President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), Rosalynn Carter, and Lieutenant General Dennis P. McAuliffe, Commander, U.S. Southern Command (1975-79), at Ft. Clayton, June 1978. Carter had signed the Panama Canal treaties in 1977 whereby the United States would transfer the canal and adjacent sites to Panama by December 1999—and provide for the defense of the waterway during the twenty-first century. As the senior U.S. military official in Panama, General McAuliffe played a major part in the U.S.-Panamanian negotiations. (Source: U.S. Army Signal Corps, NARA)