How Did Presidents Achieve Their Foreign Policy Goals

Improved Essays
Throughout the course of history presidents have paved the way to achieve their foreign policy goals. Starting from George Washington our first president and his goal of neutrality to Bill Clinton and post-Cold War stability. The extent to which presidents have fulfilled their goals are all different. Many have had an impact during their presidency, but lose their influence afterwards. Their success is dependent on how they choose to handle the situations they faced.
George Washington warned the United States of the danger that comes along with alliances. We warned us about how essential our neutrality is. He urged us as a nation to steer away from permanent alliances and to stick to temporary alliances for emergencies only. Not only did he warn us about our neutrality and political parties. When George Washington was elected president there were no political parties. During his first term in presidency the political parties recognized as Federalist led by Hamilton and the Democratic Republicans led by Jefferson were formed. These political parties evolved greatly during his second term. Washington during this term passed the Proclamation of Neutrality which depicted his take of involvement with international affairs. The Proclamation of Neutrality was issued in May 1973 by George Washington which declared the nation neutral during a war between France and Great Britain. In his farewell address he speaks out on his finals thoughts of his surroundings. He warns society of everything that is yet to come. George Washington was successful in achieving his goal while he was president, but not long term. In the end years down the road political parties rose to power and corrupted the government. Individuals gain too much power all things Washington foreshadowed. When Kennedy took office it was clear that he was determined to control foreign policy.
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Prior to Kennedy it is believed by his close associates that Eisenhower’s plan was slow moving. Kennedy had set high expectations to live up to what he claimed in his inaugural speech. This is exemplified when he said “Let every nation know, ...the success of liberty.”Kennedy’s foreign policy was no better instead it was a failure. Kennedy gave Eisenhower the okay for Bay of Pigs worsening the situation besides the fact that he was acting like a tough guy talking about the Soviet Union in Berlin. This led to the building of the Berlin Wall. So instead of bettering the United States foreign relations he made them worse. The Berlin Wall was a wall built to separate West Germany from East Germany. This is because communism was taking over and in over to contain the people from fleeing for communism they built the wall. When looking at the big picture we are able to realize that his success at achieving his goal was a mixture of success and failure. Bill Clinton our 42nd president took office shortly after the Cold War ended. The Cold War was a time period in which great tension rose between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the war the United States was viewed as the last remaining superpower, even though when Clinton took office had to figure out how to cope with international conflicts. This is later portrayed in the build up of the United States military across the world in numerous countries for the protection of civilians. Clinton aside from dealing with current

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