Why Did the United States
Invade Panama in 1989?

A Jigsaw Mystery Lesson

High School

By Elizabeth Hertzler-McCain

This lesson on the 1989 invasion of Panama, code named Operation Just Cause, is designed for upper high school and college courses. Students should have prior knowledge about the creation of the Panama Canal, particularly the role of the United States.

Essential Questions

  • Why did the United States invade Panama?

  • Why did the United States interpret the invasion as a “just cause”?

  • In what ways was this term accurate or not?

Objectives

  • Students will use primary source documents and artwork to solve the mystery of why there are competing interpretations on the reasons for the U.S. invading Panama in 1989.

  • Students will use primary sources and artwork to assess if the invasion was truly a “just cause.” 

Time

Two 50-60 minute class periods

Materials

Procedure

  1. Think Pair Share (7 minutes) — The teacher will pose the question: What do you know about Panama? What do you know about the history between Panama and the United States? The teacher will inform students that they will begin with a brain dump where they will take a sheet of paper and jot down every and any first thought that comes to mind when they think of the question. Students will have 3-5 minutes to reflect and do the brain dump. 

    After 3-5 minutes, during the share portions, write student responses on the board (ex: “Panama Canal” “Teddy Roosevelt”)

  2. Introduce the activity (10 minutes) — If a student mentions the 1989 invasion, use that as your transition. Otherwise, explain that today the students will be exploring a more recent chapter in U.S./Panama history — the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama. 

  3. Hand out the invasion context handout: The following handout contains a vocab bank. Pre-teach this vocabulary and make sure all students understand the definition of “just cause” in an abstract sense before they learn in the text that this was the codename of the invasion. 

  4. Read this aloud to students (also print handout version for students to refer back to Fast Facts of the Invasion Handout)

    Prior to the invasion, Army General Manuel Noriega was the de facto leader of Panama. On May 7, 1989, Panama held elections for a new president and the legislative assembly. However, when it became clear that candidate Guillermo Endara was winning, Noriega’s government canceled the election before it even finished in order to keep himself in power.  The U.S. began the invasion of Panama on the night of December 20, 1989, with the stated goal of removing the corrupt, drug-trafficking general and ruler of Panama, Manuel Noriega. Noriega had previously been on good terms with the U.S., even trained at the United States’ School of the Americas, a program from the Department of Defense designed to train Latin American military, law enforcement, and security professionals.The United States codenamed the invasion “Operation Just Cause.” During the invasion, the U.S. made Endara and his two vice presidents Panama’s new leaders by swearing them into office from U.S. military bases in Panama in the middle of the night. The official death count of Panamanian citizens according to the Pentagon was 314 Panamanian soldiers and 202 civilians. However, an internal army estimate put the number of Panamanian dead at approximately 1,000. Some human rights organizations argue that the number is much higher, somewhere in the thousands. Thousands of Panamanian citizens had to be relocated in temporary camps after their homes were destroyed; people from the El Chorrillo neighborhood were particularly affected.The invasion lasted for multiple days and ended up costing the U.S. 163.6 million dollars in 1990 money, which would be $393,126,919.66 in 2024 dollars. General Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces on January 3rd 1990. 

    Provide an opportunity for students to engage with the text. For example, instruct them to circle anything in the passage that shocked them. They will underline anything they have questions about. (These instructions are also on the handout.)

  5. Introduce goals of the activity and instructions (2-3 minutes) — Explain these goals and instructions verbally and also post them on the board.

    Goal - Today you’re going to work with your classmates to solve the mystery of why the U.S. invaded Panama. Also, you’ll be investigating why the U.S. interpreted the invasion as a “just cause” and exploring in what ways was this term accurate or inaccurate. 

    Instructions — Here’s how this is going to work — students will: 

      1. Day 1: Break into six small expert groups (4-5 students per group), each group will be given one document/source and everyone will also get a question guide.

      2. Read your document/source independently, keeping an eye out for information that will help you answer the questions on your question guide.

      3. Discuss your source with your expert group members. Make sure you all understand the document and that you can explain the content and significance of the document to your classmates. 

      4. Day 2: The whole class will count off by six and form new mixed groups. Each group should contain one member from each expert group. 

      5. In your jigsaw groups of six, discuss the questions on the Jigsaw Discussion Questions guide. 

      6. While discussing, jot down notes on the guide (these notes will help you during your final reflection). Remember, in order to figure out the answer to each question, you will need information from each group member, so encourage your peers to participate! 

      7. During the discussion, show your peers at least one sentence from your document or a moment from your video clip/piece of artwork to practice citing evidence and defending your argument.

      8. After finishing jigsaw group discussions, the class will transition to a whole class discussion where representatives from each group can share their conclusions on the two big questions: “Why did the U.S. invade Panama? Why did the U.S. interpret the invasion as a “just cause”? In what ways was this term accurate or not?” and everyone can ask each other and the teacher questions. 

      9. Homework: Independently review your notes and reflect on the following questions in your journals (or replace reflection with a graded writing assignment) — “Why did the U.S. invade Panama? Why did the U.S. interpret the invasion as a ‘just cause’? In what ways was this term accurate or not?”

    Distribute sources/documents to student groups — 

    1. Six Document Clues for 1989 Panama Invasion Lesson

    2. Expert Group Questions U.S. Invasion of Panama

    3. Jigsaw Questions 1989 Invasion of Panama Lesson Plan

  6. Expert group time (25 minutes) — Students conduct an initial reading/skimming of their assigned narrative independently. They then discuss their main takeaways with their expert group buddies (who all have the same narrative) and collaboratively answer the questions on the expert group question guide. 

    Lesson for day 1 ends here

  7. Jigsaw group time (25 minutes) — Split students into jigsaw groups of six to discuss the jigsaw group questions and learn from each other's documents/sources. 

  8. Whole class discussion (25 minutes) — Students share brief answers to the questions: “Why did the U.S. invade Panama? Why did the U.S. interpret the invasion as a ‘just cause’? In what ways was this term accurate or not?” They are then given an opportunity to lightly debate/engage with each other. This discussion also gives the teacher the opportunity to correct misinterpretations of any sources that may have arisen and answer questions.

    At a natural point in the discussion, when the motive of holding onto control of the Panama Canal Zone is being discussed, use this clip of the Panama Deception from 8:27 to 14:00 minutes in the film to add further context about the history of conflict over the zone. This will help explain to students why holding onto the canal zone was such a high priority for the U.S. government. Encourage students to reflect and discuss how this video adds to what they learned in the jigsaw activity

  9. Journaling/Reflection (homework) — For homework, have students independently review their notes and reflect on the following questions: “Why did the U.S. invade Panama? Why did the U.S. interpret the invasion as a ‘just cause’? In what ways was this term accurate or not?” Students should reference evidence that they learned from the jigsaw activity and their own source. Remind students that there are many different ways to answer the questions, not just one correct answer, and that these answers should contain evidence from class, as well as their personal opinion. 

    Alternatively, you may choose to substitute the reflection for a more formal graded writing assignment, where students use the evidence they learned in the jigsaw activity to create an argumentative essay. 

Elizabeth Hertzler-McCain is a pre-service history teacher pursuing licensure to teach secondary history in Massachusetts. She created this lesson plan during her internship with Teaching for Change during the summer of 2024. Special thanks to Teaching Central America advisor Miriam E. Villanueva for her feedback.

 
 

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