Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller
(July 8, 1908 January 26, 1979) was the 41st Vice President of the United
States, the 49th governor of New York
, a public
servant, statesman, businessman, art
collector, and philanthropist.
Throughout his life Rockefeller was drawn to finding innovative,
inter-disciplinary solutions to public policy issues. He spent much
of his career in public service and he served the Roosevelt,
Truman, Eisenhower and Nixon administrations in a variety of
positions. As
Governor of New
York from 1959 to 1973 his achievements included the expansion
of the State University of New York, efforts to protect the
environment, the building of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State
Plaza in Albany, increased facilities and personnel for medical
care, and creation of the New York State Council on the Arts. A
Republican,
Rockefeller used a pragmatic problem solving approach to public
policy formation rather than adhering to strict ideology. He is
often referred to as a
moderate
Republican. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican
presidential nomination in 1960, 1964, and 1968. As a businessman
he was President and later Chairman of Rockefeller Center, Inc.,
and he formed the International Basic Economy Corporation in 1947.
Rockefeller assembled a significant art collection and promoted
public access to the arts.
He served as trustee, treasurer, and
president, of the Museum of Modern Art
, and founded the Museum of Primitive Art in
1954. In the area of philanthropy he established the
American International Association for Economic and Social
Development in 1946, and with his four brothers he founded the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund in 1940 and helped guide it. He was
appointed Vice President in 1974 by President
Gerald R. Ford. He
served until the end of the term in 1977, but did not join the 1976
GOP national ticket with President Ford. He retired from politics
when his term as Vice President was over.
Early life
Rockefeller was born in
Bar Harbor,
Maine. He was the son of
John Davison Rockefeller, Jr.
and
Abby Aldrich
Rockefeller.
He was the grandson of Standard Oil founder and chairman John Davison Rockefeller, Sr. and United
States Senator Nelson Wilmarth
Aldrich, a Republican from Rhode Island
. He had a sister,
Abby (1903-1976), and four
brothers;
John D. 3rd (1906-1978),
Laurance S. (1910-2004),
Winthrop (1912-1973), and
David (1915- ). He received his elementary
and high school education at the Lincoln School, an experimental
school administered by Teachers College of Columbia University.
In 1930,
he graduated cum laude with a B.A. in economics from
Dartmouth
College
, where he was a member of Casque and Gauntlet (a senior society),
Phi Beta Kappa, and the Zeta chapter
of the Psi Upsilon fraternity.
Following
his graduation he worked in a number of family related businesses
including: Chase National Bank (later Chase Manhattan), 1931;
Rockefeller
Center
, Inc., joining the Board of Directors in 1931,
serving as President, 1938-1945 and 1948-1951, and as Chairman,
1945-1953 and 1956-1958; and Creole Petroleum, the Venezuelan
subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, 1935-1940.
From 1932
to 1979 he served as a trustee of the Museum of Modern
Art. He also served as Treasurer, 1935-1939, and
President, 1939-1941 and 1946-1953. He and his four brothers
established the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropy, in 1940.
He served as trustee, 1940-1975 and 1977-1979, and as president in
1956.
Early public career
Rockefeller served as a member of the Westchester County (NY) Board
of Health, 1933-1953. His service with Creole Petroleum led to his
deep, life-long interest in
Latin
America. He became fluent in Spanish. In 1940, after expressing
his concern to
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
over Nazi influence in Latin America, the President appointed him
to the new position of
Coordinator of
Inter-American Affairs (CIAA) in the Office of Inter-American
Affairs (OIAA). Rockefeller was charged with overseeing a program
of US cooperation with the nations of Latin America to help raise
the standard of living, to achieve better relations among the
nations of the western hemisphere, and to counter rising Nazi
influence in the region. In 1944 President Roosevelt appointed
Rockefeller Assistant Secretary of State for American Republic
Affairs. As Assistant Secretary of State he initiated the
Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace in 1945. The
conference produced the Act of Chapultepec which provided the
framework for economic, social and defense cooperation among the
nations of the Americas and set the principle that an attack on one
of these nations would be regarded as an attack on all and jointly
resisted. Rockefeller signed the Act on behalf of the United
States.
Rockefeller was a member of the US delegation at the United Nations
Conference on International Organization at San Francisco in 1945.
At the Conference there was considerable opposition to the idea of
permitting, within the UN charter, the formation of regional pacts
such as the Act of Chapultepec. Rockefeller, who believed that the
inclusion was essential, especially to US policy in Latin America,
successfully urged the need for regional pacts within the framework
of the UN. Rockefeller was also instrumental in persuading the UN
to establish its headquarters in New York City.
After resigning as Assistant Secretary of State Rockefeller
returned to private life in 1945. He served as Chairman of
Rockefeller Center, Inc., (1945-1953 and 1956-1958) and began a
program of physical expansion. He established the American
International Association for Economic and Social Development
(AIA), in 1946, and the International Basic Economy Corporation
(IBEC), in 1947 to jointly continue the work he had begun as
Coordinator of
Inter-American Affairs. He intermittently served as president
of both through 1958. AIA was a philanthropy for the dissemination
of technical and managerial expertise and equipment to
underdeveloped countries to support grass roots efforts in
overcoming illiteracy, disease and poverty. IBEC was a for-profit
business that established companies that would stimulate
underdeveloped economies of certain countries. It was hoped the
success of these companies would encourage investors in those
countries to set up competing or supporting businesses and further
stimulate the local economy. Using AIA and IBEC Rockefeller
established model farms in Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil. He
maintained a home at Monte Sacro, the farm in Venezuela.
Rockefeller returned to public service in 1950 when President
Harry S. Truman appointed him Chairman of the
International Development Advisory Board. The Board was charged
with developing a plan for implementing the President’s
Point IV program of providing foreign
technical assistance. In 1952 President-Elect
Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Rockefeller to Chair the
President’s Advisory Committee on Government Organization to
recommend ways of improving efficiency and effectiveness of the
executive branch of the federal government. Rockefeller recommended
thirteen reorganization plans, all of which were implemented. The
plans implemented organizational changes in the Department of
Defense, the Department of Defense Mobilization and the Department
of Agriculture. His recommendations also led to the creation of the
Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Rockefeller was
appointed Under-Secretary of this new department in 1953.
Rockefeller was active in HEW’s legislative program and implemented
measures that added ten million people under the Social Security
program.
