92 R6824m
Morris, Joe Alex, 19O4- $5,50
Nelson Rockefeller, a
biography. N.r, Harper
[I960]
-tllus.
..fill 1
ilUL2Q^
AUGIT 81
WORSEP 14 1981
&QS MAR 23 19BS
APR 13 1965
OCT 2 4 1989
DEO 3 7 1992
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A Biography
Books by Joe Alex Morris
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A Biography
DEADLINE EVERY MINUTE: The Story of the United Press
WHAT A YEAR!
THOSE ROCKEFELLER BROTHERS
In collaboration:
THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF SENATOR VANDENBERG
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT
Here is a lively and authoritative portrait
of one of the most attractive and dynamic
personalities to grace the political scene
since F.D.R. ... or T.R. Nelson Rocke
feller sprang from the relative obscurity
of a gold-plated heritage and government
service into national political prominence
by defeating Averell Ilarriman in 1958 for
the governorship of New York.
This book provides the first inside and
intimate glimpse of his family back
ground and ties; his childhood and edu
cation; his early ventures in the world of
business and finance; and his contribu
tions to hemispheric understanding. Gov-
cinor Rockefeller played a dramatic and
little-known role in the birth of the UN.
NELSON
ROCKEFELLER
A Biography
Joe Alex Morris
HARPER & BROTHERS
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A Biography
Copyright 1960 by Joe Alex Morris
Printed in the United States of America
All rights in this book are reserved. No part of the book may be used or repro
duced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information
address Harper & Brothers f 49 East ^rd Street, New York 16, N. Y.
FIRST EDITION
C-K
Library of Congress catalog card number: 60-753^
For Francis A. Jamieson
5", SO NORTHEAST AUG 12
It seems clear to me that God designed us to live in society . . .
and as our social system could not subsist without the sense
of justice and injustice, He has given us the power to acquire
that sense.
VOLTAIRE
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
9:46 a.m., Wednesday, January 13, 1960 ... i
i John D/s Grandson 7
2 Education 29
- 3 Marriage and Travel 57
4 Beginning Business at the Top 84
5 South American Enthusiasms 111
6 Washington Duty 128
7 Bureaucratic In-fighting 154
8 The Battle for Latin America 170
9 A Struggle for Unity 184
10 San Francisco World Politics 200
1 1 New Regional Framework 215
12 The Private Citizen s Great Experiment 234
13 Troubles of a Good Knight 251
14 Washington Revisited 270
15 Eisenhower s Appointee 284
16 The Politician 306
17 The Governor 332
... 11:34 am., Wednesday, January 13, 1960 358
INDEX
Two sections of illustrations will be found following
pages 82 and 146
Acknowledgments
The author is grateful to the subject of this biography and to his
father for making available many hitherto unpublished letters and
documents.
He also wishes to acknowledge the assistance of a large number of
friends and acquaintances of Nelson Rockefeller in preparation of this
biography, including some who wish to remain anonymous. Special
thanks are due to Martha Dalrymple, Howard Knowles, Louise Boyer,
Donna Mitchell, Mary Elizabeth Buttfield, Ilene Slater, Nancy
Hanks, Jane Magee, Beatrice Collins, Harry O Donnell, Steven David,
John R. Camp, Isabelle Savell, Bernardo Jofre, Henry W. Bagley,
Stacy May and Barbara Bennett for assistance in research and as
sembly of material
Source material, in addition to the daily newspapers, included John
D. Rockefeller, by Allan Nevins, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., by
Raymond B. Fosdick.
For historical accuracy, it is noted that the Prologue and Epilogue
represent a synthesis of conversations on several airplane flights,
the last of which was on January 13, 1960,
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A Biography
9:46 a. m., Wednesday, January 13, 1960 . . .
The limousine rolled smoothly through the gates of the airport,
turned sharply and cut across the apron to a big, two-engine private
airplane where reporters and television cameramen had been waiting
for an hour. Before the wheels stopped turning, a rear door was
partly opened and the Governor of New York stuck his foot out
toward the pavement. For a moment, he paused his head turned
back toward his secretary to give some final instruction, his wide hand
gripping the half-opened door, his foot thrust out for the first long
step toward the waiting plane a frozen moment between finishing
one task (for which there had not been enough time) and starting
another (on which he already was behind schedule). Then he was
in motion again, his foot striking the pavement firmly, his sturdy
figure swinging athletically through the door and his attention wholly
concentrated on what lay ahead of him.
He walked rapidly, his body relaxed and balanced and his shoul
ders slightly forward, almost as if he were a gymnast on the tanbark
of a circus ring. He shook a few hands among the waiting newsmen.
He slapped a few shoulders and called a few first names. His square,
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 2
mobile face was serious beneath a ruffle of dark brown hair across
his forehead as he answered reporters questions. His wide mouth
stretched into a schoolboy grin and the skin crinkled at the corners
of his eyes (one eye is slightly bluer than the other) as he exchanged
jibes with a cameraman. After a few minutes, he signaled to the
captain of the plane s three-man crew and motioned his traveling
companions including one interviewer as supercargo aboard. He
swung himself easily up the steep steps to the plane, 1 stopping by
request to give the photographers one more shot of his famous smile.
Then the plane door slammed shut and he spoke a familiar phrase:
"Let s get going, fellows!"
Nelson Rockefeller is both a very direct and a very complicated
man. Inside the handsomely furnished cabin, with its couches, its
working tables, its television set and its big swivel chairs, only the
fact that he is almost constantly busy on the contents of two bulging
brief cases suggests that he is Governor of the nation s most populous
state and a member of one of the richest families on earth. He is a
man who, since childhood, has wanted and worked to be accepted
for what he is as a person rather than for his family s wealth and
position. It would be foolish to depreciate his efforts in this direction,
because he has proved himself as much at home among the villagers
of New York state or among the oil field workers of Venezuela as he
is among the tycoons of Wall Street. He has understood and fought
for recognition of the aspirations of the underprivileged, and his
contributions to the social betterment of our times have been con
siderable, judged by any standard. Yet, in attempting to understand
Rockefeller s character and career, the factor of great wealth cannot
be ignored. The accuracy of estimates of his wealth at two hundred
or three hundred million dollars is of slight importance. The fact
is that he and his family command vast economic power when they
desire to exercise it. That they have chosen to exercise it for the com
mon good also is beside the point. The fact remains that the power,
1 Jointly owned and used by Rockefeller and two of his brothers, Laurance
and David.
9:46 A.M., WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1960 3
while obviously not unlimited, is there and that it has been an im
portant although not a decisive factor in the career of Nelson Rocke
feller. The Rockefeller name and wealth open many doors, influence
many persons and restrain many others. A quiet word from the
Rockefellers may be heard at a great distance in the world of business
and finance. If the family is interested in some civic venture, there
will be many influential persons ready to help. If an advertiser offends
good taste by using the name Rockefeller to signify wealth in a
television commercial jingle, the word "millionaire" is pretty sure
to be substituted upon request from the proper sources. The family
influence reaches far and the Rockefellers, a close observer once re
marked to a reporter, lean heavily on their good will."
Nelson Rockefeller is not a humble man. There is no pretense
about him and he despises pretense in others. He is able, deeply
religious, tolerant, self-confident, highly ambitious, aggressive, per
sistent, extraordinarily competitive and, from a political standpoint,
often recklessly courageous. But, despite his love of humanity and,
his universal good-fellowship, there inevitably remains in a man of
Rockefeller s background a residue of arrogance what has been called
the "unconscious arrogance of self-conscious wealth." He has, owing
to energy and fortuitous circumstances, achieved more than most of
his contemporaries ever since he was a boy. He is now sure of him
self and of his objectives and he pursues his course not just energeti
cally but, when necessary, with a surprising toughness.
Rockefeller comes honestly by the complexities of his character.
His immediate forebears were a varied lot. Great-grandfather William
Avery Rockefeller was a tall, muscular farmowner in western New
York state, a man who loved gaiety and adventure, who usually did
as he pleased, sometimes without moral scruples. He became a
peddler of patent medicines and herbal remedies in the middlewestern
states, living at Cleveland. Perhaps more important in the lives of
later generations of the family was William Avery Rockefeller s wife,
the former Eliza Davison, a woman with red hair and blue eyes,
with spirit and intelligence and with great religious devotion. She
was a militant temperance worker who led groups of women into
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 4
saloons to pray for deliverance of the nation from the evils of
alcohol, and she passed on to her children and her children s children
a powerful heritage of industry, thrift and piety. A son of this diverse
couple was John Davison Rockefeller, Sr., who fought his way to
the summit of the business world and, under the influence of his
devoutly pious wife, Laura Spelinan Rockefeller, gave away half a
billion dollars as a philanthropist. Rockefeller s maternal grandfather,
Nelson W. Aldrich, also was a strong character, a farm boy in Rhode
Island who rose to political power as a United States Senator and a
leader of the Republican party. But he acquired along the way a great
love for literature, a keen judgment of good art, a taste for fine wines
and an appreciation of the good life.
Any close observer will discover in Nelson Rockefeller a trace of all
of these ancestors, tempered by the great influence of his parents.
Nobody is likely to mistake him for an intellectual an "egghead"
in the political slang of the 1950*5 but not a few students and
technical experts have been surprised by the depth of his knowledge
in specialized fields as well as the breadth of his study of social and
political problems. One reason for their surprise lies in the fact that
Rockefeller is not an abstract thinker, nor is he particularly articulate
in expressing himself in philosophical terms. He does not have a broad
intellectual background; he doesn t read much literature; he doesn t
have any unusual knowledge of history. On the other hand, he is
strong for direct action in terms of a concrete problem, he learns
with amazing rapidity by seeing things and places and talking to
people and he has a remarkable intuition for the right move at the
right time. In addition, he can concentrate on what he is doing to
the point where everything else is excluded, he is an irrepressible
organizer and he knows how to bring together and make use of the
"best brains" available for study of a problem.
"Rockefeller doesn t have an ideological frame of reference," one
close associate explained, "He never gets tied up into philosophical
knots because of a preconceived theory. He leaves his mind free to
understand a problem and to focus on a practical, direct-action
solution. His mind is on the future, not on the past.
9:46 A.M., WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1960 5
"Anyway, it isn t a scholar s mind. For example, he is not a true
authority on modern art although he has a highly cultivated aesthetic
sense. He looks at a painting and likes it and therefore he wants to
hang it but he probably couldn t tell you why. He likes jazz music-
net progressive jazz because it expresses something he feels but
he can t carry a tune."
Rockefeller is a firmly entrenched businessman and capitalist,
and he is a lifelong Republican, but he doesn t believe such desig
nations can mean much unless businessmen and capitalists and Re
publicans are in a constant process of evolution to keep up with
changing times and to contribute to the ultimate goal of a better and
more harmonious world community. Such global phrases are not
mere words to Rockefeller. More perhaps than any other American,
he has worked at putting them into practice in Latin America, for
example and he is convinced that the future of our democratic
system depends upon our willingness as a nation to thwart Com
munism by taking vigorous, realistic action to help underdeveloped
nations help themselves.
Rockefeller s political talents have sometimes been rather reck
lessly compared to those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, probably because
both are examples of an ability to project a winning personality to
mass audiences. As a young man, however, President Roosevelt was
a sophisticated politician who knew where he was heading. Rockefeller
matured slowly and charted his career only after a considerable period
of indecision. The President was inclined often to skirt around
obstacles in order to reach his objective. Rockefeller tends to frontal
attack. Mr. Roosevelt engineered, in a time of domestic crisis, a vast
revolution designed to bring the capitalistic system abruptly into
line with modem social requirements. In a time of international
crisis, Rockefeller has sought to define the problems that must be
faced in the future and to encourage action today that will strengthen
the nation and the free enterprise system in tomorrow s changing
world.
It is now rather generally agreed that the greatest political phenom
enon of our times is the rise to leadership of a man whose grandfather
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 6
was reviled only half a century ago as an unconscionable, monopolistic
ogre, an oppressor of widows, orphans and honest workingmen. Even
more remarkable is the fact that the grandson should be described by
AFL-CIO President George Meany as a dedicated, aggressive liberal
and should be a guest of honor at the Urban League s awards dinner
with two former collaborators, Jacob Potofsky of the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers Union, and David Dubinsky of the International
Ladies Garment Workers Union. "I am glad," Potofsky remarked in
reference to past cooperation of the three men in civic and phil
anthropic work, "to see a reunion of that fine firm with that good old
American name of Dubinsky, Potofsky and Rockefeller!"
Aboard the big airplane, climbing steadily up through darkening
skies, the Governor of New York worked for a while on papers taken
from his brief cases, signed a dozen letters and then, laying aside his
horn-rimmed reading glasses, came over to sit beside the waiting
interviewer. He was already a little rumpled. He was beginning to
need a haircut. The luster was gone from his shoes. He dug a small
bottle out of his pocket and shook out a vitamin pill. He takes them
regularly and always has a supply of the newest cold pills on hand. He
settled his five-foot-ten-inch frame comfortably back into the big chair
but not to relax. Associates who have known him for twenty years
will tell you they have never seen him really relaxed. Yet he can shed
his worries like a coat to play golf (rather poorly) or to dance or to
visit an art exhibition, and this gives him great powers of regeneration,
"Now, let s see/ 7 he said, tossing down the vitamin pill, "the last
time we got together we were talking about how the President un
expectedly ran into Khrushchev in the corridor at the first summit
meeting in Geneva. I only wish I d made notes on that conversation!
The President was great! Now what s on your mind today?"
"I thought we might go way back to when you were a boy,
Governor. There are several points I d like to clear up about vacations
at Seal Harbor/
"Sure." He turned to look out at the cottony clouds through which
the plane surged steadily southward. "I like to talk about the coast
of Maine. . . /
ONE
John D. s Grandson
The island of Mount Desert lies hardly a long stone s throw off the
coast of Maine between Penobscot Bay and Frenchman Bay, where
the ragged and rocky New England shoreline is occasionally, but
only occasionally, broken by small sandy beaches. Mount Desert is
a twenty-mile-long ovoid island of green mountains and bright lakes
and trout streams and it is almost split in two by a finger of water
called Somes Sound. It has been inhabited since the iy6o s by
fishermen and their families who, during the last century, have been
joined each summer by large numbers of "outsiders" wealthy fam
ilies on vacation from the big Eastern cities. Since the turn of the
century, one of the summer families has been that of John Davison
Rockefeller, Jr. The second son of Mr. Rockefeller, however, has
never been an "outsider" on Mount Desert. He was born there.
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller drew his first wailing breath at 12:10
P.M. on July 8, 1908, in the Sears cottage on Wayman Street in the
fashionable but conservative resort town of Bar Harbor. The cottage
was then owned by the Washington newspaper publisher Edward
McLean and his wife, Evalyn, who had purchased it from J. Mont-
7
NELSON ROOKEFEXLER A BIOGRAPHY 8
gomery Sears and rented it to the Rockefellers for the summer. Mrs,
Rockefeller was attended by Dr. Allen M Thomas of New York.
The baby weighed nine and a quarter pounds at birth and was
named for his maternal grandfather, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich.
Mr. Rockefeller sent the news of Nelson s birth by telegram to
the boy s other grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., who that day
celebrated his sixty-ninth birthday in New York, and received back
a happy word of congratulations. The year 1908, however, was not
one of general rejoicing for the Rockefeller family or the officers of
the Standard Oil Company, which the elder Rockefeller had built
from scratch into one of the greatest business trusts in history and
by means of which he had become the world s first billionaire. For
some years, there had been a rising journalistic and political clamor
against "the trusts* railroad, steel, sugar, coal and the Standard
Oil Company had emerged in the public mind as the No. i example
of the evils of monopoly. Political cartoonists such as Frederick B.
Opper, newspaper columnists such as Finley Peter Dunne, reporters
and authors such as Ida M. Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens and Upton
Sinclair crusaded vigorously and effectively for federal action to curb
unbridled big business and to protect the public and the working-
men. Ambitious young politicians as well as older politicians with
an ear to the ground made a career of fighting for reform and de
nouncing the Morgans, the Carnegies, the Armours and the Rocke
fellers as ruthless and piratical destroyers of free competition. Be
cause of his great personal wealth, Rockefeller probably was the best
known and the most often flayed in speeches and newspapers. A
typical illustration was an Opper cartoon of a great, apelike thug,
labeled "Standard Oil Trust," kicking and stomping on a little fig
ure labeled "The Public," while the police looked the other way.
A balloon coming from the thug s mouth said, "You ain t got no
rights," and a jingle under the cartoon said:
O is the Oil Trust, a modern Bill Sikes;
He defies the police, and does just as he likes.
President Theodore Roosevelt made political hay by fighting
the trusts in rather haphazard fashion, and at the time of Nelson
JOHN D/S GRANDSON 9
Rockefeller s birth the Standard Oil Company was in the midst of a
massive legal battle against a dozen different federal and state
attempts to break up Rockefeller s network of companies and sub-
companies on the grounds that they were a monopoly in restraint of
trade and in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Law. In August of
that year newspaper front pages were crowded with stories of the
appearance of the elder Rockefeller himself in court, where, "like a
country gentleman regaling friends with some tale of the good old
times/ he attempted to show that the Standard Oil empire "had
been built up by benevolent assimilation" of other companies. Rocke
feller s definition of a trust, commented the New York World, was
"a philanthropic institution created by the benevolent absorption of
competitors to save them from ruin, combined with the human con
servation and ingenious utilization of natural resources for the
benefit of the people."
A year later, the government won its case and Standard Oil of
New Jersey was ordered to divest itself of all subsidiaries. This was
confirmed by the United States Supreme Court on May 15, 1911,
and the Rockefeller high command began the work of splitting up
a combination that had plants all over the country, owned 88,000
miles of pipe lines, processed 68,200,000 barrels of crude oil a year,
sold almost 4,000,000 barrels of lubricants a year and owned a fleet
of 78 steamships and 19 sailing vessels. The mere possession of such
wealth in an era when radical labor leaders were calling on workers
to organize and strike against sweatshop conditions in many industries
was enough to make the Rockefeller name an epithet in many Ameri
can households. But worse was to come. In 1913, some nine thousand
coal miners went on strike in southern Colorado, demanding better
hours and wages and union recognition. One of the largest companies
involved was the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, in which the
Rockefellers were major stockholders. Although they knew little about
operation of the company, Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., was a member of the
board of directors, and he backed the company officers in their
contention that the strike was all the fault of "outside agitators." The
strike dragged on for months and was marked by violence that led to
a Congressional investigation and the calling out of state militia* On
KELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 10
April 20 there was a pitched battle between militia and mine guards
versus armed strikers in a miners tent colony at Ludlow, near Walsen-
burg, Colorado. The tents were burned and some twenty-five strikers
or their relatives were killed or wounded, including two women and
eleven children who died of suffocation in a cave where they hid to
escape the gunfire.
The Ludlow "massacre" aroused great public feeling all over the
United States. Workers from other cities joined the strikers. Mines
were wrecked and buildings looted. Workers held mass meetings
in New York and staged hostile parades before the Rockefeller offices
at 26 Broadway, shouting that John D. Rockefeller, Jr., ought to be
shot down "like a dog." An apparent plot to bomb the Rockefeller
offices and an attempt to demonstrate at the Rockefeller home at
Tarrytown, N.Y., were thwarted, but popular feeling against the
Rockefellers ran as high as ever in history against a prominent Ameri
can industrial family, if not even higher. The Colorado strike violence
was to have a great effect on the future attitude and actions of Mr.
Rockefeller, Jr., who would devote himself to eliminating paternalism
and installing progressive management in the companies under his
influence. He would insist that management take responsibility for
the social and economic conditions of the community of employees.
But, at the beginning of World War I, the Rockefeller name was
anathema in labor and political circles and in countless American
households. That year, Nelson Rockefeller was six years old and
having trouble learning to eat and write and throw a ball with his
right instead of his left hand.
n.
The Rockefeller children Abby, John Davison jrd, Nelson,
Laurance, Winthrop and David were not particularly aware at an
early age of either the great wealth of the family or the controversy
that had raged around the family name. This knowledge came to them
gradually and naturally as they grew older and with knowledge came a
burden of responsibility, which they regarded as very great. It fell
largely on the eldest brother, John, who was quiet and serious, almost
JOHN D/S GRANDSON "
shy, and temperamentally most like his father. Responsibility rested
lightly, if at all, on the shoulders of Nelson as a child and it would
be difficult to imagine how he could have experienced a more carefree
and normal boyhood.
The family lived, of course, as wealthy families were expected to
live in the first decades of the century but by no means as extravagantly
as some. There were three main bases of operation. First, there
was a town house at No. 13 and, later, at No. 10 West Fifty-fourth
Street near the mansion of the elder Rockefeller. The home of Mr.
Rockefeller, Jr., was of nine stories, with an infirmary, a gymnasium,
a playground and squash court, in addition to large living quarters for
the staff. The drawing rooms, the library, the music room and the
family suites gradually were filled with art treasures, including ex
quisite Persian rugs with silver and gold thread and Gobelin tapes
tries which Mr. Rockefeller collected as avidly as his wife picked up
antique brass and Oriental objects of art and, later, modern paintings.
In time, the collections grew to such size that the house next door,
No. 12, was transformed into a kind of art gallery to accommodate the
overflow.
The second family base was Pocantico Hills, a four-thousand-acre
estate near Tarrytown, some thirty miles up the Hudson River from
New York City, where Mr. Rockefeller had a house and where he
supervised the building of a home for his father. In giving instructions
to the architect, he said that his father wanted "a residence so simple
that friends coming from no matter how humble an environment,
would be impressed by the homelikeness of the house; while those who
appreciated fine design and beautiful furnishings would say, How
exquisite! " He also purchased what experts believed to be an original
or an early copy of a Praxiteles statue of Aphrodite for the new
establishment, despite his father s concern that he was being over
charged and probably could not get his money back if he ever wanted
to sell it. Eventually Pocantico Hills had driving and riding trails; a
$500,000 playhouse with bowling alleys, swimming pool and squash
court; and much later homes for four of the five Rockefeller boys.
Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island became the third family
residence for summer vacations. In 1910, when the Rockefellers moved
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 12
into their own summer home there The Eyrie, a huge, sprawling
house atop a high hill overlooking the sea no automobiles were
permitted on the island. Bar Harbor was one of the most fashionable
resorts on the New England coast. Seal Harbor was more isolated and
quieter but with a good protected beach and a harbor almost en
closed by huge rocks and a slender finger of land. Mr. Rockefeller
later built a large playhouse and kitchen in the woods behind
the big house and a huge formal garden for Mrs. Rockefeller, Hand
some Oriental tomb statues which Mrs. Rockefeller bought in Korea
were placed beneath trees at one side of the garden, and other bronze
and stone Buddhas were installed in quiet, peaceful nooks in the
nearby woods in the manner of Japanese shrines. The playhouse had
a bowling alley and a squash court and there were tennis courts
nearby. Down the hill were stables for riding horses and for Mr. Rocke
feller s driving horses and eventually the woods were laced with miles
of roads that he built and over which the family rode or drove almost
every day.
The Rockefeller family, however, did not spend all of the time
at these three homes. As the children grew older, there were long
trips through the Western states and journeys to Europe in addition to
visits with Mr. Rockefeller, Sr., at Ormond Beach, Florida. Mrs.
Rockefeller was able in a pleasant, undisturbed way to run several
households at the same time and,* on trips, each of the children was
assigned certain duties, such as tending to luggage or polishing boots
or buying tickets so that their journeys were organized like a small
army on the move. Each child also had a specific allowance usually
starting at twenty-five cents a week and each was expected to save
10 per cent, give 10 per cent to charity and keep an accurate account
of every penny spent.
Nelson was frequently in trouble as a small boy not only because he
was a poor bookkeeper but because he was perhaps the most serious
disturber of the peace in the Rockefeller household Mr. Rockefeller s
mother and father were devoutly religious and in their home each day
started with prayers before breakfast, a custom that was followed in
the family of Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., and, later, in Nelson Rockefeller s
JOHN D/S GRANDSON 13
own home. At mealtime, discipline was effectively if not sternly en
forced by Mr. Rockefeller and the children were expected to be on
time and to mind their manners. Nelson was most often tardy. He
also was restless at the table and he frequently felt called upon to
amuse his sister and brothers by clowning or making remarks that
they thought were excruciatingly funny. Such outbursts did not please
his father and occasionally he was sent from the table and very oc
casionally his father spanked him. Eventually, his seat at the table
was moved so that he was not close to certain of his brothers.
Mr, Rockefeller also was concerned because Nelson was naturally a
"southpaw" and used his left hand for almost everything. At that time,
parents were likely to regard left-handedness as unfortunate and
there was a widely-held theory that it could be easily corrected. Mr.
Rockefeller began correcting his son at an early age, instructing him to
shift his spoon or knife to his right hand. Nelson failed to respond.
After a rather long period of failure, Mr. Rockefeller appeared at the
table with a rubber band and a piece of string. The rubber band he put
around his son s left wrist. He attached one end of the string to the
rubber band and held the other end in his hand as he sat at the table.
When Nelson started to use his left hand in eating, his father tugged
gently on his end of the string, pulling the left hand away from the
knife or fork for which it was reaching.
In time, Nelson s left-handedness was partly overcome but not
without considerable childish confusion that might well have been
frowned on by child psychologists a generation later. As he grew up,
the boy became more or less ambidextrous. He did most things with
his right hand but he played tennis left-handed and he learned to write
not very well with either hand. He also developed a remarkable
inability to spell which would last a lifetime. This may have been due
in part to the fact that his mother was a mediocre speller or to his
own peculiar vision. For instance, in reading he frequently transposed
letters or figures; in other words, he would read the characters back
ward. If he saw the numerals 76, he might read them aloud as 67, This
made him a slow reader and would affect him all his life in a limited
way, making reading less easy than it might otherwise have been.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 14
Laurance and Nelson, only two years apart in age, were a kind of
partnership from veiy early childhood. They were always up to some
thing and, owing both to age and temperament, Nelson usually was
the leader. It was not, in childhood or later, a one-sided partnership,
however, because Laurance was quick-witted and amusing, the kind of
a boy who could deflate some of Nelson s grandiose ideas with a
couple of penetrating words. "We led a delightful, happy life to
gether," Nelson said long afterward. "He could always put the rapier
right through me with a twist but he was amusing about it and I loved
it."
When they were small and full of mischief, Nelson and Laurance
slept in the same room, often to the dismay of their governess and
other members of the household staff. They engaged in roughhouse
games and pretended they were hunters in Africa or explorers in the
Arctic when they were supposed to be studying their school books or
to have turned out the lights and gone to bed. One of their favorite
stunts after they had been told to go to sleep was to drag all the
blankets and mattresses off their beds and build a tent or a cave or
an igloo in which they crouched for protection against a blizzard or,
perhaps, an Indian attack. There was a trunk between their beds and
the boys secretly rigged it with wires and an electric light bulb so that
they had a kind of electric burner on which they could heat a cup
of chocolate after lights were out. Such activities brought frequent
discovery and punishment usually by a governess who opened the
door, grabbed the first small boy she could reach, paddled him
soundly and warned them both to get to sleep. Paddlings in no way
deterred the mischief but, in order to share equally in the hardships
of their partnership, Nelson and Laurance took turns sleeping in the
bed nearest the hallway door so that the same one would not always
be grabbed for the evening spanking*
All of the Rockefeller children had to earn their own extra spending
money, of which they never felt they had quite enough. They planted
and tended their own gardens at Pocantico. They raised rabbits, which
they sold to laboratories. They pulled weeds at so much per dozen
weeds. They practiced their music a cello, in Nelson s case. But
JOHN D/S GRANDSON 15
there was plenty of time for exercise and play and they made the
most of it. Their father taught them to ice skate, although none be
came as accomplished as he, and took them for long walks in the
woods, where he knew all of the trees and wild flowers and could tell
interesting stories about them. Their mother read to them and taught
them to play Numerica and organized gay picnics on summer days.
They all had a modest amount of sports equipment such as roller
skates and tennis racquets and bicycles and boats, but none ever
showed any particular interest in the traditional American game of
baseball.
Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller devoted a great deal of time and thought
to the problem of bringing up their children in a simple and healthy
manner so that they would never fed that the family s great wealth set
them apart from other boys and girls anywhere. In this, they were
more than moderately successful. The children had no more spending
money, and frequently less, than their companions, they conformed
in dress to the youthful fancies of the day and they were encouraged
to avoid any ostentatious display of wealth. 1 But it would be highly
inaccurate to suggest that as they grew up the Rockefeller boys were
no more privileged than the ordinary American boy. They had their
own tennis courts and swimming pools and bowling alleys and horses
and boats and canoes and, in their childhood, there was always a
young man companion to watch over them and instruct them in
games. Furthermore, they were encouraged to buy good equipment
that would last. When Nelson wanted a radio during his high school
days he made a formal agreement with a youthful electronics expert
to build a five-tube set and install it at a cost not to exceed $150.
1 Various legends have grown up in regard to the simple manner in which the
Rockefeller children were reared. One delightful but false story is that the boys
sailed in a small boat that was older and less expensive and slower than the
boats of their companions. This prompted a youthful friend to ask them: "Why
don t you ask your father to buy you a good boat like the other boys have?" To
which one of the Rockefeller boys supposedly replied: Who do you think we are
the Vanderbilts?" None of the Rockefellers has any idea how this myth orig
inated and they are pretty tired of hearing it repeated but they have about given
up hope that it will be forgotten. A possible explanation of the origin or the
story will be found in my book Those Rockefeller Brothers.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 16
When he became interested in photography he invested his allowance
in the best foreign cameras and persuaded his father to build a fully-
equipped darkroom so he could develop his own pictures.
The Rockefeller children, nevertheless, were taught a sound respect
for money and its use, but they were never allowed to forget their
father s attitude that the Rockefeller fortune was a responsibility and
a trust and that it would be their duty to see that it was used to
secure the widest possible benefits for humanity generally. "I suppose/
one of the brothers remarked much later, "that all of us felt that
responsibility was the only thing we had more of than our classmates/
Nelson was naturally inclined to feel at home in almost any com
pany except, perhaps, that of Eastern society families whose sons went
to Groton or St. Paul s. Nelson didn t go to an exclusive preparatory
school, and the Rockefellers were not "in" society as it was represented
on the newspaper society pages and in the Sunday rotogravure sections.
There were, of course, childish incidents when some boy on the
school bus or at play might taunt a Rockefeller child by shouting:
"Hello, Mr, Moneybags Rockefeller, How many yachts do you have
today?" But Mrs. Rockefeller told her children to make a joke of
such remarks by saying, "Oh, we have only sixteen yachts now but
we re getting some more." And it wasn t often that the occasion for
a retort arose, because the Rockefeller boys were determined to
"belong" to the crowd in school or at play and they usually succeeded*
"I never in my life felt any conscious embarrassment or concern
about the family name or the family s money," Nelson once remarked.
"I never felt any different from other people not even when I was
with the Indians in the Andes Mountains* The only times I ever
felt shy or uncomfortable was at certain society affairs when I didn t
know the boys who were from the better prep schools. I didn t fit into
their group."
m.
Mrs. Rockefeller kept a neat file of the letters which her children
wrote to her when she had to be away from them and among these
were occasional examples of their school work and other mementoes.
JOHN D/S GRANDSON 17
On one small sheet of paper was a reminder from her second son,
which she had countersigned*
If I don t miss
one day of school
this year I get
one $1.00.
Nelson Rockefeller
(A. A. Rockefeller)
One of Nelson s first letters to his mother was written at 10 West
Fifty-fourth Street on November 9, 1916, when he was eight years old.
Dear Mama,
We are having a very nice time. I hope you are too. I like my
music teacher very much.
Winthrop is getting very fat. I bought a new knife. . . . Wiggie
caught a muskrat and ate some of it and was sick in the night. . . .
Lovingly from Nelson to Mama and give my love to Papa.
The fact that the words were spelled correctly made it clear that
Nelson had had some adult assistance on his letter. His next con
tribution was half a dozen verses copied very neatly on ruled paper,
saying that to grow up strong and happy he had to "bite my food
slowly and breathe through my nose" and ending up with:
I must love what is noble,
And do what is kind;
I must strengthen my body
And tid [sic] my mind.
Nelson A. R., March 12, 1917
Except for John, who went to Browning School, where his father
had been a student, the Rockefeller boys attended the coeducational
Lincoln School, a progressive and experimental institution started
in connection with Columbia University Teachers College to test out
some of Professor John Dewey s educational theories. It was not a
public school but the Rockefellers helped finance it because, among
other things, all strata of society and all races, creeds and colors were
represented, often by benefit of scholarships, in its student body.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 18
Some of the children came from the families of Negro workingmen,
some from the families of diplomats of the Far East or Europe and
some were from well-to-do New York families. Starting at Lincoln
at the age of ten after early tutoring at home, Nelson got along
swimmingly. His grades were nothing to brag about but he was a
"take charge" type and on one occasion he introduced himself to a
new teacher with a remark that he thought he knew the ropes around
the school and if she had any questions he d be glad to help.
On another occasion, he was reprimanded by the principal for climb
ing down a manhole to retrieve a baseball that had fallen into the
sewer. "How else was I going to get the baseball back?" he asked in
his own defense. And then, in the spirit of investigation that was en
couraged at Lincoln, he added: "How could I know what was down
there if I didn t climb down?"
When he was twelve years old and his parents were temporarily
away from New York, he wrote his mother a letter that indicated he
was busy organizing things at school and was getting restless under
the discipline of the staff at 10 West Fifty-fourth street.
April 22, 1920
Dear Mama,
Thank you for your letter of April 18. ... I am sending you our
class constitution which the class committees wrote. The Chairman
of the class is my self, Bud is the chairman of the committee. Miss
Schweppe went on an excursion with the 6th Grade this morning
from 9 to 11-30 and I being the Chairman had charge of the class
until she came back. . ,
I want to know if you will let me quit music ? ? ? because it
would be much better for me to go out in the park than to sit in
a hot stuffy house when I have a chance to go with the boys. Give
my love to Papa. , . .
With love,
Nelson Rockefeller
The class constitution, a copy of which was enclosed, provided
that students should stand in line while waiting for class, obey the
class chairman, obey the chairman of committees, "don t have any
thing unnecessary on desk, when someone is talking don t interrupt,
JOHN D/S GRANDSON 19
have clean drawers, don t scribble on blackboard, don t throw things
around the room." It also provided that the chairman could be
expelled if "he disobeys one of the important laws of the con
stitution, if he says anything against God or his country, if he plays
hookey,"
That summer Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller took the older children
Abby, John, Nelson and Laurance on a trip to the Western states.
Mr. Rockefeller went to great pains to avoid newspaper publicity in
regard to the children. In fact, during the entire period of their
childhood their names were hardly mentioned in the newspapers.
When they were traveling, Mr. Rockefeller attempted to keep their
movements secret but, if word did leak out and reporters or photog
raphers met their train, he frankly explained to them that he hoped
to keep the glare of publicity off his children. Then, after asking the
reporters for their help, he would offer to pose for photographs and
answer questions if they would not mention that his children were in
town. Since he seldom gave interviews, this was usually sufficient rea
son for the newspapermen to cooperate,
On the 1920 trip, Nelson scrawled a record of their journey in his
diary, a few sections of which are reproduced here with the original
spelling:
May 29, 1920. Started from New York city. Stopped next day at
Cleveland to go to church and visit cemetery where papa s relations
are buried. . , . Left Cleveland at 11:15 p.m,, Monday May 31, We
arrived at Chicago 7:20 a.m. All well.
May 31. We all went motoring with Uncil Harold. Most of us
had dinner with the President of the University of Chicago. Good
day.
June i. Train arrived at Omaha 8:00 a.m. Went through engen
repar schop with Mr, Gray the President of the Unyon Railrod. Then
we had lunc on his car which was atcth on ours. In the afternoon we
rode on the engen. . . . Train arrived at Julesburg, Nebraska, 7:00
Good day.
June 2. Left Julesburg early in the morning. At Denver about
noon. Left after lunch in automobile four Estes Parak. The Rocky
Mts were beautiful.
June 3. Went riding, had picknick Lunch near Hotel Leustion,
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 20
took a motor drive up snow capted Mt where we had a snow ball
fight then we reterened to the Leustion. Good day.
June 7. Went up Pikes Peak and on the way down the engine
broke, so we walked the rest of the way. In the afternoon Laurance
and I went fishing. . . . Left Colorado Springs 12:00 n. Arrived
Denver 2:30 p.m. Laurance came down with the inealess.
June 10. Papa, John and myself went to the mint in the morning
in the after noon I came down with the measless.
June 11. Felt wretchely; stayed in bed all day. Abby came down
with the misless.
The trip eventually continued to California, the Northwestern
states and Canada. Although the children rapidly recovered from the
"misless/ Nelson had various other illnesses that year in addition to
developing a wart on his hand. His mother lectured him gently on
being careful about his diet and not eating between meals. From
Florida, she wrote him that "the birds pecking at the feeding station
outside my window remind me of you eating" and she urged him not
to stuff himself on sweets.
When the family was on vacation at Seal Harbor,, the boys spent
a great deal of time on and in the water. They sailed in the Bar
Harbor regattas and occasionally won a gold cup with their sailboat,
the Jack Tar, which Mr. Rockefeller had bought secondhand. They
paddled canoes on Long Pond, a little lake on the Rockefeller
property, where there was a small boathouse and a raft for swimming.
They rode horseback, often with their father, and occasionally went
for rides with their parents in a buckboard or carriage. Mrs. Rocke
feller organized picnics for the whole family and they wandered across
the hills until the boys found a good place to build a fire.
"We lived a kind of do-it-yourself childhood/ one of the brothers
remarked much later. "We were taught to be self-reliant when we
were very young and self-sufficient, too. There weren t so many
elaborate gadgets for youngsters to play with in those days and the
ones that were available we couldn t afford on our allowances. At
Seal Harbor, for instance, we felt we were living almost Spartan lives.
Somebody might hand us an axe and say: Well, here s an axe. Now
JOHN D/S GRANDSON 21
go amuse yourselves by building a play cabin/ It was after we were
older that we had more elaborate things."
There were only occasional social affairs at Seal Harbor when the
boys were small but on Sundays the whole family left the big hilltop
house together and walked the boys often reluctantly down the
hill to attend church services. In the evenings, Mr. Rockefeller fre
quently got everybody together for a musical hour. Sometimes the
family orchestra took over with Mrs. Rockefeller at the piano, Mr.
Rockefeller playing the violin, Nelson the cello and Winthrop the
drums. At other times they would sing hymns, which the head of the
family particularly enjoyed. Once, during Mrs. Rockefeller s absence,
Nelson wrote her that
we sang hymns tonight but luckily Pa had to go to Church so we
had to stop at a quarter to eight.
About this time, Nelson and Laurance decided that the names
their parents had given them were a bit "sissy" and that they would
correct the matter by choosing their own names. Nelson decided to
become "Dick" and Laurance chose "Bill." The "Dick" failed to
stick with Nelson, but Laurance became "Bill" to practically the
whole family and to close friends for the rest of his life.
At first with an older companion and later alone, Nelson and
Laurance frequently went on overnight camping and fishing trips
with sleeping bags and campfire cooking equipment. Sometimes they
walked and sometimes they loaded a pony cart with supplies and
wandered deep into the wooded mountains of the island. All of the
boys learned to cook after a fashion and they often bragged that the
meals they turned out over the campfire tasted as good as the food
served at the Rockefeller table, a comparison that should be strongly
discounted in Nelson s case because he always would eat almost any
thing that was placed before him and seldom paid any attention to
what it happened to be.
There was a cave on the hillside below the Rockefeller house at Seal
Harbor where Nelson and Laurance sometimes hid out and where they
made a timid effort to learn to smoke cigarettes before deciding to
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 22
accept their father s standing offer of $2,500 for not smoking before
their twenty-first birthdays. (Nelson and David were the only winners
of the prize.) But the two boys greatest enjoyment at Seal Harbor was
the woods behind the mansion where, before any roads were built,
they could imagine themselves deep in Indian country and beset by
many dangers. After seeing Western logging operations on one of
their summer journeys, they decided to fell a little timber and build
a log cabin of their own.
The plans on which they finally agreed represented no small-time
operation. They marked out an eight-by-ten-foot floor plan for the
cabin with a spot for an indoor fireplace. Then they began hacking
down trees and trimming them and, when they had cleared a wide
circular area, they hitched their ponies to the logs and dragged them
to the site. When the cabin walls were up a few feet the boys rigged
a set of pulleys and ropes so that the ponies could be used to lift the
logs to the desired height and lower them gently into place. A door
of split logs was hung and two windows were fashioned so that they
could be closed and latched for defense against savage Indians, The
fireplace was constructed so that it had an outside flue and the roof
was shingled. A shed was built a short distance away for stabling the
ponies. It was a good cabin, solid and rain-proof and the boys often
cooked and slept there, and more than thirty years later Nelson
would be able to poke around among the logs now tumbled down
and point out that the foundation was still in place and that the
latches were still on the crumbling windows. "It was a big project
for us," he reminisced. "Even then we always had some big project
going/
iv.
As much as Nelson loved the life at Seal Harbor, the broad, high
hills of Pocantico were still home to him and would remain so. One
day in 1921 he arrived eagerly at Tarrytown after being away for a few
weeks and could hardly wait to see what had happened in his
absence. From his grandfather s house, he ran across the lawn to see
his rabbits and found seven young ones very hungry because their
JOHN D/S GRANDSON 23
feeding dish had been turned over in one corner. He quickly put
things to rights and then went to inspect his garden. There were
purple pansies in a flower bed, there were fine cabbages in Winthrop s
garden, the corn in John s garden was as high as his knee and some
gourds that Nelson had planted were wildly climbing the flagpole.
A breeze drifting across the hills scattered petals from a few white
roses that were still in bloom. It was a beautiful day and, as usual,
Nelson could hardly restrain his enthusiasm.
"Gee! I love this country/ he yelled to an older friend who had ac
companied him home. "I d give three weeks at Seal Harbor any time
for three days here at Pocantico!"
Later that summer, Nelson spent July in a boys camp near Upper
Saranac, New York, where he lived in a tent with five other thirteen-
year-old boys and a camp monitor. If he was homesick, his letters
with the spelling corrected didn t show it.
I went fishing this morning and caught one fish.
We are going on a trip to Fish pond today. Only ten boys are
going, they are the ones that got the highest marks in tent inspection.
We went on a 12 mile canoe trip with six carries. It was great
fun. ... I paddled all the way in the bow and carried one end of
the 80 Ib canoe on the carries, I was pretty tired. . . .
I have charge of the cannon which they fire every morning and
night when they up and down the flag. I clean, load and fire it. It
is great fun.
Later the same year, when his parents were on a trip to Japan,
his letters reflected a kind of all-out enthusiasm with which he habitu
ally entered on whatever he was doing, even if it was going to danc
ing school.
I have been going to dancing school with Jimmy. I like it very
much. . . .
I have been having a wonderful time. We have been playing
marbles and croquet. Yesterday Aunt Lucy took John and I to the
play (The First Year) . It was great. Tomorrow she is going to take
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 24
John, Laurance and I to the movie (The Three Musketeers). It
will be great. Everything is lovely here.
Some of his other letters in these years included the following:
Dear Ma and Pa,
... I had lots of fun at the opera . . . We had a box and it was
great. I think it would have been better if they had sung in a
language that you could understand but the costumes and acting was
great. Last night I went to hear the Harvard Glee Club. . . . The
singing was great and I would like to hear more of that kind of
singing. . . . Laurance and I ploughed our garden with Toby and
the plough only broke twice before we finished.
Dear Pa,
I want to thank you lots for the knife. It is a peach. . . . You
don t know how handy it is to have one with your name on it. I am
always losing them. . . . Laurance and I added up all the money you
owe us and we figured that we would get about $1 5 each. You had
better come back soon or we will put you in bankruptcy. [Mr.
Rockefeller had urged the boys to take long walks for exercise and
rewarded them at the rate of ten cents a mile in extra spending
money.]
Although almost everything was "great" for Nelson in the mid-
1920*5, his school work was not so great. In 1923, he worried that he
might be put back a grade because he had been too busy to keep up
with the work, but he managed to scrape by. In 1924, Mr. Rockefeller
was advised that Nelson s eleventh-grade work showed marks in
French and in mathematics that could not be certified for college.
"Nelson should work harder/ the school principal added. Mr.
Rockefeller took this advice to heart and the next day he handed his
son a small book in which to write down every day just when and
how long he had studied each subject. Later, looking over the book,
he found that Nelson had recorded an average of two hours and fifteen
minutes a day of study for five days a week. His grades, however, had
not improved.
"It seems you re not devoting enough time to study/ his father
said.
JOHN D/S GRANDSON 25
"I guess you re right/ Nelson replied. "Maybe I can do more
studying in the periods at school when I don t have classes. That s
an hour and a half more a day."
In addition, he agreed to his father s suggestion that he should not
listen to the phonograph or the radio at all from Monday morning
until after school on Friday. Mr. Rockefeller had no doubt that
Nelson could improve his grades if he wanted to make the effort.
"But/ he added, "you go at things with too much of a rush and a
dash. You re careless about the way you study but any time you want
to put your mind to it you can do much better work without spending
any more time at study than you do now."
Nelson put his mind to it and improved his marks in everything
except Spanish, on which he had to do special work during the
summer vacation. Even then he didn t get his grades up to college
requirements and had to go to school half an hour early three days a
week in an effort to catch up. As he labored through his senior year
in 1925 these troubles prompted him to do some heavy thinking
about college. John already was at Princeton University and it had
been more or less assumed that Nelson also would go there. But the
entrance requirements were stiffer than at some other colleges and
there was no assurance that he would be eligible when the time came.
His parents were in France during the fall term in 1925 and he wrote
them several letters about his school work.
October 25, 1925: ... I find the Math pretty hard but I go to
the teacher afterwards when I don t understand. The physics isn t
so very hard as yet but it takes a good deal of time. We have a
peachy new English teacher and we are really doing some work
there. The French is about the same as ever. I have been doing
between four and five hours of home work every night. Up to now
I have not gotten to bed much before eleven and usually later. But
I don t think it is good for me to stay up so late so I am going to
try and get more done in the afternoon. . . .
We came down from the country, that is Bill [Laurance] and I.
It works much better. I have kept the Ford here and use it to go to
school in. It is very convenient and saves a lot of time* We always
go and come to school together, so you see it saves us forty cents a day
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 26
on bus fares. I have had no accidents and not been even spoken to
by a cop. Except the ones that are tiying to sell tickets [to a benefit]
in Yonkers.
X and I have been ever so good, we have not wasted one
minute in school. In fact, I hardly see her any more. To make up, I
have been to see her three times on Sunday. She is still as sweet as
ever, but I promise you I am not letting it interfere with my studies
in the least bitl So you needn t worry at all. . . .
Ted and Tad and I are going to see the Princeton-Harvard
game. . . * It will be great to see Johnny again. ... I went to see
"Sunny" [a musical show] Friday night. . . . That is the first time
that I have been out since school started. ... It is more fun, driving
around in the Ford, especially in heavy traffic. I pretend I am a taxi
driver and have a great time. But of course I am very careful so it
is perfectly safe. ... Of course, we all miss you both terribly. . . .
I am just beginning to realize what wonderful parents I have. With
all the love in the world, I am,
Your devoted son,
Nellie
November 7, 1925: ... I am still having to do a good deal of
work . . . but I guess I will live through it. I seem to be getting on
pretty well at present. I guess the affair between X and me is
about over, . . . We have not fallen out or anything of the kind . . .
and we are just as good friends as ever but that s all. ... I am pretty
well booked up already for the Christmas vacation . * . and I also
have received four or five Deb, coming-out invitations. I have ac
cepted nearly all of them so far.
I have been thinking very strongly of going to Dartmouth instead
of Princeton. Dr. Caldwell [at Lincoln School] is strongly in favor
of this and so are the other teachers in school. I really think that
it is a better all around college and that I would get more out of it.
What do you all think about it? I got the fur coat this afternoon.
Oh, it is a peach.
