Panama: The Whole Story.

• Author: Lane, Charles

Panama: The Whole Story. Kevin Buckley. Simon & Schuster $21.95. Relations between the U.S. government and the nasty Third World dictator were collaborative, even cordial. They secretly joined forces against governments that seemed most threatening to U.S. interests at the time. All the while, evidence that the dictator was abusing his own people, not to mention double-dealing behind Washington's back, was pooh-poohed both publicly and privately by U.S. officials. Realpolitik, it was said, dictated discretion. After this had gone on quietly for years, the dictator's unforeseen outbursts of brutality made the policy untenable. Haltingly at first, then with gathering momentum, Washington changed its attitude toward the dictator from indulgence to vilification. An avalanche of officially sourced news coverage painted the U.S.'s former partner as Public Enemy Number One. His ugly mug disgraced magazine covers. And his removal from power became a minimum condition of U.S. national security.

After failed negotiations and much hand-wringing in Congress and the bureaucracy-a process marked by the usual leaked recriminations about who was to blame for the mess in the first place-the president finally ordered U.S. troops to fight the dictator. In a swift campaign marked by considerable American military prowess and charges that U.S. firepower had been employed with insufficient regard for civilian life, America dealt the dictator the defeat of his life.

A thumbnail history of George Bush's showdown with Saddam Hussein, right? Well, yes. But change a phrase here and there and you've also got a synopsis of the clash between the United States and Panama's Manuel Antonio Noriega, the subject of Kevin Buckley's thorough, readable new book.

Buckley's book is particularly strong in its treatment of two themes. First, the author explains in detail the role Panama's peculiar internal politics played in driving the crisis forward. Most versions of the story are told as if all the action took place in Washington, or are presented as catalogs of Noriega's personal pathologies. Buckley reminds us that the events that culminated in the U.S. invasion were the most violent in Panama since the United States carved the country out of Colombia in 1903. And a main reason these events happened was the Panamanians' own failure to develop political institutions or movements that could have established a legitimate government without U.S. help.

Second, Buckley emphasizes...