In 1954 he was appointed Special Assistant to the President for
Foreign Affairs (sometimes referred to as Special Assistant to the
President for Psychological Warfare.) He was tasked with providing
the President with advice and assistance in developing programs by
which the various departments of the government could counter
Soviet foreign policy challenges. As part of this responsibility he
was named as the President’s representative on the
Operations Coordinating Board,
a committee of the
National Security
Council. The other members were the Undersecretary of State,
the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the director of the Foreign
Operations Administration, and the
Central
Intelligence Agency director. The OCB’s purpose was to oversee
coordinated execution of security policy and plans, including
clandestine operations.
Rockefeller broadly interpreted his directive and became an
advocate for foreign economic aid as indispensible to national
security. Most of Rockefeller’s initiatives were blocked by
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his Under Secretary,
Herbert Hoover, Jr., both traditionalists who resented what they
perceived as outside interference from Rockefeller, and by Treasury
Secretary George Humphrey for financial reasons. However, in June
1955 Rockefeller convened a week-long meeting of experts from
various disciplines to assess the US position in the psychological
aspects of the Cold War and develop proposals that could give the
US the initiative at the upcoming Summit Conference in Geneva. The
meeting was held at the Marine Corps school at Quantico, Virginia
and became known as the Quantico Study. The Quantico panel
developed a proposal called “open skies” wherein the US and the
Soviet Union would exchange blueprints of military installations
and agree to mutual aerial reconnaissance. Thus military buildups
would be revealed and the danger of surprise attacks minimized. It
was a counter proposal to the Soviet proposal of universal
disarmament. The feeling was that the Soviets could not refuse the
proposal if they were serious about disarmament.
In March 1955 Rockefeller proposed the creation of the
Planning Coordination Group, a
small high level group that would plan and develop national
security operation, both overt and covert. The group consisted of
the Undersecretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the
director the CIA, and Special Assistant Rockefeller as chairman.
The group’s purpose was to oversee CIA operation and other
anti-communist actions. However, State Department officials and CIA
Director Allen Dulles refused to cooperate with the group and its
initiatives were stymied or ignored. In September Rockefeller
recommended the abolishment of the PCG and in December he resigned
as Special Assistant to the President.
In 1956, he created the
Special
Studies Project, a major seven-panel planning group directed by
Henry Kissinger and funded by the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund,
of which he was the then-president. It was an ambitious study
created to define the central problems and opportunities facing the
U.S. in the future, and to clarify national purposes and
objectives. The reports were published individually as they were
released and were republished together in 1961 as
Prospect for
America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports.
The
Special Studies Project came into national prominence with the
early release of its military subpanel's report, whose principal
recommendation was a massive military buildup to counter a
then-perceived military superiority threat posed by the USSR
. The
report was released two months after the October 1957 launch of
Sputnik, and its recommendations were fully
endorsed by Eisenhower in his January 1958
State of the Union address. Some of the
Special Studies Project’s domestic policy recommendations became
part of President John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier initiative.
[citation needed]
This initial contact with Kissinger was to develop into a lifelong
relationship; Kissinger was later to be described as his closest
intellectual associate. From this period Rockefeller employed
Kissinger as a personally funded part-time consultant, principally
on foreign policy issues, until the appointment to his staff became
full-time in late 1968. In 1969, when Kissinger entered
Richard Nixon's administration, Rockefeller
paid him $50,000 as a severance payment.
Governor of New York, 1959-1973
Gov.
Rockefeller meets with President Lyndon B.
Rockefeller left federal service in 1956 to
concentrate on New
York state and national politics. From September
1956 to April 1958 he chaired the Temporary State Commission on the
Constitutional Convention. That was followed by his chairmanship of
the Special Legislative Committee on the Revision and
Simplification of the Constitution. These two appointments served
to educate him on the workings of New York state government and to
make him visible in state political circles. In
1958, he was elected
governor by over 600,000 votes,
defeating the incumbent, multi-millionaire
W. Averell Harriman, even though 1958 was a
banner year for
Democrats
elsewhere in the nation. Rockefeller was ultimately elected to
four, four-year terms as governor of New York State. Re-elected in
1962,
1966 and
1970, Rockefeller vastly
increased the state's role in education, environmental protection,
transportation, housing, welfare, medical aid, civil rights, and
the arts. He resigned three years into his fourth term.
Education
Rockefeller was the driving force in turning the
State University of New York
into the largest system of public higher education in the United
States. Under his governorship it grew from 29 campuses and 38,000
full-time students to 72 campuses and 232,000 full-time students.
Other accomplishments included more than quadrupling state aid to
primary and secondary schools; providing the first state financial
support for educational television; and requiring special education
for mentally retarded children in public schools.
Conservation
Consistent with his personal interest in design and planning,
Rockefeller began expansion of the
New York State Parks system and
improvement of park facilities. He persuaded voters to approve
three major bond acts to raise more than $300 million for
acquisition of park and forest preserve land and he built or
started 55 new state parks. Rockefeller initiated studies of
environmental issues, such as loss of agricultural land through
development—an issue now characterized as "
sprawl". In September 1968, Rockefeller appointed the
Temporary Study Commission on the Future of the
Adirondacks. This led to his
introduction to the Legislature in 1971 of a bill to create the
controversial
Adirondack Park
Agency, which was designed to protect the Adirondack State Park
from encroaching development. Also, he launched the Pure Waters
Program, the fist state bond issue to end water pollution; created
the Department of Environmental Conservation; banned DDT and other
dangerous pesticides; and established the Office of Parks and
Recreation.
Transportation
In 1967 Rockefeller won approval of the largest state bond issue at
the time ($2.5 billion) for the coordinated development of mass
transportation, highways and airports. He initiated the creation
and/or expansion of over 22,000 miles of highway including
Long Island Expressway, the
Southern Tier Expressway, the
Adirondack Northway, and
Interstate 81 which vastly improved
road transportation in the state of New York. Rockefeller
introduced the state’s first support for mass transportation.
He
reformed the governing of New York City
's transportation system, creating the New York
Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1965. It merged
the
New York City subway
system with the publicly owned
Triborough Bridge and
Tunnel Authority, the
Long
Island Rail Road, the Staten Island Rapid Transit and later the
Metro North Railroad, which
were purchased by the state from private owners in a massive public
bailout of bankrupt railroads. He also created the State Department
of Transportation.
