Foreign policy is one of the hardest things a pres Essays

Foreign policy is one of the hardest things a president must deal with. Whether it be, declaring war, negotiating nuclear firearms, or just plain old foreign aid, our commander in chief must make tough decisions. These decisions could have great outp uts, or terrible consequences. John Adams, the United states of America's second president had some of these decisions to make. 1796 the French began attacking US merchant ships. Over the course of a year the French navy had captured 316 US ships. The reason they did this was because even though America and France were ally's, the US made they Jay treaty with Great Britain (at the time France was at war with Britain). President Adams came to the decision and sent three US representatives to France. The prime minister of France stated that he would not hear them so the US reps were met by three agents referred to as X, Y, and Z. they explained that there would be no halt to the seize of US ships unless France wa s paid a huge amount of money as tribute. Shocked, the reps refused such an insane remark and when that story reached the US, Americans everywhere were outraged. Adams declared that an army of ten thousand men was to be made and the construction of twelve new ships had to start for the nations small navy. The slogan "millions for defense but not one cent for tribute" spread across the nation like a wildfire and the US prepared for war. This war was happening but President Adams never actually declared was so it was named "the undeclared war". With all this happening John Quincy Adams had a thought. "was a war really a good thing for the US right now? These are the type of thinking a president must make. In the year 1799 Adams came to a decision. He sent a group of men to France to attempt to work out peace. The federalists were furious, but Adams would not budge. By the time the peacemakers reached France a man named Napoleon Bonaparte had taken over the French government. Napoleon had the interest of making peace with both Great Britain, and the United States. He had already ordered the stop of seizing American ships, and all captured sailors were released. Adams made another good choice and said that in exchange for peace, he would pay the small price of paying the sailors for their lost ships, instead of France paying. Choosing the olive branch lowed the level of popularity Adams had as most of the federalist party was now against him. Because of this he lost the reelection in 1800 to Jefferson, he had to watch his federalist party fade away. Still Adams had no regrets. He wrote " I will defend my mission to France, if I have an eye to direct my hand, or a finger to hold my pen I desire no other inscription over my gravestone than: "here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility of the peace with Fran ce in the year 1800." All the hard choices Adams had to make, I personally think that he made all the right and selfless decisions to not help himself, but the United states of America. Honestly, I think that Adams handled the situation very well. For each problem, he sat back and analyzed the situation carefully. He did not make decisions to help his life but the life of the US. That is a big sign of a good president. Knowing me, I probably would have gone to war, and un-needlingly risked the lives of ten thousand men. That is not the right decision and Adams did well not making it.