November 21, 1925: ... I had a talk with Dr. Caldwell and
Mr. Finley; and we decided that the first thing to do was to drop
the Spanish. This means that I will not be able to go to Princeton
but I think it is for the best. ... By stopping the Spanish I am able
JOHN D/S GRANDSON 2?
to walk in the morning, which is great because I needed the exer
cise badly.
. . . You said that the French cars had snappy things on their
radiator caps. Well, if you would like to bring me something in that
line Td love to have one ... it will have to be something that is
long and flat and not too high. Something like a bird or a dog
running.
Oh, Pa, I want to know if you would mind if I learned to drive
the Dodge with William along. There is no hurry but I thought
that it would be just as well if I knew how to drive it. In case any
change in cars should be made next summerll
With heaps of love,
Nell
There was more to Nelson s choice of Dartmouth than his problem
of high school credits. Mr. Rockefeller was a friend of Dr. Ernest
Martin Hopkins, the Dartmouth president, and Nelson had met and
admired him. Of Hopkins, Mr. Rockefeller once said: "If I were a
young man trying to decide what college to go to, I would find out
what college Dr. Hopkins was president of and go there." But when
Nelson discussed the college problem with him, Mr. Rockefeller
declined to specify.
"You can get a good education at many colleges," he said. "If I
pick one for you, the responsibility is on me. If you pick your own
college, it s your responsibility."
Nelson picked Dartmouth, partly because of Dr. Hopkins, partly
because it was small and democratic in campus affairs and partly
because he wanted to get away from the many outside activities that
would be sure to distract him if he remained in the New York City
area. There had been a great many distractions in his senior year at
Lincoln School. He had discovered girls and he found that he enjoyed
parties and dancing immensely and, despite his rather strict upbring
ing, there was ample evidence that at seventeen he was strongly at
tracted to the gay crowd of youngsters from wealthy families that
flitted from party to party en route to the excitement of bootleg gin
and speakeasies. Many young men and women among his acquaint
ances would become active participants in the escapades of the Roar-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 28
ing Twenties and, as an acquaintance once remarked to Mr.
Rockefeller, "anybody with your money and five sons has a right to
expect at least four black sheep in the family/
There was, however, a strongly religious attitude in the Rockefeller
family and a persistent sense of responsibility, and in the latter part
of his senior year Nelson got down to hard work at his books and
completed high school in reasonably good scholastic standing. He was
pleased when he was accepted for matriculation at Dartmouth. The
town of Hanover, New Hampshire, seemed far out in the backwoods,
far away from New York s bustle and excitement and a likely place to
do some hard work. That, he decided, was what he was looking for.
TWO
Education
When Nelson Rockefeller arrived at Dartmouth College in the
autumn of 1926 he was eighteen years old, a stocky and broad-should
ered boy with a heavy shock of curly brown hair that usually tumbled
over his forehead and big hands that always seemed to be in his way.
Like most of the six hundred or more other freshmen, he was a
youthful combination of superficial self-confidence, brashness, nai vetd
and uncertainty but he had had a big summer and he kept telling him
self that now he was going to settle down and prepare himself for a
useful life.
His summer had ranged from Seal Harbor to Long Island to France
and it included several experiences that he related in letters to his
parents in rather revealing fashion. After a weekend at the eastern end
of Long Island with two young friends, Ted Martin and Tad Bullock,
he had boarded the S. S. Aquitania for Europe and promptly wrote
home in an effort to forestall the possibly unhappy results of a motor
ing incident.
Aboard S.S. Aquitania
June 20, 1926
Dear Ma and Pa,
. . * When we were driving back [from the end of Long Island]
we were coming along on a peachy straight concrete road with nobody
29
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 30
in sight. I opened up the cut-out and stepped on it. Way down the
road ahead there was a car parked. We came roaring along and
when I got near I opened up a couple of whistles, and we sped by.
Well, the trouble lay in that there was a cop on the other side of
that car. Ted having already assured me there were no cops on that
part of the Island. Well, you can imagine what happened after that.
Naturally, I got a ticket. After he was all through writing it out, I
called him over and told him I was sorry but I couldn t come to
court as I was sailing. He said that was all right that Ted could go
in my place. Then I told him that I didn t want it to go in in my
name as the papers would be liable to get hold of it. He said it had
to go down in the book but he thought that if Ted came around
and saw him before the trial he would be able to fix it up by putting
Ted s name in instead of mine. He asked if I was trying to hide my
arrest from my father and I said no, I would tell you. . . . We parted
friendly. He was a nice fellowl
The next letter was written after he and his brother John had
arrived in France to make a bicycle tour. They visited some picturesque
and interesting places but
. <. . Havre was far less attractive and much more commercial. Every
body rushed about, making a lot of noise which I don t think is very
becoming to the French. They get all excited. . . . I bought some
lovely etchings of Rouen. . , , They cost about fifty francs and
Johnny thought it was a horrible waste of money but I finally got
him to pay for them (he is treasurer at present) , I think they are
quite a find. We are both crazy about Mount Saint Michel . . . oh,
it was great. . . . Everywhere we ve been we ve found nothing but
nice people. . . .
And a later letter, July 11, 1926, from the Grand Hdtel de France
(Blois):
. . , You know a very sad thing happened on my birthday. We were
at Tours at the time and ... we happened to be taking an all day
bicycle tour of the chateaus. . . . We went on all day enjoying the
sights, all the while oblivious of that all important fact. And to tell
you the truth, it was not until about six, just before we got home,
that Johnny happened to think of it. To celebrate the occasion, we
EDUCATION 31
went to a cafe-movie house, where we spent half the night drinking
lemonade and watching Pola Negri in an American movie. (It
wasn t so hot; in fact, afterwards, we wished we had gone to bed.
But it was fun as an experience.)
There were two other developments worthy of mention after
Nelson returned from Europe. Mrs, Rockefeller did considerable wor
rying about the kind of friends her son would choose at college. She
talked the problem over with Mrs. Mary M. Billings French, with
whom she served on the board of the Y.W.C .A., and discovered that
Mrs. French s son, John, also was going to be a freshman at Dart
mouth. In no time at all, they decided that it would be a good thing
if their sons were roommates at college. It is unlikely that anything
worse could happen to a college freshman than to have his mother
pick his roommate, but the two women decided at least to give it a
try by getting the boys together, and one day late in the summer the
Frenches paid a visit to the Rockefellers at Pocantico Hills. John
was a slight, quiet boy with light hair and a shy smile. He had been
a star student in high school and he was as much of an introvert as
Nelson was an extrovert. Yet, they seemed to get along all right at
their first meeting, probably because John seemed deceptively timid
and Nelson was always aggressively determined to make anybody and
everybody feel at home. Their mothers were pleased and it was
arranged that they would room together at Hanover. This, as it turned
out, was one of the best things that ever happened to Nelson. During
four years at college, the two boys would have their quarrels and
their periods of mutual resentment for one reason or another but,
to a great extent, they complemented each other almost perfectly.
John was quiet and inclined to spend too much time alone; Nelson
was always on the go and trying to do more things than one boy
could handle. John was a brilliant student and, fortunately, this
aroused not so much Nelson s envy as his intensely competitive
spirit. "He was a tremendous influence/ Nelson said many years later.
"He was brilliant but I was damned if I was going to let him take
me. So I worked."
Before leaving for Hanover, Nelson had a long talk with his father
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 32
and assured him that he intended to make the most of college. He
also asked him for advice.
"Do you think it would be all right if I call on Dr, Hopkins when
I get to Hanover?"
"I m not sure I would do that/ his father replied. "Don t you
think it might seem like an intrusion?"
Nelson nodded but he was obviously disappointed.
"Well/ his father went on, "now that I think it over perhaps it
would be all right because I know it would be to pay your respects
to Dr. Hopkins, whom you like/
So, when he arrived in Hanover, Nelson started his college career
the way he liked to start any new enterprise by getting in touch
with the head man. But the next day he quickly discovered that he
was just another freshman on the Dartmouth campus.
n.
The freshmen matriculated and fixed up their rooms on the first
day at Hanover. Nelson, without his mother s assistance, had already
arranged to get together at college with Sheldon Stark, whom he had
known at the Lincoln School, and Randolph Martin, and the three
of them moved their belongings into two dormitory rooms where
John French joined them for the first semester. (Thereafter Nelson
and John were together in their own rooms.) Mrs. Rockefeller had
shipped furnishings for Nelson s room to Hanover but the bed was
too big and he had to send it back to be cut down to size.
"But hurry/ he wrote his mother, "because at present I am using
a $6 mattress that I got for temporary use. We have all four desks in
our room and it looks pretty business like. Not much in the other
room yet."
The second day, the sophomores arrived and the freshmen were
put in their place. They had to wear little green caps. Nelson was
summoned to help move sophomore trunks to sophomore rooms.
He was sent on errands and he was ordered to shine shoes and beat
rugs. The pressure of hazing didn t let up all day, and by the time
EDUCATION 3?
he and his roommates went around to Ma Smalle/s boardinghouse
for supper they were exhausted and wondering whether college life
was really worth while. They were still more doubtful when they
returned to their dormitory rooms, only to be aroused at nine o clock
by sophomore shouts of "Class of 30 out 30 out!" Then they had
to file down to the large hall of the dormitory where upperclassmen
were congregated. The thirty freshmen in the dormitory were ordered
to line up and answer questions and perform silly stunts. Those who
were slow were whacked across the bottom with large wooden paddles.
They were heckled and ridiculed and generally given a rough time,
not being released until after midnight. The hazing went on for
three days and nights, getting rougher all the time. On Friday there
was a freshman-sophomore football "rush" or general brawl in which
three freshmen were knocked cold. "I remember Nelson pushing and
shoving/ a friend said later. "His shirt had been torn off his back,
but he was laughing like crazy and having the time of his life." That
night the hazing was worse than ever, particularly after several
sophomores got hold of some bootleg liquor. The rough treatment and
especially the rough language shocked Nelson.
... I never in my life heard such swearing and such language [he
wrote later]. . , . Five freshmen got knocked out that night, one
fellow from our dorm. ... He was a peachy sport about it. ...
Saturday we all had to dress up. Our dorm was given a pair of socks,
a triangular piece of cloth, a baby s bonnet and a rattle, per fresh
man. Besides this we were allowed to wear our underclothes. Luckily,
it was warm, for we had to wear this costume, if you could call it
that, all day. After the football game, which Dartmouth won 59 to
o, all hazing was over and we all came home and went to bed. I ve
never been so tired in all my life. I hadn t had six hours for the last
three days. . . . I ve been to church twice today [Sunday]. It cer
tainly seemed good to get back into such a peaceful atmosphere.
Well, despite all the paddling, etc. we ve gotten for the past week,
we ve enjoyed it.
Nelson quickly got into the Dartmouth routine and the Dartmouth
uniform of unpressed corduroy knickers or pants and green sweater
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 34
or sweatshirt. He was as sloppy as anybody on the campus and far
more exuberant than most about everything except such extracur
ricular activities as Saturday-night trips to Lebanon for illegal beer.
He didn t drink "I just never felt that I needed a drink to have a
good time" and he didn t smoke. He enjoyed such social occasions
as there were during the school year and he spent a lot of time making
friends, particularly with boys who were far from home. There were
two Japanese freshmen, for example, to whom he introduced himself
and with whom he became friendly, and there were several boys who
were working their way through college among his particular group
of friends. But, even as a freshman, he had a remarkable knack for
being honest and direct in such friendships and avoiding condescen
sion.
I recently returned from a visit to Dartmouth College where my
son is a student [a mid- Western man wrote to Mr, Rockefeller],
... I feel I should express to you the high opinion I formed of the
young man [Nelson] from my recent observations of him and also
express to you an appreciation which I think every father who has a
son in Dartmouth owes to you because of the modest manner in
which Nelson lives at the school. I know that it has had a beneficial
effect on my boy and has made the burden of sending him to Dart
mouth considerably lighter.
"He was," one classmate, Pete Galloway, said many years later,
"an honest-to-God Christian, thoughtful of others and completely
without prejudice. Another boy and I lived too far away to go home
at Christmastime, for instance, and when Nelson heard that we were
going to be in a cheap hotel in New York during vacation he invited
us to have Christmas dinner with his family. I thought that was some
thing when you consider what a personal family affair Christmas
dinner usually is. It was quite an experience for us. All of the Rocke
feller family was there and they treated us as if we were members of
the family. After dinner, Mrs. Rockefeller took us up to the top
floor to see her wonderful collection of Japanese prints, and later she
took us to the theater. At college, Nelson may have been the
worst-dressed boy on the campus. At least, he was certainly casual. He
EDUCATION 35
didn t like show/ and the fact that the family had money just
didn t enter into his friendships at Dartmouth. He felt at home with
everybody and everybody felt at home with him/
This apparently was less of an overstatement than might seem likely
at first glance, although there were at least a few students who
didn t like the Rockefeller heir or his ways. He was defeated at one
time when he ran for a class office and at least one boy changed his
place at table at Ma Smalley s boardinghouse because he didn t like
Nelson s manners. But for the most part he made friends easily and
widely. He did not have to make any special effort to be liked and
in one class election he polled a record vote for vice-president.
"Making friends was no problem for him psychologically/ one
student remarked. "On the other hand, I don t believe he had many
really intimate friends. He helped or tried to help several students who
were having a difficult time financially but he may have instinctively
tried to avoid intimate friendships because of the possibility that
someone would impose on the family name or money."
Nelson wrote to his parents after a couple of months at college
that he had "met some awfully nice fellows already. But I m sort of
going slowly at first so as not to make any mistakes. Anyhow, I don t
have much chance to go visiting." His days were crowded because he
needed a lot of time for study and, later, because he was on many
committees or involved in strenuous campus activities. He crawled
out of bed at 7 A.M. and had breakfast, sometimes cold cereal with
cream and a glass of milk because he could keep such food in his
room. He made his own bed and straightened up his own room and
vacuumed the carpet. "The janitor made such a mess of things that
I told him to keep out." He studied from 8 to 10 A.M. and then
attended classes until mid-afternoon, when he went to practice with
the soccer team on which he eventually became a regular. After supper
he studied until about 9 P.M., when he and his roommate took a
break to eat some cake or candy or whatever Mrs. Rockefeller may
have sent him by mail. Sometimes another boy or two might drop by
his room and there would be half an hour of talk, or perhaps he
and John French would chat for a while before going back to their
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 36
books, but none of his classmates recalls him as a regular at dormitory
bull sessions. When he did take part in such talk fests, he was likely to
discuss religion or ethics or human relationships. "He always seemed
to have minority people the downtrodden on his mind/ one class
mate summed up. "But he wasn t a great talker and he didn t seem to
think that he had the answers to all the world s problems as some of
us did. He was more of a doer than a heavy thinker."
Nelson had a phonograph and a stack of records in his room but he
did not play them often and, in fact, showed no great interest in
music until much later, when he became enamored of jazz bands.
"But he enjoyed dancing/ a classmate recalls, "and at such parties
as we had Nelson usually tried to dance with every girl there before
the evening ended." His college allowance was a modest $1,500,
out of which he was supposed to pay almost all his college expenses.
He was also supposed to keep accurate accounts of his receipts and
expenditures and to check them over with his father at regular
intervals. Because of his tendency to look at numbers in reverse, he
often inscribed the wrong figures and his accounts were sometimes in a
hopeless tangle that distressed Mr* Rockefeller. "Pa has a completely
orderly mind," Nelson once explained. "Mine was somewhat dis
orderly in that respect." As a result, he was frequently broke and
had to borrow money from John French or others to go to the
movies or to patronize the campus sandwich wagon. Once he decided
to pick up some extra cash by waiting on table at the boardinghouse
but quickly gave up the idea when someone pointed out that he
might be taking work away from a boy who really needed the money.
He had no automobile at school, although many students did, and
during his first year he observed his father s suggestion that he should
not go on the college football trips, in which large numbers of
students participated. When the Dartmouth team played Yale, for
example, the campus was almost deserted for the weekend and Nelson
entertained himself by going for a long walk in the woods, where he
picked up four bright red and yellow autumn leaves to enclose in a
letter to his mother with a wish that she could see the beauty of
the countryside. He also missed the Harvard game, but one of
President Hopkins assistants showed up with an automobile and a
EDUCATION 37
hamper of food and took Nelson and several other boys to a hunting
cabin in the woods, where they ate and had a snowball fight. "I don t
know when I ve had such a good time. And I think it did us all a
world of good/
He devoted an increasing amount of time to campus affairs. He was
one of six freshmen appointed to run the class "Informals" a kind of
social meeting once a week under supervision of the Student Coun
cil and he was also on the Chapel Committee.
I have been very fortunate [he wrote his parents in reference to
the Chapel Committee]. It is our duty to criticize the service and
make suggestions to improve it ... in conjunction with the faculty
committee. . . .
By some mishap, I was appointed chairman of the Informals
Committee, so that now I am responsible for the speaker and
entertainment for our Wednesday night class gatherings. . . . I ve
learned two things from this work. First, I ve lost my feeling of
incompetency, of not being able to handle a job without relying on
someone else. In other words, if something has to be done ... I feel
that I m fully capable of doing it and will know or have some idea
of how to go about it without an inward fear. And, secondly, I m
losing my fear of standing up before a crowd and saying what I ve
got to say, for I have to preside. . . .
I went over ... to the White Church [on the corner of the
campus] to see if I could get a job there and, as luck would have it,
one of the [Sunday school] teachers is going to have to leave his
class, so I will take his place. I wanted a permanent job, so I m
very well satisfied.
At the White Church, he had a regular class of eight- to ten-year-
old girls. He enjoyed these Sunday-morning sessions and frequently
wrote to his mother about his experiences as a teacher. His class
was well behaved except for two youngsters who insisted on talking
and giggling. He finally gave up hoping to get them interested and
had them sit at one side of the room so they would not disturb the
class. At the end of the term, he wrote his parents that "I shall
miss my little girls very much. I wish I had been able to do more for
them."
When he went to Dartmouth, Nelson had a decidedly unfavorable
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 38
view of college fraternities, French was inclined to agree with him
and in the spring of 1927 they composed a letter criticizing the
fraternity "rushing" system because it interfered with scholastic
pursuits.
Johnny and I wrote a vox pop [letter to the school paper] today
on the question of fraternity rushing. If it is printed I will send it
to you. You see, we don t have time to fool around with the fratern
ities yet; and we get about seven invitations every Sunday for open
house. Then, too, the boys are all the time coming around to our
rooms. . . .
I m going out in the woods now with Johnny to hunt for wild
flowers and moss [for window boxes they had put up in their room].
The flower boxes are coming along fine . . they re something new
for a dormitory room and there s lots of talk . . . but I really think
most everybody sort of envies them, although they kind of hate to
admit it. ...
All the freshmen rules were taken off . . . and we don t have to
wear little caps any longer and can walk on the grass. * . *
Another letter in April said that Nelson had become very much
interested in photography and had joined the photography club. He
was taking pictures of a lacrosse game with Yale and a baseball game
with Boston College which were being played on adjacent fields one
Saturday , when he met his physics professor.
We sat down on the top of the grandstand where we could see
both the games one on each side of the stand. Before long the
President came walking along, so we hailed him and he came up
and joined us. And for the next two hours we three had a most
enjoyable time eating peanuts, telling stories and watching the
games A very worthwhile afternoon!!
The antifraternity article written by Nelson and John French was
published and caused considerable comment, but Nelson wrote that
"nobody was sore about it; most of them said we just didn t under
stand the rushing system/ By this time mid-April the two boys
were accepting invitations to various fraternity houses and beginning
to get a different view of the system.
EDUCATION 39
... I suppose we ought to go to some of the open houses although
I do find them an awful waste of time. The callers are still as
numerous as ever. Fifteen fellows came around Thursday night and
not all at once either. I don t know what it will be like when
rushing starts officially. It certainly is hard on your studies . - . but
I guess there is nothing to be done about it.
And a few days later:
Now that I am getting to know some of the boys I quite enjoy
going to the open houses. They always ask Johnny and me together,
which makes it still more enjoyable.
On May 24:
Last night the Phi Gamma Deltas gave a feed at one of the
Outing Club cabins and asked about 15 freshmen. I went and had
a great time. We played baseball before supper and then after supper
we sat around and sang songs and I finally walked home in the
moonlight with Gerry Swope and another boy. I got to know a lot
of very nice fellows and I think the "feed" was a good idea only it
must be rather expensive for the fraternity. Tonight I am going to
the following fraternities Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon and Sigma
Alpha. I m really getting to know an awful lot of fellows going
around this way and if it didn t take up so much time it would be
great. ... I do enjoy everything so much up here.
A few days later, when Nelson heard that his brother Laurance
had decided to go to Princeton, he expressed doubt that it was a
wise decision and indicated that Dartmouth might be a better
choice.
I certainly like the friendly attitude up here [as compared to a
big school like Princeton], Why, by now I think Johnny and I
know to speak to all of what are known as the Big Men on
campus.
Nelson and John French eventually became members of Psi
Upsilon, but they never lived at the fraternity house. In their senior
year, they lived in the house of the senior society Casque and Gaunt
let, to which both belonged, and slept in a long row of beds in the
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 40
society dormitory a room that was reputed to be the coldest spot in
Hanover*
Nelson s first college year did nothing to establish his reputation
as a scholar but it did a great deal to establish him as a busy and
well-liked man around the campus. "He has two particular qualities/
President Hopkins commented at the end of the year. "One, his
fearlessness in expressing convictions to which he has come after
serious thought, and the other, his willingness to revise his opinion on
the submission of new evidence or the acquiring of new acquaintance
ship with the facts. ... A man becomes a priceless member of the
college who shows the disposition and the capacity to think things
out himself. ... It is a great gratification to me that Nelson is so
definitely one of this sort. 7
in.
It was rather remarkable that in his last three years of college Nelson
added a certain degree of scholastic attainment to his record, despite
the fact that his campus activities steadily increased. His freshman
year had suggested that he wasn t going to be able to get out of the
rut into which he had fallen in high school
October, 1926 As for physics . . . the prof is great. ... As
soon as we get well started, I m going around to sec him some
evening. You sec, my idea has been to get to know the teachers as
soon as possible. ... I felt I would get more out of the courses if
there was more of a personal relationship between the teacher and
I. ... I have figured out I will need to do about 36 hours of
studying [a week] which means 6 hours every day.
November, 1926 Had lunch at Dr. Hopkins and dinner with a
professor s family.
January, 1927 Got a C in French first time I haven t been at
the bottom of the class, so I feel pretty good. . . . Since Christmas
vacation . . . I ve not been as interested in study. ... I don t seem
to care . . . have no fear of exams. ... It is really very interesting
EDUCATION 41
for me to watch and see the funny way my feelings have been
acting of late.
When he returned to school in the autumn of 1927, however, he
began to show the benefits of association with John French. He still
was busy with soccer "please be a little careful, not too reckless in
the games . . . remember you will need your teeth and nose and
legs again/ his mother urged and other nonscholastic activities
and, as vice-president of the sophomore class, he took a leading
role in a memorable campus brawl with the freshmen the following
spring. The battle grew out of defiance by the freshmen of the rules
imposed on them by upperclassmen. A freshman flag was run up as a
sign of revolt. Sophomores tried to take it down. There were numerous
fist fights and some of the freshmen class officers were "kidnaped"
and tied up. At one point, a group of freshmen attempted to storm a
sophomore dormitory which Nelson and a group of classmates were
defending. Nelson got a black eye in the first clash but he managed
to get hold of a fire hose, which he dragged to the door of the
dormitory and turned on the freshmen, holding them off until
reinforcements arrived. Later, the undergraduate governing body
decided to settle the class dispute by staging an organized fight on
the campus. A long rope was stretched in the center of the campus
and the freshmen lined up on one side. The sophomores lined up on
the other, with the class vice-president in the van. A cannon was
fired and the two classes fought to cany the rope to specified goals.
For the most part, the rope was forgotten and the classes fought
each other for an hour with the freshmen getting the best of it
until the Hanover city police arrived to put an end to the brawl.
The fighting was good for news stories in the big city newspapers
and the Boston Herald carried a headline saying;
JOHN D., JR., SON
MAULED IN FIGHT
Plays Heroic Part as Fresh
men Best Sophomores
at Dartmouth
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 42
Many in Encounter
Knocked into Coma
Nelson apparently feared this publicity might cause his father
distress and promptly wrote him, explaining the circumstances* His
father, however, was more pleased than annoyed and replied that
his son must have experienced a lot of fun when he got hold of that
firehose.
Campus brawls, however, didn t mean Nelson was neglecting his
books. He had learned how to concentrate and to make far better
use of his natural abilities. "Nelson didn t learn easily or quickly/
John French once remarked, "but he was conscientious and per
sistent. He studied every evening and studied hard. He didn t let
anything interrupt him." Basically, what happened was that Nelson
couldn t stand to be shown up by French, who easily was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. He worked because he was compet
ing with his roommate but the result was highly satisfactory two A s
and three B s at the end of the semester, which put him in the highest
three per cent of his class.
His father wired him that he was "bursting with pride" at the good
marks and his mother wrote:
I really and truly nearly shed tears of joy when Papa read me
President Hopkins letter telling us of your good marks. Of course,
I have always realized that you had a good mind but I feared (a
little) that you might never or at least for some time know what you
could do with it. ... Dear boy, your life, if it is to be really useful,
consecrated and successful will need all the brains, all the courage,
all the wisdom and all the patience that you have in you and when
you use wisely all that is in you, thus more will be given you. ... I am
sure that you have the power but it must be harnessed to steadiness
and a desire for perfection.
It would be erroneous to suggest that Nelson suddenly learned to
be patient or orderly or to concentrate his abilities along a given
line. But he had learned that when he could bring himself to work
hard and systematically he could achieve his goal. It was a lesson he
would frequently forget in the future but he would always come
EDUCATION 43
back to it when the chips were down. He continued to keep his
scholastic record up at college, and eventually earned a Phi Beta
Kappa key.
"When John French heard that I d made Phi Beta Kappa,"
Nelson recalled later, "he said that if a plugger like me could make it
he was going to throw away his Phi Beta Kappa key. He later denied
saying it, but I remember it very clearly."
In his junior year, Nelson was more active in Psi Upsilon, he was a
regular on the soccer team, he was editor of the college publication
Pictorial (for which he took many photographic studies himself), he
still conducted his Sunday-school class, he held several campus offices
and he was in Green Key an honorary society whose members were
chosen by election. "I was very lucky," he wrote home, "and came
out ahead/ Despite all these and other activities, his grades held up
and in October of 1928 he was notified by the head of the economics
department that he was eligible for the honors group. "I went
around to see him and he convinced me that the honors group was
the thing consequently I m going into it* . . , It means a little
bit more work, but a lot more to be gotten out of the course."
As a member of the honors group, he decided that he should cut
down drastically on his outside activities and he resigned from every
thing except the Pictorial and the Outing Club. "I m feeling more
and more strongly," he told his parents, "that outside activities are a
waste of time and that if one wants to get much of anything out of
college, he had better devote his time to studies and the more cultural
aspects of life."
I m thankful to say that at last I ve had the chance to start on a
reconstruction program for my work [he wrote his parents on Novem
ber 14, 1928].
. . , The economics honors work is turning out to be very interest
ing. . . . After Thanksgiving, we each take any business we want and
make a complete survey of it and then apply the economic principles
we have been studying. Of course, I have chosen the Standard Oil
Company for my study.
I think it will be extremely interesting as I am ashamed to say
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 44
that I know comparatively little about it. I was thinking the other
day that Grandfather has never mentioned the Company to us, nor
has he ever told us anything about his stupendous work in organizing
the Company and leading it for so many years. In our work, and as
time goes by, we will continually be hearing and learning about the
Standard Oil Company but always from outside sources. It seems to
me, therefore, that if it could be possibly arranged in some way to get
Grandfather to tell us sometime maybe a little about his experiences,
that it would be invaluable to all of us. And I can t emphasize this
point too strongly. It would be an outstanding and unforgettable
experience in our lives, I am sure. If you would consider this, and
maybe take it up with Grandfather if you thought it worth while
I certainly would appreciate it , . . It would be perfect if he could
possibly do it this vacation as I will at that time just be launching
on a study of the Company, and then, too, Grandfather will not be
back with us for a long time after that.
Mr. Rockefeller replied that he was sure that his father would be
willing to talk to Nelson about the Standard Oil Company. He also
arranged to send him the manuscript of a history of the life of
John D. Rockefeller, Sr., which was written by a former employee
who had had many long talks with the founder of the company.
This was a very flattering account of the elder Rockefeller s career
and one that was never published, but it delighted Nelson and threw
him into one of his "all-out" moods.
... I don t know when anything has interested me more than this
study [of the Standard Oil Company] it really was thrilling! For
the first time I felt that I really knew Grandfather a little got a
glimpse into the power and grandeur of his life. The night I
finished reading the ... biography, I wanted to write Grandfather
and tdl him what I had never realized before. But after several
weak attempts at expressing my feelings I gave it up. For the first
time, I realized the significance of his life and its influence for good
on this earth and I was just left speechless. . . .
I sincerely feel that I got more out of reading that book than I did
out of any other course last semester, . . . Among other things it
brought out the importance and value of money. And I was able to
EDUCATION 45
see as never before the reason and true significance of keeping ac
counts as you have always asked us to do. As I thought over the
principles behind the mechanics of keeping accounts it dawned upon
me that I have up to now merely been obeying the letter of the law,
as it were, and not the spirit, and that I have been missing the whole
point. Therefore, I have been sailing under false colors, as it were,
and as much as I appreciate your very generous bonus of $100.00 I
don t feel I can accept it at least not until I have attained the real
goal and not merely an artificial one. Therefore, with many thanks,
I am returning it by enclosing a check for $100.
Nelson never did get to talk to his grandfather about the Standard
Oil Company, possibly because the old man just didn t want to
discuss the past, but he wrote a forty-five-page thesis on the company
and got an A on it in Economics II. The thesis examined the meth
ods and the reasons behind the creation of the Standard Oil
monopoly by amalgamation of many small companies, and it looked
into the problem of free competition largely from the viewpoint of
an efficient monopolist. No historian will ever mistake the thesis
for an objective history nor will any reader learn the unpleasant
facts of ruthless business competition, but a few excerpts are inter
esting as reflections of Nelson s thinking at the time.
Mr. Rockefeller, with his abhorrence of waste and his accurate
methods of accounting, always knew to a penny the state of the
business and saw to it that every drop of oil, every piece of machinery
and every man in the enterprise was doing full service. . . . These
men [the executives of the company] showed from the beginning a
quicker insight into new conditions and a readier flexibility in ad
justing themselves to meet new problems than most of their rivals.
. . . From the very start, Mr. Rockefeller saw he was going to need
lots of ready money and in many instances at short notice. And as
he himself says, he wore holes in the knees of his trousers begging
for money from the banks. . . . They all worked hard, often getting
to the office at six-thirty and staying until nine at night. When there
was no work in the office to be done, Mr. Rockefeller used to go out
and work in the refinery wherever a hand was needed. His life long
policy towards his workers was to expect one hundred per cent of
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 46
faithful effort from them, and in return he gave fair play and a wage
at least as high as, usually higher than, the prevailing market rates.
. . . When a fire broke out in the refineries, as they often did in the
early days, everybody in the firm turned out to help fight it. While
the fire was still burning, Mr. Rockefeller could be seen with paper,
and pencil, making plans for the rebuilding. ... No time was ever
lost. You may wonder why so much time has been devoted to such
seemingly unimportant details. But it is these little things on the
inside of the Company which, when put together, mount up so far,
that have always been overlooked by people who study the Standard
Oil
... it might be well to mention a very important point and one
that has never been understood by the public namely the reason
for Mr. Rockefeller s silence all through the history of the Standard
Oil Company in the face of the bitterest attack and slander. There
are two main reasons: i. That the accusations were false and there
fore would fall of their own weight when time had revealed the
truth. 2. That if any public explanation of the real reasons for the
great and quick success of the Company were attempted it might
have been made so full and explicit that it would necessarily invite
other capitalists to come into the business and do likewise. Then,
too ... a genius for silence was born in [Mr. Rockefeller]. , . . The
inevitable result of the policy of silence was the creation of a myth
that the company undermined or oppressed or crushed out compet
itorsa hardy fiction which has diminished but slowly under the
impact of fact. . . .
[The thesis then discussed the ruinous competition in the oil
industry and said Mr. Rockefeller s idea was to combine for the
protection of all and that the Standard Oil Company assumed all
the risks at a time when it was evident that the larger number of
competitors could not continue.]
Those who didn t wish to come in could go on just as before. They
were not forced to sell out their business under threats of being
crushed out, nor were any of them coerced into selling. But, as
Mr. Rockefeller himself says, "We left them to the mercy of time.
They could not hope to compete with us." . . . Many cases were
reported ... in which the smaller companies were treated un
mercifully. Nearly all of these have been reviewed since and in every
EDUCATION 47
one the facts prove unquestionably that these companies were
treated with extreme fairness and in many cases with generosity.
This is a very broad statement to make, but I have the facts to back
it up. . . .
[The thesis then discussed Standard Oil arrangements for rebates
from the railroads and other business practices which were justified
as being accepted at the time, and it suggested that "the exigencies
of politics required that the Republican party after the election of
1904 should display a spirit of reform" that led to prosecution of
the monopolists,]
The Standard is often said to have gained its monopoly power
through local price discrimination, bogus independents and espionage.
These charges were all proven to be false, except in a few rare
instances throughout the country, in 1906 when the Company was
up before the federal courts. . . . Grandfather once said that in the
old days that if a man would slip on a banana peel and fall down,
he d jump up and turn around and curse the Standard Oil
Company. . . .
By the means of their monopoly power, the Standard Oil Company
stabilized the producing as well as the refining business. It had been
a fluctuating, haphazard business under a reign of cut-throat com
petition. . . . Mr. Rockefeller said that at no time did the Standard
Oil Company lose money, even under the worst conditions. . . . The
highest percentage of earnings to net assets in any year was in 1903
when the percentage was a little over thirty per cent and the highest
percentage of dividends paid was in the year 1900, when the divi
dends were nearly 25 per cent of the net assets. Now, there is no
doubt that this was much more than a fair return on their investment.
And, of course, these large earnings came only through high prices
which in their turn were made possible by the monopolistic position
of the Standard Oil Company. ... If things had developed without
the Standard monopoly, prices would probably have been somewhat
lower, but the profits would probably have been proportionately
much lower and the industry most likely would not have developed
nearly as fast. The Standard took in profits that would have other
wise gone to waste that is, of course, not wholly true but I think
it is to a large extent. ... It is fair to judge that the Standard
monopoly did restrict to a considerable degree the proper allocation
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 48
of capital. It is a questionable matter whether the benefits of the
Standard monopoly offset the resulting high price and improper
allocation of capital.
Probably they don t,
Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., read the thesis and told his son that he
had "a fine, breezy, charming style" and that he had done very
creditable work. Mr. Rockefeller, Sr., never read it.
IV.
Throughout his first three years in college, Nelson gave the im
pression that he was determined not to miss anything that went on
and his parents frequently warned him to be careful of his health.
"Don t forget the milk; sleep as much as you can/ his mother
wrote him many times. Once she remarked that he looked thin
when she visited him at Hanover and said that she was sending more
food by mail. She worried about his health after Nelson joined most
of the student body in digging out victims of a serious flood near
White River Junction in November of 1927, and the next fall she
wrote him that she was "glad to know that you are going to bed early
and taking better care of yourself.
His plan to get to bed early apparently was short-lived because he
wrote her in December of 1928 that "this is the J2nd letter Tve
written since I got back [from Thanksgiving vacation] . . . and I still
have quite a way to go. I planned to do nothing but work when I got
back and I ve done everything but. This afternoon I had six meetings
of various committees and organizations and I have three tomorrow
afternoon. I m trying to back out of things as much as possible.
I ve definitely decided to quit soccer next fall"
In this period, Nelson was struggling at intervals to face up to
life and decide what he was going to do about his career. As with
everything, he was inclined to approach the problem directly and
energetically, a little as if he were playing soccer and needed only to
concentrate on driving the ball between the goal posts. He wasn t
very sure, unhappily, of where the goal posts were, and he kept
EDUCATION 49
casting around for guidance. In the summer of 1928, he again had
gone to Europe, where he lived for a while with a large French
family at Le Mont-Dore and met numerous European youngsters
with whom he played tennis and went on automobile trips. One
night on such a trip they were unable to get hotel accommodations
and had to sleep "in a hay loft in a tiny village. In the morning we
stripped to the waist and washed and shaved at the town fountain.
All the peasants stood around and watched us as if they had never
seen any one wash before." The trip showed him a new side of life
and made him eager to know more.
Some people have to learn by experience and I m afraid Fm
one of them [he wrote his parents later]. Maybe the summer after
next we [William Alton and Nelson] will go on sort of a bumming
trip and follow the seasonal day laborers in the West from one
harvest to another. I m very anxious to get the day laborer s point
of view if I can before I start work. It seems to me that it would be
very valuable to know what kind of a life they lead and to go from
one place to another trying to get a job and experience some of the
hardships that are so common. ... It would make me appreciate
far more the wonderful opportunity with which I have been blessed
it is so easy to take all the comforts of life which have so
plentifully come to me more or less for granted. , . .
In regard to his business career, Nelson seemed to feel that his
ambitions might be stymied if he went into his father s office or
attended only to family affairs. His father wrote once:
In the college atmosphere where the point of view and environ
ment is so different from that in which you have been brought up,
I don t wonder that it is easy to lose track at times of the family
point of view. On the whole, however, the family point of view is a
pretty safe foundation to work on, even if the structure which you
may rear thereon is somewhat different from those which others
have built.
In the summer of 1929, young Rockefeller brought up the problem
again.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 50
Another thing that has been taking up my thoughts of late is
the question of what 111 do when I graduate. Frankly, I don t
relish the idea of going into some business not that I don t think I
could make a go of it but there is nothing very appealing, chal
lenging about it. Just to work my way up in a business that another
man has built, stepping from the shoes of one to those of another,
making a few minor changes here and there and then, finally, per
haps at the age of sixty, getting to the top where I would have teal
control for a few years. No, that isn t my idea of living a real life
His son s impatience, his urge to move rapidly and on his own
did not disturb Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., unduly. In his letters and his
conversations, he called Nelson s attention to the opportunities which
leadership in a large enterprise offered for developing friendly rela
tions between employer and employee, for creating good working and
living conditions, for introducing fair and adequate wages as well as
for taking the lead in turning out a product of high quality at reason
able prices. Seeing that such a vision of business leadership interested
Nelson, he reminded him that more and more younger men were
coming into leadership of large American industries, so that there
would be no need to wait until he was sixty to make his influence
strongly felt.
You will know [he pointed out on one occasion], that, while I
shall be glad if you boys find your life work in some of the manifold
lines which your father and grandfather have been working in, so
long as you earn your living in some worthwhile occupation, where
there is opportunity for real service, I shall be satisfied. The decision
of where that shall be can only be made by each individual. . . .
Time helps to solve so many problems and make clear so many paths.
Fortunately, there is no haste . . . and I feel sure that as the days
and months go by you will get added light*
When Nelson was home on vacations, Mr, Rockefeller frequently
invited his interest in various family affairs, asked him to attend
board meetings to talk with his associates or spend an afternoon going
over plans for some enterprise. "The thought of having you com
mence to get in touch with these problems, to which I have given so
much time and thought/ he said, "gives me the greatest pleasure.
EDUCATION 51
I am sure you will find them immensely interesting and absorb
ing."
Although Nelson took most things in stride, he occasionally suf
fered remorse because he felt that he took life too lightly. In the
spring of 1929 his concentration on having a good time caused his
mother to write him a letter of reprimand. In his reply, as usual, he
went overboard in dramatically denouncing himself for acts that
could not have been very serious, but which he managed to magnify
into heinous crimes.
Dear Ma,
I have just received your letter and coming as it has along with
several other things it has been a great lesson to me. All of a sudden,
like the lifting of a heavy fog, I realize for the first time how un
utterably selfish and thoughtless I have been getting to be. It stands
out in bold relief and glares me in the face I don t see how I could
have kept on the way I ve been acting. My own interests have been
the only ones which I have taken into consideration and I have
plunged on wildly, disregarding everything and everybody. . .
. . . What can I do now? Yd like to hide from everything, back
out of all the complications I m in, none of them serious, but all the
results of my selfishness. But to run from them would add cowardice
to my selfishness. To apologize does no good. I spend half my time
saying I m sorry and I m going right ahead and doing the same or a
worse thing. To think you and Pa have gone on uncomplainingly
both of you with 100 times the number of responsibilities that I
have and purely to add to my own amusement and convenience I ve
left the arrangement of details and asked you both to do things for
me that I have no right to ask anyone to do much less you two who
have done everything for me. Both of you have been so unselfish,
patient, thoughtful and kind. . . . From this very minute, I will lead
a new life . . . that will not be centered around myself. ... I shall
try in a small measure to make up for the discomfort I have caused
you both in the past. God alone knows how humble I feel.
Your thoughtless son,
Nelson
Any parents might have been justifiably alarmed by such a letter
but, knowing Nelson, the Rockefellers doubtless took it calmly.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 52
In his senior year, Nelson was made a senior fellow and President
Hopkins advised Mr, Rockefeller that it was a deserved honor. He
wrote that Nelson may have been "a little handicapped by his
name" during his college career but
I think unusual importance should be attached to the fact that
Nelson has won for himself an esteem and an affection which has
carried him through to prominent undergraduate position by election
of his fellows and has now won him the special recommendation of
the committee to assist me in picking senior fellows. The common
remark of the undergraduates, in their own vernacular, has been:
"Nelson rates it and ought to have it." . . - 1 have been delighted to
see Nelson s steady progress, his spirit of indefatigable industry, and
the balance and sanity of his judgment which commands increas
ingly the respect of all with whom he comes into contact. He is not
a docile type, and he has that added power and that increased
potentiality which attach to men who arrive at their eventual beliefs
by questioning along the way as to whether one or another belief is
valid. He embodies in his own person the attitude and the spirit
which we are trying to inculcate into the college as a whole. . . .
Nelson is a fine boy and greatly respected and liked by all of us.
The fellowship freed Nelson from the routine classroom work, gave
him wide choice of the subjects he studied and had a rather marked
effect on his future because it encouraged his interest in intellectual
and aesthetic achievement as contrasted to the direct action approach
which had dominated his life. Nobody should get an erroneous im
pression from this that he slowed down his pace or retreated to an
ivory tower> because he would always be dominated by a desire for
the active approach, the direct attack on problems. But, perhaps for
the first time, he began to see that it was necessary not just to plug
away at something but to look around at the world in which he lived
and try to figure out what he wanted from it or what he would like to
do about it. This idea was such a revelation to him that he wrote an
article for the June, 1930, issue of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
in a generous effort to share his knowledge with others. The article,
amazingly, was entitled: "The Use of Leisure."
EDUCATION 53
... In his [the student s] freshman year, everything is new. . . .
The whole year is spent in orienting himself to this strange new
world. . . . The next year a decided reaction usually sets in. The
earnest, wondering-eyed freshman goes through some strange meta
morphosis during the summer, and comes back to college . * . a
blustering would-be man of the world. . . .
At the end of the year every sophomore must decide to what sub
ject he wants to devote the major part of his junior and senior
years. . , . I chose economics as being most likely to be useful to me
in business. In fact, I had picked the great majority of my courses
with a view to preparing myself for a better understanding of the
problems in everyday life, present and future.
The idea of taking some courses in order to make the most of
my leisure had never entered my head. I had felt no such need for
most of my spare time was taken up with outside activities. . . .
There had been no time to delve into the many subjects that
fascinated me, no time to sit and mull over things with other fellows;
in fact, I am ashamed to say that I hadn t even stopped to think
where I was headed.
Then at the end of the year, by a stroke of great good fortune,
I received a fellowship. ... So I decided to give up my regular major,
keep on with the outside activities, study music and explore in the
fields of architecture, painting and sculpture; subjects that I had
neglected up to then. . . . With this program I have not been tied
down to a regular unbending routine, and have been able to spend
time on the extra-curricular activities when needed. Of these, I spent
most of my time with the Arts, an organization with unlimited
possibilities of promoting interest in the various arts among the
undergraduates but one which had dropped into disrepute several
years ago as it had come into the hands of a group of light-footed
tea drinkers, at least so rumor has it. However, it was revived last
year, and due to the ability and perserverance of this year s board of
governors, with whom I had the privilege of working, the Arts came
back into its own on campus stronger than ever. . . -
Now some may wonder why a year spent in this way is more
worthwhile than one spent in the ordinary manner. Every man that
graduates from college must work at least eight hours a day, five
and a half days a week from next summer on that is, if he ever
NELSON ROCKEFELLEK A BIOGRAPHY 54
wants to amount to anything. And, of course, the really ambitious
ones will work for much longer hours than that. However, these
men are going to have a little free time on their hands from the
first, and as time goes by they will have more and more, until they
finally retire. The big question is, to what use will they put this time?
Movies, cards, golf and gossip are all very popular forms of diversion
but, when carried to an extreme, they have a decidedly narrowing
influence on the individual, . * . What is the cause? Well, while in
college he [the individual] is forced by popular opinion to spend what
spare time he has either in extra-curricular activities or in being a good
fellow with the boys. And neither of these pursuits worthy as they
may be are very conducive to an intelligent use of leisure. ... If a
man ... is going to have to keep his nose to the wheel for twenty
or thirty years after he graduates, would it not be of infinite value
to him if he could spend his last year at college totally free?
And, if you will . . . pardon the personal reference, this is exactly
what I have had the privilege of doing this yean With the result that
my whole attitude toward education has changed. It is no longer the
old game of just doing enough work to pass the exams and get good
marks. There has been no one to check up by giving me a quiz on
pages 315 to 375 inclusive. I have been working for the personal
joy and satisfaction derived from it . . . I don t claim to have
sprouted wings or to be any kind of an authority . . . but I have
developed a growing enthusiasm and appreciation that will stay with
me. . . . And to my mind colleges in the future will have to lay
greater stress on training students how to use [their] freedom, for it
isn t something that can be picked up after graduation. ... I have
discovered the key to the door that opens out into a field of interest
totally unrelated to the material side of life. And it is now up to me
to unlock this door and explore the ground lying beyond.
The broad ideas expressed in this little essay had a marked effect on
the author. He did develop a real interest in art and for a while he
toyed with the idea of becoming an architect. In his last year in
college he and Walter Chrysler, Jr., planned to establish in New York
a quarterly called The Fine Arts Magazine, which was to publish
new and experimental poetry, prose, plays and photographs, but it
died a-borning. On the other hand, Nelson took charge of The Arts
EDUCATION 55
organization at Dartmouth and made it exceedingly popular. For
example, he started a music library of recordings in a room where
students could come to listen. He also organized an outstanding
program that brought such figures as Thornton Wilder, Bertrand
Russell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Carl
Sandburg and Vachel Lindsay to lecture at Dartmouth. This was the
way Nelson liked to pursue the muses.
Carl Sandburg spent Friday and Saturday here, speaking Friday
night [he wrote his parents in February, 1930]. I stayed with him
practically the whole time he was here and had a most intensely
interesting time. He really is a very delightful person and very well
informed. . . .
And on another occasion:
I have spent most of the last two days with Vachael Lindsay, who
was up here under the auspices of The Arts to recite his poetry. . . .
He was charming and interesting. ... He asked me to come and stay
with him.
As the time for college graduation drew near, Nelson s enthusiasm
for doing things in a big way showed up in a letter to his mother:
... It is the custom here at the [fraternity] house of all getting
together after exams for a few days at a cabin or somewhere. I
thought that if you would approve and it would be convenient that
I would ask the fellows to come down to the country [Pocantico
Hills] for three or four days . . . around the eighth of June. . . .
There would be absolutely no drinking and no girls. . . . We could
get a few extra cots and put them upstairs outside of Johnny s
and my rooms. There are twenty-one fellows in all and they are a
very nice bunch. . . .
The thought of an invasion by twenty-one college boys, even if
they were a very nice bunch, horrified even the Rockefellers and they
tactfully switched their second son s plans to a resort hotel by
promising to foot the bill up to a reasonable amount.
