Marquis de Lafayette – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation

George Washington believed restraint was the truest measure of American national interest. Elizabeth Fernandez/Getty Images

January 9, 2026

George Washington’s foreign policy was built on respect for other nations and patient consideration of future burdens

Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino

For the nation’s first president, friendliness was strategy, not concession: the republic would treat other nations with civility in order to remain independent of their appetites and quarrels.

Jean Marie Joseph Bove’s depiction of Lafayette returning to the U.S. The caption says, ‘A great man belongs to the whole universe.’ Blancheteau Collection/Cornell University Library via Wikimedia Commons

June 9, 2025

Lafayette helped Americans turn the tide in their fight for independence – and 50 years later, he helped forge the growing nation’s sense of identity

Matthew Smith, Miami University

Hailed as a returning hero, the Marquis de Lafayette made a grand tour of the US in 1824-25, just before the country’s 50th birthday.

George Washington would have thought wearing a mask was manly. National Portrait Gallery, Gilbert Stuart portrait/A. Papolu, illustration

November 25, 2020

George Washington would have so worn a mask

Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino

A biographer of George Washington says that the father of the country would have no problem wearing the kind of protective gear that President Trump shuns.

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George Washington’s foreign policy was built on respect for other nations and patient consideration of future burdens

Lafayette helped Americans turn the tide in their fight for independence – and 50 years later, he helped forge the growing nation’s sense of identity

George Washington would have so worn a mask

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