In taking over control of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel
Authority, Rockefeller shifted power away from
Robert Moses, who controlled several of New
York state's public infrastructure authorities. Under the New York
MTA, toll revenue collected from the bridges and tunnels, which had
previously been used to build more bridges, tunnels, and highways,
now went to support
mass
transportation operations, thus shifting costs from general
state funds to the motorist.
In one controversial move, Rockefeller
abandoned one of Moses's most desired projects, a Long Island
Sound
bridge from Rye
to Oyster
Bay
in 1973 due to environmental
opposition.
Housing
To create more low-income housing, Rockefeller created the New York
State Urban Development Corporation (UDC), with unprecedented
powers to override local
zoning,
condemn property, and create financing
schemes to carry out desired development. (UDC is now called the
Empire State Development Corporation, which forms a unit, along
with the formerly independent Job Development Authority, of
Empire State
Development Corporation.) By 1973 the Rockefeller
administration had completed or started over 88,000 units of
housing for limited income families and the aging.
Welfare and Medicaid
In the area of public assistance the Rockefeller administration
carried out the largest state medical care program for the needy in
the US under Medicaid; achieved the first major decline in New York
States’s welfare rolls since WW II; required employable welfare
recipients to take available jobs or job training; began the state
breakfast program for children in low income areas; and established
the fist state loan fund for non-profit groups to start day-care
centers.
Civil Rights
Rockefeller achieved virtual total prohibition of discrimination in
housing and places of public accommodation. He outlawed job
discrimination based on gender or age; increased by nearly 50% the
number of African Americans and Hispanics holding state jobs;
appointed women to head the largest number of state agencies in
state history; prohibited discrimination against women in
education, employment, housing and credit applications; admitted
the first women to the State Police; initiated affirmative action
programs for women in state government; and backed New York’s
ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution.
He outlawed “block-busting” as a means of artificially depressing
housing values and banned discrimination in the sale of all forms
of insurance.
The Arts
Rockefeller created the first State Council on the Arts in the US,
which became a model for the National Endowment for the Arts.
He also
over saw the construction of the Saratoga
Performing Arts Center
in Saratoga Spa State Park.
Crime
During his fifteen years as governor Rockefeller doubled the size
of the State Police, established the New York State Police Academy,
adopted the “stop and frisk” and "no-knock” laws to strengthen
police powers, and authorized 228 additional state judgeships to
reduce court congestion.New York was the last state to have a
mandatory death penalty for premeditated first degree murder. In
1963 Rockefeller signed legislation abandoning that and
establishing a two stage trial for murder cases with punishment
determined in the second stage. Rockefeller was a supporter of
capital
punishment and oversaw 14
executions
by
electrocution as Governor. The
last execution, of
Eddie Mays in 1963,
remains to date the last execution in New York and was the last
execution before
Furman
v. Georgia in
the Northeast. However, despite his personal support for capital
punishment, Rockefeller signed a bill in 1965 to abolish the death
penalty except in cases involving the murder of police
officers.
Rockefeller was also a supporter of the "
law and order" platform.
Tough laws on drug users
What became known as the “
Rockefeller drug laws” were a product
of Rockefeller’s attempt to deal with the rapid increase in
narcotics addiction and related crime. In 1962 he proposed a
program of voluntary rehabilitation for addicted convicts rather
than prison time. This was approved by the NY State legislature,
but by 1966 it was evident this program was not working as most
addicts chose short prison terms rather than three years of
treatment. He then turned to a program of compulsory treatment,
rehabilitation and aftercare for three years. While this program
saw success in rehabilitating addicts, it did little to reduce the
narcotics trade and associated crime. Rockefeller was also
frustrated that the federal government was not doing anything
significant to address the problem. Feeling that existing laws and
the way they were being implemented did not solve the problem of
the “drug pusher,” and pressured by voters angry about the drug
problem, Rockefeller proposed a hard line approach. As approved by
the NY State legislature in 1973 the new drug laws included
mandatory life sentences without the possibility of plea-bargaining
or parole for all drug users, dealers, and those convicted of
drug-related violent crimes; a $1,000 reward for information
leading to the conviction of drug pushers; and deleting less harsh
penalties for youthful offenders. Public support for the measures
was mixed, as were the results. They did not lead more addicts to
seek rehabilitation as hoped, and ultimately did not solve the
problem of drug trafficking. These were among the toughest drug
laws in the United States when they were enacted and are still on
the books, albeit in moderated form. To carry out the
rehabilitation program Rockefeller created the State Narcotics
Addiction Control Commission (later the State Drug Abuse Control
Commission.) New York also provided the financial support for
research in methadone maintenance and the administration of the
largest methadone maintenance program in the US.
Attica prison riots
On September 9, 1971, prisoners at the state penitentiary at
Attica, NY, took control of a cell block and seized thirty-nine
guards as hostages. After four days of negotiations, Department of
Correctional Services Commissioner Russell Oswald agreed to 28 of
the inmates’ 30 demands for various reforms. The demands that were
not agreed to were complete amnesty to the rioters with passage out
of the country, and removal of the prison’s superintendant. When
negotiations stalled and the hostages appeared to be in imminent
danger, Rockefeller ordered
New
York State Police troopers and
National Guardsmen to restore
order and take back the prison on September 13.Thirty nine people
died in the assault, including ten of the hostages. All but three
of the deaths were attributed to the gunfire of the National Guard
and state police. The other three that had been killed were inmates
killed by other inmates in the start of the riot. Critics blamed
Rockefeller for these deaths in part because of his refusal to go
to the prison and talk with the inmates, while his supporters,
including many conservatives who had often vocally differed with
him in the past, defended his actions as being necessary to the
preservation of law and order. “I was trying to do the best I could
to save the hostages, save the prisoners, restore order, and
preserve our system without undertaking actions which could set a
precedent which would go across this country like wildfire,”
Rockefeller later said.
Buildings and public works programs
Rockefeller engaged in massive building projects that left a
profound mark on the state of New York. (Some of his detractors
claimed that he had an "Edifice Complex.") He was personally
interested in planning, design, and construction of the many
projects intitiated during his administration, consistent with his
interest in architecture.
In addition, Rockefeller's construction
programs included the $2 billion South Mall in Albany
, later renamed the Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State
Plaza
by Gov. Hugh Carey in 1978. It is a 98 acre
campus of skyscrapers housing state offices and public plazas
punctuated by an egg-shaped arts center.
