Ben Boyarsky
Mr. Carpenter
Period F
December 8th, 2016
Washington’s Foreign Policy Evaluation
Upon researching Washington’s effectiveness in the subject of foreign policy, I appoint
Washington a B+. Foreign policy is the strategy in which the government deals with other
nations. Washington was a general before he was a President, so I thought that this background
would help him make smart decisions, but it didn’t. France allied with us during our
Revolutionary War and helped us fight our way through it, but when France asked for our help in
the French Revolution, Washington would not budge in the slightest. This surprised me because I
thought, being a former general, he would realize that in order to keep an ally in France, he
would need to help out. I realize that to help the French during the Revolution would be slightly
detrimental to the United States because we were still struggling too, but to lose an ally
altogether seems unwise. Washington could have kept his foot in the door with France, but after
not helping them at all, he completely lost an ally. In 1793, he issued the Proclamation of
Neutrality in the war between France and Britain. Although I understand why he wanted to
remain neutral, because America was still a very new country and had a lot to structure internally
before they could be involved in any wars, I still disagree that remaining neutral wasn’t
necessarily beneficial to America in the long run.
Declaring neutrality has the upside of not being worried ab...
