Taking back Panama Canal would require war: Former ambassador

Former U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley on Sunday said it would take a war for the United States to take back the Panama Canal.

“To attempt to take it back today, I'd like to ask you, go find the MAGA constituency that's going to support another foreign war because that is what it would take to get the canal back,” Feeley said during an interview on CNN.

President-elect Trump has broached the subject of the U.S. taking back the canal.

A week ago, Trump suggested to a conference of his supporters that the Panama Canal be returned to U.S. control, vowing swift action over the matter after he takes office in less than one month.

“It was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions. You got to treat us fairly, and they haven’t treated us fairly,” Trump said at Turning Point USA’s “American Fest.”

“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly and without question,” Trump added.

When an audience member yelled, “Take it back,” Trump replied, “That’s a good idea.”

Feeley, who was ambassador under former President Obama and Trump, said the late President Carter was not alone in thinking it was wise to turn over the canal to Panama in the 1970s, noting even conservative leaders had similar instincts.

“Let's not forget, Jimmy Carter wasn't the only one who thought it was a good idea. No one less than Henry Kissinger in 1975 told then-President Nixon, if we don't return this canal, we're going to lose in every international forum, and we're going to have riots all over Latin America,” Feeley said in an interview conducted shortly after Carter died on Sunday.

“Carter simply read correctly the decolonization moment, capitalized on it, and then … he paid the political price for that. But it was a principled move,” Feeley continued.