Why did the U.S sell the Panama Canal?

[expat_panama]

What the fuck is this dumb shit? Youre saying that its such a curse to own the Panama canal that we paid them to take this burden off our hands? Tha fuck?

Crazy but true, (from here):

The 1979 Panama Canal Treaty stipulated a one-time payment of $10 million to Panama from the United States, along with an annual annuity of $250,000.​

--and from here:

​

The Panama Canal Com mission [U.S. gov't agency] shall pay the Republic of Panama the sum of ten million United States dollars ($10,000,000) per annum for the foregoing services.​

--and then add on to that all the money the U.S. military paid for rent/services. In short, we paid them hundreds of millions of dollars to take the canal. Our tax dollars at work.