Book 2, Chapter 12 Summary and Analysis

"Adventure by Trigonometry" is the story of how the U.S. moves from negotiating with Columbia to readying covert support for an armed revolution in Panama. The title comes from Banau-Varilla's comment diplomacy is as difficult for some to understand as trigonometry. Secretary Hay finds negotiating with Columbia the most thankless and exasperating episode in his long career, because he has to deal with amateur envoys poorly in contact with indecisive executives in Bogotb. Before the Spooner Act becomes law, Carlos Martnnez Silva, arrives, claiming his government wants to cooperate, but when Bogotb discovers Cromwell is coaching Silva it replaces him with proud, nervous Josy Vincente Concha. In the fall of 1902, when discussions of sovereignty over the Canal Zone reach the critical point, civil war erupts on the Isthmus and Roosevelt, without consultation, sends in the Marines to secure...