Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
It was hardly surprising that the December 1989 US intervention in Panama received strong public support. General Manuel Antonio Noriega had replaced Muammar al Qadaffi and the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the foreign leader the US public most loved to hate. In addition, the Bush administration was quickly able to proclaim its intervention in Panama a virtually unqualified success, confidently asserting that the stated goals of protecting US lives, capturing General Manuel Antonio Noreiga and sending him to the United States for trial, defending the Panama Canal Treaties, and “restoring democracy” to Panama had all been met (Christian Science Monitor, 1990). The US military is involved in helping form the new “Panamanian Public Force” (PPF) to replace General Noriega's Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) and US advisors are working to rebuild the economy.