Nelson s graduation cum laude was good for several feature stories
in the big city newspapers, including one that said he was one of
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 56
the active sponsors of a student campaign to popularize shorts for
warm weather wear on the campus. It added:
His [Nelson s] four years at college have been marked by an
economy that would be a credit to a student of very modest means.
It is well known among the students that his monthly allowance has
been just enough to cover his college expenses. While the majority
of students have automobiles of some description . . * young Rocke
feller s family allowed him to have a car only in his senior year. And
that car was a cheap one, three years old*
"Rocky" or "Nell/ as he is known on the campus, has lived in
one of the cheapest of the Dartmouth clubs and has always avoided
the more expensive social events, . . . Even his clothes have been
inexpensive, and those he wore on hikes were considerably the
worse for wear. . . .
Young Rockefeller occasionally has been visited by his father,
who always stayed at the modest Inn, where rooms with meals cost
but $6 a day, and he has come in an automobile which was no match
in resplendence for the cars of other visiting parents.
THREE
Marriage and Travel
Superficially, at least, the family atmosphere in which the third
generation of extremely wealthy Rockefellers grew up was nearly ideal.
Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller, Jr., were wise and moderate and devoted,
and determined to give their children the opportunity to develop into
normal, healthy individuals who would know their own minds and
enjoy useful lives. The five brothers were encouraged to be interested
in each other, they fought and quarreled no more than might have
been expected and they were strongly inclined to present a united
front to the world whenever necessary. Yet there were, of course,
problems.
Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., was sensitive, repressed, retiring and so modest
that his wife sometimes complained. He was patient in all things and
acted only after thoughtful consideration. Nelson was aggressive,
noisy, exuberant, careless a complete extrovert. Mr. Rockefeller, Jr.,
was an only son, intensely devoted to his own father, for whom he
had the utmost respect and admiration. Nelson, on the other hand,
was the second of five sons and he grew up with the knowledge that
57
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 58
his brother John would bear the brunt of family responsibility. Nelson
was strongly competitive and he was reaching out from an early age in
an effort to assert his own personality and to find his own place.
No matter how much he loved his elder brother and they were
congenial companions it was not in Nelson s nature to be second
man on any totem pole.
As a result, Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., was at times perplexed and appre
hensive about his second son. He wished that Nelson had greater
patience and stability, that he had more interest and was more
accurate in keeping accounts and that he showed promise of devel
oping toward him a more formal relationship, such as he had ex
perienced with his own father. He also was somewhat awed by the
very close, completely free and easy, relations between Nelson and
his mother, who had a remarkable ability to create a feeling of com
panionship with her children at any age. Mr. Rockefeller was thought
ful and tireless as a father, but he could not unbend and sometimes
he could not understand youthful whims. Nor could he understand
the frank, uninhibited talk of popular music, of current fads, of
escapades in which Nelson and his mother reveled. Occasionally,
he said frankly that he was horrified by their conversations.
But if Nelson was not particularly close to his father in companion
ship as a child, he was strongly aware of his father s constant (even if
not easily expressed) love and he was very much influenced by his
father s high moral character. The bloody strike against Colorado
Fuel & Iron Company, in which he was pictured as the principal
villain, had been both a revelation and a shock to Mr. Rockefeller, Jr.,
and it caused him to change his whole approach to problems of labor
and of human relations. With the help of W. L. Mackenzie King,
later Premier of Canada, he developed what was then an enlightened
program for labor-management relations and, against some strong
capitalistic opposition, promoted it effectively not only in companies
where the Rockefeller interests were great but as a general policy.
I think it cannot be too clearly seen that this is a period of
transition in which Organized Labor is bound to come in for an
ever increasing measure of recognition [he wrote in 1919]. The path
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 59
of wisdom on the part of managements seems to me to be that of
bringing about the necessary adjustments in the most natural way
and the one least liable to lead to friction.
Nelson could not avoid being strongly influenced by the family
background the stern devotion to the Baptist Church, the firm
insistence on honesty, tolerance and fair play, the determination to
lead not just an ethical but a useful life, the tireless effort to expend
hundreds of millions of dollars wisely in a vast philanthropic pro
gram all, possibly, an unconscious kind of penance for the manner in
which the family fortune was founded in a less social-minded era.
Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., provided an example of a man who had the
courage to stand for and promote what he believed was right, regard
less of the consequences. It was an attitude that Nelson would follow
in his own career, and occasionally the consequences would be highly
discomforting.
n.
Mr. and Mrs, Rockefeller, Jr., grew up in an era when letter
writing was one of the social graces and both wrote frequently to
their children when the family was separated. Even when they were
all in the same city often when Nelson and his father were working
in the same offices they put into writing their thoughts on subjects
that had been discussed and that they considered important. The
Rockefeller children were persistent letter writers, too, but by no
means as skilled. In 1928, after Nelson had visited Versailles and
Rheims and inspected the postwar restoration work that was made
possible largely through contributions by Mr. Rockefeller, he wrote
his father that
it makes me feel proud. I only hope that I shall grow up and live a
life that will be worthy of the family name. I m sure Johnny will
because he already thinks and acts exactly like you, Pa. I see the
likeness . . . more clearly every day. But as for myself well, I m a
lot different and I don t think the same way. But I hope that de
spite this, Fll come out on top, as it were.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 60
Mr, Rockefeller may have sometimes had doubts as to just where
his son would come out but he expressed them only indirectly, as
when he wrote to Nelson on his nineteenth birthday.
. . . It hardly seems possible that our little curly headed boy of
yesterday is nineteen tomorrow, so ... splendid a man, of whom
we are very proud and of whom we have the highest hopes. What a
change has come over you in the last two years. Always friendly,
loveable, high-minded, it used to be almost impossible for you to
apply yourself to any task or to adopt method in your work. Nor
could you see the value of the daily task, nor the importance of doing
it faithfully and well whether interested in it or not. Now you are a
much harder task master over yourself than anyone else ever was.
You have come to see the value of method, of planning your work
and the importance of doing it to the best of your ability each day.
Each year that passes makes me more grateful for you boys and
more confident of the useful future that lies before you. ... I am
glad you wrote me so frankly and fully about your further camera
bill. My chief regret was that my attitude in our several talks . . .
was apparently such as to make you hesitate to tell me what you
wrote. Of course, I was disappointed at your financial condition as
it developed. But far more do I prize and cherish your confidence,
and I cannot forgive myself when my attitude has even seemed to
be such as to cause you to hesitate to talk with me freely about any
thing on your mind. . , . Forgive me for letting my temporary
disappointment so show in my manner as to chill you and hold
you aloof.
Now that you have so fully made up your mind to conduct your
finances on a sound and business like basis, I know you will carry
out your purpose and I will gladly do all I can to help you.
Good night, dear boy, God bless and keep you and make you
a power for good in the world, is my earnest prayer.
Lovingly,
Father
And a few months later:
. . . Let me express the hope that in the spirit of the strenuous life
you are living [at Dartmouth], you are not forgetting to write down
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 61
your receipts and disbursements, so that your accounts will be in
good shape when next we look them over.
And much later, in January of 1929:
... it was a great satisfaction to me to have you bring your accounts
up to date at the end of the year so completely and all by yourself.
In contrast with past years, the year 1928 stands out as a red letter
year in every way from your financial point of view. ... I feel sure
that some day you will see the value [of keeping accounts] .... Be
sure to get regular exercise. . . . Work of any kind is always much
easier and much better done when one is physically fit.
Mr. Rockefeller repeatedly emphasized to his son that he alone
could make the decisions that would lead to his living a happy and
useful life, but he usually added that "y u do not know how happy it
makes me to have you take up with me any subject that you want to
discuss. There is always a solution, and we can always find it to
gether if we approach matters both of us with open minds/ On
another occasion, he wrote to Nelson that he could not
tell you how happy the latter part of your letter . . . made Mama
and me. To know that you are so contented at Dartmouth . . . gives
us happiness. . . . Parents need encouragement and appreciation
quite as much as children perhaps they are more grateful for it
even than children. ... It is our earnest desire ... to help you
in giving you the opportunity for the finest, most stimulating and
uplifting contacts; to be ready always, when you ask for it, to
give you the benefit of any experience which we have had but
to leave to you always the decision in matters which affect your
own life that that decision will be based on a knowledge of all
the facts in the case, in so far as they are available, and that it
will always be inspired by the finest idealism, we are happily and
gratefully conscious.
Occasionally, he also offered some indirect suggestions, as when
Nelson had stayed late at a dance on Sunday morning.
... I do not ... say that it is wrong . , . but there are certain
things which we relegate to the six days of the week and do not do
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 62
on Sunday. ... I have no wish or desire to force my perhaps old-
fashioned view of the subject upon you. I would, however, like to
have you think it through fully and frankly and . . . reach a con
clusion as to what position is best and proper for you. . - . Whatever
conclusion you arrive at ... will not be questioned.
Nelson replied that there were times when it was difficult to avoid
staying at a dance after Saturday midnight, and his father responded:
. . . You are quite right in feeling that there is no particular difference
between one minute before twelve and one minute after. I agree with
you that the vital question is the effect on one s own Sunday, both
as regards how it is spent and how one feels. . . . Please do not feel
that you are bound to me in any way by what you have said. I shall
regard it merely as an expression of your feeling that, all things being
equal, Sunday morning is a poor time to stay out very late. There
may and doubtless will be exceptions.
Mr, Rockefeller was gratified in November of 1928 when Nelson
wrote that he had been very much interested in a speech which his
father had made on the fundamentals of religion, an address which
had attracted considerable attention.
"Some time I should like to sit down with you, with the manu
script before us, and discuss any points about which you are not
clear [he wrote his son]. Such a discussion would be very helpful
to me, for in this address I sought to formulate my own thoughts on
religion in its simple and elemental terms. * . . Isn t Mr. Hoover s
election splendid?"
The attitude that Mr. Rockefeller encouraged in his sons in regard
to money was important, and slightly involved. Nobody could accuse
the family of being "soft" in regard to money matters. They were
suspiciously on guard against a world that had countless schemes to
relieve them of part of the burden of wealth either by private or
philanthropic ventures. Yet the brothers always knew that the mere
accumulation of money was not their problem; that money merely
represented a tool with which they could work and that they would
be judged in life by what they built with the tools at their command.
Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., never let them forget that the important thing
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 63
was the way they used their money. On one occasion he sent Nelson a
note saying he thought he would be interested in an enclosed quota
tion because "we are all of us engaged in the business of giving
money away." The quotation from Aristotle said:
Tilings which admit of use may be used either well or badly. . . .
Anybody can give or spend money but to give the right amount of
it at the right time and for the right cause and in the right way, that
is not what anybody can do, nor is it easy. That is the reason why it
is rare and laudable and noble to do well.
At home, Nelson had been driving a Dodge that was getting along
in years but in the spring of 1928, with the connivance of Laurance,
he began a campaign for a newer vehicle. They tried to approach the
subject indirectly so that their father would suggest that the old
Dodge should be replaced. Mr. Rockefeller was not deceived but he
said he would think about it, providing the boys strictly observed the
fifteen-mile-an-hour speed limit he had established at Pocantico Hills.
Once the subject had been opened, Nelson made his big pitch in a
long and stilted but ingenious letter from Dartmouth in which he
sought to please his father by his serious consideration of the ques
tion of a car but also to make sure that he got the sporty number he
wanted rather than a more serviceable vehicle which his father had
suggested.
May 8, 1928
Dear Pa,
First, I would like to express my appreciation of your attitude on
the car question. It has been one of great generosity and desire to
cooperate to the fullest extent. Due to your open mindedness and
your desire to do the best thing, I m sure we will always arrive at
the best solution of problems a solution that will be equally satis
factory to both of us.
As to the immediate car question having a car up here would be
nice, I ll admit, but as we brought out in our talk there are several
objections and unfavorable precedents that might arise from it. The
alternative of having a new car which of course would belong to
you as the other cars have and of being able to hire a car at college
NELSON KOCKEFEIXEK A BIOGRAPHY 64
when I really need one, is more than a generous one. I had been
thinking of a new car, but as I said before you had already been so
generous that I didn t feel I had any right to bring it up. But when
you suggested it I was overjoyed. [Mr. Rockefeller replied tartly that
it was Laurance, not he, who had suggested it.]
A Buick will be an ideal car, I m sure, and it is exactly what I had
been thinking of. Now as to the question of a roadster or a five
passenger touring car. I received your letter and I m sure I under
stand how you feel. I ve given the matter careful consideration during
the past three days even dreamed about it and I have talked to
fellows who have Buick roadsters & 5 passenger touring cars.
At first, I thought it would seem more practical to get the 5
passenger car for all around utility. And this fact would hold true
if it were not for the fact that I think we have here somewhat of a
special case. While I am using the car between Pocantico & New
York and around the city, it is rare that I ever use the back except
for baggage due to the fact that Laurance & John both have cars,
as well as the family cars driven by the men. Then the only other
time I use the car is motoring to and from Maine, and while I m
up there. As to the former, I ve never motored up or down with
more than one other. Then, when you stop to think, practically every
family on the island has at least one car which the younger members
drive. When we take some one with us, it is nearly always for the
pleasure of their company rather than the necessity of the ride. Going
to dances and things whether raining or not it is rare that any of
the cars are full. Usually there are not more than two or three in
any car. I can remember occasions when I have on rainy nights had
a full car, but that was rather from preference than necessity.
Therefore, after thinking the situation over pretty carefully, I
really have come to the conclusion that I would really rather have
the roadster that is, if you don t object. I can t imagine anything
more ideal that that black Buick we saw. But if you would rather get
the five passenger car I would be tickled to death to have it. My
honest opinion is though that the roadster would fill the ticket by far
the best taking all things into consideration.
If you do decide to buy either, and you don t know how I d ap
preciate either, I d be all the more grateful if you could get it by the
i4th of June, so that I could have it for those couple of weeks before
going on the trip.
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 65
I m sorry to have written such a long letter, but wanted you to
know just exactly how I felt. I can assure you, whatever happens,
111 be happy. Laurance knows just what I would want in either event,
so I ll trust him for details.
Lots of love & thanks,
Nell
For one reason or another possibly because he was simply over
come by the unrestrained flow of words from Nelson s pen Mr.
Rockefeller bought his son a black Buick roadster with a red stripe
around the body and six red wire wheels. He specified that it should
not be taken to Dartmouth, although he said Nelson could hire a
car at college when he really needed it. Nelson replied excitedly
that, although he hadn t yet seen the car,
you don t know how much pleasure Fve already received from just
imagining about it. I ve taken you all out for rides at least a dozen
times; I ve imagined the way 111 put the lights and horn on it. Fve
even gone so far as to try to draw futuristic designs for the radiator
cap. People must think I m crazy because every Buick I see I rush
up and examine. . . . There s one thing I ve thought of ... I really
hate to ask you. . . . Could I have two mirrors put on the wheels
that are on the sides of the car? . . . I d be glad to pay for them
myself only I really can t afford it at present.
Nelson s bursts of enthusiasm and his disorderliness distressed Mr.
Rockefeller, who labored to get his second son to adapt himself to a
more sedate and measured pace. On one occasion his father offered to
help him pass his English tests by sending back to him all of his
letters with the misspelled words underlined so he could look them up
in the dictionary. Nelson declined this offer but made a counter-
suggestion.
I know there are various words I can t spell [he said] . I could stop
and look them up in the dictionary but that would be wasting a lot
of time, so instead of looking them up I ll just underline the words
that I m uncertain about and you ll know that, if necessary, I could
take the time to look them up.
This must have seemed an odd approach to the problem, especially
when Mr. Rockefeller looked over the results. Nelson had under-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 66
lined a dozen words in the letter, most of which were spelled cor
rectly. But he had completely ignored almost as many that were
incorrectly spelled. For a good many years, Mr, Rockefeller patiently
and quietly persisted in his endeavor to help his son into more orderly
habits.
You have great admiration for your Grandfather Rockefeller [he
wrote Nelson], Remember that one of the qualities that made him
great, and that not infrequently made him successful over other
people, was his ability to wait and to be patient to a degree that was
almost superhuman. Waiting is often hard work, much harder than
working and doing, but not infrequently it is the quickest and most
effective way to accomplish the desired end and it is the goal that
the wise man keeps his eye on.
In time, some of his father s advice rubbed off on Nelson. In time,
too, Mr. Rockefeller s concern as to Nelson s volatility was allayed,
and he would write that his "cup was running over with happiness"
and pride in his son. But, as he grew older, Nelson would continue to
challenge his father s conservative, traditional attitudes and to urge
Mr. Rockefeller to actions that were more dramatic and more ad
vanced than he might ordinarily have favored. Nelson frequently
pushed his father to give him greater authority in family affairs,
and sometimes he got what he wanted. Mr. Rockefeller was, how
ever, a man who preferred to move cautiously rather than enthusiasti
cally. Relations with his son had not always been smooth and his
campaign to slow down Nelson s tempo would never be very
effective. Father and son were temperamentally far apart.
in.
Nelson s relationship with his Grandfather Rockefeller was erratic
but important if for no other reason than that he was the genius
behind the family fortune, the man so often pictured as a piratical
monopolist miraculously transformed into a God-fearing philanthro
pist who gave away five hundred million dollars for the benefit of
humanity. This publicly split personality might have had more
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 67
psychological impact on the grandsons of Mr. Rockefeller, Sr., but
for the great gulf of years that separated their generations. When
Nelson was a small child, his grandfather was already more than
seventy years old and retired from all business affairs, and the
popular image of the elder Rockefeller had been softened by the
press agentry of Ivy Lee. There were no more angry newspaper
headlines, the bitterness of congressional investigations was forgotten
and the newspapers were happy to publish photographs of an aging
philanthropist gently swinging a golf club on his private links or
handing out bright new dimes as souvenirs.
Yet, Nelson s earliest memories were not much affected by this
latter-day public personality either. He knew his grandfather as a
relaxed and pleasant elderly man with a ready smile and quick, bird-
like eyes in a face of yellowed parchment. But, most important of all,
his very earliest impression of the old man was that he was a great
wit, a humorist to be compared with Will Rogers. There is no
accurate record to show the quality of Mr. Rockefeller s humor, but
his grandsons not infrequently dined at his home on Sunday, and
Nelson remembers that he often stood at the head of the table,
trailing a spotlessly white napkin in his thin fingers and talking so
entertainingly that everybody, including small children, were en
tranced. Often his stories were deadpan accounts of some sad cir
cumstance into which an acquaintance had fallen, and occasionally
he would lift the napkin to wipe an imaginary tear from his eye.
But the stories always ended up with an unexpected twist that made
it all a huge joke and sent the children into screams of laughter. They
loved the stories even when they had heard them before and, for as
long as he lived, they would enjoy visiting their grandfather s home.
The elder Rockefeller was not all jokes, however. He often found
time to listen gravely to his grandchildren s problems. He cautioned
Nelson with only partial success not to burden himself with details
of business. And he occasionally wrote pleasant little letters, as
when Nelson had sent him a gift in 1923.
. . . The maple sugar you sent was very acceptable, and we all thank
you for it. We thank you because maple sugar is so good and sweet
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY gg
and everybody likes it; but more because you were so thoughtful and
kind as to remember us away down here in Florida, where we do
not make maple sugar, and we will try and get even with you some
day for all your kindness to us.
Lovingly,
Grandfather
As Nelson was growing up, he became aware of his grandfather s
role in American industry but he was not particularly interested until
he wrote his thesis on the Standard Oil Company, Thereafter, he
took advantage of his not very frequent contacts with Mr. Rockefeller,
Sr., to talk to him about business affairs and to seek his advice, which
was not often given except in very general terms. Or his grandfather
would listen patiently to his ideas and then cool him off with a
remark that "it is all very interesting, but what do the figures show?
It s the figures that count/
. . , It seems funny to think that today is Grandfather s goth birthday
and my 2ist birthday [Nelson wrote to his parents on July 8th,
1929] The 90 makes my 21 seem mighty small and insignificant,
just like a little sapling standing by a mighty fir, But the sapling still
has time to grow and develop and someday it might itself turn into
a tree of some merit. Who knows?
And later he wrote that 4 I played golf with Grandfather last
Saturday and on Columbus day. I have had a chance recently to get
to know him better than ever before and every time I see him my
admiration grows deeper. He certainly is an extraordinary man."
By the time Nelson had graduated to the world of business, his
grandfather, although far removed from workaday affairs, still liked
to hear about what was going on. After the noontime meal he would
sometimes retire to his favorite Morris chair, lower the back to a
semireclining position, spread a white handkerchief over his face
and ask Nelson to sit beside him and talk about his work. Sometimes
he would comment but most of the time he listened until he dozed
off.
We went to Grandfather s for lunch today [Nelson wrote his
father in 1932]. Afterwards he took me aside and we had a little talk
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 69
for half an hour or so. He certainly is an extraordinary man, about
the finest I know. There are few people that I really admire as being
all-round successes, but he leads the list. His point of view and
outlook on life are so perfectly grand. And what a sense of humor!
Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., was pleased by the letter and told his son
that "nothing could give me greater satisfaction than does the fact
that you are beginning to understand and appreciate Grandfather."
Mrs. Rockefeller also was interested and remarked that she wanted
Nelson to know more about the career of his Grandfather Aldrich.
Then she added:
which leads me to the point that I want to make, which is that I
hope you boys will . . . not only know what he [your father] is doing
but will understand the motives and principles that underlie his
actions. I think that your father s high-mindedness and absolute
honesty are very rare and I am counting upon this becoming a family
tradition.
IV.
Mrs. Rockefeller may well have been the most direct single in
fluence on Nelson as he grew to manhood. She was the daughter of a
strong, self-made man who had started life on a Rhode Island farm,
completed his education with one year at East Greenwich Academy,
worked for a wholesale grocer s firm, moved into Providence city
government offices and to the House of Representatives in Washing
ton. In 1881, when he was forty, he was elected to the United States
Senate and in the next three decades became the able and iron-
handed Republican leader of the chamber, powerful enough to
defy President Taft by raising tariff rates in 1909. He was a man with
varied and enthusiastic interests in art and literature and politics.
He enjoyed life and encouraged his children to have a good time, to
learn to sail, to visit art museums, to travel in Europe. He even en
couraged his daughters to buy new dresses, as long as they chose
bright and gay colors. He didn t worry much if they couldn t spell
and Abby Aldrich was weak in that department so long as they
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 70
developed their minds and had good taste* Abby thought he was
wonderful and was greatly influenced by his attitudes.
As Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Abby made no attempt to dis
guise the fact that her outlook and her training were quite different
from those of her husband, but to a great extent they complemented
and balanced each other in harmonious fashion. Where her husband
was strait-laced, careful and retiring, Mrs. Rockefeller was full of
enthusiasms, outspoken, witty and at ease in any company whether it
was high society in New York, politicians in Washington or avant
garde artists in Paris. Her charm was such that it was long remem
bered by almost everyone who came into contact with her even
briefly, and her life was almost completely devoted to her husband
and children. "Your father," she once wrote to one of her children,
"is so wonderfully thoughtful himself and so considerate of all the
people with whom he comes in contact that I am sure he must
occasionally find the rest of us somewhat difficult. Perhaps there is a
little bit too much Aldrich in us and not enough Rockefeller!"
There was certainly plenty of Aldrich in Nelson. He was filled with
the Aldrich zest for life, the endless quest for new and exciting
experiences and the love of people, of crowds and of political ad
ventures. In personality he was, perhaps more than anyone else in
the family, like his mother, and they had similar tastes and interests.
Mr. Rockefeller s health was not good and he and his wife fre
quently went to Hot Springs, West Virginia, to rest* In April of
1920, Nelson wrote to his mother that he had been to see the circus
and that "I am sending you a little sachet that I made this morning
without the help of anyone/ A few days later, he informed her that
he and Laurance had been paid $13.20 for eight rabbits that they
sold to the Rockefeller Institute laboratories. The next summer,
Nelson s rabbits died and his mother wrote him:
This is a letter of condolence. I have just learned of your great
loss and I am most truly sympathetic. To think of those dear little
rabbits all dying is too sad. . . . Mothers and babies are veiy sensitive
things, they have to be taken great care of or accidents will happen.
Perhaps it was too cold for the babies or it may have been unwise
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 71
to move the mother just before they were born. I know how dis
appointed you must be.
I saw a lovely little police dog today. I am dying to buy him but
Papa hasn t taken kindly to the idea yet.
Mrs. Rockefeller s letters were more seriously concerned with her
son s attitude as he grew older.
. . , You must have lost a lot of school work, which will mean some
good stiff studying for the rest of this year [she wrote in February of
1923, from Ormond Beach, Florida]. If you can only train yourself
now to concentrate and to stop fooling except in play time > you will
do yourself an endless service for which you will be thankful the
rest of your life. . . . Remember you are the one that has to live most
with yourself, and the more you exercise your mind the better time
you will have and the more you develop your imagination the greater
success you will be. I am eager that you shall be much above the
ordinary in character and achievement. The world needs fine men.
There is great work waiting to be done, I want you to train yourself
to meet any opportunity the future may hold in store for you. Learn
to use your brains now before it is too late. . . . Don t throw this letter
in the waste paper basket, thinking that it is a lecture. Just think that
your mother, who loves you very much indeed, wants you to put your
best into life and get the best out of it.
From your devoted,
Mother
Again, Mrs. Rockefeller wrote that she hoped Nelson was being
kind to the younger children. She remarked that "if any one should
ask me if there was anything in the world making me unhappy" she
should have to say that she didn t feel that her sons were always
fair and kind to each other. "Think it over/ she added, "and see if
you do not agree with me." But, almost always, the letters exchanged
by Nelson and his mother were a reflection of their common interests
and were full of expressions of deep affection. About Christmastime,
in 1927, Nelson sent her as a present a college fraternity pin.
Dear Ma,
A word of explanation about the pin. Each member of the fra
ternity is allowed one regular sized pin and one smaller "sister" pin,
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 72
as it is called. I am giving you the latter; I don t expect you will be
able to wear it much, but keep it as a symbol of the love that comes
with it.
Your devoted son,
Nelson
And again he wrote in 1928:
... at present I don t see any girl that I know that I could ever
love er^ough to many. I suppose 111 meet one some day. Mum r if
only you were a girl that would solve the problem. But then, of
course, I d be without the best mother in the world.
The feeling was mutual and, on Nelson s twenty-first birthday, his
mother wrote him that perhaps
she was expected to give . . . advice, but I don t feel just that way.
I feel that one of the best things that ever happened to me was
having you for a son. I love being your mother and having you old
enough to be a friend and companion. I am trying to take care of
myself so that I can live many years to see the fine things that I
know you are all going to do.
Mrs. Rockefeller was inclined to give her son advice in small
things she was happy he was using the vacuum cleaner in his
room at Dartmouth "because you can . . , study better in an
atmosphere free of dust" and to protect him in financial matters
"A notice came from the bank that you had overdrawn . . . and I
had Miss Kelly deposit $10 for you. ... I haven t mentioned it to
Papa, thinking that it was better for you to do so, and also because I
know that it would disappoint and grieve him." This was an attitude
that would continue until her death and, many years later, she
wrote to Nelson: "I can t tell you how grateful I am to you for your
telephone messages. I hope you telephone from the office and get it
put on the bill there for I am sure your dear father would be shocked
if I started telephoning freely to you, which I have a great desire
to do."
Mrs. Rockefeller devoted a great deal of time to arousing the
interest of her children in poetry, art, literature and music. "I am
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 73
glad that you have put in music [in college courses]/ she wrote to
Nelson. "I feel as if we as a family miss a great deal by leaving
music out of our lives and I feel as if it were my fault because Papa
is really very musical and knows lots about it/* And later: "I am
enclosing the [book] of poems. ... I feel as if the Rockefeller family
should cultivate their poetic side, and I am beginning myself." Despite
his love of dancing, Nelson never exhibited any musical talents but he
did develop an interest in art. His mother had been one of the
sponsors of the earliest introduction of modern French painting in
New York and, when Nelson was at Dartmouth, he began studying
art in a kind of dogged, do-or-die manner. Soon he was all enthusiasm.
January 2, 1928
Dear Ma,
You don t know how much I enjoyed our two trips to Mr. Davies
and the visit to the Down Town Galleries. I feel as if I had been
introduced to a new world of beauty, and for the first time I think
I have really been able to appreciate and understand pictures, even
though only a little bit, I hope to continue this when I am in New
York and maybe do a tiny bit of collecting myself. I feel that was
the outstanding event of my vacation.
His mother replied that
it would be a great joy to me if you did find that you had a real love
for and interest in beautiful things. We could have such good times
going about together and if you start to cultivate your taste and eye
so young, you ought to be very good at it by the time you can
afford to collect much. ... It is very sweet to me to hear what you
say about your Mother and very comforting, too, because so often I
feel that I fail to be what I should like to be for your sake, but my
love for you, dear, is very deep and you can always count on it.
Nelson told his mother that he was "enjoying the course in
landscape gardening more than I can say sometimes I wish I had
majored in Art, but I guess the economics will be of more value.
I do love some of those other things, though. . . ." And, in 1928, Mrs.
Rockefeller wrote him she was having a luncheon for seventeen art
critics who "will see the . . . pictures that I have gotten together in
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 74
my gallery. . . . My mind is also full of ideas for a new Museum of
Modern Art for New York. I have great hopes for it. Wouldn t it be
splendid if it would be ready for you to be interested in when you
get back to New York to live/ 1
In his junior year at Dartmouth, Nelson felt that he was becoming
rather expert. "In psychology the other day/ a letter to his mother
said,
we were given a book of 125 masterpieces of all periods and coun
tries. There were two copies of each painting one the original and
the other was the original only mutilated in some way. For example,
a tree was moved or an arm held differently. . . . We were supposed
to pick out the original in each case. I m glad to say, Mum, that
your training has had its effect. I hate to say so myself, but I not only
had the highest per cent right by far ... but I ranked in the ex
ceptional group of all those who have taken the test throughout the
country. I wouldn t have mentioned this but I thought that you
deserved all the credit and therefore should be told that your efforts
had not been in vain. I think perhaps I m beginning to acquire some
of your good taste.
The next year, he wrote that he had "been doing quite a bit of oil
painting and sketching. . . . The last time we met for sketching, we
had a man pose in the nude. He was a real model and could hold a
position. ... I really think I m getting something out of all this/
But when Nelson talked about becoming an architect, his mother
was not inclined to encourage him. "I am glad if you feel absolutely
sure," she wrote, but
there are lots of things to think over. There are so many fine things
that it is possible for you to do and so many things that seem neces
sary for some one to do. I am terribly eager that the high standard
of citizenship set by your father shall be maintained by you boys.
It seems as if all of you would have to join in the battle for righteous
ness in all walks of life, business, church, professions and private life,
1 Mrs. Rockefeller was largely responsible for the founding of the Museum
of Modern Art in New York, which stands on the site of the Rockefeller homes.
Mr. Rockefeller was the largest single contributor to the museum (more than
$5,000,000) and Nelson eventually became president.
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 75
no small or easy job. This has always been the dream of my life, but
of course each of you will have to work out your own salvation and,
as we trust you, so we can have faith in your futures.
Nelson soon gave up the idea of becoming an architect "I felt I
couldn t justify it," he said later but he pursued his interest in
art with a kind of relentless determination to learn and to understand
everything. In the spring of 1930, he described to his mother a day
that, upon reflection, seems incredible.
Just back from a wonderful visit to Boston. We saw Fritz Lieber
and his company of Shakespearian players put on Othello . . . and
King Lear. They were both great. . . . Yesterday I spent the most
interesting kind of a day possible. In the morning I went to the
Boston Art Museum and spent several hours in the American wing.
. . . Then I visited the Egyptian and Greek wings for an hour or
so. Before lunch I stopped at the Boston Library to see the Sargent
paintings. In the afternoon, I went out to Cambridge . . , and we
made a thorough tour of the Fogg museum. It was great. . . . Then
we stopped in at the Harvard Library to look it over and see Sargent s
two murals. . . . And finally we went to visit the exhibition of
Modern Mexican painters shown by the Harvard Modern Art Society.
I met the fellows who were running it and enjoyed both the ex
hibition and the sponsors. I had a minute when I got back to Boston,
so I dropped into the Doll and Richards Galleries to see an exhibition
of O Hara s water colors. ... He uses lovely fresh colors. Tomorrow
afternoon I m going out to a little community with the Episcopal
minister here in Hanover. I m going to give a little talk and show
some slides.
Oddly enough, this direct and superhuman approach to art
worked out well for Nelson. He became reasonably expert in matters
of modern art or, if not expert, enthusiastic, and his contribution to
the development of art in the Americas was considerable. He never
was able, however, to convince his father that abstract or nonobjective
art meant much. As late as 1950, Mr. Rockefeller told Nelson that he
really didn t have time to read the publications that were being sent to
him by the Museum of Modern Art and that, unless his son objected,
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 76
he would like to have them discontinued. And when Nelson proposed
that his father should sit for the Italian sculptor, Marini, whose work
was extremely modern, Mr. Rockefeller replied:
As much as I hate not to do anything that any one of you children
ask me to do, I just would not be happy to go down into posterity
or even to be represented in any of your homes in the manner shown
by the photographs [of Marini s work], which I am returning here
with. I think, on further thought, that you will agree that that man
ner is so foreign to me in every way that it would be an anomaly to
have me portrayed in it. Pray forgive this declination and try me
again sometime on something easier.
On the other hand, Mr. Rockefeller appreciated beauty and was
quick to acknowledge an artistic success. When, in the 1940*8, Nelson
was building his own home at Seal Harbor, his father was quite
critical of the plans which architect Wallace Harrison had drawn
for a modern structure on a thin point of land adjacent to the
harbor. But after he had seen the house, he wrote his son:
As you well know, I have spoken often with some skepticism in
regard to your house which in design and construction is so foreign
to anything my staid mind could conceive that I had grave doubt
fulness as to how successful it would be. In view of this attitude on
my part I hope you realized how completely captivated I was by the
place and how abjectly I apologized for my skepticism. ... It is
beautiful in its location and the marvelous views which it commands.
A spirit of open-mindedness and tolerance was emphasized time
and again in Nelson s communications with his parents, particularly
in regard to prejudice for reasons of race, creed or color. The Rocke
feller attitude was ably summed up in a letter that Mrs. Rockefeller
once wrote to John, Nelson and Laurance.
For a long time I have had very much on my mind and heart a
certain subject. I meant to bring it up at prayers and then later have
it for a question to be discussed at a family council. . . .
Out of my experience and observation has grown the earnest con
viction that one of the greatest causes of evil in the world is race
hatred or race prejudice; in other words, the feeling of dislike that a
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 77
person or a nation has against another person or nation without just
cause, an unreasoning aversion is another way to express it. The
two peoples or races who suffer most from this treatment are the
Jews and the Negroes; but some people "hate" the Italians, who in
turn hate the Jugoslavs, who hate the Austrians, who hate the
Czecho-Slovaks and so it goes endlessly.
You boys are still young. No group of people has ever done you a
personal injury; you have no inherited dislikes. I want to make an
appeal to your sense of fair play and to beseech you to begin your
lives as young men by giving the other fellow, be he Jew or Negro or
of whatever race, a fair chance and a square deal.
It is to the disgrace of America that horrible lynchings and race
riots frequently occur in our midst. The social ostracism of the Jew
is less brutal, and yet it often causes cruel injustice and must engender
in the Jews a smouldering fire of resentment.
Put yourselves in the place of an honest, poor man who happens to
belong to one of the so-called "despised" races. Think of having no
friendly hand held out to you, no kindly look, no pleasant, en
couraging word spoken to you. What I would like you always to do
is what I try humbly to do myself; that is, never to say or to do any
thing which would wound the feelings or the self-respect of any
human being, and to give special consideration to all who are in any
way repressed. This is what your father does naturally from the fine
ness of his nature and the kindness of his heart.
I long to have our family stand firmly for what is best and highest
in life. It isn t always easy, but it is worth while.
Your Mother
Mrs. Rockefeller, a member of the family once said, "put ideas
into Nelson s head and he has always tried to live by them/
v.
"Nelson didn t have any steady girl during his first three years in
college/ a Dartmouth classmate said. "He was playing the field
with an open mind." This seemed to be fairly well confirmed during
Nelson s trip to Europe in the summer of 1928 when he wrote home
about meeting numerous attractive girls, including one who "really
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 78
is a peach full of fun, nice looking, very intelligent and has a great
deal of savoir faire. ... It has really made the trip across a great
deal more interesting; in fact, very delightful/ There were other
girls mentioned in his letters, too; so many that his mother wrote
him: "I don t know much about all these girls that you have been
seeing in Paris. I comfort myself with the thought that there is
safety in numbers."
The numbers increased as Nelson prolonged his visit with his
Aunt Lucy Aldrich in Paris, attending luncheons, teas, dinners and
meeting a Belgian princess, a viscount and an American girl whom he
took to Montmartre to see the street dancing on July 14. "We had a
wonderful time . . . there certainly were some interesting sights
and people to watch. ... I think this is going to be the most profit
able summer I ever spent/ After he had returned to college he
saw the American girl again and wrote his mother that she was
"just as nice as before and I am very fond of her. ... I think it was
extremely good for me that I met her. It sort of broadened me out a
little more as far as girls are concerned."
Nelson s broadening out in regard to feminine companionship put
quite a strain on his relations with Laurance at one point. The younger
boy viewed girls with a jaundiced eye and remarked that he couldn t
think whether it would be worse to flunk his high school examina
tions or to see Nelson get engaged to some dame. He quickly got
over this attitude, however. Brother John, on the other hand, watched
Nelson s schoolboy romancing with something of awe. On one
occasion he borrowed Nelson s automobile at Tarrytown to do a
little courting of his own at Vassar. "I didn t know the road," he
told Nelson later, "but I just turned your car loose on the highway
and it headed for the nearest girl s college, you have it so well
trained."
All of the talk about Nelson s fickleness, however, was something
of a smoke cloud, because one girl s name kept bobbing up from
the time he was out of high school. She was Mary Todhunter Clark of
Philadelphia, whose family usually spent the summer at Northeast
Harbor on Mount Desert Island. Nelson had a Ford touring car at
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 79
Seal Harbor, a vehicle richly endowed with tootling whistles and
horns and spotlights and odd gadgets, and he was always driving it
over to Northeast to see the Clark gang, which consisted of six
brothers and their sister, Tod. As the families became better ac
quainted over the years, Nelson s expeditions were more often to see
Tod than her brothers. He invited her to Dartmouth social affairs
and usually reported that "we had a good time. She is always full of
good fun and never dull." Mrs. Rockefeller asked Tod to an Easter
vacation house party at Pocantico in 1928 and Mr. Rockefeller, who
always called her Mary, told Nelson that she was "an exceptionally
fine girl, so bright, so clever . . . and withal such a fine spirit/
Then, in January, 1929, Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller and David made a
long trip to Egypt and they invited Miss Clark to accompany them.
Nelson was delighted but a little worried. Also in the party were a
man and his son, B , who was about Miss Clark s age. Jealousy
invaded Nelson s thoughts.
I m crazy to hear about your trip [he wrote his parents before
they had even reached Paris]. What is happening and what are you
doing . . . ? I do so want to know how you all like Tod and whether
she has been all you expected as a travelling companion, which I
know she has and probably a lot more. I ve been a little worried about
B , but I m counting on Dave.
There was a week of suspense but then he received word from his
mother that "Mary has been a great success" and that B came
on board with influenza, "then was inoculated for typhoid, had a
temperature of 104 and now has sinus trouble." This should have
reassured the jealous suitor but Nelson s imagination was working at
top speed. He wrote his mother again, describing the qualities he
admired in Miss Clark and saying that he had tested his feelings for
her by making friends with other girls to see whether he could
"get to like them better/ He couldn t. He wanted his mother to tell
him all she thought about Miss Clark. "Well," he concluded, "enough
said. . .^ Probably Tod s engaged to that young B by now
anyhow. But we ll hope not!"
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 80
That spring Nelson invited another girl to the Dartmouth house
party, but he warned his parents not to
think I m forgetting Tod or have fallen for Y Well, I have
fallen for Y in a sense but it doesn t effect my love for Tod
in the least bit. I think I m too young to only know and like one
girl, so I periodically fall for some one about once a year but
always giving them to understand how I feel toward Tod.
This experimental program didn t work very well and in the
summer of 1929 it fell apart completely when Nelson and Laurance
were on a trip to the Arctic aboard the famous International Grenfell
Association sailing ship. The trip itself was worthy of note in addi
tion to its effect on Nelson s romance. Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell was a
noted missionary doctor among the Eskimos but he was getting
along in years and his health was failing in 1929. As a result, the
voyage irked Nelson because it was poorly managed and at first he
had to waste a great deal of time sitting around on deck doing
nothing. To make it worse, the ship s cook fell ill and the two
Rockefeller boys spent most of the voyage in the galley washing
dishes, emptying garbage and cooking for fourteen crew members.
Dr. Grenfell [Nelson wrote when they were off Newfoundland] is
a remarkable man and a very devout Christian but he certainly needs
to take a few lessons from an efficiency expert. . . . The natives up
here are even worse. They just sit around and go fishing when the
spirit moves them. . . . Why, if any of them were half way ambitious
he could make some money. But I suppose there is no use getting
excited about it. Perhaps they get more out of life that way than we
do rushing around. . . . Anyway, it s a great experience.
It was still more of an "experience" after Dr. Grenfell left the
ship on its homeward voyage and Laurance suffered an appendicitis
attack while they were fog-bound off the Bay of Islands. Nelson was
worried about Laurance and he feared that they would miss the
twice-a-week train they were supposed to take to Maine. He vainly
tried to persuade the officer in command to proceed through the fog.
The officer refused.
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 81
"Look/ Nelson argued, "we know that there is a cliff straight
ahead of us and you can get a foghorn echo off the cliff so that we
will know when we get close to it. Then you can take a straight
line fog or no fog into the harbor. This is an emergency!"
The officer rejected the whole idea.
"Then 111 do it," Nelson said in desperation,
"I ll take no responsibility/ the officer snapped,
"Okay, I ll take the responsibility/
They made sail and crept through the fog toward the cliff. Oddly
enough, it all worked out just as Nelson had predicted "It really
was a pretty simple matter," he explained later and they made their
train on schedule. By that time, Laurance was better and it was
some time before he had his appendix out.
But, to get back to Miss Clark, the dragging days and nights on
the sailing ship gave Nelson a chance to do a lot of heavy thinking,
and on July 8 his twenty-first birthday he wrote to his mother:
You know, Fm beginning to think that I really am in love with
Tod, whatever being in love means. I can shake it off for a
while now and then, but it always comes back and I ve never been
able to develop a real affection and an admiration that is as all inclu
sive for anyone else. She is the only girl that I know who measures
up anywhere nearly to the standards set by you, Mum, But don t
get worried. I m not going to run into anything in a headstrong
way. . . .
That final sentence was far off the mark. No sooner had he gotten
back for his senior year at Dartmouth than he was "really and truly
desperately in love" and, despite his parents urging that they wait, he
and Miss Clark became engaged that autumn. Mr. Rockefeller was
very much upset, not because of Miss Clark, whom he admired, but
because his son had not consulted his parents before taking such an
important step while still in college. For some weeks, Nelson had a
rough time of it and he obviously was not at all sure how the crisis
was going to be solved. In the end, Mrs. Rockefeller was the peace
maker.
Nelson was grateful for her efforts.
NELSON RCKJKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 82
Dear Mum,
I can t tell you how much both Tod and I appreciate the coopera
tive attitude you have taken. ... At first, all we thought of was the
fact that we both loved each other desperately and that we wanted
to get married some day our thoughts didn t get any further than
that. And ever since we ve been realizing that it wasn t as simple
as one would think. We both feel very badly that Pa feels the way
he does, but really we didn t mean to try and put one over on him
or go counter to his wishes. . . . Tod is such a marvellous girl, and
I really am terribly lucky. . . .
Mr. Rockefeller relented under gentle pressure from his wife and
gave the couple his blessing in November.
... I still am thrilling over Pa s wonderful letter [Nelson wrote his
mother on November 23, 1929], but, Mum, I shall always feel that
if it wasn t for you things wouldn t be the way they are now. How
ever, that only goes to make me more grateful. You know, I honestly
think that I am the luckiest person in the world. To have you and
Pa for parents and Tod for fiancee ... is really more than one per
son deserves. But I guess the thing for me to do is to see if I can t
make myself worthy of them all.
That winter, Mr. Rockefeller spent many hours selecting a pearl
necklace as a wedding present for Miss Clark. It was, Mrs. Rockefeller
reported, "perfectly beautiful" and all was well in the Rockefeller
family. In February, the engaged couple went to Florida and called
on Mr. Rockefeller, Sr., who played a round of golf with Miss Clark.
On June 23, 1930, immediately after Nelson was graduated from
Dartmouth, they were married at Bala-Cynwyd, a fashionable suburb
of Philadelphia. The wedding, which was attended by fifteen hundred
invited guests, was described in the New York Times.
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the first members of either
of the immediate families to arrive, entered the church at 4:15. The
bridegroom a few minutes later made his entrance by the parish
house door almost unnoticed. Leaping from an automobile, he ran
up the steps, tossed his top hat into the hands of the waiting sexton,
William Armstrong, and slapped him on the shoulder. "The best o r
Four portraits from the family album of Nelson Rockefeller in the costumes that
he wore for special occasions from babyhood to college.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: Abby, John ^rcl, Nelson,
Laurancc, Winthrop and David.
When Nelson (right, with cello) was a youngster, a small fry "orchestra" often
gathered at the Rockefeller home in New York City, and occasionally Mr. Rocke
feller, Jr., joined the violin section for a performance. At far left is the third
Rockefeller son, Laurancc, who played the piano. Nelson gave up the cello when
the strings snapped during one of his solo performances.
;i||||||||||p|p; ; g^g
^Bm IlliBL
:!ft
Rockefeller (left) on the Dartmouth campus fence with members of the senior
executive committee, 1930. To his left arc, Nelson McGmnis, executive vice
president of the Eric Railroad; Francis Horn, president of Rhode Island Univer
sity; Milton Emerich, a Chicago brokerage firm official; Edward Jeremiah., a
hockey coach at Dartmouth; J. W. Wiggins, an attorney; and L. L. Gallaway r
advertising director of Sports Illustrated.
The Rockefellers and Charles A. Lindbergh in the black Buick sports car (with
wire wheels and red trimmings) that Nelson ingeniously persuaded his father to
buy when he was a junior at college.
Nelson Rockefeller and his bride, the former Mary Todhuntcr Clark, leaving the
church in suburban Philadelphia in 1930.
The honeymooning Rockefellers in Japan, 1930.
The honeymooners (and friends) aboard an elephant in Inclo-China 7 1931.
1
In 1932, Rockefeller (center) attended the opening of Radio City Music Hall
with Colonel Arthur Woods and Mrs. Raymond Hood.
As a young man just out of college, Rockefeller vainly tried to interest New York
City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in building a city opera and art center adjacent
to Rockefeller Center.
Four generations: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. ? Nelson Rockefeller, John D. Rocke
feller, Jr., and Nelson s first son, Rodman.
Nelson Rockefeller s mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, with her grandson
Rodman.
The children of Governor and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller, in the early 1940 $. Left to
right, the twins, Michael and Mary, Ann, Steven (who carried his little suitcase
everywhere) and Rodman.
MARRIAGE AND TRAVEL 83
luck, sir/* the sexton faltered, and received a smiling "Thank you"
from the Rockefeller heir.
There were ten bridesmaids in droopy lace hats almost as big as
parasols and ten ushers in cutaways and with carnations in their
buttonholes. Among them were the groom s three eldest brothers.
It was a notable occasion in Philadelphia society, not exactly be
cause a Rockefeller heir was getting married but because the bride
was a member of a Main Line family.
This distinction was made perfectly clear a decade later when
Philadelphians chuckled over a story, possibly apocryphal, concerning
Nelson s appointment to an important governmental post in Wash
ington. When the appointment was announced, a crusty Philadelphia
socialite paused in perusal of his newspaper at the Union League
Club to point out the front-page story to a companion.
"This fellow here Nelson Rockefeller/ he said in a doubtful
tone. "Isn t he that New York boy who married into the Clark
family?"
