... a canal. ("You could no more make an agreement with them than you could nail currant jelly to a wall," President Theodore Roosevelt said). A French adventurer, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, and an American lawyer, Nelson Cromwell, conceived of the idea of creating the republic of Panama. They persuaded ... now become a Pacific power, America needed an easy and reliable route for moving naval vessels from one coast to the other -- or so President Theodore Roosevelt was fervently convinced. And out of this vision of America as a two-ocean power, Panama was born. There had been several attempts to...

• Word Count: 2823
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School