To the Editor:

James Thomas Flexner (''George Washington - What a Guy!'', Op-Ed, April 29) contrasted the eastward orientation of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton with George Washington's westward vision. He commented on Washington as an Indian fighter and his ''superlative ability to learn from experience.'' Mr. Flexner adds, ''This school tied him to the American soil, for he never went abroad.''

George Washington did go abroad - to the Caribbean island of Barbados, the only foreign country he ever visited. He went there in 1751, with his half-brother Lawrence, who hoped that the island's salubrious climate would cure his tuberculosis. Lawrence died shortly afterward, and ironically, George contracted small pox in Barbados.

Washington's visit is well chronicled in local history books. We know that George, then a 19-year-old major in the British North American Army, dined at the officers' mess at James Fort, site of the Barbados Hilton Hotel. A building on Bay Street across from the Barbados Yacht Club has for years been called Washington House, although like numerous United States residences, it is doubtful whether he ever slept there. This did not deter the Central Bank of Barbados some years ago from issuing a gold coin bearing a representation of Washington House.

We Barbadians would like to think his brief sojourn with us had a beneficial influence on the future father of the American Republic. Exactly 100 years earlier, Barbados had declared itself independent of Britain -prematurely as it turned out. Within months an expeditionary force dispatched by Oliver Cromwell aborted our revolution. It would be 300 years more before we won our independence. Maybe Washington learned from our mistake. Get it right the first time! COURTNEY N. BLACKMAN Bradenton, Fla., May 5, 1989 The writer is former governor of the Central Bank of Barbados.