Panama forces an earlier two-ocean US Navy

Panama's absence creates a severe strategic problem because an Atlantic fleet cannot quickly relieve the Pacific without leaving the eastern seaboard exposed. The canal's promise of concentrating naval strength helped justify its difficult construction. If it never existed, American planners might need a Roosevelt-era version of a two-ocean navy long before the Second World War. The same expansionist outlook that produced overseas commitments such as the Philippines also helped create the political demand for Panama, so removing the canal without changing American policy is especially difficult.