The Panamanian government had demanded a thorough revision of the treaty of 1903, which had given the United States dominion in perpetuity over the Canal and the strips of land adjoining it. Secretary of State Kissinger and the Panamanian negotiators had in 1974 reached an agreement in principle, but any actual treaty would require ratification by the Senate, and the proposal had stirred up a hornet's nest back home, becoming a hot issue in the Republican presidential primaries (as it would again in 1980 even though the treaty was eventually ratified in 1978-see Firing Line #S306). Dr. Cheveille and Mr. Chapman point out that the Panamanians' demands did not come out of the blue: Mr. Cheveille reminds us that "The earliest treaty, the 1903 treaty, has been renegotiated several times," and that Lyndon Johnson had agreed in 1964 to something very like the current proposal, but the war in Indochina and the war on America's campuses had put it on hold. Today's discussion ranges from the negotiation of the original treaty, to current issues of U.S. national security, to, with Archbishop McGrath, issues of peace and justice.