George H. W. Bush, the U.S. president from 1989 to 1993, sent the Memorandum on the Arrest of General Manuel Noriega in Panama to Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney on December 20, 1989, following the invasion of Panama. Part of the justification for invading Panama was to stop the narcotics trade through the country. The United States had indicted General Manual Noriega on drug-trafficking charges in 1988 and sought to depose him as Panama’s leader.