Ernest Graves
Q:
That's curious.
A:
Well, it is. It's curious. But it was, conceptually, quite intriguing. Put all this together.
We had a Canal Zone in Panama which was a great problem because of being lodged
across the middle of Panama. We had this big American community there. Basically,
technology was going to solve this. We were going to build a sea-level canal which
didn't require a big American community, and it was going to have unlimited capacity
so that we would never have to worry any more about whether there was enough water
or how long it took to lock a ship through. All that would go away.
Then, as far as selling this to the United States, you bring in the Corps of Engineers
with its reputation with Congress. This would generate the kind of support from
Congress that would be necessary to do all this.
In order to get this going, we had a study group. They brought me back from Los
Angeles on temporary duty in the winter of '61'62. I spent the whole winter on this
study group and wrote most of this report, including the paper to President Kennedy
that he approved. I can't take sole credit, but I was on this group as a technical advisor,
actually. But I ended up writing most of the paper.
That's what Johnson got me back doing. Stephen Ailes was Secretary of the Army.
Johnson talked to Ailes about having me on this group and Ailes agreed. That's the way
I got on the group.
Q:
Was Johnson then assistant for atomic energy?
A:
Yes. In the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He had no direct connection with the
group, though. In other words, in those days, the Defense's involvement with the
Panama Canal was all in the Department of the Army, all in the Office of the Secretary
of the Army.
But Johnson heard about this. He got Brown to agree to support it, and he went down
and saw Ailes and said he would like to involve me in the study since the nuclear option
was going to be the important aspect. Ailes could see immediately that that was good
because the motivation of most of these people was, in my opinion, they weren't about
to turn the canal over to Panama if they could avoid it.
As we had more difficulties with Panama, we came to the view that perhaps the better
part of valor was to give the canal to Panama, which is what we're now doing. But
things have changed a lot since then.
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