F OUR
Beginning Business at the Top
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller started their honeymoon at Seal
Harbor, where they could swim and sail a boat and be practically
alone except for twenty-four servants and a housekeeper in the
Rockefeller summer home. They continued the honeymoon for
almost a year on a trip around the world, which was a wedding
present from Rockefeller s father. The young couple, however, did
not look upon their journey as entirely a pleasure trip. They arranged a
heavy schedule of meetings with foreign representatives of the Chase
National Bank, the Standard Oil Company, the Rockefeller Founda
tion and various missionary establishments which the family sup
ported. They also were armed with impressive letters of introduction
to many foreign personages. Both Rockefeller and his bride indus
triously studied books such as The Growth and Development of
China about each of the countries they were to visit. "We had the
opportunity," Rockefeller noted later, "to get quite a feel of each
country and the impact of United States groups on the people and
their attitude toward us/
From the time that Robert Gumbel, of the Rockefeller office, saw
84
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 85
them off with an armful of flowers at the railroad station in New
York, the young couple were not much alone. They not only met
old friends along the way and made new friends but they were
greeted and often shepherded around by representatives of the oil
company, the American Express, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the
Matson steamship line and others at almost every stop. In Honolulu,
in July, 1930, the Governor "gave us a tea to which he asked two
hundred persons ... a weekend party with the President of the
Senate and his family ... a big native feast . . . with hula dancers"
and a visit to a leper colony which was a "very interesting but de
pressing experience. . . . Everybody we met couldn t have been
nicer/
Japan was geisha girls and fishing with cormorants by torchlight
under a full moon, temples and shopping, luncheon with the French
ambassador and dinners with university leaders- At Mukden, late in
September, Rockefeller was "sickened by the bound feet of the
women" and in Korea he felt the people were sullen under Japanese
rule. Peking, in October, was "fascinating" and filled with gay
friends of Aunt Lucy Aldrich, including a noted Chinese philosopher
whose name Rockefeller could not spell. Hong Kong was perfect but
Canton was hot and sticky. There was a typhoon en route to Manila,
where they danced until 3 A.M. before catching the boat for the Dutch
East Indies. "We re taking things more easy now."
Java, Sumatra and Bali the latter was "a bit flat" flashed by,
then Bangkok for Christmas, with four to six or seven events (Siamese
dancing at Madame Songkla s, Pasteur Institute snake farm, white
elephants and Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaeo) on the schedule every
day. They finally rebelled and tried to avoid oil company and other
chaperons. "We haven t even had a meal alone for over a month. . . .
We d been making an effort to be nice to people for so long that
we were just dying for a rest and a chance to be by ourselves. . . .
We were at the end of our rope." One Standard Oil company execu
tive was insulted but he insisted he was responsible for their safety
and went with them on a jungle trip which "was too beautiful to
describe."
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 86
The couple s trunks were delayed en route to Bangkok and they
had to borrow clothes to wear to a royal palace reception on the
birthday of the Queen, who was ill and couldn t attend. A crowd of
some fifteen hundred persons stood in the royal gardens "it was
all very formal and hot" and Rockefeller s shirt melted until the
King came along and "told us how much his country was indebted to
Pa and Grandfather. It was all very interesting and a lot of fun once
but I certainly wouldn t care for much of that kind of stuff." In
February, they were in India, making a pack-horse trip into the
Himalayan Mountains near the borders of Tibet.
. . . The Governor wired his aide-de-camp in Darjeeling a charm
ing Tibettan gentleman, Mr. Laden La and we went to a Tibettan
house for tea. . . . The son s bride of eighteen was all dressed up [in
native costume]. Mr. Laden La fixed up our pack trip and gave us a
pass to get over into Nepal. He also lent Mary his fur coat. We had
the most marvelous views nearly all of the time of the snow-capped
mountains . , . especially at sun rise and sun set. Mount Kin-
chinyanga (27,000 feet) was just across the valley for the whole
trip. From Mount Landakf u ( 1 2,000 feet high ) ... to whose summit
we went we got a perfect view of Mount Everest (28,000 feet) and
the third highest mountain I ve forgotten its name which is 26,000
feet. We went to bed and got up with the sun and were out riding
all day, with the result that we had a wonderful rest.
Rockefeller was impressed at many points on his trip by the
unhappy personal relations existing at that time between Europeans
and Americans and the peoples of the Far East. In Japan, for
example, he saw a boy named Fujiyama (later killed in World War
II) who had been in his class at Dartmouth, where he belonged to a
good fraternity and was popular on the campus and at social affairs.
After eight years in America, Fujiyama returned to Japan and a sud
den awakening to racial prejudice. He could not take part in the
activities of Europeans or Americans in Japan; he was not invited to
their parties; he could not make dates with the girls or appear on
the premises of any of the foreign clubs. He couldn t even play
golf with a foreigner. He was bitter about Westerners when he
talked to Rockefeller and particularly about Western diplomats,
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 87
most of whom remained aloof from contact with any Japanese
except high government officials.
In Burma, the Rockefellers made a boat trip up the Irrawaddy
River with a group of wealthy and titled Europeans. Also on board
were native schoolteachers, but the Europeans would not mix with
them and made comments in their hearing that embarrassed Rocke
feller. The aristocrats also looked down on the captain of the boat,
who was continually trying to build himself up with them by describ
ing how "worthless" the Burmese crew was, how he made them take
off their shoes when they came in his office and how he enforced stern
discipline. Then at Bhamo, Rockefeller wrote later, "we were walking
on shore when one of the crew ran to tell us to turn back because
there was plague in the village. ... It was a very decent thing for
him to do and represented the thoughtfulness and graciousness that
we found among the nationals in most places." In India, Rockefeller
felt the people were friendly toward Americans but not toward the
British. Even the Indians who had been educated in England were
bitter because when they returned home they could not get any of
the better jobs.
We also were impressed by the obvious fact that the British con
sidered us as colonials. We were traveling with letters of introduction
from Prime Minister Sir Ramsay MacDonald and stayed in various
government houses. Yet it was obviously distasteful to all those below
the Governor himself, particularly the young foreign office people,
to have to be nice to young Americans. They couldn t see why we
were there and made it clear to us. ... All of these things left a
very strong impression and one which we felt boded little good for
future relations [of the West] with those countries. It was evident
we were not handling ourselves as a people abroad in a way that
developed confidence or respect.
Almost the only bright spot that Rockefeller observed in this
respect was at Bangkok, where the new American minister was a
Philadelphian and eager to learn about the country. Among other
things, he invited a great crowd of Bangkok children to a Christmas
party on the embassy grounds, where American ice cream was served
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 88
and motion pictures were shown. "This unheard-of contact with the
masses," Rockefeller remarked, "turned out to be a great success as a
good-will gesture. But the first secretary of the embassy was horrified.
He had never heard of such a thing. The sight of the striped-pants
young man gingerly picking his way through the seething mass of
ice-cream-happy children was a memorable one, indeed."
A high point of the honeymoon journey came in March when
they visited Delhi for the inauguration of the new Indian capital.
They had called on the famous Indian poet and author, Sir Rabin-
dranath Tagore he spoke "very pleasantly of his visit" with Mr,
and Mrs. Rockefeller, Jr. and had walked on the banks of the
Ganges "the temples were not very lovely but life on the banks of
the Ganges is perfectly fascinating." They had visited the Taj Mahal,
which "really is all it s supposed to be," and they had been snubbed
in their efforts to get an invitation to visit the Maharajah of
Kapurthala. Then word came that a couple with whom they had
traveled part of the time, Mr. and Mrs. George E. Vincent, had
managed to get rooms for them at Delhi despite the crush of visitors
at the inaugural celebration.
We ve just had a charming week in Delhi with Mary and Nelson
assisting in inaugurating the somewhat grandiose capital at New
Delhi [Mr. Vincent later wrote to Mrs. Rockefeller], At a dinner
at the Viceroy s a small affair of only 86 guests Mary sat by the
Viceroy with whom it was evident she got on famously. We dubbed
her "Princess Maiy" after this recognition of nation and family!
The young people were going strong with undiminished enthusiasm.
Among other things, they went hunting with the Viceroy s hounds,
which chased jackals instead of foxes. Rockefeller spotted one jackal
as they were getting on their horses but it escaped to its hole and
they didn t see another in three hours of hunting. Mrs. Rockefeller s
horse fell but, as her husband pointed out, "the ground was soft. . . .
I must say I wouldn t have [gone hunting] if it hadn t been for Tod,
who was crazy to go, but as it turned out it was lots of fun."
The part of the visit that most impressed Rockefeller, however,
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 89
was a meeting with the Mahatma Gandhi, the wizened little man who
preached passive resistance to British rule and who, in time, would be
the hero of India s independence struggle. While the Rockefellers
had been hunting as guests of the Viceroy, Gandhi had been in jail
because of his seditious activities as leader of the Congress party. But
the British at last had been forced to undertake negotiations looking
toward independence, and the Mahatma was released while the
Rockefellers were at Ahmedabad visiting the family of a rich Indian
mill owner, Mr. Sarabhai, an advisor to Gandhi. Mr. Sarabhai went
to Delhi to see the Mahatma and that evening he telephoned that
the negotiations seemed to be near collapse. He told his family to
come immediately to Delhi because Gandhi might be returned to jail.
They invited us to come along. Mrs. Sarabhai got her eight children
and four or five friends and we all took the one o clock train to
Delhi. We arrived the next day at noon. We created quite a stir on
the way as it seems the English don t exactly travel in company with
Indians. Something like our colored situation and, of course, we
ate with them in the diner. They couldn t have been nicer and most
interesting to talk to, all of them, even though a bit radical.
Well, Mr. Sarabhai asked us to come and stay with his friend in
Delhi but we thought that fourteen guests was enough and went to
the hotel. That afternoon we all went to the house where Gandhi
was staying. It was guarded by volunteer soldiers in green. Mr. Gandhi
was having his day of silence, but he doesn t mind seeing people.
After a short wait, the Rockefellers were ushered through the house
and to the back porch which overlooked the river. Sitting in the
courtyard and operating a spinning wheel was the thin-legged little
man with bald head and gold-rimmed glasses whose fame had spread
around the world. He wore a white dhoti and there was a bottle of
milk on the ground beside him. There were many Congress leaders
and disciples in the courtyard, including Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, a noted
poetess, and Miss Madeleine Slade, the daughter of a British admiral
who had devoted her life to Gandhi s work. The Rockefellers were
presented to Gandhi, who nodded but did not speak. After they had
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 90
expressed the hope of talking to him later, he wrote a note: "Come
back tomorrow. I ll talk to you/
The next morning when we came to see him all the Congress
leaders were there, so we only spoke to him for a minute or so, then
he asked us to accompany him the following morning on his daily
walk. That day at lunch, Mr. Sarabhai had arranged for us to meet all
the Congress leaders. Needless to say, it was a most interesting meal.
The night before we had been to dinner with Mr. Sarabhai and some
twenty Indians at one of their houses. All of them were most pleasant
and very intelligent.
The next morning we were at Mr. Gandhi s house at ten to seven.
Upon our arrival we found that he had not gotten back from the
Viceroy s until two A.M. and that then he had had a conference with
the Congress Working Committee until the morning prayers at four
A.M. But it wasn t long before he sent out word to find out if we
were there. He came out looking pretty tired, but very cheerful.
They drove out to an old Mogul fort on the edge of the city, a spot
where Gandhi liked to walk. It was a dark morning, with heavy rain
clouds in the sky, and there were distant echoes of thunder from a
storm that was receding.
"We have finally come to an agreement with the Viceroy/ Gandhi
said with great satisfaction. "There will be one more conference
later today to arrange all the details/
The rain clouds were breaking up with the coming of morning, and
bright sunlight shone on the dark faces and the white costumes of
the Indian leaders. Rockefeller felt he was watching a fateful moment
in history from a ringside seat. Gandhi talked about the negotiations,
saying that the Indian people could never reach fulfillment of their
destiny within the British Empire. He praised Lord Halifax as a fine
man and said that he had been so elated by the outcome of his talks
with the Viceroy that he had slept only forty-five minutes.
We . . . walked with him for about fifteen minutes, asked him
some questions and then left him with the Working Committee.
. . . He is a remarkable man terribly nice, too.
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 91
II.
When they returned to New York in late April of 1931, Rockefeller
and his wife established themselves in an apartment on East Sixty-
seventh Street (they later moved to a triplex apartment on Fifth
Avenue) and in a house at Pocantico which Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., had
remodeled for them. "We spent all morning at our new apartment
choosing colors for the various rooms/ Rockefeller wrote his father
on July 22. "We picked a perfectly swell pink ... for the walls with
a slightly darker shade for the woodwork. It is going to be a very
snappy apartment."
There were, however, more important problems to face than the
color of the woodwork. Rockefeller had to start his career the idea
of not having a career never occurred to him and in that department
things were not so perfectly swell/ He had started wrestling with
the problem when he was still in college, telling himself that he had
to make his own mark in the world. Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., seemed to
feel that it was best for his son to find his own way. He may have
believed that the trip around the world on which Nelson talked with
many business executives would increase his interest in a business
career within the family background. It didn t. What interested the
young man most on the journey was his contact with peoples, his
observation of the work of American missionaries (of whom he
strongly approved because of their knowledge of the peoples among
whom they lived) and of American diplomats (of whom he often
disapproved because they did not know the peoples). And he was
not at all impressed by the attitude of Western businessmen in the
Far East.
. . . I m sorry to say that seeing and hearing so much about . . .
business doesn t make me very keen to go into it [he wrote his father
on December 15, 1930, from Sumatra]. It seems to squeeze all other
interests out of the men s lives that are in it. In fact, I ve spent hours
and hours thinking over what is really the best thing for me to do.
As yet, I ve come to no conclusions.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 92
In the summer of 1931, however, Rockefeller did go into the family
office at 26 Broadway in an effort "to be of some small assistance" to
his father along lines that were not in conflict with the work of his
brother John, who had started a career in association with his father
soon after he was graduated from Princeton. Some of the work was of
little interest to Nelson and his secondary role further dimmed his
enthusiasm, although occasionally he became excited about some
of the projects. The plan of Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., to turn the Palisades
the towering cliffs along the west bank of the Hudson River into
a park, for example, was very much to his liking. "It is perfectly
thrilling up there," he wrote to his father. "I had not dreamed it
was half as lovely. I am very anxious to go up with you sometime."
And his father kept assuring him that "it is nice to feel you are on
hand to do anything that comes up and I shall not hesitate to turn
to you if the occasion offers."
The arrangement, nevertheless, was not a happy one. Young Rocke
feller chafed under the orderly, conservative operation of the office
and he occasionally disagreed with his father. Typical, perhaps, was
the question in 1932 of whether he should become a trustee of New
York s Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of many problems that he
discussed with his father both verbally and in written interoffice
letters.
After considerable discussion with various people and a good deal
of careful thought on my part, I have decided to accept Mr. Coffin s
invitation to become a trustee of Metropolitan Museum. In accept
ing this position, I realize that I am taking the responsibility upon
myself against your better judgment. It is an added responsibility
which will take some of my time and I realize it is wiser to wait until
I have been down here [in the office] two or three years before
making major decisions of this kind. However, I feel that the ad
vantages which this opportunity offers are of sufficient importance
to outweigh the above mentioned objections. . . . My feeling is that
when such an opportunity comes up one should not procrastinate
too long. . . . My justification for spending the time which I do in
this work [such as the museum] is that I feel that the aesthetic side
of a person s life is almost as important as his spiritual development
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 93
or his physical well being. And finally, as I said before, I feel that
the contacts which such a position offers are not to be disregarded.
I am sorry to go against your feelings in this matter but I hope you
can see my point of view.
Affectionately,
Nelson
Late in 1931, Rockefeller and two other young businessmen,
Fenton Turck, who had been a vice president of American Radiator
Company, and Webster Todd, son of a director of Rockefeller Center,
joined in an unusual business enterprise. Rockefeller was particularly
interested because it offered him a chance to do something on his
own without breaking entirely away from his father s office. The three
men formed a firm called Turck & Co. into which each put a few
thousand dollars for rental of an office and operating expenses.
The idea behind the business, which was Turck s, was that they
would act as intermediaries in arranging deals between various com
panies on a reciprocal basis. For example, they might locate a real-
estate firm called X that had office space for rent and a manu
facturing firm called Y that had elevators for sale but needed
expanded office space. They would negotiate a contract whereby the
real-estate firm would buy elevators for their new building from Y
and Y would take office space in an X building. For this
service, Turck & Co. would receive a fee. Sometimes there might be
three or more businesses involved in a triple-play deal that would be
mutually beneficial. Rockefeller consulted his father before going into
the firm and Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., felt that it was wise to encourage the
venture rather than oppose it because his son seemed to be happiest
when creating something for himself. John D. Rockefeller, Sr., also
was consulted by Rockefeller and Turck and quickly understood the
plan and gave it his blessing.
At the time, Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., was deep in the work of building
Rockefeller Center, the great complex of skyscrapers that was to rise
in the heart of New York City between Fifth and Sixth avenues and
to become a world-famous tourist attraction because of its gardens and
plazas and theaters and shops. Obviously, Rockefeller s connections
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 94
with the center, with the Chase National Bank, with the oil com
panies and other businesses was an advantage to Turck and Co.
"Nelson felt the company was an opportunity to be on his own/
an employee of the firm commented. "He never played up the family
prestige or family connections but, of course, the name was there
and it was important to the firm. Nelson wanted something that
would make him work at top speed. He wasn t easily discouraged. He
was able to shift his tactics to meet changing situations and, if one
thing didn t work, he was quick to say: Okay, let s try it another way.
It seemed to me that perhaps people first listened to him because
of his name but they quickly realized that he was doing things on
his own."
The business prospered for more than a year. Then Rockefeller
bought out his partners, who were rather reluctant to sell, and
changed the firm s name to Special Work, Inc., which was devoted
mainly to renting space in Rockefeller Center on a commission basis,
the same as various other individuals and real-estate firms. In all,
Rockefeller was an aggressive renting agent and managed to con
tract for some 300,000 of the center s total of 5,500,000 square feet
of space at a time when the country was deep in the great economic
depression of the early 1930 $. He also came in for some severe
criticism by other real-estate operators because of deals that were
made to entice tenants to the center. Some prospective tenants were
offered below-market rates for a specified period and others were told
that their unexpired leases would be taken over if they moved at
once to the new quarters* Considerable bitterness developed and, in
1934, August Heckscher, whose building had lost some important
tenants, sued the board of directors of Rockefeller Center for $10,-
000,000, charging unfair competition and coercion of tenants. Papers
were served on the directors, who included John D. 3rd and Nelson,
but the suit was dropped before coming to trial. Rockefeller per
sistently maintained that the center s rental methods were both legal
and ethical as well as customary practice in New York.
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 95
III.
Young Rockefeller was just as enthusiastic about establishing his
home as he was about getting started in business. Even before they
were married, he and Miss Clark had spent many days touring the
highways and back roads of New England, searching for antique
furniture for their cottage on the Pocantico Hills estate. Rockefeller
became something of an expert on grandfather clocks and Cape
Cod rocking chairs and on one occasion even bought the floorboards
out of a farmer s attic to use as paneling.
Rockefeller also had a prominent hand later in decorating the Fifth
Avenue apartment. He persuaded Henri Matisse to do (for a
sizable fee) a mural for the fireplace wall of the living room and,
in time, his collection of modern French and American paintings
adorned the walls of every room in the apartment. His private collec
tion of painting and sculpture, incidentally, includes virtually all of
the well-known artists Picasso, Dufy, Klee, van Gogh, Kiyunobu,
Noguchi, Marini and quite a few others that nobody ever heard
of but whose work happened to please him.
Mary Todhunter Clark Rockefeller, however, was the home builder.
She came from a very large, wealthy family and knew how to adjust
to almost anything except the idea that anybody named Rockefeller
was fair game for newspaper reporters. In time, she learned to adjust
to that circumstance, too, but even then she would never agree that
reporters had been within their constitutional rights when they
lurked behind bushes and tried to crash their way into the church
at her wedding.
She had grown up outside Philadelphia on an estate that was part
of a grant by King George III to her maternal forebears from Wales.
Her grandfather, George B. Roberts, had been president of the
Pennsylvania Railroad and a whole host of relatives with many
children lived in the neighborhood. Her father was an investment
banker, Edward White Clark, and the Clark clan, too, was thickly
scattered over the adjacent countryside so that she was accustomed
to being among many relatives and friends. Her childhood was
pleasant and carefree against a background of complete security and
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 96
unity within the big family circle. On Christmas Day, for example,
Mary Clark always went to a midday meal at the home of a member
of the Roberts family, where perhaps twenty or more relatives would
be present. And for dinner that evening she would sit down at the
home of her father s brother, where there might be as many as
sixty relatives at the table so many, in fact, that her uncle built a
special dining hall for such occasions.
Mary Clark went to Foxcroft School in Virginia, where she greatly
improved in horseback riding but would have flunked French except
for the fact that she learned so little about the language that the
faculty refused to permit her to take the examination for fear the
result would lower the scholastic average of the institution. That year
several other girls from Foxcroft were going to finishing school in
Paris, but Mary and her cousin, Miss Eleanor Clark, were not
interested in finishing school. They went to Paris, however, and lived
for a year in the home of a widow, Madame Louise Baudry, who had
five daughters. The two American girls lived in one room of the fifth-
floor apartment (no elevator) and ate their meals at the family table,
where they couldn t understand a word for weeks. Eleanor was study
ing piano and practiced five hours a day on an upright in their room.
Mary sat in the same room and, with marvelous power of concentra
tion, studied French literature so successfully that she was the only
one of half a dozen American girls in her class at the Sorbonne who
passed the course. (The friendship with the Baudrys, incidentally,
continued, and many years later three of Mary Clark Rockefeller s
children lived for a while with two of the Baudry girls, who, by then,
had families of their own.)
When she married Nelson Rockefeller, Mary Clark was a tall,
slender brown-haired girl with a quick, orderly mind of her own. She
was candid and outspoken among her friends and she had a kind of
tart, penetrating wit that made her both entertaining and companion
able. It wasn t always easy for her to adjust to being a Rockefeller,
not only because the name attracted publicity but because she had
to accept the discipline that the Rockefeller family had always imposed
on themselves. Nevertheless, the close family ties, the clan atmosphere
were familiar to her and she fitted smoothly into Pocantico Hills and
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 97
into the Sunday gatherings at the elder Rockefellers dinner table.
She managed, too, to remain out of the public eye for years, even
when she was traveling everywhere with her husband.
The Rockefellers first child, Rodman Clark, was born in 1932 and
Ann Clark all of their children have Clark for a middle name
was born in 1934. Rockefeller took parenthood with utmost serious
ness and, on one occasion, gave his mother a lecture on how she should
behave toward little Roddy. *1 took it very meekly," his mother re
marked later, reflecting that she had had some experience in bring
ing up children, "but it amused me greatly/
Mary Rockefeller s interests, however, were not limited to her
family. She was a good gardener and she was interested in music and
literature. She participated eventually in many civic endeavors, rang
ing from the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services
to the Garden Club of America; and she belonged to numerous
organizations, ranging from the English-Speaking Union to the
Ladies Aid Society of the Union Church of Pocantico Hills. But,
actually, she devoted most of her civic efforts to the Bellevue School
of Nursing in New York City.
"When she first became a member of the Board of Managers in
1932, she was young and shy and didn t want to speak up," an as
sociate at the Bellevue School commented. "But she was always
tremendously interested and she devoted so much of her time to the
school throughout the years. She is a very real person and, after she
resigned as president of the board, we missed her very much."
IV.
For the first couple of years of his business career, Rockefeller was
dividing his time between his father s office and his own affairs with
more and more of his time devoted to Special Work, Inc. But in
the summer of 1933 he decided that he was making a mistake and,
perhaps, neglecting family responsibilities. On July 3, he put his
thoughts into a letter which was delivered to the adjacent office of
his father.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 98
Dear Father,
As you know, I am continually in a state of flux as far as my ideas
and theories are concerned and I realize that this has made things
rather difficult for you in the past, for which I am very sorry. Per
haps I may be oscillating back and forth but at least I like to think
of myself as making steady progress. Now it happens that at the
present time I have just emerged into a new period with an entirely
new line-up as far as certain of my ideas are concerned.
I went into Special Work, Inc., because I felt lost and beyond
my depth in the work of this office. Special Work gave me a chance
to do things on a smaller scale where if I made mistakes it didn t
make so much difference as the responsibility rested squarely on my
shoulders. There is no question but that this work has been of the
greatest possible value to me and I have confidence where before
1 was groping fearfully in the dark. However, I have come to see
things more clearly in their true proportions and now realize that
the activities of Special Work, Inc., are not all important. Further
more, I am beginning to see more clearly the importance and even
international significance of some of the things that take place in
this office. . . . Up to now my background has been too limited to
fully appreciate some of these things.
The purpose of this letter is to tell you that Special Work is run
ning smoothly now and will require very little of my time in the
future. Therefore, I hope that I will be able to be of distinctly more
assistance to you. . . . For the immediate future, my plan is to be
come more familiar with all phases of your . . . interests. . . .
Of course, if there are special problems which I can handle or
help you with I will be only too glad to do what I can.
To summarize, I might say that I simply want you to know by this
letter that I am back in the fold again as far as my interests are con
cerned and that from now on my one desire will be to be of as much
help to you as I possibly can with my limited experience. I can
assure you that I will spare nothing toward this end, for, although
not very apparent, our appreciation for all you have done is un
limited.
Affectionately,
Nelson
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 99
Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., was gratified that his second son had made
his decision entirely on his own. He replied that he was sure that
"the experience you have gained in your own business has been of
great value . . . and helped fit you to be increasingly useful in the
larger affairs of our office/ Later that year, he complimented his son
on his handling of office matters from time to time and on "the
evidence of the keen interest you have taken" in family affairs. He also
occasionally wrote an interoffice memorandum of a more critical
nature, as when he noticed in the accounts of David, who was still
in college, an item of $100 that had been given to him by Nelson to
help pay his expenses on a trip to Florida to see his Grandfather
Rockefeller.
. . . While this was most kind of you, I am wondering whether it
was wise. As you, of course, must know, it was not because of the
cost involved that I did not pay the expenses of David s trip to
Ormond, but because of a principle, having to do with the wise
use of money which his desire to make this trip south raised. Whether
I was right or wrong . f . is perhaps aside from the point, for I
obviously did what I thought was right. Your gift, made on a gener
ous impulse, vitiated to that extent the lesson which I was trying to
help David learn.
. . . Let me say in closing that I appreciated fully the generosity
of your impulse and have written this letter only to raise the query
as to whether it is wise for you to have acted upon it without first
having ascertained the purpose which led me to take the position I
did.
The family affairs covered so much ground that young Rockefeller
was active in a dozen different enterprises in these years, including
the execution of a program for selling some eighty parcels of family
property in Ohio, building a block of modernistic apartment houses
and starting a company of his own to sell hand-painted postcards for
a quarter a card. He also was widely but incorrectly credited with
influencing his father to issue a notable statement favoring repeal
of the prohibition laws in the United States. As the story was told,
young Rockefeller persuaded his father that prohibition was a failure
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 100
by taking him on a two-block tour of midtown speakeasies and then
pointing out that all of them were on Rockefeller-owned property.
The fact was that Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., issued his statement in 1932
only after consultation with a number of noted authorities, including
George W. Wickersham, who was head of a commission investigating
the problem of prohibition and gangsterism. "I couldn t have taken
him on a speakeasy tour," his second son said later, "because I didn t
know how to find a speakeasy in those days/
In 1934, Rockefeller broadened his knowledge of family affairs
by going to work for the Chase National Bank, including a spell in
London and Paris. He accompanied his uncle Winthrop Aldrich,
president of the bank, on a busy tour of the United States to discuss
depression problems with bankers and businessmen in all of the large
cities a trip that featured so many luncheons and dinners and in
formal get-togethers that even Rockefeller reported he was near ex
haustion by the time they left San Francisco. Some months later he
was in Paris and London, giving luncheons for Standard Oil executives
and entertaining Chase National Bank officials at dinners; playing
tennis with relatives of the Royal Family and going for a ride with
a man whose name he couldn t remember but whose coach-and-four
had just won all prizes in a national competition. He didn t become
enthusiastic about banking but in Paris he spotted a new French
automobile that fascinated him, a sleek black number with a long
and graceful snout. When he returned to the United States he
asked Edsel Ford, a neighbor at Seal Harbor during summer months,
about the car and discovered that Ford also had seen and been im
pressed by the French design, and had ordered one of the cars for
himself.
"Could you get fust a body sent over for me and mount it on a
Ford chassis?" Rockefeller asked.
Ford didn t see why not and had the job done in 1935. The result
was so satisfactory that it became the basis of the Lincoln Continental
design later produced by the Ford Company. Rockefeller was de
lighted with his hybrid car, so much so that he was still driving it a
quarter of a century later on Mount Desert Island.
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 101
Rockefeller had been a director of Rockefeller Center almost from
the time he finished college, but he began devoting a major part of
his time to the huge real-estate operation in the mid-i93o s as the
first buildings were being completed. In those days of severe economic
depression the $125,000,000 skyscraper development not only was
losing money at the rate of around $4,000,000 a year but was burdened
with a mortgage for $40,000,000 that Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., had
negotiated to complete the construction. At first, in addition to his
interest in Special Work, Inc., Rockefeller was mainly concerned
with promotion stunts to build up interest in the Center. He had
an easygoing charm, one reporter wrote, "that made him the logical
man, as the Center s various buildings were completed, to open
bunny gardens in the Sunken Plaza, dedicate wisteria exhibits and
skating rinks, present certificates and gold buttons to outstanding
construction workers, and so on. On these occasions he made grace
ful little speeches with the manner of a particularly articulate and
successful basketball coach/ He also pleased his father, who wrote
him that he was "both proud and happy to have been so well
represented ... by you" at a center ceremony.
The young man doubtless needed praise because earlier he had
gotten the center into one of its worst public relations muddles by
arranging for the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera to do a mural in
the lobby of the main office building, 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The deal
with Rivera was started in 1932 when he was regarded as one of the
world s foremost muralists and when his powerful Mexican style had
attracted the attention of young Rockefeller and his mother. There
were protracted negotiations in which Rockefeller agreed with Rivera s
desire to use color rather than sepia in his painting.
"I have gone into this question with Mr. [Raymond] Hood and
Mr. [Wallace] Harrison [the architects] and they are quite agreeable,
in fact, very enthusiastic . . . about using some color," Rockefeller
wrote the artist on October 13, 1932. "May I take this opportunity to
again tell you how much my mother and I appreciate your spirit in
doing this mural under the existing circumstances."
By November, Rivera had presented his sketch for the mural,
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 102
which was approved, and had written for Mrs. Rockefeller a synopsis
of the painting which he said he hoped to do as a fresco. "I believe/
he added, "that actually the place of this fresco is truly a magnificent
place in itself, and also in the whole world being given the importance
. . . and passing events of the building in which it finds itself. . . .
Permit me to thank you now for this wonderful opportunity . . .
added to all the good things for which I owe you already in aiding
my work/
By May, 1933, the artist was far along on the work a painting
sixty-three feet long and seventeen feet high, dominating the lobby
of the building. A great deal of publicity, helped along by the Center s
public relations staff, attended his efforts, and about a hundred
tickets a day were issued to artists, students and others who came to
watch him work. But as the painting progressed, the directors of
Rockefeller Center became alarmed. Instead of following the sketch
and synopsis that he had presented, Rivera was putting on the wall
a picture with far-reaching political implications. On May 4, 1933,
Rockefeller wrote to Rivera:
While I was in the ... building at Rockefeller Center yesterday
viewing the progress of your thrilling mural, I noticed that in the
most recent portion of the painting you had included a portrait of
Lenin. The piece is beautifully painted but it seems to me that his
portrait appearing in this mural might very seriously offend a great
many people. If it were in a private house, it would be one thing but
this mural is in a public building and the situation is therefore quite
different. As much as I dislike to do so, I am afraid we must ask you
to substitute the face of some unknown man where Lenin s face
now appears.
You know how enthusiastic I am about the work which you have
been doing and that to date we have in no way restricted you in
either subject or treatment. I am sure you will understand our feel
ings in this situation and we will greatly appreciate your making the
suggested substitution.
Rockefeller frequently has remarked that he is an incurable optimist
about almost everything and he more or less proved it by expressing
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 103
confidence that Rivera would pay any attention to the opinions of
his capitalist employers. The artist not only ignored the request but
began working at an intensified pace and introducing all kinds of
unexpected ideas into his painting. In vivid colors, he imbedded in
the wet plaster scenes of poison gas warfare, huge germs of infectious
hereditary social diseases, so placed that they were related to a civiliza
tion that revolved around night clubs and bridge parties, a massed
attack by soldiers spraying liquid fire and backed by airplanes and
tanks, a Communist demonstration on Wall Street with plug-ugly
mounted police swinging clubs at workers bearing such slogans as
"We want work, not charity down with imperialistic wars/ Almost
the only really pleasant part of the mural was a group of students and
folk dancers wearing peasant headdress beneath a red flag that in
dicated the scene was in Soviet Russia.
It seems unlikely that Rivera and his political mentors ever believed
that the mural would become a part of the dcor of the seventy-story
capitalistic office building, but the circumstances offered a wonderful
opportunity to use the artist for propaganda purposes. Rockefeller
talked to Rivera in his most charming manner and came away feeling
that things might be worked out satisfactorily, but that proved to be
another illusion. On May 9, Hugh S. Robertson, executive manager
of the center, wrote a formal letter to Rivera stating that the plan for
the mural approved by the center had given "not the slightest intima
tion either in the description or in the sketch that you would include
in the mural any portrait or any subject matter of a controversial
nature. . . . We cannot but feel that you have taken advantage of the
situation to do things that were never contemplated . . . [and] that
there should be no hesitation on your part to make such changes as are
necessary to conform ... to the understanding we had with you/
Rivera went right on painting as he pleased until the next night at
9 P.M. when a messenger climbed up the scaffold and asked him to
come to Robertson s office on an upper floor. Rockefeller was not
there, having been conveniently sent out of town on another mission,
but Robertson told Rivera that their contract had not been observed,
gave him a check that completed full payment of $21,500 and asked
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 104
him to retire from the scene. The artist did, but only after a vulgar
and contemptuous gesture directed at Robertson and the capitalistic
system in general.
Even before Rivera could leave the building, a Communist parade
of demonstrators formed in the street carrying signs that said:
"Workers protest against attempt to destroy Rivera s fresco" and
"Save Rivera s art." They caused enough confusion to require police to
intervene and to capture front-page headlines in the newspapers next
day. The mural was covered with canvas. Rockefeller did not want to
see it destroyed and he secured the center s consent to have it removed
and installed in the Museum of Modern Art, where he believed a fee
of twenty-five cents could be charged viewers to cover the expense of
installation. This plan collapsed, however, when it proved impossible
to remove the mural and, one Saturday midnight in February, 1934,
workmen began chipping the painting from the plaster wall. The
destruction of Rivera s work was good for more newspaper headlines
and many letters of protest to the Rockefellers, such as one saying:
"Your family achieved a little measure of immortal fame as destroyer
of one fine example of the only vital art which the Western World
has produced in five hundred years."
It was typical of Rockefeller that he held no resentment against
Rivera, although the artist wouldn t speak to him for years. Eventually,
they again became friends. Robertson lost no time in hiring another
artist, Jos6 Maria Sert, to fill in the yawning space in the lobby of
the building with a sepia mural featuring such characters as Abe
Lincoln and Thomas A. Edison.
By 1937, Rockefeller had worked his way up in the center organiza
tion to become executive vice-president, and was taking an active role
in handling major problems. He touched off a reorganization of the
center s executive staff that eliminated several highly paid jobs and
led to his assumption of die duties of president in May of 1938. Later,
when he and his four brothers owned the center, he served as chair
man of the board and as president at various intervals. Among other
things, he initiated a labor relations program that eliminated the
original company union setup at the center and recognized nine
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 105
American Federation of Labor unions. The center has never had a
strike except one brief wildcat affair during the war. Rockefeller also
had a hand in establishing an employee pension program for members
of the center staff, the first such plan offered all employees of a
major firm in the field of building ownership and management. He
later installed a scholarship program for children of employees of the
center and the Radio City Music Hall, with two full-time college
scholarships each year and five annual scholarships for children of
employees interested in medical, educational, welfare and technical
careers.
During World War II, when there was a great shortage of office
space, Rockefeller Center broke out of the red on an operating basis
and a few years later began making a profit after depreciation on an
operating basis. By 1959, it had boosted its total gross income to
$27,500,000 and had long since lifted the mortgage on the old home
stead. It had also started a new phase of expansion with the con
struction of a forty-eight story Time & Life office building.
Rockefeller s labors in the creation of the center represented more
than just a desire for commercial success. New York City, with its
mighty spires and noisy traffic and surging crowds, has always
fascinated him and his pride in his hometown is limitless. Every so
often, he has to go for a walk just to look at the skycrapers from
different angles or catch a new vista down a crowded street. And on
such jaunts, particularly around Rockefeller Center, he s pretty sure
to stop a couple of times, point out a particular view to his walking
companion and exclaim: "Look! That s New York isn t it wonder
ful?"
v.
Rockefeller s life during the 1930 $ was by no means confined to the
world of commerce. In that decade, his interest in art expanded
rapidly and in several directions. As a trustee of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, he had little room to exercise his talents or his
energy because that institution was run in a highly conservative fashion
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 106
by the iron hand of its president, George Blumenthal. Rockefeller
looked elsewhere. At one time, he interested New York Mayor Fiorello
La Guardia in a plan to enlarge Rockefeller Center northward by
building a municipal theater, an opera house and a new home for the
Museum of Modern Art. When La Guardia gave up the idea,
Rockefeller turned to promotion of the Museum of Modern Art,
which his mother had helped found and which had elected him a
trustee in 1932 and treasurer in 1935.
Rockefeller was largely responsible for sparking a campaign that
raised $2,000,000 for a new home for the museum. The unusual
modern building was ready in 1939, when Rockefeller was elected
president to succeed A. Conger Goodyear, one of the founders.
Geoffrey T. Hellman reported in The New Yorker:
Rockefeller s elevation to this fashionable aesthetic post coincided
with the moving of the Museum ... to a spectacular building of
its own. The opening was marked by a fifteen-minute congratulatory
address by President Roosevelt on a national hookup and by a speech
by Rockefeller, in which ... he rather pointedly failed . . . either
to mention that [the museum] had already been in existence for ten
years or to allude to the part which Mr. Goodyear and others had
played in founding it and in building it up. "It sounded as though
the Museum had just opened that night/ a member of the audience
later reported. "It came as quite a surprise to the staff."
The Museum of Modern Art under Rockefeller s guidance operated
with considerable fanfare and attracted large audiences to its special
exhibitions of modern American and European painting. Rockefeller
pressed a policy that favored the showing of Latin American painting
and sculpture, much to the satisfaction of Rockefeller and our neigh
bors to the south but without creating any great impression on the
world of art. Nevertheless, the museum became one of the big at
tractions in New York and its membership rose from 3,500 when
Rockefeller became president to 25,000 in 1959. Rockefeller served as
president at two different periods and later became chairman of the
board. He has watched over the museum like a nervous parent,
contributed heavily to its development and, when fire broke out
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 10?
there in 1958, he rushed from his office, donned a fireman s protective
suit and dashed into the smoke-filled building to help rescue en
dangered masterpieces.
The museum has carried on a vigorous educational program and has
circulated its exhibitions throughout the United States in educational
and nonprofit institutions. In 1952, a five-year grant from the Rocke
feller Brothers Fund provided $125,000 to develop a program of
cultural exchange of the visual arts with other countries. After success
ful exhibitions in Brazil, Japan, Paris and elsewhere the program was
taken over permanently by the museum s International Council, with
the aid of contributions from interested groups and individuals.
The Museum of Primitive Art, which was found by Rockefeller in
1954, is devoted to collecting and exhibiting the "artistic achievements
of the indigenous civilizations of the Americas, Africa and Oceania,
and of the early phases of the more developed civilizations of Asia and
Europe." The nucleus of the collection was pieces of primitive
sculpture which Rockefeller had collected for himself but to this were
later added many masks, ritual vessels, ornaments and figures, so
that it became perhaps the most comprehensive collection of its kind
in the world.
Although his pursuit of excellence in modern art took up a great
deal of Rockefeller s spare time during the 1930 $, he managed to
work into his schedule a reasonable amount of tennis, riding, golf and
swimming and a few big-game hunting trips in Alaska and Texas.
In 1939, with three friends and a guide, he flew in an amphibian plane
to a remote lake in Alaska to hunt bear. The party didn t have much
luck for a couple of days but on the third day Rockefeller and the
guide spotted a kodiak and a grizzly bear in mountainous territory
and maneuvered themselves into position for a shot. Rather excitedly,
Rockefeller fired and the kodiak bear fell. The other bear lumbered
away and the hunter leaped up to take a look at his prey.
"Shoot again!" the guide yelled, but Rockefeller was so nervous that
his second standing shot missed the mark and the bear charged
him. The Indian guide dropped to one knee and shot the animal dead
but it was so close that he was shaking with fear when he stood up.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 108
Later, on the same trip, Rockefeller and the guide pursued two
mountain goats up a ridge some four hundred feet high and very
narrow. The goats crossed a narrow ledge that dropped off into sheer
cliff and the guide followed them. Rockefeller got to the ledge,
looked down and suffered a severe attack of vertigo. For five minutes
he couldn t move, and then he was able only to give up the chase and
back slowly down from the ledge. Although he had never before been
bothered by heights, the experience had a kind of traumatic effect on
him and he has suffered from vertigo ever since.
On a much later occasion, Rockefeller was brushed by near-tragedy
while sailing off Greece, but it was a trip on which he had had a
premonition of disaster. With two other couples, the Rockefellers
had chartered a yawl for an expedition among the Greek islands.
Before they arrived in Athens prior to embarking, Rockefeller began
worrying about equipment, particularly life preservers.
"We ll get some of those pull-cord life jackets/ he told his wife.
"Why bother?" she replied. "The boat will be fully equipped."
"I suppose so," he said, "but it keeps popping up in my mind that
we should get some. I ve been thinking about it for days."
He raised the subject again before they got on the boat, but nobody
else in the party was concerned and, although Rockefeller grumbled,
nothing was done. He was still worried as they put out to sea and
immediately made an inspection which showed that there were no
life jackets aboard and no life preservers except air cushions. Looking
further, he found the boat had only one dinghy, which would carry
five persons, and one air mattress, which might support four. There
were nine persons aboard, six passengers and three crewmen.
He was taking a nap after lunch when the floorboards in his cabin
blew up. Gas had accumulated around the Diesel engine and a spark
had ignited it and started a fire in the engine pit. Immediately, there
was danger that the fuel supply would be ignited and explode.
"I simply had been expecting it," Rockefeller said later. "I knew
something of the sort was going to happen."
The crew got nowhere by throwing water on the flames around
the engine. Rockefeller got the dinghy and air mattress over the side
BEGINNING BUSINESS AT THE TOP 109
despite heavy seas, linking the mattress to the dinghy by a line so
it could be towed. He found the medicine case that he always
carries on trips and treated one of the passengers, Mrs. Lawrence
Roberts, who had been badly burned on the legs and face. The yawl
was ten miles at sea and the waves were so rough that the chances of
rowing to shore in an overloaded dinghy were not favorable. They
were about ready to try it, however, when a young boy in the crew
boldly grabbed a piece of canvas, jumped down into the engine pit
and smothered the flames, "I think," Rockefeller remarked, "that
he really saved our lives/
Mrs. Roberts was in a state of shock and they made sail immediately
for the nearest island. It was uninhabited. That night they hove to.
The next morning the wind dropped and they were stranded for
eight hours. Mrs. Roberts was in great pain by that time and, when
evening brought a fresh wind, they made sail in the darkness. Rocke
feller took the wheel and, despite a near-miss on a cliff, reached port
at night and got Mrs. Roberts to a doctor.
VI.
Rockefeller crowded a lot of experience into his first few years as a
businessman but he still wasn t sure of just where he was headed. The
presidency of Rockefeller Center, the presidency of the Museum of
Modern Art, membership on the boards of various business and
philanthropic enterprises might seem enough of a career for one
man. But for Rockefeller it was no more than a restless beginning;
it had been too easy and it had been too much the result of his
inherited position. For several years, he had been in close contact with
a group of men who liked to take a broad, almost philosophical look
at what was happening in their country and in the world. Their
horizons were not limited by the impressive skyline of Rockefeller
Center or of Wall Street. They were trying to look ahead, to weigh
the danger of war in Europe, to know what was in store for the
nation s economy and for the political development of the world
community. Just as at Dartmouth he had discovered, with some sur-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 110
prise, that there was more to college than passing examinations and
kicking a soccer ball, Rockefeller now found that there was more to
a career than building a skyscraper or negotiating a wage agreement
with a labor union. He was still a man with a keen yearning for action
but he began to acquire a sense of direction and an ability to look
forward toward a broad horizon. He could not, perhaps, see very far
or very clearly but he was learning how to look.
In the late 1930*8, when the Nazi regime in Germany was creating
turmoil in Europe, he accepted an invitation to deliver the com
mencement address at the University of New Hampshire. He began
by saying that he probably was expected to hand out a lot of advice
and to paint a rosy future for the young men and women who were
now going out to face a world that was torn by tremendous economic
chaos and faced with a grave threat of a great war.
"But I can t do it," he went on. "I feel it is only realistic to say that
all those rosy promises of golden opportunity for college youth are
strictly the bunk. I want to tell you that the honeymoon is over, and
that when you leave the sheltered campus of this great educational in
stitution you will be stepping out into the cold gray dawn of reality.
"The responsibility of the world of tomorrow is on your shoulders.
... I believe that the solution of these problems lies very much in
your hands and mine. It is up to this generation to restore peace and
order/ 7
FIVE
South American Enthusiasms
It was springtime when Nelson Rockefeller fell in love again this
time with a lush, green tropical countryside or perhaps it would be
more accurate to say with the whole continent of South America. On
a bright, sunny day in April of 1937 he stood in the bow of a ninety-
foot boat steaming on the Orinoco River in eastern Venezuela and
studied in wide-eyed wonder the swamps and jungles that slid into
view on either bank. Everything fascinated him. That night, listening
to the weird noises in the jungle blackness, Rockefeller poured out his
enthusiasm and delight in a hastily scrawled letter to his parents.
We have been coming down the most beautiful tropical river all
day in the Standard Oil Company s yacht. We spent the last two
days visiting the oil fields in the interior of eastern Venezuela in the
company s planes and then went on the boat last night. . . . This
is low swampy country, a dense overhanging growth which changes
character from time to time. The trees are full of monkeys and birds
of all descriptions and colors, big and small. There are alligators on
the banks . . . every once in a while you see a big turtle, fast asleep
on top of the water. But most interesting of all are the Indians. They
111
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 112
live in little palm leaf huts along the river, wear practically no clothes
and paddle around in hollowed out logs. They spend their time get
ting bark from which is made tannic acid and fishing. . . . The pelicans
do a much better job of the latter.
I really think we have learned more in the last week than ever
before in such a short time. * . . We met the President and all the
members of his cabinet at two parties and called on the Governors
of four states, plus talking at great length to many men in the
Standard Oil Company and others. . * * Unless something unfore
seen happens it looks as if this would turn out to be one of the
soundest . . . countries in the world and there s certainly plenty
of oil here.
In a way, the trip was one of the turning points in Rockefeller s
life. His background and his training already were carrying him in the
direction of certain broad social and humanitarian objectives. But
he was young, his viewpoint was confused and uncertain and his
immediate course was vague until he saw at first hand the problems
and the potentialities of Latin America s underdeveloped economy.
This vast and often backward part of the world, rich in natural re
sources, represented to him not an abstract sociological problem such
as those he had wrestled with in his father s office but a concrete,
understandable opportunity for direct action. He could see problems
and feel the challenge: the kind of challenge he had been seeking.
