User:NSArchiveLibrarian/Torrijos–Carter Treaties

Support
Support for the treaties came from a variety of interests, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and members of Congress, such as Ernest Hollings, Humbert Humphrey, and most importantly Howard Baker and Robert Byrd. Other supporters included Admiral Elmo Zumwalt and General Maxwell Taylor; John Wayne, who was friends with Omar Torrijos, AFL-CIO president George Meany, statesmen Averell Harriman, Dean Rusk, George Ball, Henry Cabot Lodge, and John Sherman Cooper, and former first lady Lady Bird Johnson. More moderate conservatives, including President Ford and Henry Kissinger, both made public statements in support of the treaty. Organized efforts to promote the treaties came from the Committee of Americans for the Canal Treaties and New Directions. Many world leaders also came out in support of the treaties, including positive statements from the leaders of Barbados, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Nicaragua, Peru, Chilean president Augusto Pinochet, Costa Rican president Daniel Oduber, and Venezuelan president Carlos Andrés Pérez.