What three nations are the longest-standing U.S. allies?

That's easy:

• France is the US's oldest ally.  With some minor hiccups in the first two generations of American independence, France has been on good terms with the US and is her first and original "essential" ally (without which, we'd be something closer to Canada in our relationship with the UK). 
• the Netherlands.  While on-and-off as a neutral nation, the Netherlands and the US have been close since the day we declared independence. 

It gets really complicated after that.  Clearly the British Empire/the UK is the US's greatest ally.  It should also be noted that the US really didn't have "allies" as we know them today before the First World War.  The United States really did isolate itself (in terms of geopolitics, but at no point was the US ever "isolationist" in terms of engaging with and trading with the world) and for the most part, kept cordial terms with everybody (that it wasn't at war with).   So, talking about "old allies" really is hard after you cover the French and the Dutch; and even those nations' "alliances" with the US ended shortly after independence. 

The political makeup of the planet is also very different.  Before 1918, there weren't that many nation-states.  Almost everybody was a part of an empire, save for the nations of the Americas (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, the US, etc.).  Outside of the Americas and Europe, the world was gobbled up by empires (except Persia, Ethiopia, the Ottoman Empire, Siam and Japan).  Beyond that, nobody was "free" and relations with the world were essentially relations with about two-dozen nations, most of whom were European. 

So, in terms of codified by treaty, the US's original ally was France and after that we have to move to the 20th Century and then it becomes the United Kingdom & the Anglo-Dominion nations (Canada, Australia, New Zealand).

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