The love affair with Latin America did not develop easily or
spontaneously. As a boy, Rockefeller had felt no affinity toward the
peoples south of the border and even had such serious trouble with
the Spanish language that he dropped it from his school work.
More than a decade passed before he discovered that dropping
Spanish had been a mistake but then, with his customary enthusiasm,
he plunged into an intensive Berlitz School course so that he could
learn to speak the language. This change in attitude grew out of the
fact that, in 1935, he had made a substantial investment in Creole
Petroleum Company, the Venezuelan subsidiary of Standard Oil
of New Jersey, and had become a minority stockholder representative
on the board of directors. Eager to see for himself what was going
SOUTH AMERICAN ENTHUSIASMS 113
on, he arranged to tour South America two years later with his wife
and a party that included Eleanor Clark, Joseph Rovensky of the
Chase National Bank, Jay Crane of the Standard Oil Company, and
Winthrop Rockefeller. The party was carefully briefed in advance as
to economic and social and political conditions in each of the
countries they would visit during their three-month tour, and they
drew up a list of important business, banking and government per
sonalities with whom they would talk.
This was a well-planned business tour but, oddly enough, when
Rockefeller got back home his sharpest memories were of things out
side the normal sphere of business and banking. In addition to his
delight in the back country of Venezuela, he had been impressed by
meeting Dr. Albert A. Giesecke, former president of the University of
Cuzco in Peru, a man who could talk with great authority on the
pre-Columbian history of South America. Rockefeller was fascinated
by this first glimpse of the ancient culture and traditions of the con
tinent. Through Dr. Giesecke, he met a noted archaeologist, Dr. Julio
C6sar Tello, who had been director of the Archaeological Museum
and also a member of the Peruvian Senate. Dr. Tello had found and
excavated more than one hundred mummy bundles in the desert
tombs at Paracas. The mummies were wrapped in layers of materials
that had been woven before 800 AJX and they represented an im
portant historical treasure if they could be preserved. But there had
been a change of government recently in Peru and as a result Dr. Tello
had lost his seat in the Senate as well as his job as director of the
museum. He told Rockefeller that now the government refused to give
him the necessary funds to continue the work of opening the bundles
and treating the woven material so that it would not be ruined by
exposure to air and moisture.
The reason for the refusal was of particular interest to Rockefeller:
the government leaders were predominantly of Spanish descent and
they looked on Indian culture as inferior. This was enough to spur
the young American businessman to indignant action. When he
called on the President, he brashly brought up the problem of the
mummy bundles, expressed the opinion that they were a national
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 114
treasure and added that, as a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York, he was working on plans for developing closer
ties between museums in New York and in South America.
"It is my intention/ he said, "to provide the money necessary to
unwrap the mummy bundles and dry out the materials, providing the
Peruvian government will make provision for permanent maintenance
of the collection." This offer of North American aid so impressed
the government officials that they agreed to maintain the collection
and, in time, Dr. Tello got back his job as director of the museum.
Like his mother, Rockefeller is a tireless collector of objets d art,
but his interests are so broad that he has no special field and some
times very little discrimination. He is just as likely to stumble on
and buy a prettily painted wooden horse from an ancient carousel as
he did early one morning on New York s East Side as he is to pick
up a rare piece of carved jade in Hong Kong. In Peru, he hired a
tri-motored Ford airplane and, with his wife, his brother and Eleanor
Clark, flew to the ancient Inca city of Cuzco, which is more than
eleven thousand feet above sea level. In order to reach that altitude,
before taking off the pilot of the plane removed most of the seats
and other heavy equipment that could be spared. At Cuzco, Rocke
feller was fascinated by the colorful native woolen textile market
and dashed around excitedly, buying armloads of blankets and serapes.
When the party returned to the plane, the pilot shook his head in
despair.
"With that weight/ he sighed, "we may never make it over the
mountains/
Rockefeller optimistically predicted that they would make it
and after a few more protests they took off and wobbled safely over
the peaks on the return trip.
On another occasion, a companion who was familiar with Rocke
feller s inability to resist buying odd souvenirs flew ahead of him to a
South American city where the airport was overrun by salesmen of
native handicraft, most of it bad. One vendor offered him a particu
larly hideous traveling bag, festooned with alligator claws and other
odd trappings. "No/* he said, "I won t buy the thing but 111 bet
SOUTH AMERICAN ENTHUSIASMS 115
you sell it before the day is over/ He went on to his hotel to wait
and, a couple of hours later, he was not at all surprised when
Rockefeller arrived proudly carrying the amazing alligator bag.
A second important impression that Rockefeller brought back
from his trip around South America was that there was an incredible
lack of sympathy and understanding between Latin America and
the United States. The Latin Americans were culturally and economi
cally oriented toward Europe. They had little knowledge of the
United States and little liking for North Americans, while most
United States citizens living there had only superficial contact with
the people with whom they were doing business.
Having discussed this deplorable situation with everyone who would
listen to him, Rockefeller attended the annual meeting of the
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, which brought together some
three hundred company executives from all parts of the world. The
sessions were devoted largely to bringing the executives up to date on
company problems and developments in technical fields. Rockefeller
didn t have anything to contribute along the line of new techniques
but when he offered to make a speech no one was going to refuse
him the opportunity.
He spoke on the social responsibility of corporations. The general
idea that he expressed was that the corporation held property at
home and abroad by the will of the people. Of course, he added, there
were laws that said the corporation owned this or that but, if the
people did not feel that the property was being used in their
interest, they would in some way and at some time find ways to
change the laws,
"In the last analysis/ he continued, "the only justification for
ownership is that it serves the broad interest of the people. We must
recognize the social responsibilities of corporations and the corpora
tion must use its ownership of assets to reflect the best interests of
the people. If we don t, they will take away our ownership."
This was perhaps the most unpopular speech ever made to such a
meeting of tie Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, although none
of the officers put it exactly that way to young Rockefeller. They
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 116
merely felt, as did most business leaders of the day, that it was
their job to run the company as efficiently and as profitably as
possible. But there were a few executives like Eugene Holman, then
chairman of the board of Creole, who were sympathetic toward the
speaker. It wasn t difficult for Rockefeller to pick them out of the
crowd, and he remembered them. He also gained greater confidence
in his own viewpoint in 1938 when oil company properties were
expropriated by Mexico, a country which felt that American business
was not serving the interests of the people and which therefore
changed the laws to take away American ownership.
These general ideas had been implanted in Rockefeller s mind
after only a brief acquaintance with Latin America, and he did his
best to make executives of the Creole and Standard Oil companies
aware of the problem. Progress against the company old guard was
slow, although they found it difficult to ignore the influence of a
Rockefeller, even when it was a young and inexperienced and im
patient Rockefeller. In this connection, it is noteworthy that, in the
past, when Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., believed that a course was right or
that a certain thing should be done, he was not hesitant to use his
influence or the Rockefeller name if necessary to carry out his ideas.
Mr. Rockefeller s second son, Nelson, was also willing to use his
influence and he did, although in most instances his approach was as a
friendly, enthusiastic and persuasive collaborater who was sure every
body would agree with him if only they knew all the facts. To make
sure that he had the facts right he took a refresher course in Spanish
and went back to South America in 1939*
n.
The ability to speak Spanish poorly then, but fluently in time
enabled Rockefeller to confirm his original ideas. The Creole Com
pany had followed the British concept of a self-contained compound.
Camps were built inside barbed-wire fences and North American
employees as well as foreign laborers lived behind a guarded gate.
The company provided virtually everything from power plants to
SOUTH AMERICAN ENTHUSIASMS 117
imported food. There was no attempt to become part of any locality.
The company usually started operations well removed from any
town. But within a short time a honky-tonk squatter town would
spring up outside the gates a town of saloons and places of amuse
ment, of crime and disease and sickness. One such town in Venezuela
grew to a population of twenty thousand but had no sewers, no
schools and no water system. It was not likely that the company
would gain a sympathetic view of the country or that the country
would develop any friendliness for North Americans under such
conditions.
In one city, Rockefeller went to luncheon at the home of the
manager of a large United States company and was seated between
the manager s wife and a high official of the country, neither of
whom could speak the other s language. After acting as interpreter
for them for a few minutes, he casually inquired how long the
manager s wife had been in the country.
"Oh, I ve been here twelve years," she replied. "And before that we
were in Mexico for eight years."
"How is it that you don t speak the language after such a long
time in Spanish-speaking countries?" he asked.
"Why should I?" she replied. "Who would I talk to in Spanish?"
She then began discussing the activities of the North American
colony in the city and related the adventures of a minor United
States diplomat who got drunk every Saturday night and on one
occasion tried to break into the presidential palace.
The indifference of his compatriots toward the countries in which
they worked and lived depressed Rockefeller. He observed that
missionaries, educators and representatives of philanthropic founda
tions were almost the only United States citizens who tried to
understand the culture or the aspirations of the people. He noticed,
too, that many Europeans had a far better understanding and much
closer relations with Latin America than did the United States busi
nessmen. This was especially true of the Germans, who had married
into important families in various South American countries, took an
active part in local affairs and had great influence in political, social
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 118
and government affairs in some countries.
Another thing that impressed Rockefeller was the feverish activity
of the Communists in Latin America, particularly in labor circles,
in universities and in the press. They attacked oil company activities
as a capitalistic plot to exploit the workers and on occasion aimed
their fire at Rockefeller and expressed the opinion he was in Latin
America for nefarious purposes. Frequently, on the day after such
attacks appeared in a Communist newspaper, a smiling, bare-headed
young man would climb a flight of narrow stairs to the newspaper s
editorial office, shake hands with the first person he met in the
cluttered city room and say: "I m Nelson Rockefeller and I d like to
meet your editor/ This was definitely not the way a Communist
editor expected his capitalistic target to react and Rockefeller usually
was able to take advantage of his stunned surprise to explain the
purpose of his visit to the city. He didn t expect this to have any
effect on the editor s opinions but it gave him a chance to know
the people who were attacking him and, in some instances, it opened
the way to long-term acquaintance with newspapermen whom he
liked even when he disagreed with them. Of these newspapermen,
perhaps the most important was R6mulo Betancourt, a non-Com
munist, who was editor of Ahora and leader of the minority Demo
cratic Action party in Venezuela.
Betancourt charged that Rockefeller was aiding the oil companies
efforts to be exempted from the wage and profit-sharing provisions of
the new constitution, that poor tenants had been evicted from land
acquired by the companies and that the Rockefeller heir was "ex
ploiting our country with his specious, hypocritical" statements about
trying to promote the well-being of humanity in the world.
After looking over his vast oil properties ... he will return to his
office atop Rockefeller Center, to the warm shelter of his home, to
resume his responsibilities as a philanthropist and Art Maecenas
[Betancourt wrote]. Behind him will remain Venezuela producing
180 million barrels of oil for the Rockefellers. . . . Behind him will
remain Venezuela with its half million children without schools, its
workers without adequate diets ... its 20,000 oil workers mostly
SOUTH AMERICAN ENTHUSIASMS
living in houses that the Department of Fomento (Development)
states should better be called "over-grown match-boxes"; Venezuela
with its three million pauper inhabitants, victims of frightful epi
demics.
m.
Betancourt s estimate of Rockefeller was not one that would
stand the test of time. In Venezuela, the young oil scion had dis
covered a number of Creole executives who thought as he did. One of
them was Arthur Proudfit, who was in favor of reorienting the
company toward closer co-operation with the community. With
Rockefeller s support, Proudfit s influence steadily increased and he
eventually became president of the company. Another was the then
manager, Henry E. Linam, who had been a poor boy in the oil fields
of the Southwest and had gone to Venezuela as a driller.
Linam was a rough-and-ready character who carried a gun during
the early days but who liked people, especially the Venezuelans. He
quickly learned the language and made friends with the native
laborers. Later, as he climbed to better jobs in the company, he lived
in the native section of Caracas instead of in the so-called North
American colony. His children went to Venezuelan schools. His
friends included both high government officials and workers in greasy
clothes from the oil fields, and any one of them might greet him on
the streets with a hearty abrazo that amazed Rockefeller.
Many North Americans regarded Linam as a maverick but he
was well known for his ability as an oil man and he was both fearless
and kindly. Among other things, he ignored the tradition that only
North Americans had the ability to handle drilling and rigging
operations in the oil field and, after he became manager of the
company, all the Creole drilling and field maintenance operations
were handled by Venezuelan workers.
Linam, in later years, recalled that on his tours of Venezuela
Rockefeller had a remarkable ability to meet people in all walks of
life and to feel at ease with them as well as to make them feel at
ease with him. Once Linam and Rockefeller were visiting a drilling
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 120
operation in one of the oil fields and the latter wandered away to
question members of a crew about their work. The driller watched
for a few minutes and then strolled over to talk to Linam.
"I hear the field superintendent is being promoted/ he said in
Spanish.
"Yes/ Linam replied.
The driller nodded toward Rockefeller. "I guess this man s going
to be the new superintendent/ he said. "Well, I think he s going to
be a fine boss."
One government official in Venezuela told Linam that Rockefeller
had endeared himself to the people because he conformed to the
customs of the country and had learned to speak Spanish. Then,
using an old Spanish saying, he added: "The important thing is that
he does these things without any hint of being more popish than
the Pope."
"This is a rare yet very important trait among the Latins/ Linam
commented. "They appreciate a foreigner who understands and who
has the courtesy to conform to their customs. But they quickly detect
insincerity when one tries to be more Latin than the Latins."
Gradually, men like Proudfit and Linam came to the top in Creole
and gradually the relationship of the company to the community was
changed. One of the first signs of the new order was the hiring of a
dozen Berlitz teachers of Spanish in New York. They were sent to
Venezuela to carry out an order that every company executive had to
learn Spanish. Another step was to provide medical assistance for
the squatter town inhabitants outside the barbed wire fence. The
North American employees were encouraged to make friends in the
communities in which they worked and to take part in civic activities.
Venezuelans who could neither read nor write were soon trained to
handle skilled mechanical operations and later their sons, with high
school education in company-operated schools, worked in power plants
and oil refineries and some of them received advanced training for
jobs that in the United States are usually filled by graduates of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With substantial funds from
the company and the state governments, the shanty towns outside
SOUTH AMERICAN ENTHUSIASMS 121
the compound slowly developed into cities, with water and sewerage,
paved streets and schools. Whereas in the 1930*5 most of the natives
suffered from malaria, hookworm and other tropical diseases and
go per cent were undernourished, medical programs supported by
the company so improved health conditions that workers gained from
twenty-five to thirty pounds after a few months of proper diet and,
within only fifteen years, the children in the oil camps averaged a
little more than four inches taller than their parents.
There was, however, a still broader problem that interested Rocke
feller. The Creole Company had grown rapidly in the 1930*8 and it
would soon be a dominant economic factor in Venezuela. The com
pany could maintain that position only if it contributed effectively to
the general growth of the country s economy and helped raise the
standard of living. In 1939, Creole hired a North American engineering
firm to make a survey of the Venezuelan economy and to blueprint
the bottlenecks that were stifling normal economic development. The
survey showed that, while hundreds of millions of dollars had been
pumped into the oil industry, little or nothing had been done about
developing agriculture or other industries. Most food and supplies
had to be imported. It was obvious that drastic measures were called
for to bring the general economy up to the level of the oil industry if
Venezuela was to gain an economic balance. But, at this point, the
Creole Company was not in a position to be of special assistance.
Its business was producing oil, not acting as a bank for economic
development. The company, mindful of the expropriation of oil
property in other Latin American countries, was willing to do its
part, but it had its limits. This posed a problem that would attract
Rockefeller s intense interest in the future.
IV.
The reorientation of the Creole Company did not, of course, take
place suddenly. When Rockefeller returned to New York from his
1939 trip to South America he was convinced that there was an urgent
need to imDrqve both the business and diplomatic representation of
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 122
the United States in Latin America. It is doubtful that he realized
how formidable an undertaking that would be but not long after
ward he had an opportunity to learn some of the frustrations that
were to accompany efforts to put his ideas into practice. When the
Mexican government expropriated the property of United States oil
companies, the executives of the Standard Oil Company bitterly
condemned the action as without legal justification, but there
wasn t much they could do about it. A man seriously concerned
about the Mexican government s action was Walter Douglas, a
director of the Southern Pacific Railroad, who had worked in Mexico
and was a friend of President Lazaro Cardenas. Douglas told Rocke
feller he believed a solution to the oil dispute might be found on a
personal rather than a legalistic basis. He suggested that Rockefeller
find out whether the oil companies could agree to a basis for settle
ment and that, if they could, he and Rockefeller go to Mexico to
discuss the problem with Cardenas.
Rockefeller took up the suggestion with the officers of the Standard
Oil Company and, in the next few weeks, worked out terms for a
possible settlement. The following month, he and Douglas, ac
companied by their wives, went to see Cdrdenas at his home in
the little town of Juquilpan de Ju&rez, in the state of Michoacdn.
Cardenas, a big, handsome man, was leader of the agrarian move
ment in Mexico and had put through reforms which broke up the
big land holdings and helped to meet the Indians craving for owner
ship of farms. He spent much time in the farming land, talking with
local councils and listening to the ideas of the people. He and his
wife had moved into a new home in Juquilpan de Juarez the day
before the Rockefellers and Douglases arrived and they were not yet
settled, but they greeted the party warmly. The ladies went into the
garden, while the three men sat down to talk. Rockefeller decided
not to take the initiative in regard to the oil problem. Instead, he
told Cdrdenas that, as president of the Museum of Modern Art, he
was hopeful of putting on a show portraying the early cultural history
of Mexico.
But," he added, "it will cost $40,000 and the museum only has
SOUTH AMERICAN ENTHUSIASMS 123
$20,000 available. Do you think the Mexican government might
put up $20,000,"
Cardenas nodded. Tes, we will do it," he said. "And I believe the
Mexican railroad would provide free transportation to the frontier."
Rockefeller then said that the Mexican labor law provisions in
regard to seniority were handicapping the work of certain United
States foundations because young Mexican doctors trained in the
United States were not permitted to fill top positions for which they
were fitted. As a result, Mexico was not getting the full benefit
of a program designed to improve health conditions in rural areas.
The President knew nothing of the problem but he was deeply inter
ested and promised that the necessary exceptions to the law would be
made. The ladies returned from the garden, and still there had
been no talk of oil.
While they were having tea, Cardenas suggested that the visitors
remain all night but even after dinner Rockefeller did not mention
the oil problem. The next morning he arose early and went for a
walk in the garden where he was joined about seven o clock by the
President, who brought up the oil expropriation issue. They talked
for four hours, with a break for breakfast.
"I want to say I m here as a private citizen, and have no official
connection with the oil companies," Rockefeller said. "I believe the
situation is unfortunate and that both sides have made mistakes."
Surprisingly, Cdrdenas said: "You are the first United States con
tact I have ever had with the oil companies except for a lawyer
[Donald R. Richberg] who was sent here to negotiate but who said
frankly that he knew nothing about the oil industry, nothing about
Mexico and did not have any authority to act." The President spoke
with deep feeling but there was only a trace of bitterness in his voice.
Tour businessmen don t associate with our government officials or
with our business community. Nor do the British. I have a friend who
plays golf. For seven years he had a locker at the golf club next to
that of a leading British businessman. They never exchanged a word."
The conversation continued with frankness. It was, Rockefeller
said later, one of the most instructive talks he ever had on the problem
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 124
of relations among peoples. C&rdenas said that the actions of for
eigners in Mexico, while creating great bitterness, were not the reason
for expropriation of oil properties. "The real reason/ he went on,
"is not easy for you to understand. You have to remember that in
the background is the seizure of Texas in 1836, the United States
action in taking New Mexico and California in 1846, in sending your
Army against Villa in 1916. Then you have to remember that our
revolution ended the domination of the Spanish ruling class in
Mexico and restored the self-confidence of our people. That was our
liberation from domination in our own country/
There remained, however, the economic domination of the United
States. The expropriation of oil properties, he continued, was a
symbol of Mexican liberation from domination from without. Expro
priation restored a sense of dignity and self-respect and independence,
and that "is often more important to our people than is their own
physical or economic well-being/ The oil properties could not be
returned to the former foreign owners, he emphasized, and no
settlement could be made that would in any way jeopardize the self-
respect regained.
"We must retain ownership even if the oil has to stay in the
ground/ he added. "Better that than for the people to lose their
dignity."
Rockefeller had never heard talk like this before: a calm and
dignified but intensely earnest exposition of the human element in
international relations. Cdrdenas expressed an emotional, almost a
spiritual viewpoint but his youthful listener felt that it was just as
important as the vast economic factors involved as far as the Mexicans
were concerned. He could not take issue with the President s con
victions, but he did discuss terms of a possible settlement and found
Cirdenas interested. They agreed on various details but not on the
one point majority ownership that was of vital importance to both
sides. Each side offered to settle for 51 per cent ownership, but
neither would accept 49 per cent.
Rockefeller later believed that both Cdrdenas and the oil com
panies had taken the only positions possible in view of their basic
SOUTH AMERICAN ENTHUSIASMS 125
convictions. The companies suffered heavy loss but the economic loss
to the Mexican people in the following years was also great. On the
other hand, both the companies and the country gained something.
The Mexican expropriation was a kind of turning point for petroleum
companies in the foreign field. They learned the importance of the
proper observance of their social and political obligations abroad
and the lesson would be taken to heart in the future by more and
more United States industries in foreign countries. The economic
loss, Rockefeller remarked later, was offset many times over by the
improvement in relations between the United States and Mexico and,
ultimately, in inter-Anierican relations generally, basically because
the United States government did not force the issue as might have
been done in an earlier day.
The Mexican people gained in confidence and self-respect. And
Nelson Rockefeller gained considerable a far better understanding
of the human element in world affairs as well as a lasting friendship
with Ldzaro Cardenas.
v.
It was during these years in the latter 1930*5, when Rockefeller was
learning something of Latin America, that he was strongly influenced
by the small group of friends businessmen, economists, bankers
with whom he regularly discussed problems of United States activities
abroad. The Group, as it became known, had an indefinite member
ship. There were perhaps four or five men who formed the nucleus,
including economist Beardsley Ruml, architect Wallace K. Harrison,
oil executive Jay Crane, and banker Joseph Rovensky and lawyer Tom
Armstrong. But membership was constantly expanding and
retracting, and the Group as a whole reflected a wide variety of
ideas and philosophies. This made it more difficult for them to reach a
collective opinion on problems but, at the same time, it provided a
broad, realistic viewpoint as to what might be done to improve inter
national relations and, especially, relations among the peoples of
the Americas.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 126
It was a basic belief of the Group that world peace and our own
national security could be established only by striking at the roots of
economic and social problems and by developing a positive, long-
range program of international co-operation; a program that would
help underdeveloped countries to help themselves in the interest of
all. This called for mutual knowledge of each other s way of life,
customs, traditions and aspirations; for an understanding among
peoples and joint striving toward common goals. The Group tended to
think in terms of action; but action was not easy. On one occasion,
Rockefeller and Ruml went to Washington to discuss the situation
south of the border with two of President Roosevelt s advisers, Ben
Cohen and Tommy Corcoran. They said they felt that there was a
great deal to be done to strengthen ties with Latin America in view of
the approaching war crisis in Europe. Cohen and Corcoran were
very much interested but nothing came of the meeting at that time.
The Group also tried to establish a committee of business and
financial leaders who, they hoped, would take leadership in efforts to
improve relationships of United States corporations operating in
Latin America. The corporations weren t interested and the idea
died out. Earlier Rockefeller, with Robert Bottome, Carl B. Spaeth,
Edward H. Robbins, William F. Coles and Kelso Peck, had
formed a company known as Compania de Fomento Venezolano and
opened offices in Caracas with the idea of attempting to finance local
industrial development, and thus contribute to raising the general
standard of living in Venezuela. But, by the time they got started,
World War II was under way in Europe and action was almost
impossible.
Only one project was undertaken and that as the result of a remark
made to Rockefeller by President Eleazar L6pez Contreras one day as
they were riding through Caracas. The capital city had only one
shoddy hotel at that time and this fact embarrassed the government.
"I ve had proposals from a couple of United States groups to build a
gambling resort hotel to attract tourists," the President remarked,
"but I d rather we had no hotel at all."
Rockefeller was sympathetic and said he would try to interest a
SOUTH AMERICAN ENTHUSIASMS 127
North American firm in building a hotel.
It didn t take much trying to discover that no hotel group in the
United States wanted to build in Caracas. So the Compaiiia de
Fomento Venezolano undertook to promote a new hotel, with the
aid of the oil companies, which put up one-third of the required
capital. Another third was put up by Venezuelan investors. Rocke
feller, with the help of his family, put up the other third. Construc
tion of the million-dollar Avila Hotel was started on the supposition
that 73 per cent of its patrons would be tourists, but it was not
finished until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor plunged
the United States into the war. The tourist trade was ended for the
duration and the project appeared to be faced with failure, but
Rockefeller felt he had a moral obligation to carry out his agreement
to open the hotel.
In New York, Rockefeller s father had been studying the outlook
for the hotel and decided that it was bad. He also decided that,
because of the family association with the hotel, he had a moral
obligation to the Venezuelan investors and, in view of the bleak
prospects, he offered to buy back at par all of the stock sold to
Venezuelans so they would not suffer a loss. Some of them sold to
him, but others did not. The hotel opened on schedule and, from
the first day, was a financial success, much to the surprise of Mr.
Rockefeller, Jr. This apparently prompted some Venezuelan in
vestors, who had taken advantage of Mr. Rockefeller s offer, to
claim that it had all been a trick to get them out of a good thing.
"The experience/ remarked the younger Rockefeller, "was a lesson
in relations with local investors that would be useful to me in the
years to come."
At the time, however, he was busy on other fronts. Even before
war enveloped the United States, Rockefeller had plunged into the
Washington bureaucratic jungle on a path that was to lead him to
what has often been called the second most important political job in
America,
SIX
Washington Duty
On the humid evening of June 14, 1940, Nelson Rockefeller walked
unobtrusively into the White House carrying a brief case that con
tained, among other things, a three-page memorandum. He was
conducted immediately to a room that had once been President
Lincoln s study. Now it was the quarters of a long-time White House
guest, Harry L. Hopkins, who was expecting him.
A gaunt man with brooding eyes and a melancholy smile, Hopkins
had become President Roosevelt s close advisor and political fixer, a
man with a great talent for getting things done despite his already
shattered health. Since the beginning of World War II in Europe in
1939, Hopkins had been the President s eyes and ears and often
the executor of his policies. He seemed to have a finger in everything
the administration s vast efforts to assist the Western Allied Powers
to resist the aggression of Adolf Hitler s armed forces, the unofficial
campaign against powerful isolationist sentiment in the United
States, the push for stronger national defense and the movement to
elect Mr. Roosevelt to an unprecedented third term, come next
November.
128
WASHINGTON DUTY 129
Rockefeller had talked to several presidential advisors earlier about
his own views and the views of the Group on Latin America. As soon
as the European war started the British navy set up a blockade of
Germany that cut off a third of Latin America s trade. Furthermore,
the war isolated Latin America from its normal European source of
supply for machinery and manufactured goods. About the only
thing coming from Europe was Nazi and Communist propaganda,
and that was disseminated on a huge scale. Unless economic help
were given, Latin America would be a fertile ground for Axis propa
ganda and, in time, a possible point of penetration for Axis military
invasion of the Western Hemisphere. With such dangers in mind,
Hopkins, probably on the President s suggestion, had asked Rocke
feller to draw up recommendations for a United States program of
action. After consultation with the Group, the drafting was started
by Beardsley Ruml but before he could complete it the German
blitzkrieg against Holland, Belgium and France changed the face of
war in Europe, put the British Isles in peril of invasion and greatly
increased Nazi prestige in various South American countries* On the
night Rockefeller visited Hopkins at the White House, the Battle of
France was in its final stages and Hitler s military triumph was all
but complete in Europe.
Hopkins received him gravely. His face was lined and he seemed
tired as he sank back in his chair. Rockefeller pulled out the
memorandum, entitled "Hemisphere Economic Policy," and Hopkins
asked him to read it aloud. It began:
Regardless of whether the outcome of the war is a German or
Allied victory, the United States must protect its international posi
tion through the use of economic measures that are competitively
effective against totalitarian techniques.
If the United States is to maintain its security and its political
and economic hemisphere position it must take economic measures
at once to secure economic prosperity in Central and South America,
and to establish this prosperity in the frame of hemisphere economic
cooperation and dependence.
The scope and magnitude of the measures taken must be such as
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 130
to be decisive with respect to the objectives desired. Half measures
would be worse than wasted; they would subject the United States
to ridicule and contempt.
As Rockefeller read, Hopkins showed an increasing interest. The
memorandum outlined a broad program that included emergency
measures to absorb surplus Latin American products; reduction and
elimination of tariffs to stimulate a free flow of trade; measures to
encourage investment in Latin America by private interests and by
the government; a program to add to the government s 230 consular
agents and otherwise improve services and boost personnel in Latin
America; the appointment by the President of a small advisory
committee of private citizens with direct access to the Chief Execu
tive and of a small interdepartmental government committee to
execute the program under direction of an executive assistant to the
President. In addition, the memorandum said a vigorous program to
improve cultural, scientific and educational relations in the Americas,
with the co-operation of private agencies, was essential.
Hopkins had many questions to ask. The conversation became ani
mated as Rockefeller s enthusiasm poured out and it was several
hours before the meeting broke up, with Hopkins saying that he
would talk to "the boss." When Rockefeller returned to New York,
he didn t know whether anything would come of the meeting. France
soon fell. Britain was desperately preparing for invasion by the
Nazis. The full attention of Washington of the world was cen
tered on Europe, and it seemed unlikely that Hopkins or anyone
else would have time to think of the problem of Latin America.
President Roosevelt, however, indicated the extent of his concern
by acting almost immediately. The memorandum from Rockefeller
and Ruml was sent to the Secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury
and Agriculture, accompanied by a note from Mr. Roosevelt saying
that it was "one of the many memoranda" he had received on the
subject. He said that he considered our economic relations with
Latin America a matter of great urgency and he asked each of the
department heads to report to him not later than June 20 on "the
action which this Government should take."
WASHINGTON DUTY 131
Mr. Roosevelt was not satisfied with the replies he received.
He read the Rockefeller-Ruml memorandum to a meeting of cabinet
members when Secretary of State Hull was away and the department
was represented by Under Secretary Sumner Welles. As an authority
on Latin America, Welles was upset by the idea that private citizens
had prepared the memorandum and he was opposed to any new
agency that would intrude into his particular area of operations.
The President, however, on June 28 appointed James Forrestal as an
administrative assistant with the task of dealing with inter-American
affairs. On July 8, Forrestal called Rockefeller in New York, where
he was celebrating his thirty-second birthday.
"Your memorandum has been considered by a cabinet committee/
he said, "and the President has received recommendations on it.
Can you come down here to talk about it?"
The following evening, an excited Rockefeller met Forrestal for
dinner in the garden of the F Street Club. Forrestal asked a few
pertinent questions and then let his guest talk. Rockefeller was
bubbling with ideas and opinions about United States policy. He
explored the possibilities of economic collapse turning the Latin
American countries against the United States if we failed to assist
them and he emphasized the Nazi propaganda line that the Yanquis
were interested only in exploiting their southern neighbors. When it
came to the problem of what the United States might do, Rockefeller
was not very clear as to details. There were many areas in which he
lacked both information and experience. But he had not the slightest
hesitation in urging the administration to get busy at the job. If he
impressed Forrestal as tending to be impulsive, the older man
gave no indication of his reaction. As a matter of fact, he probably
had already made up his mind that the Rockefeller-Ruml memoran
dum was a reasonable basis of approach to the problem and he
doubtless knew that both Hopkins and Mrs. Anna Rosenberg, who
was close to the President and who had worked on labor relations
problems at Rockefeller Center, had commended it to Mr. Roosevelt.
"Nelson," Forrestal said at last, "the President is ready to take
action. What would you think of coming to Washington to work
with me on this program?"
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 132
To suggest that Rockefeller had not considered this possibility
would require considerable imagination. Yet, he was young. He was a
Republican. He was powerfully conditioned to the idea that the
Rockefellers kept out of politics, and he was well aware that for years
the Rockefeller name had been as much of a liability as the Rocke
feller money had been an asset in political affairs. Later, he would
say that he had never really thought of working for the government
and that Forrestars question surprised him. But, in the summer of
1940, Washington was an exciting goal for most young men who had
ideas and ambitions. It seems most reasonable to assume that what
ever surprise Rockefeller felt was mainly due to the fact that he
would get the nod from a Democratic administration. In any event,
he hesitated.
"Ill have to think about it," he told Forrestal. "This is a kind of
crossroads. Can I let you know in a few days?"
Forrestal agreed and Rockefeller went back to New York to
consult with his family. Then, traveling incognito under the name of
"Mr. Franklin," he secretly took an airplane to Salt Lake City to
talk to Wendell Willkie, the Republican nominee for the presidency,
who was on a swing through the West. He wanted to consult with
Willkie but he had no more than started to explain the situation
when the big, hoarse-voiced Midwesterner interrupted him.
"If I were President in a time of international crisis," Willkie
rumbled, "and if I asked someone to come to Washington to help
me in foreign affairs and if that man turned me down well, I don t
need to tell you what I would think of him. Of course, you should go!"
About this time, the President decided to shift Forrestal to the
Navy Department as Under Secretary and Rockefeller was asked to
become head of the new Latin American program. He returned to
Washington on July 25 to see Mr. Roosevelt.
"Are you sure you want me for this job," Rockefeller asked, "in
view of my family s connections with oil companies in Latin
America and the fact that I m a Republican?"
Mr. Roosevelt dismissed the question with a wave of his cigarette
holder, saying that that was his responsibility and adding: "I m not
worried."
WASHINGTON DUTY 1 33
"If I m going to get a job done/ 7 Rockefeller continued, "I have to
pick the people who will work with me on the basis of their ability
and experience instead of on the basis of their political affiliations."
"You ll have an absolutely free hand," the President replied.
"There ll be no political interference."
Rockefeller began to relax in the warmth of the Roosevelt smile.
He asked what basic policies would be laid down for guidance of
the program in addition to the Good Neighbor concept fostered by
Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Under Secretary Sumner Welles.
"Forrestal is working on that," Mr. Roosevelt said. "You can get it
all from him."
They talked for a short time. Rockefeller concluded that the
President had a rare appreciation of the importance of the cultural
aspect of foreign relations and an understanding of and interest in
Latin America. He accepted the assurance that there would be no
political interference and there never was. He walked out of the
White House in a soberly confident mood, thinking that this
was an opportunity and a responsibility. It is interesting to note
that for the first but not the last time he had spotted a govern
mental problem that was being neglected, had come up with a
plan for solving it and then had been given the job of executing the
plan. It was a pattern that would become familiar in his later career.
n.
It may never be known just what Mr. Roosevelt and Hopkins
really thought about the young man they were putting in charge of a
new and highly experimental agency. The Washington bureaucratic
establishment was such and the President s methods were such that
his choice may have been influenced by many diverse and hidden
factors. For instance, he was moving into a campaign for re-election.
He was facing a great war crisis, with Republican isolationists a real
worry. He was unhappy about certain attitudes of his Secretary of
State, and he was in the habit of setting up new bureaus or agencies
to get action on problems that were being muffed or neglected by
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 134
established government officials. The President must have been very
much aware of Rockefeller s youth and political inexperience.
But Rockefeller also was a realist. He had enthusiasm and energy
and an uninhibited self-confidence, plus an overriding optimism that
made him temperamentally akin to the President. They got along
well together, and Mr. Roosevelt on one occasion was reported
doubtless inaccurately to have remarked that if he could keep the
young Republican under his wing for a few years he d "make a man of
him."
On the other hand, there wasn t much doubt about what the
rest of Washington thought. The politicians decided Mr. Roosevelt
was indulging another whim by bringing in a rich boy, and a Repub
lican to boot, to do some unimportant job. The bureaucrats promptly
agreed that there was no necessity for creating another agency that
might infringe on their territory and that Rockefeller was a dilettante
looking for publicity. The newspapermen were interested because it
looked like another amusing story: a kid with a name who would
soon sink hip deep into the capital s swamp of futility, but he
might be worth writing about while he lasted. In addition, there was a
generally held opinion that nobody would ever hear much about the
new agency, which the President established by executive order on
August 16 as the Office for Coordination of Commercial and Cultural
Relations between the American Republics. Even in the alphabetical
New Deal era, no agency ever had the misfortune to start out
under such a cumbersome name and it soon became known as "the
Rockefeller Office" and later as the office of the Coordinator of
Inter-American Affairs or the CIAA.
The CIAA was created as a separate agency, not under a White
House administrative assistant. The coordinator s job was to "main
tain liaison between the Advisory Commission of the Council of
National Defense, the several departments ... of the Government . . .
to insure proper coordination of ... the activities of the Government
with respect to Hemisphere defense, with particular reference to
the commercial and cultural aspects of the problem." The coordinator
was instructed to cooperate with the Department of State. He was
WASHINGTON DUTY 135
advised that he would be responsible directly to the President, and
that he would serve "without compensation/
If Rockefeller was an innocent lamb among the bureaucratic
wolves of Washington, he probably did not realize it at the time.
He came to the job with a clear conscience, an intense desire for
action and an ability to get things organized. It was important that
he had no axes to grind and no prestige to protect; and probably
it was important that he was ignorant of the pitfalls ahead and
that, for the most part, he was plunging into a field that was virtually
unexplored.
Remembering Mr. Roosevelt s instructions, Rockefeller went to
Forrestal and asked what basic policies had been worked out for
guidance of the CIAA. Forrestal by this time was moving into the
Navy Department and he merely grinned sardonically. "That," he
said, "is your first assignment to work out the basic policies." But he
invited Rockefeller to live at his house in Washington until he
could make other arrangements and he continued as a friend and
advisor after becoming Under Secretary of the Navy. Association with
Forrestal opened Rockefeller s eyes to the operations of government
officials and, by being a careful listener, he picked up many helpful
hints on what to do and what not to do.
At first, Rockefeller was amazed by the way the government was
run. There were, for example, no clear lines of authority and no clear
areas of assignment such as he had been accustomed to in the
business world. One day he sat in a meeting of the Advisory Com
mission of the Council of National Defense at which President
Roosevelt had announced he was going to appoint a chairman for the
Office of Production Management. The President discussed the
job for a long time, referring in flattering terms to most of the ad
ministration officials present. Finally, he turned to William S.
Knudsen, the former General Motors executive now serving on the
Advisory Commission, and said:
"Bill, I m appointing you chairman."
Then, before anybody could say anything, he turned to Sidney
Hillman, the labor leader on the Advisory Commission, and added:
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 136
"And I m appointing Sidney Hillman as co-chairman."
"Now, Mr. President/ Knudsen interjected, "just who is responsi
ble for what and what is the meaning of co-chairman?"
Mr. Roosevelt launched into another monologue and, after a
while, concluded: "In case there is any disagreement between you
two, I am going to put you both in a room and lock you in there
until you come to an agreement. Then well go forward from there."
Such a method of operation made Rockefeller realize that Wash
ington was not much like the business world.
Eventually, Rockefeller set up his own household on Foxhall Road
in Washington and, because of the shortage of living quarters, he
invited a number of his associates to live temporarily with him. "The
place soon developed into a kind of boarding house for Rockefeller
staff members/ Geoffrey T. Hellman reported in The New Yorker.
Sometimes there were as many as fifteen house guests. Evenings
were devoted to discussions of what progress was being made on the
Latin-American front and to topics that ranged from weighty eco
nomic projects to how to handle such well-wishers ... as the man
who suggested that the problem of hemispheric solidarity could be
solved by making all unmarried North Americans marry South Amer
icans, thus providing for a really cousinly future.
This phase of Washington existence didn t end until the autumn of
1941 when Mrs. Rockefeller and the children moved into the Foxhall
Road house and the boarders had to find other quarters. There were
five children now: Rodman, who was. nine; Ann, seven; Steven, five;
and the twins, Michael and Mary, who were only three years old.
The children and Mrs. Rockefeller had, as was customary, spent
the summer at Seal Harbor in Maine, to which Rockefeller com
muted by plane for as many weekends as possible. The children were
growing up as their father had at Pocantico Hills and at Seal Harbor,
where they lived not in the rambling Rockefeller summer house on
top of the hill but in a handsome, roomy home of glass and stone
built in modern style among pine trees on a spit of rocky land
beside the harbor. There were other differences, too. They did not
build a log cabin in the woods as a place for games but they had an
WASHINGTON DUTY 137
enticing spot of white sand around a swimming pool that was cut
out of high rocks beside the beach. They learned to sail in the old
Jack Tar which their grandfather had bought secondhand twenty-five
years earlier, but there were other, modern boats available at their
boathouse, including a seventy-two-foot British patrol craft that
Rockefeller had personally redesigned as a pleasure boat that sleeps
sixteen persons. Yet, life at Seal Harbor remained simple as compared
to the more famous New England society resorts, and Mrs. Rocke
feller impressed on her children the same principles of self-reliance
and industry and tolerance that she and her husband had learned in
their youth.
Rockefeller s working habits were unique in Washington, where
few government officials with the possible exception of John Nance
Garner were early risers and where the business day normally began
sometime around ten o clock. He started for his office about 8 A.M.,
lugging one or two heavily packed brief cases to his car and getting
behind the wheel, his mind busy with a dozen problems other than
that of driving an automobile. On the way to work he normally
stopped three or four times to pick up members of his staff, partly
because gasoline rationing made transportation difficult in Washing
ton and partly because he wanted to start talking business. Running
on schedule like a bus, he would take aboard his first administrative
assistant, Janet Barnes, at one corner and, a few minutes later pick
up Percy L. Douglas, an assistant coordinator, or Larry Levy, a young
staff attorney. All the time, he would be talking at high speed about
various office problems and driving at a speed too great for safety.
"He drove as if he were piloting a Paris taxicab," one of his regular
passengers remarked later. "He seemed to be paying no attention to
the traffic. He drove too fast. He drove too close to other cars. The
rest of us were always cringing and mentally putting on the brakes.
He didn t seem to give a damn. But he never had an accident. The
only trouble I recall was that one day he ran out of gas and, when we
got some from a filling station, he didn t have a cent in his pocket to
pay for it."
At first, the CIAA offices in the Department of Commerce building
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 138
were meager. Rockefeller had a large office on the third floor and the
rest of his rapidly growing staff it eventually numbered several
thousand employees in the United States and abroad was
crowded into a few rooms on the fifth floor. Not a few of the staff
that Rockefeller assembled were men he had worked with in the past,
including Rovensky, Harrison, Spaeth, Robbins, Peck and John E.
Lockwood, who became general counsel. Later an advertising man,
Don Francisco, was named as head of the radio division; John
Hay Whitney, later ambassador to London, as head of the motion
picture division; Major General George C. Dunham, an outstanding
expert on malaria control, as head of the Inter-American Institute;
John S. Dickey, later president of Dartmouth College, as a special
assistant; Karl A. Bickel, former president of the United Press Associa
tions, as special advisor; Harry W. Frantz, a South American expert
from the United Press, and Martha Dalrymple of the Associated
Press, as press section assistants; and, later, Victor G. Borella of the
Rockefeller Center staff as assistant co-ordmator. Rockefeller also
hired a slight, prematurely gray former newspaper man named
Francis A. Jamieson on the recommendation of his brother Winthrop.
Jamieson came from a politically-minded New Jersey family. He
had won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Lindbergh kidnaping
case for the Associated Press, worked as a campaign assistant to
Governor Charles Edison of New Jersey, and was an employee of
fund-raiser John Price Jones when he assisted Winthrop Rockefeller
in directing the 1938 campaign of the Greater New York Fund. The
coordinator gave him a trial as director of the CIAA press division
and was so well satisfied with the results that they were together
for the next twenty years.
Another important associate in the early CIAA days was a promi
nent Texas businessman, Will Clayton.
Rockefeller s penchant for "getting organized" whether merely for
the purpose of going out to lunch or for a continental propaganda
campaign made him one of the most formidable coordinators ever
to crash the gates of official Washington. He coordinated everybody
and everything in his own office to the nth degree and valiantly sought
WASHINGTON DUTY 139
to bring into his orbit representatives of every other agency remotely
connected with Latin American activities. He also was ever ready
to reach out for any new ideas or projects that might be lying around
unattended for the moment on the theory that practically anything
could be coordinated into the CIAA, an attitude that appalled and
frequently irritated the capital s established bureaucrats.
But underlying all this was Rockefeller s deep conviction as to the
importance of Western Hemisphere unity and solidarity to the future
security and freedom of the United States and the other American
republics. He was fully aware of the degree of Nazi penetration in
the Western Hemisphere. He understood the extent to which Com
munist propaganda had undermined United States prestige and
exploited anti-United States sentiment throughout Central and
South America. He felt the United States government needed to
mobilize its forces to encourage more information and better under
standing; to cushion the shock of the loss of Latin America s Euro
pean markets; to strengthen the forces of democracy and raise the
standard of living of the people of the Western Hemisphere through
cooperation in the fields of health, education and food production;
and to counteract and eliminate Nazi and Fascist economic and prop
aganda penetration.
A sidelight on Rockefeller s coordinating was the introduction
of an elaborate army-type briefing room equipped with all the maps,
charts, graphs, mechanical layouts and photographic projectors that
the advertising world of Madison Avenue associated with "visual
aids." A briefing room and visual aids were interesting innovations
for two reasons: first, they were, originally at least, scorned by
veteran government officials, who contended Rockefeller was wasting
their time and the taxpayers 7 money and, second, they were to
become a permanent part of Rockefeller s governmental operations.
The CIAA briefing room was a chamber large enough to seat two
dozen persons around a table and as many more around the walls
when necessary. A young architect, Harmon Goldstone, was sum
moned by Rockefeller from New York to design the room and get
it into operation. Charts and graphs were set up to show the ob
jectives and the progress of all projects, movie projectors were in-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 140
stalled, photograph display equipment was introduced and adequate
lighting was designed. Eventually, the briefing room was staffed by
five research directors, twenty-two designers of visual aids and various
administrative helpers directed by Nadia Williams.
There were regular staff meetings in the briefing room for which
elaborate preparations were made. Each project director, for example,
had to make a weekly or monthly report. A director, George Dudley,
set up the briefing room program, saw that preparations were made
on schedule and often rehearsed the speakers in the use of visual
aids prior to the staff meeting. By the time the coordinator and the
staff and invited guests from other departments assembled, the brief
ing was skillfully fitted together so that it could be run off like a
performance at the Radio City Music Hall. Rockefeller believed
that the system not only kept the personnel of his and other agencies
informed of what was going on but enabled them to avoid duplicat
ing or interfering with each other s work. The more he used the
system, the more he was convinced that it was efficient and valuable
and, in the coining years, he would struggle (often vainly) to in
troduce it into other government departments as a method of
speeding up and improving operations.
Rockefeller also presided over a daily conference of top personnel
at 10:30 A.M. This, too, was carefully organized to move at top
speed according to a prepared agenda. The coordinator usually would
start talking about the first item on the agenda and, by the time he
finished, he would have outlined what he thought should be done.
Or, if he was uncertain what should be done, he would throw the
idea to the meeting for discussion and later investigation. During his
first days in CIAA, Rockefeller was fairly well surrounded by persons
who were familiar with his general ideas and this gave some ob
servers the erroneous impression that "yes men" fared well in the
CIAA.
"In the beginning I think most of us figured that it was Nelson s
show," one associate said later. "We wanted him to ran it and we
wanted to go along with him as far as possible. His ideas and plans
were formulated in long bull sessions and conferences and he had
WASHINGTON DUTY 141
a pretty good idea of what each of us thought by the time he made
up his mind. Then he would tell us to do it and he would not worry
much about what obstacles had to be overcome. Frequently, it took
a lot of doing, and sometimes, of course, his ideas were complete
busts."