Other programs
Rockefeller worked with the legislature and unions to create
generous pension programs for many public workers, such as
teachers, professors, firefighters, police officers, and prison
guards. He proposed the first statewide
minimum wage law in the US which was increased
five times during his administration. Additional accomplishments of
Rockefeller’s fifteen years as Governor of New York include
initiating the state lottery and off-track betting; adopting modern
treatment techniques in state mental hospitals to reduce the number
of mentally ill patients by over 50%; creating the State Office of
the Aging and constructing nearly 12,000 units of housing for the
aging; the first mandatory seatbelt law in the US; and creating the
State Consumer Protection Board.
“Moderate Republican”
Reflecting his interdisciplinary approach to problem solving
Rockefeller took a pragmatic approach to governing. In their book
Rockefeller of New York: Executive Power in the State
House, Robert Connery and Gerald Benjamin state, “Rockefeller
was not committed to any ideology. Rather, he considered himself a
practical problem solver, much more interested in defining problems
and finding solutions around which he could unite support
sufficient to ensure their enactment in legislation than in
following either a strictly liberal or strictly conservative
course. Rockefeller’s programs did not consistently follow either
liberal or conservative ideology.” Early fiscal policies were
conservative while later ones were not so. In the later years of
his administration “conservative decisions on social programs were
paralleled by liberal ones on environmental issues.”Rockefeller was
opposed by conservatives in the GOP such as Barry Goldwater and
Ronald Reagan who viewed him as liberal. As governor, Rockefeller
spent more than his predecessors. Rockefeller expanded the state's
infrastructure, increased spending on
education including a massive expansion of the State University of
New York, and increased the state’s involvement in environmental
issues. Rockefeller had good relations with unions, especially the
construction trades, which benefited from his extensive building
programs.In foreign affairs, Rockefeller supported US involvement
in the
United Nations as well as US
foreign aid.
He also supported the U.S.'s fight against
communism and its membership in NATO
. As a
result of Rockefeller's policies, some conservatives sought to gain
leverage by creating the
Conservative Party of New
York. The small party acted as a minor counter-weight to the
Liberal Party of New
York State. The most common criticism of Rockefeller’s
governorship of New York is that he tried to do too much too fast,
vastly increasing the level of state debt which later contributed
to New York’s fiscal crisis in 1975. Rockefeller created some 230
public-benefit authorities like the Urban Development Corporation.
They were often used to issue bonds in order to avoid the
requirement of a vote of the people for the issuance of a bond;
such authority-issued bonds bore higher interest than if they had
been issued directly by the state. The state budget went from $2.04
billion in 1959-60 to $8.8 billion in his last year, 1973-74.
“Rockefeller sought and obtained eight tax increases during his
fifteen years in office.” “During his administration, the tax
burden rose to a higher level than in any other state, and the
incidence of taxation shifted, with a greater share being borne by
the individual taxpayer.”
National politics
Rockefeller sought the Republican
presidential nomination in 1960, 1964, and
1968. His bid in 1960 was ended early when then-Vice President
Richard Nixon surged ahead in the
polls. After quitting the campaign, Rockefeller backed Nixon, and
concentrated his efforts on introducing more moderate planks into
Nixon's platform.
Rockefeller, favored by moderate and liberal
Republicans, was considered the front-runner for the 1964 campaign
against the more conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona
, who led the right wing
of the Republican Party. In 1963, a year after Rockefeller's
divorce from his first wife, he married
Margaretta "Happy" Murphy, a divorcee with
four children. This turned many in the party off, especially women.
Rockefeller finished third in the
New Hampshire primary in February,
behind write-in
Henry Cabot
Lodge, Jr. (from neighboring Massachusetts) and Goldwater.
He then
endured poor showings in several primaries, before winning an upset
in the Oregon
primary in
May. The birth of Rockefeller's child during the
California
campaign put the divorce and remarriage issue back
in the headlines. After a furious contest, Rockefeller
narrowly lost the California primary in early June and dropped out
of the race. However, at the Republican National Convention in San
Francisco in July, Rockefeller was given five minutes to speak
before the convention in defense of five amendments to the party
platform put forth by the moderate wing of the Republican Party to
counter the Goldwater plank condoning political extremism. Right
wing delegates booed and heckled Rockefeller for 16 minutes while
he stood firmly at the podium insisting on his right to
speak.
Rockefeller again sought the Republican presidential nomination in
1968. His opponents were Nixon and Governor
Ronald W. Reagan of California. In the contest,
Rockefeller again represented the liberals in the GOP, Reagan
representing the conservative Goldwater element, and Nixon
representing the moderates. Rather than formally announce his
candidacy and enter the state primaries, Rockefeller spent the
first half of 1968 alternating between hints that he would run, and
pronouncements that he would not be a candidate. Shortly before the
Republican convention, Rockefeller finally let it be known that he
was available to be the nominee, and he sought to round up
uncommitted delegates and woo reluctant Nixon delegates to his
banner, armed with public opinion polls that showed him doing
better among voters than either Nixon or Reagan against Democrat
Hubert Humphrey. Nixon easily
defeated both Reagan and Rockefeller, however.
After
Gerald Ford's elevation to the
Presidency, Rockefeller was named Vice-President, and he was
initially mentioned and reportedly considered running for President
for a fourth time
in 1976, if Ford
declined to seek his own term.
Presidential Mission to Latin America
In 1969 at the request of President Nixon, Rockefeller and a team
of 23 advisors visited 20 American republics to solicit opinions of
US inter-American policies and to determine the needs and
conditions of each country. Among the recommendations in
Rockefeller’s report to the President were preferential trade
agreements with Latin American countries, refinancing the region’s
foreign debt, and removing bureaucratic impediments that prevented
the efficient use of US aid. The Nixon administration did little to
implement the report’s recommendations.
National Commission on Water Quality
In May 1973 President Nixon appointed Rockefeller chairman of the
National Commission on Water Quality, charged with determining the
technological, economic, social and environmental implications of
meeting water quality standards mandated by the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. The Commission issued its
report in March 1976 and he testified before Congress on its
findings. He served until July 1976.
