability to exercise its rights and meet its responsibilities under the treaty, including the training of Panamanians to assume full responsibility in the post-treaty period.
4. the prospective treaty not restrict the organizational form or internal structuring of the Canal Administration within the U.S. Government.
The Defense Department very much appreciates your efforts to secure a SOFA with Panama and to have Canal Administration U.S. citizen employees included in the agreement. We believe the United [Page 172] States is being most concessionary to Panama in the area of jurisdiction and for this reason, the Defense Department position, as set forth in this communication, deserves the utmost consideration. In this connection, we will do all possible to assist you in attaining this fundamental aim.
With highest regards,
Sincerely,
Chairman, Panama Canal Negotiations Working Group
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Ambassador Bunker’s Correspondence, Lot 78D300, Box 4, Employees. Confidential.↩
- In the November 22 memorandum, the Ambassador disagreed with Koren’s assessment that the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) should include civilian employees. Bunker wrote: “Panama’s Chief Negotiator said that not only could Panama not agree to inclusion of the employees under the SOFA, but that Panama had difficulty in agreeing to special treatment in a form for these employees. Such treatment, he explained, would lead Panamanians to believe the United States was giving up the form, but preserving the substance of the ‘colonial enclave.’” (National Archives, RG 59, Ambassador Bunker’s Correspondence, Lot 78D300, Box 8, Chron 1974)↩
- Not attached and not found.↩