The rest of Rockefeller s day was a crowded schedule of con
ferences, visits to various departments and agencies, trips to the Hill
to talk with members of Congress, meetings of the Inter-Depart
mental Committee on Inter-American Affairs, frequently a visit to
the White House and, almost every Thursday afternoon, an informal
call at the office of Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones to seek and
receive advice not only on how to survive the tangle of Washington
bureaucracy but on how to get things done. Rockefeller had met Jones
at a poker party at which the former surprisingly won $20, and they
got along well. The coordinator demonstrated a remarkable talent for
making friends with diverse personalities in Washington. He could
talk with and learn something from a Communist newspaper
editor from South America just as easily as he could deal with a
Latin investment banker who wanted nothing less than a 20
per cent return on his money. His close relationship with such
a conservative Texas Democrat as Jones in no way interfered
with his friendship with Jones s bitter enemy, Vice-President Henry
A. Wallace, and both men were to come to his aid at times when he
desperately needed their assistance.
Rockefeller normally left his office around six-thirty o clock and,
not infrequently, had dinner guests with whom he wanted to talk
policy. These sessions sometimes continued until late at night, and
sometimes broke up only when the host fell asleep in his chair. Later,
he might dig into his brief cases or put them on a bedside table for
investigation early the next morning.
Rockefeller had long been bothered by sinus trouble and the
climate of the capital aggravated the affliction. At home, he worked
under a sun lamp and he usually carried a pocketful of pills and nose
drops. Almost his only outdoor exercise was tennis and the only time
he could spare for it was early in the morning. He and Henry Wallace
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 142
both left-handed often met very early on the tennis courts and
usually they wanted two other players for doubles. The younger
men in the CIAA who had made the mistake of admitting they
played tennis were frequently "invited" to show up at dawn ready
for a lively tussle on the courts, with or without hang-overs. They
appeared, usually chauffeured by sleep-dazed wives, struggled through
a strenuous set with the indefatigable Rockefeller-Wallace combina
tion, dragged themselves home for a shower and breakfast and then
headed for a hard day at the office.
For Rockefeller, tennis before breakfast was simply a tune-up for
work and, if rain kept him off the court, he substituted a brisk
twenty minutes of setting-up exercises in his dressing room. He
also usually had time to plow through some of the papers in his
brief case and he seldom missed the opportunity in Washington or
anywhere else the family was together of seeing his children for at
least a few minutes before breakfast. Ordinarily, the children showed
up in his dressing room and joined him in the morning calisthenics.
Since they were young during the war and were likely to be in bed
by the time he got home in the evenings, these pre-breakfast sessions
were the best opportunity the youngsters had to talk about what they
were doing or to make a plea for a bigger allowance or some special
privilege.
The children were not held in as tight a rein as Rockefeller had
experienced when he was a child but the general pattern was much
the same. They had allowances ranging from a quarter to a dollar a
week, they were encouraged to do specific jobs to earn extra money
and they were required to keep accounts of income and expenditure
as their father had done. Rockefeller was more likely to talk to the
children about broad ideas and attitudes (or perhaps plans for a
vacation trip on which they would learn something new) than about
the little things of everyday life. (Their work in school, their parties,
their swimming lessons and their little quarrels were problems that
they took up with their mother.) Then, before breakfast, there were
family prayers or perhaps Rockefeller read from the Bible.
Weekends were crowded because the Rockefellers had many guests
WASHINGTON DUTY 143
from Latin America and they usually held a kind of "open house"
on Sunday evenings for staff members and almost any other Washing
ton officials like Henry Wallace who were interested in Latin
American affairs. Spanish or Mexican motion pictures were shown
on a home screen and recordings of Spanish songs were played,
largely for the benefit of the Rockefellers and others who were
learning to speak the language. Everybody was urged to join in sing
ing. It was a lot of fun and, according to one regular participant, it
was also highly discordant in the musical department.
Rockefeller had a remarkable ability to concentrate completely on
what he was doing, so that when he played tennis the worries of his
office were wholly forgotten and when he was sailing a boat along
the Maine coast he left all other problems behind. As a result, brief
periods of "time off" enabled him to renew his energies and his
enthusiasm and he could return to work wholly refreshed.
Rockefeller s mother viewed his entry into official life in Washing
ton with pride but also with some trepidation, which she tried to
conceal. When he first went to the capital, she wrote him a chatty
letter of encouragement and then, in a suddenly serious mood as if
she were reminding her son not to leave his clothes scattered about
his room, added: "From now on I imagine that you will have many
confidential papers. Probably it will be better if you do not leave
them about. I am sure I really don t need to tell you this." This
motherly advice to a man privy to secrets of the Council of National
Defense might have caused a tremor among agents of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation had they read thfc letter, but Mrs. Rocke
feller probably knew her children better than anyone else. When
her son was too busy to write regularly, she sought other means of
getting news of him.
I am most anxious to hear how you are [she wrote on September
18, 1940]. Couldn t you get Benjy or Miss Phillips to send me just a
little note telling me the latest news about the condition of your
cold?
. . . There are so many good causes to which I feel that we should
contribute that I am trying to economize. My latest thought is that
I had probably better begin with myself and not use the long distance
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 144
telephone quite so much. I must say that it is a real sacrifice on my
part because I love hearing your voices.
On September 24, Rockefeller s secretary wrote to his mother:
. . . About Mr. Nelson as you know, he is working terribly hard
down here. He is in the office before nine every morning and often
doesn t leave until after six-thirty in the evening. After that he enter
tains at dinner almost every evening. He is thinner after his two
months down here. However, his sinus is much improved and his
spirits are ever so much better these last two weeks. He spends his
weekends in Pocantico where he is apparently able to rest and relax
completely for he always comes back on Mondays very much re
freshed. He is doing a splendid job down here and, as always, is
putting every ounce of enthusiasm and energy into his work, which
is now beginning to show the results of his efforts. We are all very
proud of him and I am sure his family must be also.
Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., was concerned a year or so later when his
son decided that he did not have time to take a scheduled vacation.
He wrote: "I would be untrue to you and my duty as a father were
I not to give you my views on a matter so important to your present
health and your future usefulness/ The letter urged him to organize
his office so that he would have a second in command who could
take charge. "While you have a magnificent constitution and an
iron will/ his father concluded, "neither can withstand indefinitely
the strain you are putting upon them/
In February of 1941, there was a luncheon at a New York hotel
where young Rockefeller and Ambassador John Winant were the
speakers. A crowd gathered to welcome the guests of honor, photog
raphers climbed on chairs to record the event for the newspapers and
there was a general hubbub before the luncheon got underway. On
the edge of the crowd were a dignified gentleman in a black Hom-
burg hat and a dark blue suit and a smiling woman who tried to
peer over the heads of the reporters. Once or twice the couple made
a timid effort to find a way through the throng but with no success.
They finally abandoned the idea and went to their seats in the
huge luncheon room.
WASHINGTON DUTY 145
When the luncheon was over the couple waited for a few minutes
but again there were confusion and pushing around the speakers
rostrum, and soon they made their way out of the hotel and went
home.
. . . We were hoping for a chance to speak to you . . . but we were
unsuccessful [Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., wrote his son on February nth].
We didn t try after lunch because you were surrounded by others.
. . . You made us both exceedingly proud of you. ... I would be
proud to be able to write and speak anything like as well.
Rockefeller replied with thanks and added, rather wistfully, that
he would pass on the compliment to "the true authors" of his
speech, who were two members of his staff, Frank Jamieson and
Carl Spaeth. "I only wish/ he said, "I could write as good a speech
myself, but little by little I ll get there."
m.
The work of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American
Affairs, from 1940 until May 20, 1946, encompassed a wide range of
often complicated projects, from bolstering the war-shaken economy
of Latin American countries to producing a Walt Disney cartoon
movie about South America and sending Lincoln Kirstein s American
Ballet Caravan on a twenty-eight-week tour of other American
republics. The coordinator s office set up the first full-scale govern
ment information program operating in foreign countries. It pioneered
in the use of the various media of radio, movies, news and specially
printed publications. It undertook the first extensive government-
sponsored cultural exchange programs. It initiated extensive projects
in the field of economic cooperation and organized in 1942 the Insti
tute of Inter-American Affairs to cooperate with the other American
republics in carrying out programs in the fields of public health
and sanitary engineering, education and increased food production.
It was a small agency, judged by wartime standards in Wash
ington, and spent only a modest $140,000,000 of taxpayers
money in its five years of operation. But its history, as has been
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 146
recited in detail elsewhere/ was an over-all contribution to the unity
of the Western Hemisphere that marked a significant turning point
in American foreign relations.
There were, along the way, a good many flamboyant enterprises
and several unhappy mistakes. One of Rockefeller s first acts, for
example, was to set up a research office to keep him confidentially
informed on what was going on, politically and economically, all
over Latin America. He had been impressed by a small South Ameri
can news letter service run by two young men, and upon investiga
tion he discovered that they had correspondents scattered in strategic
spots throughout the continent. On advice of the State Department,
Rockefeller bought the news service for $10,000 and hired the two
owners to run the CIAA research bureau. They did an efficient job
and held responsible positions. Later, after Rockefeller had left the
CIAA, officials discovered that the two men were extreme left-
wingers and that their news service had been used by the Communist
apparatus in South America.
In later years, there would be some disagreement among first-hand
observers as to how Rockefeller approached the CIAA fob. The job,
in my opinion, was basically a propaganda job/ one member of the
staff said, "and it called for bold action, but I thought Rockefeller
and his advisors were almost as careful in their approach as the State
Department. Except for a few close associates, he was sur
rounded by New York advertising men and bankers and most prob
lems were approached from a business point of view at first. They
reflected a viewpoint that was, I am unhappy to say, current in the
government and in the country at that time the idea that you
mustn t do anything to disturb business. Whenever anybody had a
new idea, Rockefeller s first reaction was to ask whether it would
hurt business not his own personal business, mind you, but the
business community generally. Only Pearl Harbor changed all that."
Another man who worked for the CIAA in the early days had a
disagreement with Rockefeller over policy and quit. "I felt that we
a See my Those Rockefeller Brothers (Harper); History of the Office of the
Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (United States Government Printing
Office) .
As Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs, Rockefeller was strongly impressed by
the work of United States Army medical officers who trained Haitian doctors to
run a clinic for treatment of yaws. Here he is welcomed to a Haitian clinic by
Dr. Eddy Lemoinc, director, in 1944.
Rockefeller (center) confers with Latin American technicians in Venezuela in
regard to projects being started m 1949 by his International Basic Economy Cor
poration.
The left-handed tennis team of Rockefeller and Vice President Henry A. Wallace
pauses during a match with Senator William Smathcrs and Percy Douglas, a
member of the CIAA staff, in Washington during World War II.
Ranch owner Rockefeller pho
tographed in 1947 while at work
on one of his ranches in Vene
zuela.
An enthusiast about old auto
mobiles, Rockefeller tries out an
ancient machine during a jour
ney in 1956 to Venezuela and
Brazil.
*+*>
A view of Rockefeller s 5>ooo-acre ranch home in the mountains of Venezuela,
where he often goes for vacations. (Meyn, Caracas)
Rockefeller s favorite sport is sailing. Here he is shown off the coast of Maine
with two of his sons, Rodman and Steven, both expert sailors. (Richard Meek)
w&wf^fy.,
Always in a hurry and usually behind schedule, Rockefeller leaps from a helicopter
that saved him a half hour by flying him from the State Fairgrounds to the Syra
cuse airport. (Arthur Daley)
Governor Rockefeller on the porch of the family boathousc at Seal Harbor, Maine.
Inside the weathered boathousc is a small but beautifully designed art gallery
containing some of his prized modern paintings, tapestries and wood sculpture.
(Alfred Eisenstaedt)
Politician Rockefeller m action in a cro\\d dining a New Yoik City parade.
(Arthur Daley)
. - 4>\ *
tflSECTINF
**? B
x
: .^sMSte^
WASHINGTON DUTY 147
were pulling our punches/ he commented, "and trying to sell South
America a soft program about the great beauty of the United
States instead of hitting hard on the fact that we were building
fifty thousand airplanes and were going to be able to take care of
ourselves. When I quit, I was given the impression that I was desert
ing and had let the team down."
On the other hand, there were plenty of persons on the CIAA staff
who later remembered Rockefeller as exceptionally aggressive and
open to bold ideas. "I never understood/ one of them said, "how
some people got the idea that he was either timid or naive when he
first went to Washington. He lacked political experience but he had
had plenty of dealings with the smartest, most cynical and most
sophisticated operators in New York and South America and he
knew the field he was working in. His open friendliness may have
sometimes made him look naive but, as time showed, he knew how
to protect himself in the clinches."
The early phase of Rockefeller s work in Washington was compli
cated in certain respects by the fact that he was venturing into
a new field and one that was highly vulnerable to newspaper
and congressional charges that he was wasting the taxpayers money.
Newspapermen found it was easy to write humorous articles about
a government agency that engaged in such "boondoggling" projects
as sending exhibitions of modern art to Brazil or hiring Moe Berg,
a former big league baseball catcher who spoke seven languages and
had an LL.D. from Princeton University, to investigate the effect
of sports competition on international relations. The Brazilians,"
quipped one Washington reporter, "are said to have advised Wash
ington that the next time we send a good-will mission to Rio de
Janeiro they will immediately declare that a state of war exists with
the United States."
Congressmen, too, were suspicious and critical of the unorthodox
ideas of the rich young New Yorker who was buzzing all over Wash
ington with plans for spending money to provide our neighbors to
the south with a free picture magazine, with musical concerts, good
will tours by motion picture stars and exhibitions of sculpture. The
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 148
rumblings from the Hill caused Rockefeller little concern at first. He
was reasonably confident that he knew what he was doing, and he
frequently did, but obviously the CIAA was engaged in many experi
ments and just as obviously some of them were going to go wrong.
The coordinator soon learned that there were a number of famous
personalities in Washington jobs who quivered in their boots when
they had to face a congressional committee, but he himself was
inclined to take such matters lightly, until one day when he was asked
to attend a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on a supple
mental appropriation of $100,000,000 for a dozen different defense
agencies, including his own.
As usual, he had too many things on his schedule that day and he
was late in arriving at the hearing. The heads of the other agencies,
except for OPM administrator William S. Knudsen, were already
present and the committee was in session. As Rockefeller entered
and found a seat as unobtrusively as possible he heard the rasping
voice of the chairman. Senator Kenneth D. McKellar, reading
something that sounded vaguely familiar. Furthermore, McKellar
was reading it in a slow, ponderous and sarcastic manner that would
have aroused the fears even of a man who had never heard of the
Tennesseean s skill at cutting bureaucrats into small pieces. It was,
Rockefeller soon discovered, a highly legalistic section of the bill
devoted to the granting of special powers to CIAA, including the
right to distribute free newspapers, recordings, motion picture and
other material as well as "other gratuitous assistance as he [the
coordinator] deems advisable in the fields of the arts and sciences "
McKellar finished with almost a sneer. He laid down the paper
and folded his hands on the table and looked balefully over his
gold-rimmed glasses at the assembled bureaucrats, almost licking his
lips in anticipation.
"Now," he rumbled, "if you want to build ten thousand motion
picture concerns in the Republic of Mexico, you could do it under
this bill. Couldn t you?"
Wayne Coy, representing the Bureau of the Budget, was in charge
of defending the bill and Rockefeller presumed that he would do
WASHINGTON DUTY 149
the talking. But instead Coy turned and pointed to the back row
and said: "Mr. Nelson Rockefeller is here and he can explain this
program. *
"Go right ahead/ McKellar said grimly.
Having arrived late and not having expected to testify, Rockefeller
was not prepared to go right ahead. He did not, for instance, realize at
the time that McKellar apparently had misunderstood the bill and
was under the mistaken impression that the CIAA would get most
or all of the $100,000,000. Actually, the agency was getting little or
nothing in this particular bill.
"I would like to say first, gentlemen/ he began, "that I think we
have got to keep in mind, at least certainly from our point of view,
it is one of the major objectives we have, that we are dealing with
a total war. The military aspects of that war are like the part of an
iceberg that floats above the water. . * ,"
When he had, more or less, run out of steam without having
explained anything, the chairman interrupted to point out that
various agencies were spending money in Latin America.
Senator McKellar: What I am afraid of is that we will have so many
departments giving these people money that we will not know where
to head off.
Mr. Rockefeller: , . . our interest is the coordination and cooperation
of the twenty-one American republics in the interest of national
defense.
Senator McKellar: That is a very general statement, Mr. Rockefeller.
. . . Would you offer them money if they would give us good will?
Mr. Rockefeller: I break it down in my own thinking, sir, to three
objectives. . . .
Senator McKellar: Well, in other words, you would lend them money;
is that the idea?
Mr. Rockefeller: No 7 sir; I spoke too quickly.
Senator McKeller: Would you lend them money?
Mr. Rockefeller: No, sir ...
Senator McKellar: This [the bill] says that you have the right to
grant them money. Do you make grants to help out private institu
tions down there, and public institutions?
Mr. Rockefeller: Let us take an example. . . .
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 150
McKellar, however, obviously wasn t interested in taking any ex
amples. He wanted direct answers and he wasn t getting them. Coy
broke into the exchange in an effort to take some of the heat off
Rockefeller as well as to protect the bill. He managed to shift the
questioning around to Dr. Vannevar Bush, who had considerable
prestige with the senators, and he sent a messenger to bring Knudsen
to the hearing as quickly as possible because Knudsen had a soothing
way with congressmen who were worrying about the taxpayers
money. The hearing dragged on without doing much to repair the
damage but at least complete disaster was avoided.
Rockefeller s reaction to this fiasco was typical He blamed himself
there wasn t much else he could have done for being unprepared
but he was neither bitter nor intimidated. On the contrary, his
respect for Congress and particularly for the committees of Congress
was greatly increased by the discovery that they included men who
worked hard, knew what they were talking about and had a kind
of intuitive ability to ask questions that dug to the heart of a highly
complex problem. "I learned plenty that day and later," he once
remarked, "and I developed a great respect for committee members.
They forced executive agencies to keep reviewing their work and we
knew we had to justify whatever we did. They gave us a tremendous
sense of responsibility to the people."
The experience also did much to convert Rockefeller into an expert
witness at congressional hearings. He never again was caught short
on such occasions; in fact, he was always loaded for bear, with facts,
figures, charts, photographs and exhibits of an elaborate character
such as were seldom used at that time by committee witnesses. His
clash with McKellar merely convinced him that the best way to get
along on the Hill was to know his subject, speak as frankly as possible
and defend the ideas and actions in which he believed. McKellar
was perhaps the most irascible and dangerous of congressional chair
men at the time, a man with long experience, a penchant for feuds
and an ability to flay a foe with consummate skill. Rockefeller had
differences with him later, but in the long run they became good
friends. McKellar not only supported all the CIAA budgets but, on
WASHINGTON DUTY 151
one occasion, restored $50,000 which the Bureau of the Budget had
cut out for reasons of economy. He also came to Rockefeller s de
fense on an important occasion when Senator Hugh Butler, a Republi
can of Nebraska, sought to create a national scandal in regard to
wartime expenditures in Latin America.
Rockefeller made a habit of keeping in touch with committee
chairmen and other congressmen between hearings, inviting them
to study what the CIAA was doing and to meet visitors from Latin*
America. When Butler decided to make a tour of Latin America in
1943, accompanied by a ghost writer, he asked Rockefeller for in
formation regarding activities in the countries to be visited. The
coordinator telephoned him promptly.
"I d like to come to your office and bring some material," he said,
"and we could talk about it/
He had luncheon with Butler, gave him an itemized list of CIAA
projects in each country, prepared a seventy-five-page report for him
and started him off for Cuba with a feeling that he had done a good
public relations job. Butler covered twenty thousand miles and
twenty countries at high speed, returned to Washington and wrote
an article for The Reader s Digest in which he bitterly attacked ten
government agencies and departments, including the CIAA, and
said that he was astonished and appalled that the United States had
spent $6,000,000,000 in three years on boondoggling projects in an
unsuccessful attempt to "buy" good will in Latin America. He went
on to recite in great detail how funds were being wasted and listed
expenditures of $259,000,000 by the Rockefeller office. The charges,
which Butler repeated in part in two Senate speeches, were head
lined across the nation and were used as a springboard by various
political writers for attacks on the cultural program of the CIAA.
Rockefeller protested promptly and vigorously to Butler and then
got his staff to work on figures. When he next appeared before a
congressional committee one of the questions asked him, probably by
prearrangement, was in reference to Butler s charges. The coordina
tor let loose with a barrage of facts to show that the funds thus far
available to CIAA for all purposes totaled only $128,444,946, that
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 152
Butler s statements "however sincerely offered" were riddled with
errors, that his conclusions were misleading and "may seriously jeop
ardize our international relations/ He acknowledged that his agency
had made mistakes but he denounced "criticism that misleads the
American people."
"And believe me, gentlemen," he added, "I am not saying anything
here that I have not said to the senator personally because I feel
very strongly about it."
More important, however, was the fact that McKellar arose in the
Senate and disclosed that he had vainly attempted to persuade
Butler not to make the charges because they were misleading. He
then defended the various agencies involved with detailed statistics
and added:
Mr. Rockefeller is a young man of unimpeachable integrity, hon
esty and excellent ability. ... He has indomitable energy, is a fine
personality and is one of the best witnesses of those who appear
from time to time before the Senate Appropriations Committee. The
President could not have found a better man for the particular and
highly desirable work which Mr. Rockefeller has been doing in Latin
America. Mr. Rockefeller has made a splendid success as Coordinator
of Inter-American Affairs and much of the success of carrying out
our Good Neighbor policy and good will policy in Latin America
is due to him and his excellent work.
Coming from McKellar, this was a considerable accolade and in
dicated that Rockefeller had been successful in his efforts to make a
good impression on Congress generally and to cooperate with its
committees. It was not, however, a matter of mere charm, nor was
it a one-way street. "There was a job to be done," Rockefeller said
later, "and when I was doing something I believed in I didn t intend
to be pushed around. Any time I couldn t do what I believed in I was
ready to step out."
On more than one occasion, members of Congress discovered that
the Rockefeller charm was tempered by self-confidence and a grow
ing ability to take care of himself when the going got rough. When
the Democratic administration s foreign loan policies were under
WASHINGTON DUTY 153
discussion, Representative Harold Knutson, a Republican of Minne
sota, tried to needle Rockefeller in regard to Latin American opera
tions of the Chase National Bank.
"I suppose/ 7 he said ponderously, "that it is pretty embarrassing
to you, Mr. Rockefeller, to have to be asked about the Chase Bank/
"It doesn t embarrass me in the least/ the witness replied. "I do
not represent the Chase Bank/
On another day some years later, Senator William Langer, a Re
publican of North Dakota, told Rockefeller at an executive session
of a Senate committee that he had voted against his confirmation
and "I ve been thinking of suing you for years. Your great-grand
father sold my father $200 worth of fake medicine" when he was
a "herbal doctor" out west.
"How long did your father live?" Rockefeller asked.
"Well, he was in his nineties when he died."
"That," the witness remarked, "wouldn t help your case very
much in court."
At one hearing a reference to John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was made
by Representative Charles L. Gifford, a Massachusetts Republican,
who attacked Rockefeller as "just another New Deal bureaucrat"
supporting the administration s reciprocal trade policy.
"You seem to have got religion/ Gifford snapped sardonically.
"You seem to believe and yet your grandfather was known as a
shrewd and ruthless trader."
Rockefeller stood up indignantly. "You may say what you please
about me," he said, "but I resent what you say about my grand
father. He was a great man. I accept your first adjective in describing
him but I reject the second."
The next morning, Rockefeller s father read an account of the
hearing in his newspaper and promptly wrote his son a note.
"Your quick reply," he said proudly, "was, I think, perfect. . . .
How I should like to have been present . . . and how proud both of
your grandfathers would have been at the way you handled yourself/
SEVEN
Bureaucratic In-fighting
The office of the Under Secretary in the Department of State was a
quiet, orderly chamber in 1940 under the direction of Sumner Welles,
and the Under Secretary s secretary lifted a warning eyebrow one
day at a young man who bustled in as if he were in a great hurry.
"I have an appointment with Mr. Welles," the young man began,
taking a quick look at his wrist watch. "I was . . ."
"I m very sorry/ the secretary replied firmly and without any in
dication that she was sorry, "but the Under Secretary has an appoint
ment and there s really no chance of seeing him."
"There must be some mistake because . . ."
"No. He has an appointment with the Coordinator for Inter-
American Affairs, Mr, Rockefeller," the secretary insisted.
"But I am Mr. Rockefeller."
The eyebrows lifted again but without embarrassment.
"You don t say! I was looking for an older man."
When Rockefeller finally was admitted to his office, Welles stood
up and bowed formally. Then he sat down without a word and
waited. This was his habit as long as Rockefeller knew him. Except
154
BUREAUCRATIC IN-FIGHTING 155
for one occasion when Welles was talking animatedly in Spanish
with a group of South Americans, he never saw the Under Secretary s
facade of formality break. Welles would listen attentively to ques
tions or suggestions and answer quickly and precisely. When the
business was finished, he would stand and bow and that was it. In
time, Rockefeller found him an easy man to work with, but at first
Welles shared a general opinion among Washington bureaucrats that
the new coordinator was a meddling outsider who had dashed into
the capital with a staff of high-powered publicity experts and was
skillfully wheedling funds out of Congress while the State Depart
ment was having a hard time getting sufficient money to carry on
far more vital wartime programs.
The trouble between the CIAA and the State Department began
early. President Roosevelt s original executive order had said only
that the CIAA was "charged with the formulation and execution
of a program in cooperation with the State Department." Rocke
feller and his top aides, with youthful brashness, put the widest
possible interpretation on this and decided that their agency not
only was independent of the State Department but on a par with
it. The department, probably on the theory that the new agency
would soon burn itself out, did nothing much to discourage this
idea for several months. By that time, the CIAA had survived an
initial period of bureaucratic futility and despondency and was
getting its program moving.
One of its projects was an advertising campaign in Latin American
newspapers. The United States had no information program abroad
whereas the Germans were getting wide attention in the South
American press, usually by paying for articles that appeared in the
newspapers. The CIAA didn t want to "buy" news space, so it tried
to keep on the ethical side of the fence by buying advertising space
to tell the story of the United States and, if possible, create sympathy
for and understanding of this country. This was done by preparing
a series of advertisements showing a Latin American couple traveling
in the United States, explaining what they saw, how they were
treated and how important good relations were in the Western
NELSON ROCKEFEIXEB, A BIOGRAPHY 156
Hemisphere. It is important to note that Rockefeller made sure
that this project was seen by an Assistant Secretary at the Depart
ment of State and that he approved it, putting his "O.K." on each
advertisement.
Unfortunately, the advertising program could not be launched
until a time when the war made travel abroad very difficult, and it
seemed far-fetched to run advertisements of a Latin American couple
on a pleasure tour of North America. The contracts had been made,
however, and Rockefeller finally decided to go ahead. The reaction
was all bad. One United States embassy sent in a report that the
advertisements were absurd and, furthermore, were running in
one of the biggest pro-Nazi newspapers in South America; in other
words, the United States was subsidizing an enemy publication.
The newspapers at home made a big thing of this and some criticized
the Rockefeller operations. Welles, probably having been waiting
confidently for just such an amateurish blunder, moved into action
by way of the White House. "It was," Rockefeller remarked long
afterward, "his chance to get rid of the CIAA and he almost did."
On April 22, 1941, Rockefeller received a letter from Mr. Roose
velt. It was a formal "My-dear-Nelson" kind of letter but it laid down
the law and concluded:
... I am aware of your own personal intentions to cooperate for the
purpose of furthering the highest interests of the country. . . . And
I also know of your intentions to consult with and to obtain the
approval of the Department [of State] concerning activities to be
undertaken by your Office . . . but I have observed impairment of
our total effort, particularly in regard to activities which, while
directed from within this country, are carried out in the other Amer
ican republics.
I therefore desire that you take appropriate steps to institute
arrangements for assuring that in all instances projects initiated by
your Office shall be discussed fully with and approved by the Depart
ment of State, and a full meeting of minds obtained before action
is undertaken or commitments made. ... I know that you will fully
share my judgment that the steps requested are essential to the
success of the Administration in attaining its objective in inter-
BUREAUCRATIC IN-FIGHTING 157
American affairs, in behalf of which I am sure I can count on your
contribution,
Very sincerely yours,
FranHin D. Roosevelt
The order, which clearly confirmed the department s authority as
to determination of basic policy as well as to authorization of each
specific project, rocked Rockefeller back on his heels harder than
almost any previous event in his life. He sat at his desk, reading the
President s words again and becoming more and more discouraged.
It was obvious that the President had not been told that the State
Department had okayed not only the project but each of the adver
tisements. It was also obvious that the department official who okayed
them had not spoken up, and probably not even Welles knew that
approval had been secured. Rockefeller decided that he was not
going to say anything about that because there was no question
that the whole campaign had been a blunder. He was, however,
deeply troubled by the tone of the President s letter because it was
not a sympathetic or friendly correction but a stiff reprimand. If he
had lost the confidence of Mr. Roosevelt, his usefulness obviously was
ended almost before it had begun.
As he studied the letter, he was struck by something familiar in
the style. He decided that it was the style of Welles s office and
that Welles had dictated the letter for Mr. Roosevelt, and he felt
better. But he had to be sure. He picked up the telephone and called
his friend, General Edwin M. Watson, the White House appoint
ments secretary.
"Pa," he said, using Watson s nickname, "I need to see the boss."
"Yes, Nelson/ Watson replied, "you sure do! Come on over/
When Rockefeller arrived at the White House, Mr. Roosevelt
was sitting behind his big, cluttered desk with a smile on his face.
Perhaps he was amused; perhaps he was pleased that Rockefeller had
come up fighting after being dumped on the floor in round one. But,
for all of his friendliness, he wasn t taking any nonsense from his
young Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.
"Look, Nelson/ he began before Rockefeller could say much, "I
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 158
know that you re in a difficult situation in regard to State and I
knew it was going to be tough when I set up your office. But under
stand this it is up to you to get along with them because if it ever
comes to a showdown between your office and State I will have
no choice but to back the department and Mr. Welles." He paused
and took a deep drag on his cigarette. Then, almost as if he were
asking a favor, he added flatteringly: "You have got to handle your
problems in a way that doesn t give them an opening to take the
kind of shot they ve already taken at you or to create a showdown
in which 111 have to make a decision/
Whatever intentions Rockefeller may have had when he entered
the White House had been dissipated in the glow of the President s
confidential manner. He felt that he still had the President s sym
pathy and he knew where he stood.
"That s fair enough," he said. "I ll see it doesn t happen again."
Thereafter neither Welles nor Rockefeller seemed to hold any
antagonism toward each other, possibly owing to a friendly gesture
by the latter on the following day. He went to Welles s office and
was admitted to the presence of the Under Secretary.
"It s clear that you re the boss," he told Welles. "Now tell me
what I should do to coordinate our work."
This attitude of cooperation seemed to impress Welles. Although
flie relationship between the two men continued to be strictly formal,
the CIAA and the department worked together smoothly thereafter.
Welles did not have any great interest in the economic and social
work of the CIAA, and Laurence Duggan, head of the Division of
the American Republics, took over most of the details of cooperation
for the department and strongly championed Rockefeller s objectives.
From that time on every CIAA project was written in memoran
dum form, stating the objective, the manner in which it was to be
carried out, the number of people involved and the estimated cost.
This memorandum was sent to the State Department over Rocke
feller s signature. After State had reviewed or modified it, it was
countersigned by Welles or Duggan. Then copies were sent to
ambassadors in the countries affected with instructions that this was
BUREAUCRATIC IN-FIGHTING 159
an approved U. S. program, and that its execution should have
their wholehearted support.
n.
Rockefeller wasn t caught short again, but he did have a few more
first-rate rows with representatives of the State Department, largely
because the old-line ambassadors were strongly conditioned against
such untraditional activities as were normally pursued by the CIAA.
One of the traditionalists was George Messersmith in Mexico City,
an able and highly respected diplomat but a stubborn man who
didn t want anybody, and especially a Rockefeller who was still
wet behind the ears, horning in on his territory. The CIAA had done
rather well with its projects in Mexico, particularly in connection
with efforts to stimulate the Mexican motion picture industry so
that it could replace the strongly pro-Nazi Spanish and Argentine
films in Latin America. John Hay Whitney, head of the CIAA
Motion Pictures Division, had arranged for Hollywood cooperation
in building laboratories, studio space and other facilities in Mexico,
and seven RKO studios were constructed later as the industry der
veloped with the assistance of CIAA financing. None of this was
approved by Messersmith, who felt that the information program
started in Mexico by the CIAA should be under his control. Eventu
ally, the controversy between the embassy and the CIAA men in
Mexico City became so acute that Rockefeller flew there to see what
could be done about it. The ambassador was not friendly, and after
their initial talk, the coordinator felt that his field men in Mexico
were being throttled but that there wasn t much he could do about
it. Messersmith was too tough.
That evening, however, Rockefeller went to a party attended by
members of the embassy staff, one of whom drank too much and,
in a reckless moment, boasted to the visitor from Washington that
Messersmith was planning to take over the functions of the CIAA
in Mexico. His detailed description of the plans convinced Rocker
feller that he knew what he was talking about. The next day, the
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 160
coordinator again called on the ambassador, but this time it was the
visitor who was tough.
"I don t believe we re getting anywhere/ he said, "but we ve
reached a point where we re going to fish or cut bait. Either we are
going to run our own program in Mexico without interference from
the embassy, or we are going to pull out. I have no intention of sup
plying the money for these projects and taking the responsibility for
them and then letting somebody else run the show. But if we have
to pull out of Mexico, you can be sure that we will explain why we
did it."
He then recited the details of Messersmith s plans to gain control
of the program. The ambassador knew when he had been bested at
bureaucratic in-fighting. He agreed to a system of CIAA operation in
Mexico that left the agency free to manage its approved projects and
to make its own mistakes, for which Rockefeller took full responsi
bility.
Rockefeller s efforts in Mexico later proved to be of importance
because of the need for increased wartime traffic over the Mexican
railroads. Except for the Southern Pacific properties, all of the rail
roads had been taken over by the Mexican government and were
managed by the labor syndicates. The management was not efficient,
and in January of 1942 the CIAA received an emergency appeal
from its representatives in Mexico City to do something about getting
defense materials moved to the United States. Tonnage was greatly
increased due to the war, trains were running twenty-four hours
behind schedule and there was an average of one wreck an hour. In
cooperation with the State Department, the CIAA arranged for
Walter Douglas to make a survey and decided that the only solution
was an outright grant under U. S. direction to make improvements
and to furnish technical assistance.
Eventually, about sixty-five United" States technicians were moved
into key spots where they could cooperate with Mexican railroad
personnel, the system was reorganized, repaired and put back into
action much to the delight of the Mexican railroad workers, who
had been menaced by a high accident rate, poor health conditions
BUREAUCRATIC IN-FIGHTING 161
and inefficient management. Among other things, the reorganization
turned up millions of dollars worth of equipment which had been
purchased, dumped in railroad yards and forgotten. Bridges were
rebuilt or strengthened, terminals were enlarged, hundreds of thou
sands of defective cross ties were replaced, and better roadbeds were
laid. In all, about $7,500,000 was made available by the United States
for the purpose of putting the roads, which employed some fifty-five
thousand workers, on a sound basis.
There was an interesting sequel to the Mexican railroad project in
1943 when President Roosevelt became the first Chief Executive to
visit Mexican soil, meeting with President Avila Camacho at Mon
terrey in April. Among other things, they named a joint development
commission for economic cooperation to facilitate wartime integra
tion and to lay plans for the postwar development of Mexico s
economy. Rockefeller was a member of the commission, which
planned a variety of projects for new public works, for expansion of
industrial plants and building of new industries. In view of the
emphasis on industrial expansion, Rockefeller was distressed that
there was no labor representation on the commission despite the
fact that two big unions, CTAL and CROM, had gained great
power.
At the second meeting of the commission in Mexico City, he
talked to the leaders of the two unions and asked permission to visit
their headquarters and meet members of their governing boards. He
found the headquarters in an old, ramshackle building and climbed
three flights of stairs to a big room where a dozen men sat on
wooden chairs around a table.
"I m Nelson Rockefeller/ he said in Spanish to the man nearest
the door and shook his hand. The man was silent and obviously
suspicious. So were the others, but Rockefeller shook every hand
before he sat down.
He explained the work authorized by the two Presidents. The
Mexican labor leaders sat in silence. Rockefeller mentioned his affec
tion and admiration for the Mexican people. Silence.
"The reason I came here," he went on, taking a deep breath, "is
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 162
that I don t know whether the people want this kind of industrial
program. This is your country, not mine. If the people are not
interested in industrialization I want to know it now." The group
stirred and there was a murmur of comment. "It is important/
Rockefeller continued, "that you face the fact that this has been
predominantly an agricultural country but that the proposed eco
nomic development program means more industrialization, more
machinery to take the place of unskilled labor. For a time, some jobs
will be lost but in the long run the whole country will benefit
"The decision really is up to you. If you want to remain an
agrarian economy, say so frankly and we will drop out. If you want
to be an industrial nation, then we re ready to help/
All of the indifference of the group was gone. Animated discussion
broke out, arguments developed. Rockefeller sat back in a rickety
wooden chair and listened, fascinated by the opposing ideas, by the
clash of theories. No immediate decision was possible but eventually
the majority agreed that the best interests of labor in the long run
would be served by the economic development program. More im
portant, their indifference to the commission had changed to intense
interest. But how could union leaders support a plan that meant loss
of jobs even temporarily?
"We can t get out and actively support the program," they said,
but we assure you we will not oppose it."
On that basis, the commission went ahead. A short-term program
of twenty projects calling for investment of around $24,000,000 was
carried out and a postwar program of fifty-nine projects costing some
$383,000,000 was set up. At the end of the war, Mexico had accumu
lated a large dollar reserve and had ordered materials in advance for
twenty-two carefully planned projects, so that the country was able
to get a running start on a postwar program that gave the national
economy a big lift. Except for certain utilities, all of the projects
were developed by private companies.
Of the many difficulties encountered by the CIAA as it struggled
to carry out its program in Latin America, one other ambassadorial
crisis is worthy of mention because it demonstrates Rockefeller s
BUREAUCRATIC IN-FIGHTING 163
flexibility in changing his tactics to meet a particular situation. One
United States ambassador resented the coordinator s activities so
intensely that he delayed a year in forwarding a government invita
tion for Rockefeller to make a formal visit to Rio de Janeiro.
Eventually, the invitation reached Washington through other chan
nels and Rockefeller accepted. When he arrived at the capital he
discovered that the ambassador had told the foreign ministry that
it was not necessary for anyone to meet the visitor at the airport and
that there was no reason for any speeches to be made at an official
luncheon.
Rockefeller had worked hard on a speech emphasizing that mobili
zation in the United States was making it difficult to deliver goods to
Latin America, that everybody was going to have to get along with
less but that, by close cooperation, everybody would be able to keep
going. When he arose to speak, however, the ambassador created
what could only be called a diversion. He asked for cigarettes in a
loud voice and began talking across the table to a government
official, ignoring the guest of honor. Instead of trying to talk above
such interference, Rockefeller delayed his prepared speech and
made a five-minute talk in praise of the ambassador. He congratulated
the government on having such an able representative from Washing
ton and said, without much regard for the truth, that the ambassador
was extremely close to President Roosevelt. The ambassador told
Rockefeller later that it was the finest speech he had ever heard and
thereafter he took a great interest in the CIAA program in the
country.
Once when Rockefeller was having a particularly difficult time
protecting his agency from encroachment and possible destruction
by other bureaucrats he stopped in to chat with Jesse Jones about his
troubles. Jones listened sympathetically until the younger man said
that he was thinking about going to the President for a solution.
"Don t ever take your problems to the President unless you have
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 164
an answer that he can approve or reject/ the Texan said. "He
doesn t like people who leave problems on his desk. But if you take
your problem in and say, Mr. President, here s my answer to this
problem then you re all right."
Rockefeller took Jones s advice in his relations with Mr. Roosevelt
and, as he gained experience, he discovered another rule to follow at
the White House. As he put it later: <r You couldn t ask the President
to intervene and settle a jurisdictional dispute between two agencies
or departments, because he didn t like the idea and he didn t have
time. But you might settle it through an intermediary if you had
friends around the White House." Fortunately, Rockefeller had such
friends.
"Rockefeller survived the early days in Washington," a close asso
ciate remarked later, because he had an intuitive understanding
of the power structure at the top. He never lost the capacity to put
himself in the position of the head man and thus to know what
action to take in a critical situation. He baffled many lawyers and
bureaucrats because he was not a word man and did not think in
abstract terms. He couldn t read a legal document and immediately
grasp its meaning. But he was constantly amazing the experts by his
knowledge of detailed facts and figures when dealing with compli
cated problems or specialized subjects. He was sure-footed when the
going was rough. Not a few rival bureaucrats thought they had him
trapped and hog-tied at various times, only to discover that he was
off and running with the ball." Rockefeller preferred making friends
to making enemies and Elmer Davis, director of the Office of War
Information, once remarked that he was "one of the few persons
in Washington who won t knife you when your back is turned."
One of the important challenges to the CIAA was posed by the
appointment of the First World War hero, Colonel later Major
General William J. Donovan, as Coordinator of Information in
July of 1941. The colonel also operated in the cloak-and-dagger field,
but his clash with the CIAA arose from the fact that he wanted to
take over all government information work. Rockefeller regarded his
own regional program as vital to operation of his agency and
BUREAUCRATIC IN-FIGHTING 165
could see nothing but the end of his office if Donovan gained control.
Worried, he followed his customary practice of going to the other
fellow to try to work out an agreement for cooperating.
"There is one thing you can say for the CIAA operations/ Rocke
feller remarked years later, "we didn t have any pride of position.
Nobody had to come to us because we were always ready to go to
them."
Going to Donovan, however, wasn t very fruitful. The colonel was
not impressed by Rockefeller s suggestions and made his attitude clear
during two talks. The third time they talked, however, there were
new developments of the kind Rockefeller had feared. A presidential
order outlining the powers of the COI had already been prepared.
"You know, Jimmy was talking to his father," the colonel said in
reference to James Roosevelt, who worked in Donovan s office, "and
the President told him he believed the whole information setup
ought to be taken over by one office. So, I think there will be a
transfer of the Latin American information program from your office
to ours. Jimmy will tell you all about it."
This was a hard blow to Rockefeller and he tried to cover up his
anger.
"I m not interested in talking to Jimmy/ he said, but Donovan
summoned him anyway, and Roosevelt confirmed he had talked to
his father about the new setup when they were on the President s
boat on the Potomac the previous day. The COI was to have full
authority.
"Did you remind the President of the executive order which he
signed creating the CIAA and giving it authority over its own infor
mation program?" Rockefeller asked.
"No, I didn t mention that."
Rockefeller turned to Donovan. "Bill, I don t think it is fair to the
President to present this thing to him from only one side, simply get
ting him to agree to a principle without discussing the problems and
the agencies involved. I think we ought to go together to see him and
work it out."
"No," Donovan replied. "The President has made a decision and
that s that."
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 166
"All right. I want to make it clear that I don t feel it is in the
interest of the President. But if you want to take unilateral action,
I want you to know that I will follow the same procedure."
As soon as Rockefeller left Donovan s office, he made a few tele
phone calls that confirmed that the COI was being given such broad
authority that it might well absorb the CIAA information program.
Then he called a council of war in his office and asked Anna Rosen
berg to attend. Mrs. Rosenberg, an advisor to CIAA, knew the
information program was vital to the success of the CIAA and a few
hours later she departed for the White House with the draft of a
statement. It was issued the next morning over the signature of the
President and it made clear that the creation of the Office of Coordi
nator of Information was not intended "to supersede or to duplicate
or to involve any direction of or any interference with" the activities
of certain established government agencies, including the CIAA.
Later, the two agencies worked out a method of cooperation that
was only partly satisfactory and which led to clashes over control of
broadcasting channels for Latin America and was responsible for
numerous newspaper articles about the President s efforts to "coordi
nate the coordinators." This was not finally settled until October of
1941, when Mr. Roosevelt wrote Donovan that:
I continue to believe that the requirements of our program in
the [Western] Hemisphere are quite different from those of our
programs to Europe and the Far East. In order that information,
news and inspirational matter going to the other American repub
lics . . . may be carefully adapted to the demands of the Hemis
phere, it should be handled exclusively by the Coordinator of Inter-
American Affairs in cooperation with the Department of State.
Donovan, who later became director of the Office of Strategic
Services, was considerably ruffled and was distinctly cool toward
Rockefeller for a couple of years. But one day Rockefeller walked
into his office and stuck out his hand.
"Seems to me it s about time to bury the hatchet," he said. "We re
on the same side in this war."
BUREAUCRATIC IN-FIGHTING 167
"I guess you re right," Donovan said, shaking hands. The two men
remained on good terms until Donovan s death.
IV.
There was another and still more formidable threat to the CIAA in
1942 when the Bureau of the Budget attempted to get all information
agencies under one tent. On the surface, at least, this seemed a wise
move and newspaper comment generally was favorable to a consoli
dation. The Office of Facts and Figures had been set up late in 1941
under Archibald MacLeish to keep the nation informed on national
defense matters. After some controversy, the CIAA worked out a
formula for cooperation with MacLeish s agency. The following
March, however, there were reliable reports that the Budget Bureau
had prepared an order for the President centralizing all information
activities. Rockefeller called on a friend at the bureau and asked if the
report was true.
"Yes," was the reply. "There is an order going to the President for
signature. It puts all of the information programs into one office.
Some of the stuff Donovan is handling and some of your program
will be under a new agency called the Office of War Information,
which will take the place of the Office of Facts and Figures."
Back at his own office, Rockefeller called in several aides, including
Enrique DeLozada, a Bolivian who was a member of the staff and
later became Bolivian ambassador to the United States. The coordi
nator for once was depressed.
"It s serious, I guess/ he said. "I saw the order that s been drafted
and Harold Smith [Director of the Bureau of the Budget] is taking
it to the President this afternoon. If it goes through, we might as well
close up."
Gloom settled over the room, but only for a few minutes. Then
Frank Jamieson wondered out loud who had appointments with Mr.
Roosevelt prior to Smith s visit to the White House. He made a
quick check and discovered that Henry Wallace was having luncheon
with the President. The gloom lifted a little. Wallace was very much
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 168
interested in Latin America and had done a great deal to improve
relations south of the border. He also was a frequent visitor at the
Rockefeller home and had strongly supported the work of the CIAA.
"I think he might put in a word for us with the President if
he knew the facts/ Jamieson suggested. A few minutes later,
DeLozada rushed to Wallace s office and rode in a taxicab with him
to the White House, explaining the situation and the threat to CIAA.
Wallace understood and was sympathetic.
Rockefeller called Karl A. Bickel, chairman of the CIAA news
section, and asked him to talk to a dozen key officials, including
Secretary of Navy Frank Knox. Then the coordinator himself went
to see Under Secretary Welles after drafting in longhand a note to
White House Secretary General Watson:
March 7, 1942
General Watson I would like to see the President in advance
of his consideration of a proposed executive order on War Informa
tion which would remove my Office from one of its two primary
fields of operation in the Western Hemisphere. While I recognize
that there is a need for propaganda directives by a central agency,
the removal of this Office from operations can only be construed
by me as indicating that the President has changed his concept
of this work and that my job is ended.
Welles and Rockefeller later went to the White House. The Under
Secretary talked to Mr. Roosevelt and the coordinator was shunted
off the main track to make his plea to presidential advisor Sam Rosen-
man and Budget Director Smith.
"The decision has been made," Rosenman and Smith said, "and it
looks like it is final."
Rockefeller was little short of furious. Hot words were exchanged.
"I understand the idea that functionally it would be good to get
all these information services under one roof," he said. "But what you
don t understand is that the situation in regard to Latin America is
different. The CIAA has to dramatize the idea that here is a United
States organization dedicated and devoted to the grave regional prob
lems of the Western Hemisphere. It cannot do that unless it has con-
BUREAUCRATIC IN-FIGHTING 169
trol of its own information program/
"Nobody is criticizing the CIAA," Rosenman replied, "but this is
just a part of the evolution of these wartime agencies."
"The CIAA," Rockefeller retorted, "has become the symbol of the
President s special interest in Latin America. If you break it up and
don t think this won t ruin it it will be a serious, self-inflicted propa
ganda defeat for our country. And if this decision sticks 111 get out."