Commission on Critical Choices for Americans
In November 1973, Rockefeller established the
Commission on
Critical Choices for Americans, and served as chairman until
December 1974. The Commission was a private study project on
national and international policy similar to the Special Studies
Project he led 15 years earlier. It was made up of a nationally
representative, bipartisan group of 42 prominent Americans drawn
from far-ranging fields of interest who served on a voluntary
basis. Members included the majority and minority leaders of both
houses of Congress. The Commission gathered information and
insights to better understand the problems facing America, and to
present to the American public the “critical choices” to be made in
facing those problems. He resigned as Governor of New York in
December 1973, devoting himself to his new commission and the
possibility of another presidential run.
Vice Presidency 1974-1977
Following President Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974,
President
Gerald Ford nominated
Rockefeller on August 20 to serve as
Vice President of the United
States. Rockefeller's top competitor had been
George H.W. Bush.
Vice President Rockefeller bust from
the Senate collection
While acknowledging that many conservatives opposed Rockefeller,
Ford believed that he would bring executive expertise to the
administration and would broaden the ticket’s appeal if they ran in
1976. Ford also felt he could demonstrate his own self confidence
by selecting a strong personality like Rockefeller for the number
two spot.Although he had said he was “just not built for standby
equipment,” Rockefeller accepted the President’s request to serve
as Vice President. "It was entirely a question of there being a
Constitutional crisis and a crisis of confidence on the part of the
American people," he said. "I felt there was a duty incumbent on
any American who could do anything that would contribute to a
restoration of confidence in the democratic process and in the
integrity of government." Rockefeller was also persuaded by Ford’s
promise to make him “a full partner” in his presidency, especially
in domestic policy.
Rockefeller underwent extended hearings before Congress, which
caused embarrassment when it was revealed he made massive gifts to
senior aides, such as
Henry
Kissinger. He had paid all his taxes, no illegalities were
uncovered, and he was confirmed. Although conservative Republicans
were not pleased that Rockefeller was picked, most of them voted
for his confirmation. However, some, including Goldwater, voted
against him..
Beginning his service on December 19, 1974, Rockefeller was the
second person appointed Vice President under the
25th
Amendment the first being Ford himself. Rockefeller often
seemed concerned that Ford gave him little or no power, and few
tasks, while he was Vice President. Ford initially said he wanted
Rockefeller to chair the Domestic Council. But Ford's new White
House staff had no intention of sharing power with the vice
president and his staff.
Rockefeller’s attempt to take charge of domestic policy was
thwarted by White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, who
objected to policy makers reporting to the president through the
vice president. When Rockefeller had one of his former aids, James
Cannon, appointed executive director the Domestic Council, Rumsfeld
cut its budget. Rockefeller was excluded from the decision making
process on many important issues. When he learned that Ford had
proposed cuts in federal taxes and spending he responded, “This is
the most important move the president has made, and I wasn't even
consulted." Nevertheless, Ford appointed him to the Commission on
the Organization of Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy,
and appointed him Chairman of the Commission on CIA Activities
within the United States, the National Commission on Productivity,
the Federal Compensation Committee, and the Committee on the Right
to Privacy. Ford also put Rockefeller in charge of his "Whip
Inflation Now" initiative.
While
Rockefeller was Vice President, the official Vice Presidential
residence was established at Number One
Observatory Circle
on the grounds of the United
States Naval Observatory
. This residence had previously been the home
of the
Chief of Naval
Operations; prior Vice Presidents had been responsible for
maintaining their own homes at their own expense, but the necessity
of massive full-time
Secret
Service security had made this custom impractical to continue.
Rockefeller already had a well-secured Washington residence and
never lived in the home as a principal residence, although he did
host several official functions there. His wealth enabled him to
donate millions of dollars of furnishings to the house.
Rockefeller did a unique thing by donating the salary he received
as Vice President to two causes. Half was given to the creation of
Federal Programs to educate inner-city, low income children and to
fund youth and family centers in the urban cities. The other half
was donated to the preservation and promotion of programs teaching
the arts in low income public school systems.
[Citation
needed.]
Rockefeller was slow to embrace the use of the government aircraft
that were provided for Vice Presidential transportation.
Rockefeller continued to use his own private comfortably equipped
Gulfstream for the first part
of his time in office. It was operated under the call sign
Executive Two when the
Vice President was onboard.
Initially Rockefeller felt he was doing the taxpayer a favor saving
money by not using government funded transportation. Finally the
Secret Service was able
to convince him they were spending more money flying agents around
to meet the needs of his protective detail and he began to fly on
the
DC-9 that was serving as
Air Force Two at the time. His
codename given by the
Secret Service was
"Sandstorm".
In November 1975, Rockefeller officially told Ford that he would
not run for election in 1976, saying that he "didn't come down (to
Washington) to get caught up in party squabbles which only make it
more difficult for the President in a very difficult time..."
However,
Ford, a moderate, under pressure from the conservative wing of the
party and in response to Ronald Reagan’s challenge for the
presidential nomination, had decided to drop Rockefeller in favor
of the more conservative Senator Robert
Dole from Kansas
. Ford
is the last President to do this; every President since has run for
re-election with the same Vice President that he served with during
his first term. Ford later acknowledged that this was one of the
biggest mistakes he ever made. Ford's switch of his running mate to
Dole did not help him, as the ticket lost the election to
Jimmy Carter.On January 10, 1977, Ford
presented Rockefeller with the
Presidential Medal of
Freedom.
Art patronage
Rockefeller served as a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art from
1932 to 1979. He also served as Treasurer, 1935-1939, and
President, 1939-1941 and 1946-1953.
In 1933 Rockefeller was a member of the
committee selecting art for the new Rockefeller Center. For the wall opposite the main entrance of
30 Rockefeller Plaza Nelson Rockefeller wanted
Henri Matisse or
Pablo Picasso to paint a mural because he
favored their
modern style, but neither
was available.
Diego Rivera was one of
Nelson Rockefeller's mother's favorite artists and therefore was
commissioned to create the huge mural. He was given a theme: New
Frontiers. Rockefeller wanted the painting to make people pause and
think. Rivera submitted a sketch for a mural entitled “Man at the
Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a
New and Better Future.” The sketch featured an anonymous man at the
center. However, when it was painted the work caused great
controversy due to the inclusion of a painting of
Lenin (depicting
communism)
at the center. The Directors of Rockefeller Center objected and
Rockefeller asked Rivera to change the face of Lenin to that of an
unknown laborer's face as was originally intended, but the painter
refused.
