Flashback 1803. The US was an Atlantic coast nation . President Jefferson recognized the potential of a threat if a nation hostile to the US controlled the city of New Orleans and thus the Mississippi River on our western frontier . So he sent James Monroe and Robert Livingston to Paris to negotiate with France to purchase the city and parts of Florida . They had an offer of $10 million on the table. The French had just lost Haiti in a revolt and were pretty much sick of using their resources defending their American territory. Napolean had continental wars to fund.
So he made a counter offer to sell all French holdings west of the Mississippi River to the US for $15 million.
The Federalists were outraged . Jefferson was being an imperialist. He had no constitutional authority to make the purchase they argued .
Luckily they were a minority on their way to irrelevance. A treaty for the purchase was negotiated and the Senate approved it. That purchase doubled the size of our young nation.
Andrew Johnson is largely considered a failed President. He was the 1st President to be impeached .
1867 he sent his Sec of State William Seward to Russia to negotiate the purchase of Alaska. The price $7,2 million (about 2 cents /acre for 600,000 acres of land ) was outrageous . Critics called the purchase Seward's Folly. Alaska is not even geographically connected to continental US. It is nothing but an icebox.
Well that argument lasted until gold was discovered . Since then Alaska has proven to be a wealth of resources . Further it anchors our northern flank from a hostile Russia, It gives us a claim to what will be one end of one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. Eventually it will have the same importance as the Panama Canal ;the Suez Canal and the Strait of Malacca .
What is at the eastern entrance to the Arctic Sea ? Greenland .
Is it really that crazy to want to obtain Greenland ? China would love to have a presence on the island. Truman understood the value. That is why he made an offer for the island . After all the US used our treasure to defend the island in WWII . The Soviet Union poses a threat to us during the cold war. They would've loved to control the island .They couldn't because the US used our treasure to defend it . It certainly was not Denmark.
Where else is China a presence that poses a strategic threat to us ? Yes ;the Panama canal. China runs the ports at either end of the canal. The deal with Panama was negotiated with the assumption that the US interests would be protected .
President Carter said :
Throughout the negotiations, we were determined that our national security interests would be protected; that the canal would always be open and neutral and available to ships of all nations; that in time of need or emergency our warships would have the right to go to the head of the line for priority passage through the canal; and that our military forces would have the permanent right to defend the canal if it should ever be in danger. The new treaties meet all of these requirements.
Historical Documents - Office of the Historian
This is not true anymore . What Trump wants is for the spirit of the treaty to be honored .
Now all this talk has his critics in a panic. Here's a secret . Trump is playing them . These issues are NOT the top of his priorities and agenda. What Trump is doing is the equivalent of using a laser pointer for the cat to chase. The Dems and the compliant press are dutifully chasing the light.