Welles s talk with Mr. Roosevelt made it clear that he and Secre
tary of State Hull opposed infringement on the CIAA s information
program. "I ... believe/ he wrote later, "that the Office of the Co
ordinator of Inter-American Affairs should remain as a separate and
autonomous agency of the Government. . . ." Welles had discovered
that he could work effectively with Rockefeller s office and he appar
ently did not desire to change a satisfactory arrangement.
The President delayed action and later took the problem up with
various cabinet members. Both Knox and Wallace came to the
defense of the CIAA s position. As a result, the order prepared for
Mr. Roosevelt was not signed. Eventually, it was redrafted and, when
issued on June 13, 1942, it included a paragraph stating that "the
authority, functions, and duties of the Director [of the newly created
Office of War Information] shall not extend to the Western Hemi
sphere exclusive of the United States and Canada/
Later, the President remarked rather ruefully to Rockefeller:
"Well, you must be doing a good job if you can get such diverse
fellows as Welles and Wallace on your side."
It was the last real threat to the CIAA. "That was the closest we
came to being abolished," Rockefeller commented later, "and it made
me realize that personal friendships and balances of power are impor
tant, too. I suppose we were lucky in the whole thing. All of us in
the office were young. We didn t have any prestige to preserve so
we didn t worry about protocol, and I guess we made up in energy
what we lacked in political experience. But the most important thing,
I m sure, was that we really believed in what we were doing."
EIGHT
The Battle for Latin America
During the war, Rockefeller had several talks with President Roose
velt that were outside the realm of official business. On August 13,
1942, the President and the coordinator had luncheon at the White
House.
"I d like to ask your advice on a personal matter/ Rockefeller
told him. Tm ready to go in the army now or at any time unless you,
as Commander in Chief, want me to keep on with my present work/
Mr. Roosevelt brushed off this statement. "I ll let you know when I
want you in the army," he said sharply, "and that would be only if
there were some special job for which you re especially qualified/
The President s brusqueness vanished. "You stay put," he went on.
"I don t know of anyone who could take over the work you re doing.
Don t forget that many vitally important jobs are being done by men
in civilian clothes including that of the Commander in Chief."
He then began reminiscing about the First World War and when
he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He said that he had worried
just as Rockefeller now worried about whether he should join
170
THE BATTLE FOR LATIN AMERICA 171
the armed forces, and he had gone to President Wilson to ask his
advice, just as Rockefeller had come to the White House on this
day. Mr. Wilson told him to stay put.
Another conversation with Mr. Roosevelt was on May 19, 1943.
Rockefeller s record of the conversation showed that they discussed
the possible use of Brazilian troops in the European war and whether
the North African port of Dakar might one day be set up as a
permanent military base designed to protect the security of Latin
America from transatlantic invasion.
They also discussed the projected Pan American Highway as a
means of developing inter-American tourist trade in the future. The
President was very much interested and believed that hotels and
camps should be built along the highway making sure, he added,
that nothing would detract from the native atmosphere or the beauty
of national monuments. He suggested that Chambers of Commerce
ought to be interested and that probably the United States Congress
should appropriate funds for building such hotels on the grounds
that in the long run the increased tourist trade would mean increased
sales for United States products.
The talk shifted to the Soviet Union and the President expressed
the opinion that as long as Premier Joseph Stalin was in power he
would soft-pedal the international Communist movement, although
he would not publicly disown it. After Stalin, he speculated, others
might adopt a far more aggressive international program. He was not
pessimistic about postwar relations with Russia. Referring to Maxim
Litvinov s analogy, he said that Communism had gone 20 per cent
of the way toward capitalism since 1917 and that it would eventually
go 40 per cent of the way. Meanwhile, the United States had gone
20 per cent of the way toward Socialism and would probably go
another 20 per cent under his administration. That, he concluded,
would create a 40-60 relationship between the two opposing ideologies
and bring them close enough together so that there could be a work
ing arrangement between the two nations.
"My feeling," Rockefeller replied, "is that the liberal leadership
of this hemisphere should be provided by the United States and that
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 172
it is not to the interest of any American country to have the people
look to or be led by a nation outside the hemisphere."
The President said he agreed. Mr. Roosevelt added that he felt
Americans had always kowtowed too much to the British because we
had an inferiority complex. After the war, he added, the United
States would have to do a better job of selling and of delivering more
for the money to compete in international trade.
n.
Of the many projects undertaken by CIAA, a few are worthy of
special mention because they illustrate different facets of Rockefeller s
character or because they influenced his thinking in later years. Prior
to Pearl Harbor, Harry Hopkins asked the CIAA to do a survey of
Nazi penetration into political, business and financial circles in South
America.
"Keep in mind/ Hopkins told Rockefeller, "that we made a mis
take in handling this kind of thing in the First World War. At that
time, many Germans were local agents of United States firms in
Latin America. As soon as we got into the war, we blacklisted all
enemy business firms. This immediately disrupted our channels of
trade in Latin America and worked serious economic hardships on
many friendly countries. Perhaps this time we can plan for United
States companies gradually to weed out their German agents/
Rockefeller and Assistant Secretary of State Adolf A. Berle, Jr.,
organized a mission to make a survey. It included Percy L. Douglas,
on leave from the International Division of the Otis Elevator Com
pany and a member of the CIAA staff; John Lockwood, also on the
CIAA staff; Percy Foxworth, chief of the Latin American division of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and George Butler of the De
partment of State. They visited eighteen countries in three months
and reported back that many United States firms were represented in
Latin America by Nazis or pro-Nazis and that they often used their
advertising budgets to support anti-American newspapers and their
profits to finance anti-American propaganda. They also were part of a
THE BATTLE FOR LATIN AMERICA 173
widespread German espionage network in many instances.
Douglas and Rockefeller made confidential calls on perhaps a score
of top industrialists and explained the results of the survey.
"We re asking you voluntarily to change your foreign agents where
the evidence is definite/ Rockefeller said. "Sometimes this will mean
breaking contracts and a loss of money, to say nothing of vast incon
venience. We don t offer you a penny of reparation. It s strictly a
matter of patriotism/
All of the top officials agreed to cooperate, but the head of one of
the largest United States industries operating in South America
turned the matter over to his Chief of Export Division, who had
already been publicly criticized for close contacts with Nazi govern
ment officials and who had nineteen strongly pro-Nazi agents in
South America. When CIAA representatives talked to this export
chief he listened politely, thanked them for their information and
said there wasn t anything to be done.
"We are a strictly nonpolitical business," the chief added, "and
we re not interested in taking sides."
Rockefeller was astonished and his astonishment turned to anger
when further negotiations failed to change the chief s mind. A short
time afterward he invited the chief to Washington and arranged a
meeting in which Welles and Berle as well as CIAA personnel par
ticipated. Welles explained the dangers of the situation with impres
sive forcefulness. He laid it on the line that a matter of national
security was involved and that the whole program would be greatly
handicapped if not wrecked by the failure of one of the nation s big
industries to cooperate.
"No," the chief replied. "We re not interested in getting involved
in politics." He said it arrogantly, Rockefeller thought, and the meet
ing ended. Rockefeller, however, had no intention of giving up. As
the others departed, he called the chief aside and forgot the restraints
of diplomatic procedure.
"Look," he began, "we are trying to work this out on a coopera
tive basis in the national interest. I think you are doing a great dis
service to private enterprise generally." He paused but got no
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 174
response. Then the Rockefeller hardness came through. "Well/ 7 he
went on, "there is one alternative. That is to make a public statement
and say that of all American businessmen involved you are the only
one who hasn t cooperated." He added, pointedly: "I just can t con
ceive how an intelligent businessman can take a position like this
especially in view of the number of stockholders in your company."
The man remained outwardly impassive. A few days later, however,
Rockefeller received a message from the company s headquarters. It
was short and to the point: "The Company has decided to move its
nineteen agents."
In about six months, more than a thousand undesirable agency
accounts in Latin America were dropped or replaced by United States
firms. Rockefeller wrote to seventeen hundred firms which had
business contacts in Latin America, asking them to cooperate.
By the day of Pearl Harbor, 85 per cent of the business which had
been passing through the hands of pro-Nazis had been shifted else
whereoften at considerable cost to United States businesses. But
when war came there was little disruption due to blacklisting.
The war caused a shortage of newsprint everywhere and CIAA
went to bat for Latin American newspapers in order to keep many of
them from closing, and perhaps also to encourage them to print many
thousands of news stories and cartoons and mat photographs which
the agency distributed each month to about twelve hundred daily
and weekly papers south of the border. A still more serious problem,
however, arose when United States firms quit advertising in Latin
America because the war prevented them from shipping products
there. This threatened many newspapers and radio stations with
bankruptcy because as much as 40 per cent of their income was from
North American advertising. Rockefeller discussed the problem with
a number of the biggest advertisers and suggested that they resume
advertising in Latin America high war taxes made it inexpensive
as a gesture of good will. They agreed, but said the United States
Treasury had ruled such advertising would not be a legitimate tax
exemption if they were selling nothing. Rockefeller then got Secre
tary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau to write him a letter saying
BATTLE FOR LATIN AMERICA 175
that, if the issue arose, he would rule in favor of exempting the
advertising expenditures. Copies of the letter were sent to sixteen
hundred United States exporters. Soon thereafter most of them re
stored their original advertising in Latin America of approximately
$11,000,000 a year, and by the end of the war this total had climbed
tO $20,000,000.
"These are comparatively small things," Rockefeller said, "but they
represent what can be done only if we have somebody interested and
have the mechanism for getting action. Something that seems small
to us may be of life-or-death importance to others, and doing some
thing about it means the difference between good relations or bad,
between unity or disunity/
m.
The CIAA information program in Latin America devoted a great
deal of attention to democracy and freedom and what they meant
to the Americas. But talk, of course, was not enough. It was essential
to demonstrate the United States attitude by deeds in order to com
bat Nazi charges that the United States would desert its southern
neighbors as soon as the war emergency ended. One way in which the
United States moved to meet this problem was by developing a co
operative inter-American health, nutrition and education program.
There was an important political idea behind the program: better
health and better education would tend, in the long run, to strengthen
democracy in lands that were frequently plagued by dictatorship and
would thus mean progress toward the unity and security of the Wes
tern Hemisphere.
The manner in which this idea was born and the way in which it
later developed into a world-wide effort to strengthen democracy in
the struggle against totalitarianism particularly Communism
constitutes one of the most important and exciting chapters in Rocke
feller s career. The story continues over many years but its beginning
in the Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs can be
stated rather simply. The United States in 1941 announced that it
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 176
was providing $150,000,000 in lend-lease funds for Latin America.
This promptly aroused fears in some quarters that the money would
be used to strengthen various dictators who were then in power in a
number of Central and South American countries. Rockefeller and
the CIAA were bending their efforts toward furthering democratic
principles in Latin America. They believed that it was of vital im
portance to the United States to have the support of the people in a
war emergency and to convince the people that they would be better
off under democratic government. They came to the conclusion that,
to offset the danger of strengthening dictatorships, the United States
should spend an equal amount $150,000,00010 further democratic
aims by attacking the problems of illiteracy, disease, and other causes
of backwardness in Latin America. This, they argued, would further
our interests in the event of a war emergency because it would
strengthen democracy, provide technical assistance to increase agri
cultural and other production and reduce the health hazards that
would be encountered by any of our armed forces that might be
sent to Latin America to protect the Western Hemisphere. The over
all importance of the proposals, however, was that the strengthening
of democratic government was essential to our future security a
theory that had never actually been accepted or implemented by the
United States government in the past.
Rockefeller believed that such a program might be financed by the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation because it was partly designed
to increase production of strategic war materials, so he took up the
idea with Jesse Jones. The RFC chief expressed the belief that there
was merit in the plan, but when it came to putting up perhaps $50,-
000,000 without a good prospect of getting it back someday he
promptly shied away. Rockefeller suggested various ways in which he
might justifiably provide the funds but without success. Finally,
Jones decided there was only one way to get rid of him.
"I can t do it," he said, "but if you re convinced it ought to be
done FU tell you how."
"Fin convinced," Rockefeller replied.
"Well, the President has the money in his emergency fund and he
THE BATTLE FOR LATIN AMERICA 177
has the authority to have it allocated for this purpose. But to make
it work you would have to get Congress to give you the power to
set up corporations as they ve done for the RFC. If you need me,
I ll help you on the Hill "
A few weeks later, Rockefeller got together a book of charts,
statistics and data on the program and went over to the White House
to see Harry Hopkins. He got there before breakfast and Hopkins,
in a dressing gown, was sitting up in bed in his room, which adjoined
the President s bedroom. The coordinator handed him the book and
began talking with his usual enthusiasm. When he had finished,
Hopkins asked a few questions. Then he got out of bed, stuck his
feet into a pair of bedroom slippers and, picking up the book, went
padding out of the room to see Mr. Roosevelt. He was back in a
short time, perhaps ten minutes.
"Okay," he said, "the President will make an initial allocation of
$25,000,000."
Slightly dazed, Rokef eller gathered up his materials and went about
the business of getting Congressional approval. Senator McKellar
was disturbed about the proposal when first approached but, as he
had promised, Jones came to Rockefeller s aid and the necessary
authority was granted. Meanwhile, Rockefeller had gone to Sumner
Welles and explained that he had the $25,000,000 and needed advice.
Welles pointed out that the desired objective could best be achieved
by a cooperative effort of the American republics rather than by uni
lateral action on the part of the United States. A conference of the
American republics was to be held in Rio de Janeiro in January of
1942 and Welles suggested that it should be asked to adopt a resolu-
lution for joint action to achieve the goals Rockefeller had in mind.
After discussion with other Latin American representatives, such a
resolution was proposed at Rio de Janeiro and adopted. It invited the
various republics to act jointly or bilaterally to further democratic
principles by economic, technical and other assistance.
In response to this resolution, the United States established the
Institute of Inter-American Affairs, which became an instrument of
great significance in hemispheric relations. It was given formal ap-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 178
proval by the President on March 24, 1942, and later made numerous
agreements with Latin American governments for technical and
other assistance as a means of moving toward the goal of stronger
democratic government. Eventually, half a dozen corporations were
set up to handle various phases of the program with funds contributed
by the United States. In each instance, the projects were started
with the United States putting up most of the money but de
creasing its contribution each year until the work could be
financed entirely by the local government. By 1945, projects had
been arranged in eighteen countries, in which the United States spent
some $40,000,000 while the other countries put up $24,000,000 in
cash and as much again in materials and equipment. Actually, this
was the forerunner of what later would be known as the Point Four
program of foreign assistance.
An example of how the program worked was provided in Brazil.
German U-boat warfare was highly successful in the South Atlantic in
1942 and the sinking of many Allied ships plus a severe drought-
created a critical food shortage in Northern Brazil, which had no
other means of transport from its southern states. At the same time,
the United States had completed arrangements with Brazil to build
a series of air, naval and military bases along the northern coast to
guard against Axis invasion and to protect an aerial supply line to
North Africa. When Rockefeller arrived in Brazil in the early autumn
of 1942 the experts of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs had
made a survey of the rubber-producing Amazon Valley and the
northern coast. They recommended a huge public health service
program throughout the three-thousand-mile-long Amazon basin and
a drive to improve farm production in seven states of northern Brazil.
The local farmers had only the most primitive tools a machete to cut
weeds and a sharp stick to make a hole in the ground for planting
seed. Their farm stock was poor and they couldn t produce enough
food to supply the people in normal times, to say nothing of United
States armed forces along the coast.
The institute s field men had done excellent preliminary work that
enabled them, within a week after Rockefeller s arrival, to conclude
THE BATTLE FOR LATIN AMERICA 179
arrangements with the Brazilian government for a joint program to
which the institute contributed $5,000,000, Field teams went to work
the next day. Within a short time, bulldozers and other heavy equip
ment lent by UJS. Air Force engineers at bases on the coast were
clearing large tracts for planting. Demonstration farms were estab
lished and modern water systems were installed at three key centers
so the workers would no longer have to drink contaminated water
from the Amazon. Many thousands of baby chicks and pigs were
flown into the area. It was planned to give them to native farmers but
the gift offer aroused suspicion and it was decided to exchange the
healthy stock for the scrawny native chickens and pigs in order to
assure the farmers that everything was on the level. This worked
well, and there was soon a demand for more stock than could be sup
plied. But perhaps the most vivid illustration of what the program
achieved was provided by a very simple move the distribution of
seventy-five thousand ordinary hoes. This, the experts estimated,
quadrupled the manpower productivity of the farmers who, for the
first time, used a hoe instead of a sharp stick to plant seed.
In two years, production of food stuffs in the seven states was
changed from a deficit to a surplus that not only met local needs but
supplied the armed forces, permitted expansion of the wartime rub
ber-producing program and permanently boosted the living standards
of the people in a strategic area that was regarded as vulnerable to
Axis invasion. The institute continued its program in various Latin
American countries until 1948, working on more than two thousand
projects, training some ten thousand persons for all lands of jobs from
midwife to sanitary engineer and completing some fifty-four coopera
tive agreements. It was merged later with the Inter-American Educa
tion Foundation, Inc., which became an integral part of the
mechanism of inter-American relations.
IV.
The CIAA inaugurated a number of projects which, toward the
end of the war, were gradually shifted to other agencies and depart-
NELSON ROCKEFKLT.KR A BIOGRAPHY 180
ments, sometimes on Rockefeller s suggestion and sometimes over
his vigorous protests. "He is a man/ one government official
remarked, "who doesn t let go of anything easily/ Once he had seen
a project or a division shifted elsewhere, however, Rockefeller usually
was ready to cooperate to see that it functioned smoothly. For ex
ample, the commercial and financial divisions of CIAA were coveted
by the Board of Economic Warfare. The BEW was the inspiration
largely of Henry Wallace and Milo Perkins and it was designed to
speed up procurement operations and build up stockpiles of strategic
materials by buying on a preclusive basis and at set prices the entire
output of certain commodities.
When BEW was first established there was conflict with CIAA but
an arrangement was worked out at one period for the two agencies
to have a kind of joint control over what had been the CIAA s com
mercial and financial division. Under this system, the division was
jointly directed by two men. One was selected by Perkins. The other
was a CIAA staff member, a close friend for some years of Rockefeller
and earlier a "boarder" at the Rockefeller home in Washington.
Some coolness had developed between Rockefeller and his friend
prior to the BEW arrangement and, not long afterward, the coordi
nator was informed that the joint directors of the commercial and
financial division were working on a plan for turning the division into
a separate agency without responsibility either to the CIAA or the
BEW. This was later described by the CIAA staff member as "a
healthy disagreement concerning alternative courses of action on
which reasonable persons could understandably differ." The coordi
nator, however, did not regard the idea of a separate agency as either
healthy or reasonable. He promptly consulted with Perkins and both
of the men involved were separated from their jobs. There came a
time later when Rockefeller, then in the State Department, prevented
his former friend from getting a department job for which other offi
cials thought he was well qualified. Normally, Rockefeller was in
clined to fight hard for what he thought were his rights but, once a
decision had been reached, to forgive and forget. But if he some
way justiy or unjustly became convinced that an intimate member
THE BATTLE FOR LATIN AMERICA 181
of his "team" had acted disloyally, he was unlikely either to forgive
or forget.
"Rockefeller did many wonderful things for many persons and
nobody ever knew about it," an official who served with him said
much later. "But he was then young and intense and I thought he
sometimes showed a vindictive streak that cost him the services of
some able men at the time. There was one Latin American ambas
sador whose methods he did not like and with whom he had differ
ences when he was coordinator. When Rockefeller moved later to
the State Department he had that ambassador shifted to a distant
post where he held a lesser rank."
In the spring of 1944, Rockefeller arranged for a meeting in New
York of the Inter-American Development Commission, an agency
of all twenty-one American republics formed in 1940 to work out
ways of replacing markets lost due to the war. As chairman, he pre
sided over the New York meeting and was presented with the gold
medal of the Pan-American Society in recognition of his efforts toward
inter-American unity and cooperation.
As usual, his working schedule was so crowded that he hardly
saw his parents while he was in New York and their longest glimpse
.of him was from the floor of the banquet hall when he received the
medal. But the next day, his father wrote him:
I was very proud of you last night proud of the recognition
given you by the Pan American Society in awarding of its gold
medal; proud of the appreciative words spoken about you; proud
of the wholly charming, modest manner in which you accepted
the gold medal on behalf of the other members of the conference
and the large group of your associates rather than as an exclusive
tribute to yourself . . . and above all, proud of the many expressions
of affection and devotion to you that were made to me by indi
vidual members of the conference. . . .
When you started on this work and many people said to me,
"Yes, but it is impossible," you will recall that my answer always
was, "It may be impossible but it is necessary ." Because you be
lieved it was necessary and vital, you have made it possible and,
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 182
by grinding, unremitting, indefatigable hard work, have brilliantly
turned the impossible into the possible.
I never was surer of the importance of friendly relations among
the various countries of the Western Hemisphere than I am today.
You have proved to the world that such relations are possible. . . .
And so, with a full heart of pride, joy and gratitude, I say: "Well
done, my son, you have wrought a good work . . . you have
brought added credit to the family name."
Affectionately,
Father
In the autumn of 1944 Rockefeller made a trip to the Caribbean
Islands that he will never forget. The little Negro Republic of Haiti
was plagued by many grave problems including the fact that 80 per
cent of its population suffered from yaws, a contagious skin disease
having many analogies with syphilis that literally sapped the vitality
of the nation. The Inter-American Institute was cooperating with
the Haitian government in a campaign to combat the disease, and
Rockefeller was invited to visit a clinic in a distant corner of the
country. He flew from Port au Prince to a small airfield and then
drove along the coast, through coconut and palm forests and past
glistening white beaches. After a few miles, his automobile began
passing lines of pedestrians, all going in the same direction. They
were a pitiful procession. Some seemed barely able to drag themselves
along. Some hobbled on crutches or held to the arms of companions.
Some rode donkeys led by children. The procession became heavier
as the visitors approached the hutlike clinic building in the hills,
where at least a couple of thousand persons had gathered for a special
occasion.
The little clinic originally had been founded and run by a U.S.
Army medical corps colonel and two assistant medical officers who
lived virtually in exile in one of the poorest sections of the country
and who had treated with great gentleness and understanding the
unfortunate victims from whom others turned away in horror. Natives
liad been trained, however, to do the work and on this day the army
officers were turning the clinic over to three young Haitian doctors.
THE BATTLE FOR LATIN AMERICA 185
There was a brief ceremony. Then one of the elders among the
patients arose and made a moving speech in which he recounted what
the clinic had done for the people. In a trembling voice, he thanked
the army doctors and the people of the United States for the service
they had rendered his community. A great cheer went up from the
crowd of patients. As the old man sat down, Rockefeller saw that
he was crying softly. He saw, too, that the city-bred government
officials whom he had accompanied from Port au Prince were im
pressed.
"It was one of the most moving scenes I ever witnessed/ said
Rockefeller, who ignored the danger of infection in order to shake
hands with many of the patients. "This was a different kind of
foreign relations than had ever been practiced by our old-school diplo
mats. It had a sense of reality and it gave meaning to the word
democracy."
NINE
A Straggle for Unity
While Rockefeller was still on his Caribbean tour, he received a
telephone call from Washington the second week in November. It
was from Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.
"Nelson," said Stettinius, who had been Under Secretary of State,
"Secretary Hull has resigned and the President has asked me to take
over. Can you come back to Washington at once?"
Rockefeller said yes and caught a plane. When he reached Stet
tinius office, the new Secretary was in the midst of reorganizing the
Department.
"Nelson, the President wants you to go in as assistant secretary in
charge of Latin American affairs," Stettinius said.
At the moment, Rockefeller did not notice that Stettinius had
said it was Mr. Roosevelt who chose him but later General Watson
told him that "it was the boss who wanted you, not the new
Secretary." At the time of the meeting in Stettinius office, Rocke
feller was very much interested in going into the State Department
but he hesitated. To understand his hesitation, it is necessary to look
back at State Department policy, particularly in regard to Argentina.
184
A STRUGGLE FOR UNITY 185
n.
Argentina had been a difficult problem since the European war
started. The Rockefeller office had sought to counteract powerful
Nazi and Fascist influences in that country by helping Argentina to
dispose of large wheat and meat surpluses, but at the 1942 Rio de
Janeiro conference of American republics, the Buenos Aires govern
ment refused to agree to a resolution calling for mandatory severance
of relations with the Axis powers. Under Secretary Welles felt there
was danger of splitting the conference wide open and he worked out
a compromise that merely "recommended" rupture of relations with
Germany, Italy and Japan. Hull bitterly opposed this plan as "more
appeasement" but the President finally approved it, on the ground
that hemisphere unity was essential to our security. Hull and Welles
were on opposite sides of the fence thereafter and Welles finally
was forced to resign in 1943.
Then, in June, 1943, the army overthrew the Buenos Aires govern
ment and established a junta of colonels to run the country tempo
rarily. This regime went through various transformations but
gradually it emerged as a pro-German dictatorship in which the
behind-the-scenes power was wielded by Colonel Juan Per6n. Argen
tina continued as a base for propaganda and espionage activities of
the European Axis powers. Early in 1944, Rockefeller had a long,
friendly talk with Hull regarding Argentina and expressed fear that
enemy activities there would destroy the progress that had been made
toward uniting the Western Hemisphere behind the Allied war
effort. Hull was tremendously occupied with many problems and he
asked the coordinator to take it up with Under Secretary Stettinius.
Rockefeller submitted a memorandum in January, 1944, emphasizing
that Nazi propaganda in South America was broadcasting charges
that the United States would desert the other American republics
when World War II ended. He said our current program had created
an atmosphere of cooperation that was essential to our security and
welfare but that it depended on a dynamic United States policy and
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 186
that we were in danger of losing Latin American support because
of a lack of leadership in support of clear and precise objectives that
would assure permanent inter-American cooperation.
Stettinius expressed a sympathetic attitude toward the proposals
and referred them to subordinates who had no power to act. In
other words, nothing was done. When, in June of 1944, the United
States asked all American republics to withdraw recognition from
Argentina, four Latin American governments refused to do so for
fear of retaliation and the unity of the Western Hemisphere was
shattered. Per6n s prestige increased and his tricky methods of opera
tion infuriated Secretary Hull, who declined to accept proposals by
various Latin American diplomats, including Ezequiel Padilla, the
Mexican foreign minister, for some kind of joint action to deal with
the situation.
Meanwhile, on May 29, Hull had announced that the United
States, Great Britain, China and Russia were considering plans for a
world organization. But the State Department had not consulted
in advance with other American republics and this led them to
wonder whether we were abandoning the inter-American system in
favor of a world organization run by the big powers, which they
feared would leave the small nations without adequate protection and
representation.
On August 19, Rockefeller went again to talk to Hull. "I believe
that there are only two courses open to us/ he told the Secretary.
"We must apply economic sanctions, jointly with other Allied na
tions, against Argentina and give full support to any other American
republics against which the Argentina government might take re
prisals; or we must call a conference of foreign ministers of all the
American republics, put the Argentine situation up to them and be
guided by their joint decision/
Hull didn t want a conference and he said the boycott problem
had been considered by the cabinet, which had decided that a boycott
of Argentina could be undertaken only if the United States was
willing to ration meat more tightly in order to supply Great Britain.
It was decided that that was impossible.
A STRUGGLE FOR UNITY 187
"But our position is inconsistent," Rockefeller argued. "Personally,
I believe the people of this country would be willing to make the
sacrifice of eating less meat in order to combat Nazi penetration of
the Hemisphere. And I believe it would help rather than harm the
administration in the coming election."
"The decision has been made/ Hull replied
The talk with Hull left Rockefeller depressed. He finally came to
the conclusion that he could do nothing but reassert to Hull in
writing his own feelings. Several associates warned him that it would
do no good, that Hull was so bitter about the situation that such
action probably would lead to Rockefeller s ouster from the govern
ment. Finally, Rockefeller went to talk to the President and was
surprised to learn that he was well aware of what had been happen
ing. He expressed no objection to Rockefeller s plan to reiterate his
ideas to the Secretary of State, which Rockefeller did in a memo
randum on September 5, 1944, setting forth detailed recommenda
tions for a firm policy of inter-American action.
The Secretary never replied to or commented on the memorandum,
but he was not henceforth friendly to Rockefeller. His health was
failing and, after again vainly trying to persuade the British to agree
to a boycott of Argentina, Hull resigned in November, 1944, and
Stettinius telephoned Rockefeller to come home and be Assistant
Secretary.
Rockefeller proposed that, in reorganizing the department, Stet
tinius give one person full authority and responsibility to integrate
all activities in regard to Latin America. The new Secretary did not
agree. He said that Will Clayton would take charge of economic
activities, while Rockefeller would be concerned with political affairs.
Rockefeller respected Clayton and knew he could work with him*
He delayed his decision until he had talked with Harry Hopkins,
who told him that the President was ready to back a strong policy
that would re-establish Hemisphere unity. Rockefeller then turned
the CIAA over to Wallace Harrison and moved over to the State
Department.
"I really had no alternative," he said later. "I had been criticizing
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 188
for months. Now I couldn t refuse to accept the responsibility/
On December 20, the Senate considered the President s nomination
of Joseph C. Grew to be Under Secretary of State and of five others,
including Rockefeller, to be Assistant Secretaries. A number of sena
tors spoke against one or all of the nominees, some of whom were
criticized as being too far to the left and some of whom were de
scribed as right-wing representatives. Senator Robert La Follette,
usually regarded as a liberal, charged that confirmation of the six
would "tend to destroy the hope of the American people for a just
and democratic peace/ Although Rockefeller was not picked out for
any special attack, nine senators voted against him and sixty-two
voted for his confirmation. Now he had both the responsibility and
the opportunity.
m.
It could not be said that Rockefeller ever made himself popular in
the Department of State except with a distinct minority. He had long
disagreed with the traditional methods of diplomacy. He chafed
under legalistic restraints and objected to what he believed were
overcautious, halfway measures toward achieving a goal. He be
lieved a people-to-people program to encourage mutual knowledge
and understanding among nations should be an important factor in
the conduct of foreign relations and he seldom ceased to pester both
career and political diplomats to do things differently, to try some
thing new. His methods and his attitude were often criticized by
department officials.
Yet, the record will show that Rockefeller s needling and his per
sistence even in a rather secondary official role were of signi
ficance in later years in the struggle of the Western democracies
against Russian Communism. Had he not made himself unpopular
in 1945 it is quite possible the United States and its allies would have
been in a far less favorable position vis-a-vis Soviet Russia a decade
later. This should not necessarily be taken to mean that the youthful
Assistant Secretary of State had vision superior to that of more ex
perienced diplomatic officials. He was dedicated to the idea of unity
A STRUGGLE FOR UNITY 189
and cooperation in the Western Hemisphere, and his comprehension
of what that meant to the security of the United States was the
basis of his actions. That it eventually would mean far more to the
security of the Western world was, perhaps, a result that neither he
nor others could foresee so clearly in 1945, any more than they could
foresee an alliance that would be called the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. But the fact remains that NATO might never have
been possible if it had not been for the "meddling" of Rockefeller in
1945.
The knowledge that Stettinius had selected Rockefeller only be
cause of the President s suggestion was seldom a handicap to the
new Assistant Secretary but it made Rockefeller wary in the first days.
He discovered, however, that his superior had very little time to in
terest himself in Latin American affairs and was more than willing to
have Rockefeller present when he discussed such problems with Mr.
Roosevelt. Rockefeller felt that his job was to take a firm stand toward
Argentina. His first proposal was that the Allied powers should refuse
to purchase Argentina s output of 400,000 tons of fats and oils
mostly for Great Britain unless the Buenos Aires government co
operated in the war effort against the Axis. Except for Clayton, every
body opposed this idea in view of the world shortage of fats, and
the British would have nothing to do with it.
Even before his confirmation by the Senate, Rockefeller had re
vived a proposal by Foreign Minister Padilla of Mexico for holding
at Mexico City an inter-American conference of foreign ministers
to deal with political and economic problems a suggestion on which
Hull had not acted. He discussed the proposal at a department staff
meeting and he also consulted with an old friend, Rafael Oreamuno,
former minister from Costa Rica, who pointed out that for several
years there had been very little personal contact between the State
Department and Latin American diplomats. He gave Rockefeller the
names of three ambassadors and suggested he invite them to lunch
eon at his home.
"Fll come, too," he added, "and I think the general conversation
will lead us to the main problems/
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 190
When the five men gathered for the luncheon on December 21,
1944, Rockefeller asked them frankly for their ideas. The group was
uncertain as to whether an inter-American conference at Mexico City
would be successful in restoring unity.
"The Argentine question would have to come up/ one of them
pointed out. "There s no chance that the various nations would be
united on that subject. The United States and some other republics
might join in denouncing dictatorship in Argentina, but you may
be sure that the small countries who are neighbors of Argentina
would not do so. They are afraid because they have the example of
Bolivia. When the Bolivian government refused to cooperate with
Argentina there was an uprising [probably with the help of Buenos
Aires] and the United States did nothing to aid the established gov
ernment. It was overthrown and others fear the same fate if they
openly oppose Argentina/
The conversation then turned to the possibility of providing for
joint action by all of the American republics to protect the political
and economic security of all.
"That is the key to a solution of the dilemma/ one ambassador
said. "If only the United States would agree that the conference
would consider an inter-American basis for solving problems of peace
and security as well as economic problems, we might be in a position
to take a common stand on the Argentine situation."
"I believe/ Rockefeller said, "that the United States may be pre
pared to proceed along those lines."
The ambassadors looked at him with disbelief as if this were merely
the naive viewpoint of a new and inexperienced State Department
official. But Rockefeller, probably remembering his talk with Hopkins
and knowing the President s firm attitude, convinced his guests that
he was serious. Once they felt he knew what he was talking about,
they shed their despondency and the meeting took on an atmosphere
of confidence and enthusiasm. They worked for four hours on an
agenda and other details of a projected conference of American re
publics which were cooperating in the war effort. Later Rockefeller
gradually extended his conversations to the other American republics
A STRUGGLE FOR UNITY 191
representatives and gave each the feeling of having been consulted
and of having contributed to the plans. Step by step, the Mexico City
conference program was pieced together and no piece was included
unless it reflected the general thinking of the American community,
except for Argentina, which was not consulted.
"About all I contributed/ Rockefeller remarked, "was a willingness
to listen and to understand their problems and their viewpoints/
Rockefeller encountered opposition at State Department staff
meetings in connection with his hope of developing a united moral
force among the American republics on the understanding that the
United States would be prepared to give economic, political and
military support in event the smaller nations were threatened, pre
sumably by Argentina, with aggression. The department s main at
tention was centered on the Dumbarton Oaks conferences, at which
the groundwork was being laid for formation of the world organi
zation that eventually would be called the United Nations. Our ex
perts at these sessions included Leo Pasvolsky, special assistant to
the Secretary of State for International Organization, and Alger Hiss,
executive secretary of the Dumbarton Oaks program. They and most
other department experts regarded plans for the world organization
as so vital to the future and as involving so many delicate issues that
they opposed for good reasons the introduction of any new fac
tors that might make the work more difficult. They were not in
favor of the Mexico City conference because they feared it would
arouse the suspicions of European leaders and might prejudice pre
parations for the world organization. In the minds of some experts,
regional blocs were contrary to the whole idea of a United Nations.
In January, 1945, Rockefeller and Stettinius twice called at the
White House. The President was preparing to go to Yalta for his
historic meeting with Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin,
and Stettinius had much to discuss with him in that regard. Then the
Secretary sat back and worked on his notes while Rockefeller took
up the question of the Mexico City conference. To summarize the
two conferences, Rockefeller said that the Latin American countries
were worried about Big Power domination of the United Nations but
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 192
that they were willing to support the principles of the Dumbarton
Oaks program in a formal resolution at Mexico City, provided the
United States would support further development and strengthening
of a regional inter-American system.
Rockefeller felt that the President was pleased by the attitude of
the other American republics, and that he did not share the view
point of the International Division of the State Department that a
mutual defense pact might damage prospects for a world organization.
Mr. Roosevelt said he did not see why there should be any conflict
between regional agreements and the world organization, according
to Rockefeller s notes on the conversation. He added that the Mexico
City conference could lay the foundation for harmonious integration
of regional agreements in the framework of the United Nations and
that this integration could be confirmed at San Francisco.
"But the major powers/ he told Rockefeller, "may misunderstand
what is planned at Mexico City and you should call on their ambas
sadors there and inform them fully and assure them that the con
ference will not detract from the plans for the world organization
as worked out at Dumbarton Oaks."
In regard to Argentina, Rockefeller told the President that the
United States should express its determination not to establish re
lations with Buenos Aires "until its government demonstrated by
unqualified acts its intention to observe its inter-American obligations
and abandon threats to hemispheric peace." The President approved
this policy and initialed the proposed agenda for the inter-American
conference at Mexico City, , t r i; c y^-t%1^^^:: ^
Rockefeller had still another idea which he presented in a memo
randum. It proposed to test Peron s good faith by urging him to turn
over the Argentine government to his Supreme Court temporarily
while honest elections were held to select a new government. If
that were done, the new government would be recognized by the
other American republics and Argentina would be invited to attend
the Meaaco City conference. The President approved and initialed
the memorandum. He expressed deep concern that, after the war, the
peoples not only of the Western Hemisphere but of the world should
A STRUGGLE FOR UNITY 193
have an opportunity to realize the objectives of the Atlantic Charter
and that there should be progress toward economic cooperation and
mutual security.
Rockefeller visited the White House on one other occasion before
Mr. Roosevelt and Stettinius left for Yalta. Former President Eduardo
Santos of Colombia, a liberal statesman with integrity and courage,
arrived in Washington that January. He was an old friend of Mr.
Roosevelt but the President was so busy preparing for his journey
that his aides discouraged the idea of an appointment for the
Colombian statesman. Rockefeller finally called General Watson and
appealed for ten minutes for Santos. Watson arranged it, but speci
fied that Rockefeller should be present.
Mr. Roosevelt appeared to be very tired when they entered his
office on January 9, but he listened attentively to Santos 7 frank obser
vations. There was a very real fear, the Colombian said, of aggression
in Latin America, particularly in Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, and in
Central America. All of these nations, he went on, were faced with
the problem of illiteracy and hunger yet all were spending far too
much perhaps a third of their federal income for military purposes.
As a result, military dictatorships were being encouraged and democ
racy was thwarted.
"The best hope for the future," he said, lies in the idea of Presi
dent Wilson for a mutual guarantee of borders. Do you think that
you or Secretary Stettinius might mention such an idea at the
Mexican conference?"
"I understand this problem," the President replied, "but it would
be more appropriate if Colombia introduced a resolution. In that case,
the United States would support the resolution. But it is difficult to
define aggression. In my own opinion, aggression would be when an
armed man crosses the frontier from one country to another."
"I agree," Santos said. "I believe Colombia might introduce the
resolution but we probably would want to have Venezuela join with
us."
The President nodded. "This is a wonderful example of the spirit
of cooperation in the Western Hemisphere," he added. "I think I will
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 194
discuss the principle with Stalin and Churchill in Yalta/ He turned
to Rockefeller. "Will you follow up on this talk for us?" Then, as
his visitors departed, he raised his hand in salute and said: "God
bless you!"
The Assistant Secretary was only too willing to follow up but he
continued to encounter opposition from the department s Interna
tional Division, which argued that regional agreements of this nature
might easily wreck the conference at San Francisco. Rockefeller stood
his ground and, when hard pressed, said: "My instructions come from
the President If you want to change this policy, you will have to
take it up with him."
iv.
On February 16, 1945, Rockefeller chartered an airplane and in
vited the Latin American ambassadors to fly with him to Mexico for
what was called the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War
and Peace. The chartered plane was the kind of grandiose gesture
frowned on by old-school diplomats, but by this time Rockefeller s
diplomacy was being conducted largely on a basis of close personal
acquaintance with the ambassadors and none of them were worried
that he couldn t afford the junket. They ran into storms en route,
had to land a couple of times to wait for the weather to clear and
were much more like a group of close companions most of them
were comparatively young than a delegation of striped-pants diplo
mats by the time they reached the Mexican capital on February i8th.
This feeling of close harmony was increased rather than dissipated
during the conference. For one thing, Rockefeller quickly discovered
that his hotel suite was wired for sound with an interesting assort
ment of microphones concealed in odd spots. This, it turned out,
was not necessarily a sinister attempt to learn state secrets because
the suite had been wired ever since the hotel was built, but of course
the system might have been used by someone if it had gone unde
tected. Rockefeller also was informed that certain tables in certain
popular restaurants had concealed microphones and that visiting
A STRUGGLE FOR UNITY 195
diplomats might be conducted to these tables. All of this information
he passed on to his Latin American colleagues and this served to
strengthen their confidence in his sincerity and honesty.
The conference itself was conducted more harmoniously than
might have been expected. Secretary Stettmius, just back from Yalta,
flew down to Mexico City to lend his prestige to the Washington
delegation, although he had been so occupied by other vital matters
that it was impossible for him to catch up with Latin American
developments and much of the conduct of the sessions as well as of
press conferences was left in Rockefeller s hands. This was not always
a comfortable position for either Rockefeller or Stettinius, who was
an able salesman of the President s ideas but was not a policy maker
and occasionally lacked a detailed knowledge of what he was selling.
As a result, he sometimes had to turn to his Assistant Secretary to
clarify obscure points at press conferences or elsewhere; this inevitably
led to a certain strain on relations between the two men.
Early in the conference, the delegates conferred secretly on the
question of inviting Argentina and authorized Foreign Minister
Manuel C. Gallagher y Canaval of Peru, to transmit to the Buenos
Aires regime the terms on which it could be represented at Mexico
City turn over the government to the Supreme Court pending
honest elections and declare war on the Axis powers. 1 There was
sentiment among the Latin American countries for inviting Argen
tina to the conference. President Avfla Camacho of Mexico de
plored the absence of Argentina in a public speech and there were
street demonstrations by Mexican students favoring the Buenos Aires
regime. The United States, however, felt strongly about the pro-
Axis activities of the Argentine government and, with the support
of other American republics, insisted that it should change its policies
and agree to the terms transmitted by Gallagher in order to be ac-
1 Rockefeller had little doubt at the time that Per6n would refuse such a
proposal. Earlier, he had, with the approval of President Roosevelt, sent a secret
and completely unofficial emissary to Buenos Aires to sound out the military
dictatorship, in which Per6n was the power behind the scenes. Per6n s reply was
to point out that the president of the Supreme Court was then old and ifl and
that he could not "turn the government over to a corpse/* He said, however,
that he would call free and honest elections.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 196
cepted in the community of American nations. The Argentine govern
ment, then headed by President Edelmiro Farrell, did not reply
immediately.
Meanwhile, the sessions in Mexico City developed few major
problems. The conference adopted resolutions to continue inter-
American wartime cooperation and voted to support the coming
conference at San Francisco to form a world organization. The United
States backed a resolution to strengthen the system of inter-American
cooperation.
The main work, however, centered around what became known
as the Act of Chapultepec, which provided for a guarantee of the
boundaries of the American republics. The drafting of this act was
in the hands of Senator Warren Austin, for the United States, at
the beginning of the sessions. Basically, it set up the thesis that an
attack on one American republic was an attack on all and would be
jointly resisted. Rockefeller felt that the preliminary work was going
so well that there should be some newspaper publicity of an off-the-
record nature. He explained the situation to James Reston of the
New York Times and said that the theory of a joint guarantee of
boundaries was "in the bag" because Senator Tom Connally would
approve it when he arrived in the next few hours,
Connally arrived, but he was so tired that when Rockefeller asked
him to read the prepared text he angrily snorted that he wasn t going
to read anything that day. "Don t try to rush me, young man," he
warned. Well aware of the rivalry between Connally and Austin,
Rockefeller could see the Texas senator blowing sky-high if he read
in the newspapers that the act had been agreed on before he even
arrived in Mexico City. He called Reston and asked him to kill
the story.
"Sorry," Reston replied, "it s already in print in New York."
Rockefeller spent a bad night and felt even worse the next day
when he discovered Reston s story on page one of the New York
Times. The senator, however, finally approved the draft.
Pasvolsky was still opposed to the Act of Chapultepec and he was
so vigorous in his argument that the United States delegation was
A STRUGGLE FOR UNITY 197
threatened with a split at one briefing session, despite the fact that
policy had been agreed on in advance. When the session broke up
without firm action, Rockefeller was indignant and he bitterly said
so to Pasvolsky in the presence of Stettinius.
"If you re going to work against the agreed position of our dele
gation and the agreed position of the State Department," he said
angrily, "you better go on back to Washington, I m responsible to
the Secretary for the conduct of the United States delegation here."
Pasvolsky did not reply but neither did he protest later when Stet
tinius and the members of Congress on the delegation overruled
objections and put the united delegation on record as favoring a
mutual defense agreement to be implemented later by treaty. Later
the Act of Chapultepec was adopted by the conference. Rockefeller
signed it for the United States.
The results of the Mexico City conference exceeded Rockefeller s
hopes in that it set up a framework for future development of eco
nomic and social and defense cooperation. It also set the scene for
action in regard to Argentina.
It was not until late in the second week of the conference that
Gallagher hurriedly called a meeting to say that Argentina had
turned down the ambassadors proposal. This impressed the delegates
as demonstrating that Argentina had no intention of cooperating in
the war effort against the Axis. The success of the conference had
raised morale among the delegations of the other republics and they
enthusiastically agreed to draft a resolution that would express sym
pathy for the people of Argentina but would also express concern
over the attitude of the government. Adolf A. Berle, Jr., U.S. Ambas
sador to Brazil, began drafting the resolution in Rockefeller s hotel
suite but soon half a dozen ministers were joining in, working
on various sections. Colombian Ambassador Alberto Lleras Cam-
argo, an old newspaperman, took off his coat and began punching at
a typewriter to weave the different sections together as they were com
pleted. Papers littered the floor. Diplomats loosened their neckties
as they wrote and rewrote a sentence or a phrase. By the time the
NELSON RCK30EFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 198
work was completed, the scene was more like a newspaper office at
press time than a meeting of dignified diplomats considering prob
lems of international significance.
While the draft was being retyped, Berle invited Rockefeller
to go outside for a breath of fresh air. They walked along a broad
avenue and finally sat down on a concrete bench in a small park.
There, beyond earshot of any curious delegates, Berle said that he
believed Rockefeller should be extremely careful about considering
any overtures that Argentina might make to the United States.
"I know that there is a kind of undercover group who will be trying
to get the Per6n government accepted without any real change,"
he said. "I don t believe you should negotiate with them; certainly
not now. Be cool toward them. Let them wait. The war is almost
over and we don t need their help. They are still pro-Nazi and
public opinion in the United States is not going to accept them.
This conference has been a great success. You re now sitting on top
of the world, so don t do anything to change that situation. Your
desire for a united front in the hemisphere is sound and it is right
to try to achieve it But I think it would be a political error to rush
into any negotiations with Per6n and, anyway, I don t believe you can
change Per6n. He is completely cynical."
Rockefeller was silent for a few moments. "Thanks," he finally
said. "Ill think about it. But I believe unity of the Americas means
a lot."
Stettinius was tied up at a dinner that night and Rockefeller took
the draft resolution to the home of Foreign Minister Padilla, chair
man of the conference, about midnight. Padilla approved the draft,
which was in effect an invitation to the Argentine government to
reorient its policies, to cooperate in the war against the Axis, to
sign and live up to the Act of Chapultepec, to provide democratic
procedures and freedom for its people and to become a partner
with the other American republics.
After a few changes the next morning, the resolution was pre
sented and adopted. The conference ended the next day and shortly
A STRUGGLE FOR UNITY 199
thereafter Stettinius and Rockefeller climbed aboard an airplane
and flew to Havana to talk to a big, tough and aggressive diplomat,
Spruille Braden, about the possibility of going to Buenos Aires as
ambassador if Per6n accepted and complied with the conference
resolution*
TEN
San Francisco World Politics
On March 16, 1945, Rockefeller strode briskly into the White House
with a feeling that he had good news for the President as a result
of the success of the Mexico City conference, but his buoyant mood
began to evaporate as soon as he entered the big, oval office where
Mr, Roosevelt sat behind his desk. The President had changed
markedly since January. Momentarily, Rockefeller saw in him no
spark of animation. It was as if an inner fire had gone out; as if
he had been drained of all emotion. Then he aroused himself and the
old glow of enthusiasm was there again.
