Panama Canal: The Eighth Wonder of the World1998

Narrator:
Bunau-Varilla flaunts his influence by appointing himself Panama's Ambassador to the United States. He immediately begins negotiating with the Secretary of State for the agreement allowing the U.S. to build the Panama Canal.

R.M. Koster:
He was so interested in getting the money, getting the 40 million dollars that the U.S. had agreed to pay for a bunch of rotting equipment, for works that mostly were never used, that he thought up everything the United States could possibly want in a treaty and then put in some order. As, for example, a clause that gave the United States perpetual sovereignty - until the Sun goes out, till the stars stop shining - over 500 square miles of Panama's territory.

Narrator:
Meanwhile, Dr. Manuel Amador, now President of Panama, arrives in Washington thinking he is going to make a deal for the canal. He is dismayed to find out that the treaty is already done. When the treaty is signed, the French Canal Company receives forty million dollars - most of which disappears into the pockets of Bunau-Varilla. The country of Panama gets ten million dollars. The Colombians get nothing. Many Americans are appalled, but Roosevelt dismisses his critics and pronounces it the duty of the United States to support nationalist uprisings. Roosevelt wins his isthmus, and Bunau-Varilla takes credit for avenging the honor of France.

Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla:
I had fulfilled my mission. The mission I had taken on myself. I had safeguarded the work of French genius. I had served France.