The work was paid for on May 22, 1933, and immediately draped.
Rockefeller suggested that the fresco could be donated to the
Museum of Modern Art, but the trustees of the Museum were not
interested. People protested but it remained covered until the
early weeks of 1934, when it was smashed by workers and hauled away
in wheelbarrows. Rivera responded by saying that it was "cultural
vandalism." At Rockefeller Center in its place is a mural by Jose
Maria Sert with
Abraham Lincoln as
its focal point. The Rockefeller-Rivera dispute is covered in the
films
Cradle Will Rock and
Frida.
Rockefeller was a noted collector of both modern and non-Western
art. During his governorship, New York State acquired major works
of art for the new Empire State Plaza in Albany.
He continued his
mother's work at the Museum of Modern Art as president, and turned the basement of his
Kykuit
mansion into
a gallery while placing works of sculpture around the grounds (an
activity he enjoyed personally supervising, frequently moving the
pieces from place to place by helicopter). While he was
overseeing construction of the State University of New York system,
Rockefeller built, in collaboration with his lifelong friend
Roy Neuberger, the
Neuberger Museum on the campus of
SUNY Purchase College, designed by
Philip Johnson.
He
commissioned Master Santiago Martínez Delgado to
make a canvas mural for the Bank of New York (City Bank) in
Bogotá,
Colombia
; this ended up being the last work of the artist,
as he died while finishing it.
Rockefeller's early visits to Mexico
kindled a
collecting interest in pre-Columbian and contemporary Mexican art,
to which he added works of traditional African and Pacific Island
art. In 1954 he established the
Museum of Primitive Art devoted to
the indigenous art of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and early Asia
and Europe. His personal collection formed the core of the
collection.
The museum opened to the public in 1957 in a
townhouse on West 54th Street in New York City. In 1969 he gave the museum's collection to
the Metropolitan Museum of Art
where it became the Michael C. Rockefeller
Collection.
In 1978,
Alfred A. Knopf published a book on primitive art from
Rockefeller's collection. Rockefeller, impressed with the work of
photographer Lee Boltin and editor/publisher Paul Anbinder on the
book, co-founded Nelson Rockefeller Publications, Inc. with them,
with the goal of publishing fine art books of high quality. After
Rockefeller's death less than a year later, the company continued
as Hudson Hills Press, Inc.
In 1977 he founded Nelson Rockefeller Collection, Inc., (NRC) an
art reproduction company that produced and sold licensed
reproductions of selected works from Rockefeller’s collection. In
the introduction to the NRC catalog he stated he was motivated by
his desire to share with others “the joy of living with these
beautiful objects.”
Marriages
On June 23, 1930, Rockefeller married
Mary Todhunter Clark. They had five
children:
Rodman, Anne, Steven,
and twins Mary and
Michael. They
were divorced in 1962. On May 4, 1963 he married
Margaretta "Happy" Murphy. He and his
second wife had two children together, Nelson, Jr. and
Mark. They remained married until his death
in 1979.
Death
Rockefeller died on January 26, 1979, at age 70 from a
heart attack. An initial report had
incorrectly stated that he was at his office at Rockefeller Center
working on a book about his art collection, and a security guard
found him slumped over his desk. However, the report was soon
corrected to state that Rockefeller actually had the fatal heart
attack in another office he owned in a townhouse at 13 West
54th Street in the presence
of
Megan Marshack, an aide. After the
heart attack, Marshack called her friend, news reporter Ponchitta
Pierce, to the townhouse, and Pierce phoned an ambulance
approximately an hour after the heart attack. There was some
speculation in the press regarding the possibility of an intimate
relationship between Rockefeller and Marshack. Rockefeller’s four
oldest children issued a statement saying they had conducted their
own review, they believed that their father could not have been
saved, and that all those who tried to help had acted responsibly.
Neither Marshack nor the family has commented since on the
circumstances surrounding Rockefeller's death.
On
January 29, 1979, family and close friends gathered to inter
Rockefeller’s ashes in a private Rockefeller family cemetery in
Sleepy
Hollow, New York
. His remains had been cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery
in nearby Hartsdale
. On February 2, 2,200 people attended a
memorial service at Riverside Church in New York. Attendees
included President Jimmy Carter, President Gerald Ford, more than
100 members of the US Senate and House of Representatives including
Senator Barry Goldwater, and official representatives from 71
foreign countries. Eulogies were delivered by two of Rockefeller’s
children, his brother David and Henry Kissinger.
In popular media
Electoral history
Some Awards Presented to Nelson A. Rockefeller
- Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1977
- Universal Brotherhood Medal, Jewish Theological Seminary of
America, 1961
- Charles Evans Hughes Medal, National Conference of Christians
and Jews, 1965
- Distinguished Service to Conservation Award, National Wildlife
Federation/Sears Roebuck Foundation, 1966
- Gold Medal Award, National Institute of Social Sciences, 1967
(awarded to all five Rockefeller brothers)
- Award of Merit, American Institute of Architects, New York
Chapter, 1968
- Distinguished Service Award, State University of New York,
1973
- Four Freedoms Foundation Award, 1974
- Award of Merit, Chile, 1945
- National Order of the Southern Cross, Brazil, 1946
- Order of the Aztec Eagle, Mexico, 1949
- Order of Ruben Dario, Nicaragua, 1953
- Medallion de los Andes, University of the Andes, Colombia,
1958
- Commandeur of the Order of Arts & Letters, France,
1958
- Grande Croix de l’Ordre de Leopold II of Belgium, 1959
- Ramon Magsaysay Award, Philippines, 1959
- Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau, Netherlands,
1960
- Prathamabhorn Knight Grand Cross of the Most Exalted Order of
the White Elephant, Thailand, 1960
- Legion of Honor, Commandeur, France, 1960
- Commander of the Order of Dannebrog, 1st Class, Denmark,
1960
- Grand Ufficials del ‘Ordine al Merito della Repubblica
Italiana, Italy, 1962
- Order of the White Rose, Commander 1st Class, Finland,
1962
- Agricultural Merit Award, Brazilian Rural Confederation,
1963
- Grand Cordon of the Order of the Brilliant Star, Nationalist
China, 1969
- Nicholas Copericus Award, Poland, 1972
Memorials to Nelson A. Rockefeller
The following institutions and facilities have been named in honor
of Nelson A. Rockefeller:
- The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public
policy research arm of the State University of New York
- The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center, Dartmouth College, a social
science research center
- Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at
Albany, State University of New York
- The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza
- Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Battery City, New York
Some Awards Named for Nelson A. Rockefeller
- Nelson A. Rockefeller Award, Purchase College School of the
Arts, presented annually to five individuals who have distinguished
themselves through their contributions to the arts or the
environment.
- Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Award for Excellence in Public
Service, State Academy for Public Administration.
- Nelson A. Rockefeller Distinguished Public Service Award,
Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences, Dartmouth
College.
- Nelson A. Rockefeller Award, American Society for Public
Administration, Empire State Capital Area Chapter, presented to an
individual whose governmental career in New York State demonstrates
exemplary leadership, performance, and achievement in shaping
public policy, developing and implementing major public programs,
or resolving major public problems.
- Nelson A. Rockefeller Award, The New York Water Environment
Association, Inc., awarded to an elected official at a City
(population over 250,000), State or National level who has made a
substantial and meaningful contribution to advancing effective
environmental programs.
- Nelson A. Rockefeller Public Service Award, Rockefeller
Institute of Government (1988-1994).
Bibliography
- Bleecker, Samuel E. The Politics of Architecture: A
Perspective on Nelson A. Rockefeller, Rutledge Press,
1981. Deals with the architecture of New York State buildings.
- Cobbs, Elizabeth Anne. The Rich Neighbor Policy:
Rockefeller and Kaiser in Brazil, Yale University Press,
1992.
- Cobbs, Elizabeth A. "Entrepreneurship as Diplomacy: Nelson
Rockefeller and the Development of the Brazilian Capital Market,"
Business History Review, 1989 63(1): 88-121. Examines NR's
Fundo Crescinco, a mutual fund that he started in Brazil in the
1950s to continue FDR's Good Neighbor policy. It reflected both
liberal assumptions about the importance of the middle class to
economic development and the concerns of business people about
placating Latin American nationalism.
- Colby, Gerard & Charlotte Dennett. Thy Will be Done:
The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in
the Age of Oil, 1995.
- Connery, Robert H. and Gerald Benjamin. Governing New York
State: The Rockefeller Years, 1974. An in-depth analysis.
- Bernard J. Firestone and Alexej Ugrinsky, eds. Gerald
R. Ford and the Politics of Post-Watergate America.
Volume: 1. Greenwood Press, 1993. (pp 137–94). One chapter
has analysis by scholars of the Vice-Presidency.
- Deane, Elizabeth, (Director). The Rockefellers, A
documentary film, 1999.
- Donovan, Robert John. Confidential Secretary: Ann Whitman's
Twenty Years with Eisenhower and Rockefeller, New York:
Dutton, 1988.
- Isaacson, Walter, Kissinger: A Biography, New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1992, (updated, 2005).
- Kramer, Michael and Roberts, Sam. "I Never Wanted to Be
Vice-President of Anything!": An Investigative Biography of Nelson
Rockefeller, 1976.
- Light, Paul. "Vice-presidential Influence under Rockefeller and
Mondale." Political Science Quarterly 1983-1984 98(4):
617-640. in JSTOR
- Perlstein, Rick. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the
Unmaking of the American Consensus, 2002. On the 1964
election.
- Persico, Joseph E. The
Imperial Rockefeller: A Biography of Nelson A.
Rockefeller, New York: Pocket Books, 1982 (The author was
a senior aide).
- Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller:
Worlds to Conquer, 1908-1958, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
{Volume 1 of the most comprehensive biography of Nelson ever
written, the author had accessed many papers in the Rockefeller
Archive Center for his research but died before writing Volume
2, covering the crucial period from 1959 to 1979.}
- James Reichley; Conservatives in an Age of Change: The
Nixon and Ford Administrations, Brookings Institution,
1981.
- Rivas, Darlene. Missionary Capitalist: Nelson Rockefeller
in Venezuela. University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
- Straight, Michael. Nancy Hanks, an Intimate Portrait: The
Creation of a National Commitment to the Arts. Duke University
Press, 1988. She was a top aide (and lover).
- Turner, Michael. The Vice President as Policy Maker:
Rockefeller in the Ford White House, New York: Greenwood,
1982.
- Underwood, James E. and Daniels, William J. Governor
Rockefeller in New York: The Apex of Pragmatic Liberalism, New
York: Greenwood, 1982.
See also
References
- Cramer, Gisela; Prutsch, Ursula, "Nelson A. Rockefeller's Office of Inter-American
Affairs (1940-1946) and Record Group 229", Hispanic
American Historical Review 2006 86(4):785-806;
DOI:10.1215/00182168-2006-050.
- Joe Alex Morris, Nelson Rockefeller, A Biography, New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. p. 129-135.
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996. p.
278-304.
- Joe Alex Morris, Nelson Rockefeller, A Biography, New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. pp. 215-222.
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996. pp.
383-386.
- Joe Alex Morris, Nelson Rockefeller, A Biography, New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. p. 242.
- Joe Alex Morris, Nelson Rockefeller, A Biography, New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. pp. 251-255.
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996. pp.
521-527.
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996. p. 558.
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996. pp.
611-618.
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996. p. 575.
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996. pp.
577-583.
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996. p. 560.
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996. p. 617.
- Creation of the Special Studies Project in 1956 - see Cary
Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer,
1908-1958, New York: Doubleday, 1996. (pp. 650-667)
- Relationship with Kissinger - see Walter Isaacson,
Kissinger: A Biography, New York: Simon & Schuster,
Revised edition, 2005. (pp. 90-93),
- State of New York, Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Fifty-third Governor of the State of New York, vol. 15, 1973
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1973), p. 1380.
- "Theodore Roosevelt – Alfred E. Smith –
Nelson Rockefeller – George Pataki." The New York State
Preservationist. NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic
Preservation. Fall/Winter 2006, p. 20
- State of New York, Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Fifty-third Governor of the State of New York, vol. 15, 1973
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1973), p. 1384.
- Graham, Frank, Jr. The Adirondack Park: A Political
History. New York City: Knopf, 1978
- State of New York, Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Fifty-third Governor of the State of New York, vol. 15, 1973
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1973), p. 1381.
- State of New York, Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Fifty-third Governor of the State of New York, vol. 15, 1973
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1973), p. 1385.
- State of New York, Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Fifty-third Governor of the State of New York, vol. 15, 1973
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1973), p. 1382.
- State of New York, Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Fifty-third Governor of the State of New York, vol. 15, 1973
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1973), p. 1385.
- State of New York, Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Fifty-third Governor of the State of New York, vol. 15, 1973
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1973), pp. 1382, 1386.
- State of New York, Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Fifty-third Governor of the State of New York, vol. 15, 1973
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1973), p. 1379.
- Robert H. Connery and Gerald Benjamin, Rockefeller of New
York; Executive Power in the Statehouse, Ithaca, Cornell
University Press, 1979, p 242.
- List of pre-Furman executions in New York
- Regional Studies Northeast
- Craig
Brandon, The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American
History, 1999
- American Experience | The Rockefellers | People
& Events
- Robert H. Connery and Gerald Benjamin, Rockefeller of New
York; Executive Power in the Statehouse, Ithaca, Cornell
University Press, 1979, pp. 266-274.
- Benjamin and Rappaport, “Attica and Prison Reform,” in
Governing New York State: The Rockefeller Years, p.
206.
- "Is the Rock Still Solid?", TIME Magazine,
October 19, 1970
- State of New York, Public Papers of Nelson A. Rockefeller,
Fifty-third Governor of the State of New York, vol. 15, 1973
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1973), pp. 1378, 1382, 1383,
1384.
- Robert H. Connery and Gerald Benjamin, Rockefeller of New
York; Executive Power in the Statehouse, Ithaca, Cornell
University Press, 1979, p. 424.
- Robert H. Connery and Gerald Benjamin, Rockefeller of New
York; Executive Power in the Statehouse, Ithaca, Cornell
University Press, 1979, p. 189.
- Robert H. Connery and Gerald Benjamin, Rockefeller of New
York; Executive Power in the Statehouse, Ithaca, Cornell
University Press, 1979, pp. 44-45.
- Robert H. Connery and Gerald Benjamin, Rockefeller of New
York; Executive Power in the Statehouse, Ithaca, Cornell
University Press, 1979, p. 439.
- Robert H. Connery and Gerald Benjamin, Rockefeller of New
York; Executive Power in the Statehouse, Ithaca, Cornell
University Press, 1979, p. 427.
- Robert H. Connery and Gerald Benjamin, Rockefeller of New
York; Executive Power in the Statehouse, Ithaca, Cornell
University Press, 1979, p. 428.
- Michael Kramer and Sam Roberts, “I Never Wanted to be
Vice-President of Anything!”: An Investigative Biography of Nelson
Rockefeller, New York: Basic Books, 1976, p. 283.
- Joseph E. Persico, The Imperial Rockefeller: A biography of
Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982, pp.
65-66.
- Peter
Collier, David Horovitz, The Rockefellers: An
American Dynasty (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976)
ISBN 0-03-008371-0
- Joseph E. Persico, The Imperial Rockefeller: A biography of
Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982, p.
106.
- Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald
R. Ford (New York, 1979), pp.143-144.
- Joseph E. Persico, The Imperial Rockefeller: A Biography of
Nelson A. Rockefeller (New York, 1982), p. 245.
- [Robert T. Hartmann, Palace Politics: An Inside Account of
the Ford Years (New York, 1980), pp. 230-236.
- Time Magazine article
- Paul C. Light, Vice-Presidential Power: Advice and
influence in the White House (Baltimore, Press, 1984), pp.
180-183.
- Joseph E. Persico, The Imperial Rockefeller: A Biography of
Nelson A. Rockefeller (New York, 1982), p. 262.
- "Petro, Joseph; Jeffrey Robinson (2005). Standing Next to
History: An Agent's Life Inside the Secret Service. New York:
Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 0-312-33221-1.
- Secret Service Codename
- "Excerpts From Rockefeller Conference Explaining His
Withdrawal", The New York Times, November 7, 1975, p.
16
- "Mutual Decision: Vice President's Letter Gives No Reason for
his Withdrawal", The New York Times, November 4, 1975, p.
73
- Remarks of Gerald R. Ford, Nelson A. Rockefeller Public Service
Award Dinner, May 22, 1991.
- For further information on Rockefeller’s role as Vice President
see
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Nelson_Rockefeller.htm
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer, 1908-1958, New York: Doubleday, 1996, p 110.
- See, for example, CBS News report of February 8, 1979, Roger Mudd
reporting on conflicting stories about circumstances of
Rockefeller's death.
- See, for example, this transcript of The Rockefellers (Part
2) a PBS American Experience documentary aired
in 2000 about the Rockefeller family and these print media
articles: Robert D. McFadden, "New Details Are Reported on How
Rockefeller Died", The New York Times, January 29, 1979;
Robert D. McFadden, "Call to Emergency for Stricken Rockefeller Did
Not Identify Him", The New York Times, January 30, 1979;
Robert D. McFadden, "Rockefeller's Attack Is Now Placed at 10:15,
Hour Before Emergency Call", The New York Times, February
7, 1979; Robert D. McFadden, "Rockefeller Aide Did Not Make Call to
Emergency", The New York Times, February 9, 1979; and
"Marshack Friend Makes Statement on Rockefeller", The New York
Times, February 11, 1979.
- For example, long-time Rockefeller aide Joe Persico said in the
PBS documentary about the
Rockefeller family (see this), "It became known that he had been alone
with a young woman who worked for him, in undeniably intimate
circumstances, and in the course of that evening had died from a
heart attack." further fueled by reports that she was a named
beneficiary in his will. This was widely reported at the time; see,
for example, Peter Kihss, "Bulk of Rockefeller's Estate is Left to
Wife; Museums Get Large Gifts", The New York Times,
February 10, 1979; this piece that aired on NBC's Evening News on February 9, 1979; and this piece
by Max Robinson that aired on ABC Evening News on February 9, 1979.
- Robert D. McFadden, "4 Rockefeller Children Say All At Hand Did
Their Best", The New York Times, February 15, 1979: the
statement released by Rockefeller's children concludes, "...we do
not intend to make any further public comment."
- Francis X. Clines, "About Pocantico Hills: Advance Man Stays on
the Job," The New York Times, January 30, 1979.
- Englehart, Steve and Perez, George, "Crisis on Other-Earth"
Avengers #147 (May, 1976), Marvel Comics.
External links
(Room 5600 - The Rockefeller Family
Office)
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search