The Assistant Secretary briefly reviewed what had been done at
Mexico City and said that he assumed Per6n, who then held the
post of vice president, was a "strong man" in Argentina and would
be chosen President in a free election, because he had cleverly
exploited the resentment of the people, particularly the workers,
against the old oligarchy of landowners and their political allies.
He said he had met since his return with key ambassadors. from
Latin America and they had coordinated their position by drafting^
200
SAN FRANCISCO WORLD POLITICS 201
memorandum to the effect that, if Argentina declared war on Ger
many and Japan and expressed conformity with the Act of Chapulte-
pec and signed it, then the Per6n government would be recognized
and the United States would recommend that Argentina be invited to
sign the joint declaration of the United Nations.
"The important thing/ he added, "is to get the Argentine govern
ment to reorient its policies, and join in cooperation with the other
republics and, if that is done in good faith, it will be natural to want
her in the world organization. The memorandum was approved
yesterday at a State Department staff meeting/ 7
The President indicated that he was pleased with results of the
Mexico City conference and he was interested, even a little amused,
by the way the Argentine situation had been handled. He said he
shared the belief that it was necessary to spell out the terms under
which the Buenos Aires government would be admitted. He ap
proved and initialed the memorandum. Showing some of his old
enthusiasm, he talked briefly about the future of the Western
Hemisphere and remarked that what he had seen at Yalta convinced
him more than ever that responsibility for future leadership would
rest with the new world.
Then, as Rockefeller departed, he sank back in his chair as if ex
hausted. Rockefeller and his wife dined the next evening at the
White House and, in a crowd, the President seemed almost his
old self. But they were not to meet again.
On March 27, Argentina s government accepted the terms laid
down by the other republics, declared war on Germany and Japan,
signed the Mexico City resolution and agreed to abide by it. On
April 9, all of the American republics as well as Great Britain and
France resumed full diplomatic relations with Argentina. Braden be
came the United States ambassador at Buenos Aires. Eighteen pro-
Nazi newspapers in Argentina were closed and Axis assets in that
country seized.
Rockefeller was a bit puffed up over these developments. He felt
that Argentina s apparent reversal of policy was a real victory and
demonstrated the moral force that could be exerted if the other
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 202
republics stood united. This, however, was by no means the unani
mous opinion of State Department officials, some of whom regarded
the developments as a defeat for the United States. Hull, for example,
had been extremely bitter toward the Per6n dictatorship, and he
strongly felt that the policy pursued by Rockefeller was too lenient
toward an unscrupulous government. Furthermore, Per6n had not
yet demonstrated any real change of heart.
When Rockefeller, on April 9, brought up at a State Department
staff committee meeting the question of recommending that Argen
tina be invited to sign the joint declaration of the United Nations
the last step that had been agreed to at Mexico City Assistant
Secretary James C. Dunn objected.
"But this is a commitment," Rockefeller said.
"Yes," was the reply, "but there is no time schedule for carrying
it out."
Dean Acheson, Archibald MacLeish and others also strongly
opposed a recommendation that the pro-Nazi Perdn dictatorship
be invited to sign the world organization documents, and most
United States newspaper comment was along the same lines. Stet-
tinius was well aware of Hull s views and hesitated to go against
them. Rockefeller did not believe the issue was confined to such nar
row limits. He could well agree with the argument that it was re
pugnant to recognize a pro-Nazi government, but he strongly be
lieved that the united action taken by the United States and the
other American republics in regard to Argentina was in the best in
terests of the Western Hemisphere. Hemisphere security was of vital
importance, he felt, and he was mistakenly confident that the
united stand of the American republics would force Per6n to live
up to his pledges.
* We made commitments with the full knowledge of the President,
the Secretary of State and the staff committee," he pointed out
"The San Francisco conference is only a couple of weeks away and,
from a practical viewpoint, we are courting political trouble by
delaying. If we don t act, I do not believe we can persuade the
other American republics to refrain from proposing Argentina for
membership in the world organization at San Francisco."
SAN FRANCISCO WORLD POLITICS 203
But his arguments were not successful. Public opinion and political
expediency dictated delay. This was not a viewpoint that Rockefeller
could appreciate at the time. He was perfectly willing to "take the
rap" of public disapproval, if necessary, rather than fail to fulfill his
promises a stubborn and politically dangerous attitude that did not
appeal to more experienced department officers. And the President
was resting in Georgia and not available to intervene, although he
had approved Rockefeller s procedure.
Rockefeller did not change his mind about the desirability of
carrying out the commitment to invite Argentina but the situation
was unchanged when President Roosevelt died at Warm Springs,
Georgia, on April 12, and Harry S. Truman became chief executive.
Rockefeller had not seen Mr. Roosevelt since he dined at the White
House, but he had had a letter from him on March 31:
Dear Nelson,
The termination of your services as Coordinator of Inter-American
Affairs prompts me to send you this note. You have made a
magnificent contribution to the unity of this hemisphere and its
ability to emerge with renewed strength from a grave period in its
history. The people of this country and, indeed, of the other
American republics are well aware of the significant progress
attained under your leadership.
Accordingly, I extend my high appreciation for your work as
Coordinator. I am particularly glad that you are continuing to
serve the cause of the Good Neighbor policy in the capacity of
Assistant Secretary of State in charge of relations with the Amer
ican republics. I wish you every success in that enlarged role.
Sincerely yours,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The President may have been a little slow in getting around to
writing the note because of the press of world affairs, but Rockefeller
was happy that he had it.
n.
After President Truman had instructed Stettinius to carry on with
out change any policies that had been agreed upon by Mr. Roosevelt,
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 204
a request was received from the Argentine government that the
United States support her bid for an invitation to San Francisco.
Stettinius was very busy at the time and nothing was done prior to
the conference except that Rockefeller sent the President a memo
randum reviewing the problem and recommending that we carry out
our commitment.
Rockefeller was veiy eager overeager, in fact to achieve complete
unity of the Americas. On April 18, he sent a special mission, headed
by Avra M. Warren, director of the Office of American Republic
Affairs in the State Department, to Buenos Aires to see how the
Argentine government was carrying out its promise to cooperate in
the war against the Axis. At that time, most neutral observers failed
to see any change, but Warren made a two-day survey and took a
favorable stand toward Argentina, saying that "it is gratifying to en
counter an official and public desire" to live up to the Act of Chapul-
tepec. Perhaps this was what Rockefeller wanted to hear and perhaps
Warren knew it was what he wanted to hear.
Meantime, Stettinius had broken some bad news to Rockefeller.
"In view of the unhappy feelings between you and members of the
International Division/ the Secretary said, "I believe it would be
best if you did not go to San Francisco. You had full freedom in
Mexico City and now they want the same freedom at San Francisco/
"I can t blame them," Rockefeller replied, remembering how
bitterly Hiss and Pasvolsky had opposed him in the past.
Very soon after this, however, the Russians began to cast around
among the delegations to see how many votes they could control
or influence at San Francisco. The idea of trying to line up voting
blocs may not have been exactly in the spirit of the Dumbarton Oaks
conferences but there wasn t anything Stettinius could do about it
except look around to see how many votes might support the United
States in a crisis. The result was that the votes of the Latin American
countries suddenly became exceedingly important. Remembering
what had happened at Mexico City, Stettinius suggested that perhaps
Rockefeller should go to San Francisco after all. Hiss and Pasvolsky
very strongly objected, criticizing Rockefeller s attitude and
SAN FRANCISCOWORLD POLITICS 205
methods of diplomacy, but the secretary overruled them and told
Rockefeller to get ready to go for a few days to "talk to the Latin
Americans and get the ball rolling/ He departed on April 21, again
with a chartered planeload of Latin American delegates with whom
he had been working closely.
Like everyone else at the time, the Latin Americans were greatly
concerned that Mr. Roosevelt s death had left the world, particularly
the Western world, without strong leadership. They desired, according
to their talks with Rockefeller, to take part and accept responsibility
in the United Nations, but they were worried about domination by the
Big Powers and the failure of Washington to complete the Argentine
agreement. Most important in their minds, was whether the inter-
American system as represented by the Act of Chapultepec could
be smoothly integrated into the world organization. It was typical
of Rockefeller that he made their problems his own and that this
frequently brought him into conflict with other State Department
officials who were gravely concerned with broader international is
sues and with the success of the conference as a whole.
Almost from the beginning, there were discord and conflict be
tween the delegates of the Soviet Union and the Western powers
over everything from electing a chairman to the recognition of the
so-called Lublin (Communist) government of Poland, which the
Russians had promised at Yalta to replace with a representative
regime. This made the role of Stettinius and his top aides increasingly
difficult. They were not prepared for the harassing and obstructionist
tactics of the Russians and, in some instances, they feared that the
conference would break up and the dream of a United Nations would
evaporate. Rockefeller s role, of course, was a limited one, but because
of the increasing importance of the Latin American votes he usually
sat in on meetings of the United States delegation of which he
was not even a member and on the meetings of the foreign minis
ters of the Big Powers. This, he felt, was an ironic climax to the
efforts of Hiss and Pasvolsky to keep him away from San Francisco.
Without attempting to consider here the main problems of the
San Francisco conference, there were several early developments that
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 206
tended to strengthen the unity of the Latin American delegations.
For example, during maneuvering and debate on selection of a
conference chairman, Foreign Minister Padilla of Mexico made
an eloquent and courteous speech in favor of Stettmius. Padilla
was greatly respected by the Latin Americans and they were shocked
and chilled when Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav M. Molotov
arose and delivered a tirade of abuse and ridicule not only against
the Mexican but against Latin American traditions in general,
charging that Padilla was a stooge for the United States. Probably
nothing could have served to alienate the Latin American republics
more than such tactics. They knew then what the Russians thought
of them and they didn t forget it.
They also were impressed at the April 27 meeting of the steering
committee by the overbearing way in which Molotov treated Jan
Masaryk, the son of the liberator of Czechoslovakia, who was greatly
admired in South America. Molotov practically ordered Masaryk to
propose that the Polish Lublin government be invited to the con
ference. The Czech rose, ashen faced and humiliated, and with eyes
on the floor spoke of the heroism of the Polish people. He did not
offer a motion that the Lublin government be invited but Molotov
jumped up and said: "I second the motion/ The United States dele
gation seemed momentarily confused by these tactics, but Victor
Andrade of Bolivia pointed out that no motion had been made.
Molotov leaped to his feet again and pointed at Masaryk.
"Jan Masaryk seconds my motion/ he said. Stettinius and Eden
denounced the proposal as contrary to the Yalta agreements.
None of this performance was lost on the Latin American dele
gates, who received an impressive lesson in how the Communists
treated small states under their control.
At the same meeting, Molotov proposed the admission of White
Russia and the Ukraine to the world organization, as had been
agreed on at Yalta, and his motion was adopted. It had been pro
posed earlier in private by the United States that the question of
actually seating the two Russian states at the conference and the
similar question of inviting Argentina be delayed for three weeks to
SAN FRANCISCO WORLD POLITICS 207
see whether Per6n lived up to his promises to reform his regime. But
now Molotov ignored this suggestion and proposed that the Russian
states be invited to sit in immediately. Stettinius hesitated, but
Foreign Minister Lleras Camargo of Colombia quickly moved that
the question be referred to the executive committee for study and
this was done.
Molotov s action, however, had created a crisis because the Rus
sians indicated they would use the question of inviting Argentina into
the United Nations as a lever to force the admission of the Lublin
Communist government in Poland. The Latin American delegates
felt strongly that the United States was committed to support of
Argentina on the grounds that the Buenos Aires government had met
the terms laid down at Mexico City. Stettinius said that the obliga
tion would be met but he did not want to get the Argentine issue
mixed up with the Russian demands on White Russia, the Ukraine
and the Lublin regime. The aggressive demands of the Russians and
the apparent fear of the United States and Great Britain that
Molotov might break up the conference on some pretext such as
the Polish question caused considerable despondency and uneasiness
among the Latin American delegations.
In an effort to overcome this muddle, which was delaying the
work of the conference, three Latin American members of the
Executive Council met with Stettinius, Eden and Molotov in Stettin
ius penthouse headquarters atop the Fairmont Hotel on April 28.
Padilla, as spokesman for the Latin Americans, expressed the hope
that Molotov would agree to invite Argentina and to postpone
seating of White Russia and the Ukraine.
"I will support the invitation to Argentina," Molotov countered,
"if you will support the seating of the Lublin government/*
"That is impossible/ Padilla replied, pointing out that the Yalta
agreement provided for selection of a representative Polish govern
ment prior to admission to the world organization. Molotov remarked
brusquely that there was no point in further discussion, and the
meeting broke up on the understanding that the executive committee
would try to reach some kind of decision.
NELSON ROCKEFKT.T.F.R A BIOGRAPHY 208
Rockefeller followed all of these developments with a good deal
of impatience. He felt that a principal trouble was lack of leadership
against the Russian maneuvers and lack of preparation on the part
of the Western powers which, he felt, were too fearful that they would
be accused of "ganging up" on the Russians. Having reached this
conclusion, he had to try to do something about it despite the fact
that he was already in disfavor with most of the State Department
experts and that a wiser diplomat would doubtless have decided it
was a good time to let the authorized officials carry the ball. He
sought out Stettinius and argued that the traditional diplomatic
approach had failed and that the time had come to apply some
practical political tactics.
"You ve got to get this thing organized," he said. "You ve got to
outline your problems and see how we can get organized to do
something about them."
The harassed Secretary of State was unimpressed, but Rockefeller
didn t give up easily. He carried the same argument to Pasvolsky and
other department officials. They were even less impressed. Having
been thoroughly rebuffed, the Assistant Secretary might well have
retired to his tent, which would doubtless have pleased most of his
colleagues. But instead he continued to meet daily with the Latin
American delegates and they decided to do a little "organizing" of
their own in a quiet way.
Ambassador Guillermo Belt of Cuba was a member of the confer
ence steering committee and always sat next to Stettinius. Rockefeller
normally sat directly behind Belt. The Latin Americans agreed that
when the Russians became obstreperous at the next session, Rocke
feller would advise with Stettinius on the next step and would
inform Belt and the Cuban would then make a speech advocating
that line of action. The other Latin American delegates would know
that Belt was voicing Stettinius ideas and they would vote for his
proposition. In addition, Galo Plaza Lasso, who was later President of
Ecuador, was designated to act as a kind of parliamentary whip. He
brought an aide to the sessions and, if necessary, Rockefeller would
inform the aide of the desired plan of action and he would drift
SAN FRANCISCO WORLD POLITICS . 209
around the room in order to inform the other Latin American repre
sentatives. If a speech was needed, for example, he would pass ^ the
word along to those who were to speak and give them the theme to
be followed.
On one occasion, Molotov planned to propose admission of certain
international labor representatives to the conference. The United
States was opposed to such action but the State Department delegates
decided to do nothing until the issue arose. The Latin Americans
talked it over, however, and Galo Plaza Lasso remarked that "I can
get my foreign minister to handle this/ Later, when Molotov
made the proposal, Rockefeller called Stettinius attention to the
fact that the Ecuadorean foreign minister was on his feet and "wants
to be recognized/
The Ecuadorean was young, dark-skinned and obviously of Indian
blood. He stood near Molotov and talked directly to the Soviet
foreign minister. "This is an interesting idea/ he said. "The workers
did much to win the war." Then, after further praise of labor, he said
that it had occurred to him that the soldiers also had done a great
deal to win the war and perhaps soldier representatives should be
invited to the conference. "And then," he added, "one of the
great contributions to the war was made by mothers who gave their
sons. Perhaps they have done the most and they should be repre
sented. Labor, yes! Soldiers, yes! Mothers, yes! . . . But it occurs
to me that, if these groups are represented here, we must ask our
selves whom we represent? In the last analysis, we were sent here to
represent all of these groups and therefore, Mr. Chairman, I shall
have to oppose the motion."
Molotov jumped to his feet. "I withdraw the motion," he said
quickly, and sat down.
HI.
The united front of the Latin Americans, which Rockefeller had
predicted to the State Department, aroused no cheers from the
United States delegation. Despite the obstructive tactics of the
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 210
Russians from the beginning, there was a great, unquenchable public
yearning for a world organization that would work harmoniously in
the interests of all for the preservation of peace. The idea of forming
blocs of delegates was foreign to this general approach and the pres
sure tactics of the combined Latin American delegations were widely
criticized. The Russians, who charged that the other American re
publics were puppets of the United States, were not the only
critics. Some American newspaper editorials were highly unfavorable,
complaining that the administration was yielding unwisely to pressure
by its neighbors. And members of the United States delegation
asserted that the Latin American block was giving the impression that
the Americas were trying to "gang up" on the world, thus causing}
disharmony at the conference and handicapping the United States
in its relations with the other Big Powers. Rockefeller was sharply
criticized by State Department officers for his methods. "Sometimes
nobody seemed to know what he was doing," an official said later.
"He acted as if he were a separate delegation." At least one of Rocke
feller s associates warned him he was likely to be fired from the State
Department unless he changed his tactics.
Rockefeller argued that the turmoil had been caused by the
Russian delegates, who were obstructive and who had used every
trick in an effort to get their own way, and that an organized united
front was the only way the smaller powers had of protecting them
selves. For example, there had been little or no public protest against
the Soviet Union s failure to observe the Yalta agreements or
Molotov s refusal to cooperate by postponing the Argentine-White
Russia-Ukraine problem or his offer to vote for Argentina if the Latin
Americans would vote for the illegal Lublin government. Rockefeller
urged Stettinius to publicize thesje facts but the Secretary declined.
The Argentine issue came to a head at the end of April. "I be
lieved," Rockefeller said later, "that if we agreed to seat the two
Russian states we also had to support the Latin American demand
for an invitation to Argentina. Otherwise, the Western Hemisphere
would be split wide open again and we might well lose the support
of Latin American countries in later voting on vital sections of the
SAN FRANCISCO WORLD POLITICS 211
charter. Furthermore, if Argentina were not admitted at this time,
when the Big Powers did not have the right of veto, the Russians
could later exercise the veto to keep her out and to prevent in
definitely the re-establishment of complete unity of the Americas. I
certainly believed that in the assembly of the world organization
as differentiated from the veto-controlled council we would
need to have the confidence and support of small nations. I felt that
the Russians were doing everything possible at San Francisco to
prevent American unity." He also believed that the crisis could have
been avoided if the United States had promptly carried out its com
mitment regarding Argentina.
There was a rather bitter debate at a U.S. delegation meeting on
April 29 at which three alternatives were discussed. The United
States might:
First, oppose seating of all three of the disputed states and thereby
risk wrecking the conference if the Russians walked out, as some
experts believed they might.
Second, vote against Argentina and for the two Russian states.
This might well have been the most popular course with the United
States press and public because Argentina was a pro-Nazi dictator
ship. But it also would mean giving in to the Russians for the sake
of expediency and it would mean betraying a moral commitment
made at Mexico City.
Three, vote for all three states.
Senator Arthur Vandenberg at this time was leading a movement
within the delegation for standing firmly against what he regarded
as unreasonable Russian demands. A few days earlier he had cast a
lone dissenting vote against seating the two Russian states at any
time, and he spoke out strongly against the second alternative. In
the end, the delegation chose the third alternative of voting for all
three, and President Truman approved the decision.
The next day, April 30, there were consecutive meetings of the
conference executive committee, the steering committee and of the
conference itself in plenary session. At each meeting, Molotov
proposed the seating of the two Russian states and his motion was
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 212
adopted unanimously. Then at each meeting an invitation to
Argentina was proposed and Molotov argued against it. Next, a
representative of the Latin American countries presented the facts
regarding the Mexico City conference and asked that the agreement
made there to invite Argentina be honored. Then Stettinius an
nounced that the United States would honor the commitments made
at Mexico City. Then a vote was taken and in each instance the
invitation to Argentina was approved over the opposition of the
Russian bloc, the plenary session vote being thirty-two to four with
a number of small nations abstaining.
The outcome was far from popular but at least the danger of a
Russian walkout had been avoided and the conference was able
to complete its formal organization and get to work on the bigger
and more difficult problems before it. The next day Rockefeller
flew to Washington to keep a previously arranged date with a con
gressional committee. He discovered that in tie capital he was being
severely criticized for his actions at San Francisco and some of his
foes were saying he was pro-Fascist and anti-Russian.
This criticism may have been best illustrated by an editorial that
appeared later in the Washington Post in connection with an article
from Buenos Aires by Arnaldo Cortesi, correspondent of the New
York Times. Cortesi s article recited in detail the dictatorial methods
and acts of the Per6n regime in suppressing democracy in Argentina.
In praising the article, the Washington Post said:
But for such men as [Cortesi], American opinion would have to
accept the dubious word of the officials who run the Latin-American
division of our State Department, Nelson Rockefeller and Avra
Warren. Mr. Warren . . . was the man [who] went to Buenos
Aires just before the San Francisco conference and gave out a
soothing report on Argentine progress. . . . The regime which is
described by Mr. Cortesi as having done things "recently that
exceed anything that this correspondent can remember in his
seventeen years experience in Fascist Italy" this regime was rail
roaded into the company of "peace-loving states" in San Francisco
by Secretary Stettinius and Assistant Secretary Rockefeller. The
SAN FRANCISCO WORLD POLITICS 213
next day Mr. Rockefeller justified the admission by extolling the
"progress" report from Buenos Aires. We take it he referred to the
oral report of Mr. Warren. All that the news recorded was [on
the next day] the re-establishment of censorship, and from then on
a steady stream to the concentration camp of the best friends this
country ever had in Argentina.
Mr. Cortesi provides a shocking epilogue to the Stettinius-
Rockefeller-Warren shenanigans. We don t know whether the
heroes of the San Francisco exploit think themselves smart or
merely cynical. All we know is that the bloc they have built up is
built upon sand, and that, far from earning from our Latin Amer
ican friends any encomium for putting together this jerry-built
contraption, we are arousing their criticism and causing a great deal
of disgust south of the Rio Grande.
There were, then and later, other similar editorials in other news
papers. Oddly enough, Rockefeller did not particularly blame these
newspapers for their attacks because he felt the traditional State De
partment policy of secrecy prevented reporters from getting all of the
facts behind the action on Argentina. He called at the White House
and gave President Truman a report on developments at San Fran
cisco, saying that both the Latin American delegates and Secretary
Stettinius were receiving a great deal of unjustified criticism. The
President was noncommittal, having already decided to replace
Stettinius with James F. Byrnes following the conclusion of the San
Francisco conference.
Some weeks later, on July 13, the New York Times correspondent
in Washington, Arthur Krock, would agree with Rockefeller s re
marks to Mr. Truman. Writing on the possibility that Congress
might make a formal investigation of relations with Argentina and
of the United States delegation s support of the invitation to Argen
tina, Krock said that
the facts . . . will in this correspondent s opinion greatly disappoint
the critics of Secretary Stettinius and Assistant Secretary Rocke
feller for their part in the history. These critics based some of their
demands for the replacement of Mr. Stettinius on his handling of
the later phases of die Argentine problem and Secretary Byrnes has
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 214
been publicly advised to dispense with Mr. Rockefeller s excellent
services on the same ground. But observations here and at San
Francisco lead this correspondent to believe that if and when the
whole hidden chapter is revealed, both officials will be shown to
have dealt ably with the later phases of a most difficult problem,
which they inherited and did not create, and the inner records of
San Francisco, if they are opened, will assign whatever fundamental
blame there may be in the circumstances to other persons and
conditions.
Krock then referred obliquely to the fact that Molotov had sought
to serve his own ends by bringing up the issue of admitting the pro-
Communist Lublin government to the conference. "There may be
villains in this piece," the correspondent concluded, "but Mr, Stet-
tinius and Mr. Rockefeller are not among them/
ELEVEN
New Regional Framework
Rockefeller returned to San Francisco on Saturday, May 5, and
promptly ran into more trouble. Up to this point, his role in the dis
pute over Argentina had been a kind of minor-league affair in
relation to the over-all problems of the conference. But now the
question of regional agreements or alliances within the world or
ganization began to assume paramount importance.
What had happened was that the Big Powers had agreed among
themselves on twenty-seven amendments to the proposed charter of
the United Nations, including one for "regional arrangements." In
effect, this amendment would have permitted the formation of
military alliances among Russia and other European nations against
"enemy states" (Germany) or among Russia and China against
Japan to prevent renewal of aggressive policies, without such alliances
being subject to veto in the Security Council. But it did not exempt
other regional treaties from the veto. In other words there would
be nothing to prevent the Russian member of the Security Council
from vetoing any Western Hemisphere alliance such as the mutual
215
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 216
defense treaty provided for under the Act of Chapultepec.
Senator Vandenberg wrote in his diary that under this amendment
Europe would have freedom of action for her defensive arrange
ments (pending the time when the Peace League shaft prove its
dependability as a substitute policeman) but the Western Hemi
sphere would not have similar freedom of action under its Pan-
American agreements which have a background of a century
behind them and which were specifically implemented again by our
21 Republics a few weeks ago at Chapultepec. Therefore, in the
event of trouble in the Americas, we could not act ourselves; we
would have to depend exclusively on the Security Council; and any
one permanent member of the Council could veto the latter action
(putting us at the mercy of Britain, Russia or China) . Thus little
is left of the Monroe Doctrine,
Rockefeller had previously discussed the implications of the
amendment with Stettinius and made clear his opposition and he
was shocked that it had been tentatively approved during his absence
in Washington. He immediately telephoned one of the Secretary s
aides and asked for an appointment.
"The Secretary is exhausted/ the aide replied. "He is not going
to see anyone over the weekend. Why don t you talk to Dunn or
Pasvolsky?"
Rockefeller decided after this conversation that his best hope of
getting a hearing was to talk to Vandenberg and Connally. After
some delay, he reached Vandenberg and invited him to dinner that
evening in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel. Just what Vandenberg
had intended to do about the proposed amendment is not clear from
his diary, except that he wrote that "it bothered me all day." Then
he added that "by a significant coincidence, Nelson Rockefeller
asked me to join him at dinner where he disclosed these same fears
and said the South American republics are up in arms."
In any event, at dinner Rockefeller told the senator that the
Latin American delegates had always feared the amendment and
were convinced some provision should be made to continue the
mutual defense concept of the Act of Chapultepec. Once he had
NEW REGIONAL FRAMEWORK 217
started talking, Rockefeller laid all of his worries before Vandenberg.
He was not sure, for example, that the British or French were whole
heartedly in favor of the Act of Chapultepec, because it would serve
to strengthen inter-American cooperation. He also talked about his
past troubles with some members of the International Division of
the State Department. These foes of regional agreements, such as the
Act of Chapultepec, had strongly pressed the argument that peace
could best be maintained by a universal organization rather than
regional organizations, he emphasized. In theory, their position was
sound, but was it purely a coincidence that it happened to please
the Russians, whose regional pacts against Germany would not be
invalidated? In any event, it was politically unwise because it
would weaken security of the Americas, whereas recognition of the
Act of Chapultepec would in the long run tend to strengthen the
world organization.
Vandenberg was fully aware that respected members of the dele
gation had sincere and logical objections to regional pacts, but
he could also see Rockefeller s point and he could envision the
possibility of trouble with the United Nations charter in the United
States Senate if it tended to nullify the Monroe Doctrine.
The grave problem [he wrote later in his diary] is to find a
formula which will reasonably protect legitimate regional arrange
ments without destroying the over-all responsibility of united action
through the Peace League and without inviting the formation of
a lot of dangerous new "regional spheres of influence."
As the evening wore on, Vandenberg decided that the only solu
tion to this dilemma was to add a sentence to the proposed amend
ment that would exempt the regional agreements reached at Chapul
tepec (as well as the treaties against Germany and Japan) from
the veto power of the Security Council. There was no time to be lost
and he immediately began drafting a letter to Stettinius setting forth
this idea. Rockefeller got on the telephone and asked the Cuban
ambassador, Guillermo Belt, and the Colombian foreign minister,
NELSON ROOKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 218
Lleras Camargo, to join them. Both approved the letter, which said
that Vandenberg was disturbed that the United States might be
charged with deserting our obligations under both the Act of Cha-
pultepec and the Monroe Doctrine. He added, pointedly, that this
might threaten Senate confirmation of the United Nations charter.
Then he proposed that the regional agreements made at Mexico City
should have the same exemption as proposed for European defense
alliances, without in any way prejudicing the legitimate interests of
other United Nations governments.
It was midnight by the time the letter was typed. It was delivered
to Stettinius at nine-thirty the next morning by Vandenberg.
n.
The Vandenberg letter touched off an explosion in Stettinius*
penthouse headquarters that could be heard all over San Francisco.
The Secretary s weekend of rest and seclusion ended with an indig
nant outburst in which most of the United States delegation shared.
Rockefeller s role in the framing of the letter soon became known.
Almost everyone joined in the criticism, including John Foster Dulles,
the principal Republican advisor on foreign policy, who wouldn t
speak to Rockefeller for some time but finally got around to de
nouncing him for doing "a most dangerous and damaging thing/ 7
"That letter/ 7 Dulles exclaimed, "might wreck the conference!"
"Well" Rockefeller said without much conviction, "I didn t write
it. Van wrote it/
"It makes no difference," Dulles replied. "It was extremely un
wise."
At the regular meeting of the United States delegation on Monday,
there was obvious bitterness. The fact that the Assistant Secretary
of State in charge of Latin American Affairs previously had been
opposing the amendment was one thing. Rockefeller could be brushed
off. But the fact that a powerful member of the United States
Senate had been brought into the controversy was quite another
thing and could not be brushed off, especially since Senator Con-
NEW REGIONAL FRAMEWORK 219
nally promptly lined up with Vandenberg s position.
Vandenberg later described the meeting as follows:
. . . Stassen felt my proposal would gut the international power
by emphasizing regional authority. This view was generally held
by the State Department, particularly by Pasvolsky who was bitter
about it. ... Dulles argued that there is nothing in Dumbarton
Oaks which prohibits "self-defense" and that under the Chapul-
tepec agreement "self-defense" in the Western Hemisphere is
a partnership affair and that the Monroe Doctrine is still part of
it. I served notice on the Delegation, as a matter of good faith,
that if this question is not specifically cleared up in the Charter,
I shall expect to see a reservation on the subject in the Senate and
that I shall support it. ... At the end of an acrimonious session
. . . the subject was temporarily referred to a special committee of
technicians.
The argument took up the delegation s time for the next week
or so. Stettinius met with a number of Latin American delegates with
no result except to convince the Secretary that they were completely
sincere in their demand for exemption of inter-American defense
agreements from veto by the Security Council. After a week in which
little progress was made, Rockefeller decided to ask Harold Stassen
to dinner because he felt Stassen had a knack for dealing with legalis
tic problems. Stassen, however, was in a cautious mood and his
secretary was careless about handling the telephone. When she
relayed the telephone invitation, Stassen s reply could be clearly
heard in Rockefeller s office: "I can t say now. I ve got to talk to
the Secretary. Rockefeller got Van into an awful lot of trouble and
I m not sure I ought to go down there."
Later, Stassen accepted the invitation, but his host was irritated
by that time and decided not to mention the regional problem.
After dinner, Stassen asked: "Aren t we going to talk about Cha-
pultepec?"
"I d be happy to if you want to talk about it," Rockefeller replied.
He then discussed his own attitude toward regional alliances*
Stassen became interested and finally came up with the idea that
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 220
the inherent right of self-defense, coupled with the concept adopted
by the American republics that an attack on one was an attack
on all, provided a common meeting ground.
"I think that s the answer/ Rockefeller said enthusiastically.
They worked the rest of the evening over the formula and the
next morning Stassen presented the idea in a memorandum, which
Rockefeller still has in his files. It was well received. Vandenberg,
who, incidentally, did not mention Stassen s role in his diary, went
to work on a substitute amendment and came up with the following:
VI E. Self Defense
i Nothing in this Charter shall be construed as abrogating
the inherent right of self defense against a violator of this Charter.
2 In the application of this provision the principles of the Act
of Chapultepec and of the Monroe Doctrine are specifically recog
nized.
The Latin American delegations were pleased, but the British and
others objected to the specific mention of the Act of Chapultepec
in the draft amendment. This led to one further crisis. Some
leading Latin American delegates balked at the omission because
they feared the United States might not go through with the inter-
American defense treaty authorized (but not yet drafted) by the
Act of Chapultepec. The importance of alleviating these fears was
made clear when on three earlier occasions motions by Connally
on various subjects before conference committees were defeated
because the Latin Americans voted against him. Connally complained
they lacked loyalty and gratitude.
Well, Senator," Rockefeller replied, "y u ve got to make up your
mind. You abused them first because they ganged up on our side and
now you blame them when you get voted under. I can t tell them
how to vote. But I believe they recognize that this charter has to go
through and that they will stand by us whenever we convince them
that it is to our mutual interest/*
In an effort to achieve agreement, Stettinius invited the Latin
American delegates to a meeting in his penthouse. He began by saying
he had talked to the President, who gave assurances that the United
NEW REGIONAL FRAMEWORK 221
States stood ready to meet at Rio de Janeiro in August, 1945, to
negotiate the inter-American treaty. He added that the Big Powers
understood that the treaty would come under Article 51 within the
framework of the United Nations Charter.
Connally then made a rather impassioned speech in which he told
the Latin Americans that the United States had done much for them
in the past and expressed regret that they did not seem to trust us
to go through with the treaty. He made it clear that he believed
they had "forced" the United States to agree formally to a specific
date for the Rio de Janeiro conference and that this indicated a re
grettable lack of faith.
This meeting and the statements made by Stettinius and Con
nally were important because later an announcement by Under
Secretary of State Dean Acheson did postpone the Rio de Janeiro
conference, although not owing to any fault of those present at the
meeting. But on the morning of May 15, the Latin American dele
gates were satisfied with the assurances given and agreed to support
the new amendment. After some further technical changes, it was
unanimously adopted on June 9 and became a part of the United
Nations Charter.
The significance of the regional alliance agreement was not fully
realized at the time by all of the delegates. The Latin Americans in
sisted on it because they feared that in a crisis a veto by one of the Big
Powers might prevent the world organization from taking action to
protect them. Rockefeller shared their attitude toward the veto power
and believed regional agreements could strengthen rather than weaken
the United Nations. He was also highly suspicious of Russian in
tentions. Vandenberg and Connally were concerned that the Monroe
Doctrine would be nullified without the regional amendment and
that the charter would face defeat or reservations in the Senate.
In later years, however, the significance of Article 51 would be far
greater than most of them had anticipated. It would provide the
legal basis for the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza
tion and other regional alliances throughout the world in the long
and desperate struggle of free nations to withstand the expansion of
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 222
Communism. Without Article 51, the unity of the Western world
and the existence of the United Nations might well have been im
possible in the 1950*8.
m.
Rockefeller was up to his neck in so much controversy at San Fran
cisco that it seems unlikely he would have had any time for social
activities, but he managed to make the rounds of cocktail parties
and dinners, to visit Trader Vic s in Oakland, attend functions of
the Bohemian Club, and to do his share of entertaining at the
Burlingame Country Club and the St. Francis Yacht Club, to which
he imported a group of Hollywood entertainers, including Carmen
Miranda.
Nelson starts his working day with breakfast at 8 a.m. [a member
of his staff wrote in mid-June]. Usually staff members are present
and this gives all of us a chance to clear up pending matters and
exchange reactions. There are night committee meetings regularly,
so some of us are sleepy at breakfast, which is usually interrupted
by phone calls from Washington. Nelson leaves to attend the
morning staff meeting of the U.S. delegation at Stettinius apart
ment. . . . Later individual or group conferences are held with
various foreign ministers or ambassadors of Latin America. In the
afternoon there are committee meetings or he may attend sessions
of the Big Five in an advisory capacity. In the evening his social
calendar is always crowded. A man of less nigged strength could
scarcely stand the pace, but I think Nelson catches some rest
before dinner.
I think that Nelson s regular meetings with representatives of
the American republics have had a very vital influence on the
progress of the conference. . . . This role, of course, takes a nice
tact, as the cooperation and support of other countries must be
obtained without any coercion whatever, and in a manner to avoid
any public impression that the U.S. is seeking to establish a Latin
American bloc.
Of course, there is a lot of embarrassment and difficulty along
NEW REGIONAL FRAMEWORK 223
with the good breaks. The U.S. policy toward Argentina ... has
been very sharply criticized by some of the prominent newspapers.
. . . The policy grew out of very justifiable military and foreign
policy interests of the U.S. and other American republics but
Argentina s internal situation is vulnerable to criticism because of
the lack of effective democratic leadership. . . . But I believe that
the invitation to Argentina to attend here was well advised. The
confirmation of her absence would have been a permanent blow
to any program of solidarity among the American republics and
Argentina would have started a bloc movement in the southern part
of South America . . . but the current situation with its many
negative reactions has been painful to those of us who share Nel
son s responsibility.
No small part of the "negative reaction" originated within the
United States delegation. One morning, a State Department official
stopped Rockefeller as he headed for a meeting and said: "You re
in a hell of a lot of trouble. The Secretary has a message from South
America indicating that youVe been giving the Latin American
delegates information that violates security/
Rockefeller had a sinking feeling but he tried to smile. "I ll talk
to him/ he replied, aware that various members of the delegation
would be happy to see him sent back to Washington.
Stettinius was indignant when he received the Assistant Secretary,
and said that he was disturbed about security.
"I don t know what message you re talking about," Rockefeller
said. "What have you read?"
"Well," the Secretary replied, "I haven t read it myself but I know
about what it says."
"We can save a lot of time by reading it," Rockefeller said. They
sent for the message to which Stettinius referred and it turned out
to be a report to his home office by an ambassador who had quoted
Rockefeller in regard to the attitude of the Russian delegation. How
the message was passed on to Stettinius was not clear but it said
nothing that was not generally known.
"There s nothing of significance in this message," Rockefeller pro
tested. "I think somebody s giving you a song-and-dance."
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 224
Stettinius agreed but then he burst out with an opinion that was
shared by others in the International Division of the State Depart
ment. *Tou talk too much with these people anyway/ he exclaimed.
"Damnit, you ve got to be careful!"
Rockefeller agreed to be careful, particularly in view of the fact that
another storm was building up in connection with the opposition of
small nations to the veto privilege proposed for the permanent mem
bers of the Security Council. Dr. H. V, Evatt of Australia, Lleras
Camargo of Colombia, and Guillermo Belt of Cuba were leaders
in the fight against the veto by which any one of the Big Powers
could prevent the world organization from taking action to prevent
war or to force a settlement of a dispute between two nations by
peaceful means.
Rockefeller shared the attitude of the smaller nations in principle
and particularly opposed a Russian-backed plan to extend the veto to
prevent even a discussion of disputes. He decided to put his views on
record in a memorandum to Stettinius on May 22.
It seems to me that the present veto power . . . can have the
effect of completely isolating the United States from taking an
effective part and exercising moral influence through the World
Organization for peace and security in Europe and the Far East . . .
For example, a dispute might develop in the Near East where
many of the permanent members [of the Security Council] have
interests. Such a dispute might have world-wide implications, yet
any one of the permanent members could prevent the World
Organization from endeavoring to settle this dispute by peaceful
means. I fear . . . there may be disillusionment and a feeling that
the veto was carried beyond the original intent of President Roose
velt at Yalta. His preoccupation was primarily in protecting the
right of the United States to control the use abroad of American
armed forces. ... It seems to me that ... a modification might be
. . . that the veto does not apply to pacific settlements ... or an
amendment specifying that action toward pacific settlement may
be taken by a majority vote of the Security Council. ... If, after we
have exhausted every possibility along these lines we cannot bring
about a change, then and only then will we be in a logical position
NEW REGIONAL FRAMEWORK 225
to appeal to the small nations for support of this Yalta agreement
on the ground that it is essential to establishment of the World
Organization.
After Rockefeller had made his views clear, both Connally and
Vandenberg advised him that they could not get Senate approval
of the charter without the veto provision and asked him to determine
whether, for that reason, the Latin American delegations would go
along. He relayed this information to the various delegates, saying
that he did not desire to influence any who had taken a public posi
tion against the veto or who were firmly opposed on principle. The
Latin Americans knew that Rockefeller had argued against the veto.
But they wanted the world organization to come into being and some
of them said that, if necessary, they would shift their position. In
time, Rockefeller had enough votes lined up.
This did not satisfy all of the members of the United States dele
gation, who felt that they had been through a rough time with the
Latin Americans and that the results had put them in disfavor with
the American public. They insisted that there should be a unanimous
Latin American vote as a kind of vindication. The delegates had
been under great pressure for weeks, their nerves were frayed and
there was much bitter discussion. Rockefeller, however, refused to
agree.
"Fm not going to ask them to make it unanimous/ he said. "We
will have enough votes to put it through. But maintaining our good
relations with Latin America is more important than getting some
kind of moral vindication which would be dishonest anyway. If you
want somebody to tell them to vote unanimously you can appoint
anybody you want except me. Ill drop out of the conference."
For a while, Rockefeller thought that they might take him up,
but in the end they didn t On June 7, the Russians yielded in the
argument over extending the veto power to prevent even discussion of
disputes brought before the Security Council and the way was cleared
for final acceptance, which came on June 13. Enough, but not all,
of the Latin American nations voted for the veto formula.
The United Nations organization conference ended the last
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 226
week in June on a note of great rejoicing. Vandenberg and Connally
returned to a great reception in the Senate, which broke its routine
for fifteen minutes to permit members to congratulate them and shake
their hands while packed galleries cheered. Hardly a shred of this
enthusiasm extended to Stettinius or Rockefeller. Most comment
on their roles was critical. Almost the only good word that Rocke
feller heard before he left San Francisco was from the energetic
Herbert Evatt of Australia, who came around to apologize for an
earlier remark he had made concerning Rockefeller s lobbying with
the Latin Americans.
"I said that your tactics were evidence of domination, imperialism
and dictatorship by the United States/ Evatt recalled. "But Fve come
to understand the Latins and your relations with them. It is new to
me, but I want to tell you that these people really respect the rela
tionship because it is a relationship of dignity. I was wrong about
what I said earlier/
Not every newspaper criticized the Assistant Secretary of State.
The New York Journal American said on June 19 that there was a
better relationship among the American republics and that "the
United States has made many contributions to this vital understand
ing, for which major credit is due the CIAA under the capable direc
tion of Mr. Nelson A. Rockefeller. The policies of the United States
have been consistently sound, insofar as they have reflected the bene
ficial leadership of Mr. Rockefeller." Columnist David Lawrence on
May 22 wrote that "the most significant achievement, of course, is
our close relations with the Latin American countries, and in that
field the skill and magnetic personality of Nelson Rockefeller has
been an invaluable factor in keeping high the prestige of the United
States at the San Francisco conference/
There also was a column by a reporter for a Negro newspaper, the
Pittsburgh Courier, which related an incident at San Francisco:
A nice guy to know is Nelson Rockefeller . . . actually, the man
is charming without intending to be so; charming and smart. . . .
Yours truly asked him, "Mr. Rockefeller, is it true that Argentina
NEW REGIONAL FRAMEWORK 227
wfll admit only pure whites to citizenship?" He turned, put his
arm over our shoulder (really), while about fifty white newsmen
and women looked on, and said that he didn t know, but if it
were true he was against that sort of thing. Never would think he
was close to money. Necktie looked like it was out of a five-and-
ten. This Rockefeller has more than dough.
There would be other consolations for Rockefeller later. Vanden-
berg praised him and added that "I ve never realized before how
important the work of his [Rockefeller s] Department is in keeping
our good neighbors united with us. ... I do not see how anyone
could be more efficient." Then, a few years later, when the Russians
were using the veto time after time in the United Nations to obstruct
interference with Communist expansion, there was a gradual shift
of opinion in the Western world as to the wisdom of permitting one
of the Big Powers to block the desires of the majority. Steps were
taken in 1950 to diminish the effect of the veto by increasing the
power of the General Assembly to act in an emergency. Rockefeller
was pleased that he had not acted on Stettinius 7 suggestion that he
withdraw his memorandum on the subject from the files of the
Department of State.
Perhaps his greatest satisfaction, however, came one evening when
he sat down at an official banquet and found himself next to John
Foster Dulles. As they shook hands, Dulles recalled his bitter com
plaint at San Francisco that Rockefeller s activities threatened to
wreck the conference.
"I owe you an apology," he added. "If you fellows hadn t done it,
we might never have had NATO."
w.
When Rockefeller got back to Washington the Department of
State was in the midst of a thorough shake-up. James F. Byrnes re
placed Stettinius. President Truman had continued Mr. Roosevelt s
policies and personnel in the department until the United Nations
was organized, but now he wanted his own men. Some of the men
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 228
he wanted were the most severe critics of Rockefeller, and one refused
to serve unless the Assistant Secretary was dropped.
Byrnes was tremendously busy with many problems, including the
Potsdam conference of Mr. Truman, Prime Minister Churchill and
Premier Stalin. No staff meetings were held and very few staff mem
bers saw the new Secretary. Rockefeller had asked for an appointment
before Byrnes left for Potsdam but didn t get one, so he went about
his business as best he could. Braden had taken up his post as
ambassador at Buenos Aires during the San Francisco conference and
had immediately adopted a tough attitude toward Per6n. The
Argentine election campaign was approaching and the ambassador
made it clear in many ways that he was looking forward to Per6n s
defeat. Rockefeller did not approve of all the ambassador s political
activities because he felt the Argentine people would resent outside
interference, but Braden s actions were generally applauded in the
United States.
Ambassador Braden expressed what has been in the minds of
most Americans when he told a luncheon gathering in Buenos Aires
of the Argentine Rural Society that "there are few peoples on earth
so well prepared to exercise healthy democracy" as are the people
of the Argentine [said the New York Times in praising the am
bassador], A positive step [for the United States] is to give the
democratic elements in Argentina all possible moral encouragement
to continue their fight for free elections and a government of their
own choosing.
Actually, it did not work out that way. Per6n welcomed the oppor
tunity to campaign against the United States ambassador, and he also
began to backslide on his promises to reorient his government and
live up to democratic principles. While Byrnes was at the Potsdam
conference late in July, Rockefeller felt that the Argentine situation
again was threatening to disrupt Hemisphere unity, partly because
Washington was not providing leadership, and he suggested that a
statement or a speech should be made taking a firm position against
Per6n s divisive and pro-Axis tactics. Others in the department felt
that the problem was too important to handle in the absence of
NEW REGIONAL FRAMEWORK 229
the Secretary and the President, and, anyway, Rockefeller was still
deep in the departmental dog house.
By the time Byrnes got back from Potsdam, the situation was
worse. Per6n had completely failed to observe the pledges he had
made prior to being invited to the United Nations. The time had
come to speak out strongly. Rockefeller had accepted an invitation
to address the Pan American Society of Massachusetts and Northern
New England at Boston on August 24, and for that occasion he
prepared a speech that, in effect, was a reversal of the State Depart
ment s approach to the Argentine problem.
The speech expressed admiration for Braden s work in Buenos
Aires. It said that the American republics had shown their willing
ness to work with Argentina and that they had expected Peron would
reciprocate in good faith. Then it outlined what Argentina had done
and had not done in carrying out her promises.
This record shows that while steps have been taken toward carry
ing out the commitments, there are many important failures which
have serious implications. Too often the action has appeared to be
reluctant. Too often steps have been begun or promised and not
carried through to completion. The fact remains that many vital
commitments in which Argentina joined with her American neigh
bors still remain unfulfilled by her government. That the people
are not in agreement with such a policy has been manifest in many
ways ... by their own words they have shown they share the same
ideals held by the peoples of the other American republics. . . .
They have expressed their abhorrence of tyranny and of dictator
ships. . . . Their voice and their action are giving the people of
the Americas the assurance that they will see to it that their nation
will live up to its commitments.
Rockefeller had been trying for weeks to get an appointment with
Byrnes to discuss the proposed speech. The Secretary apparently had
no prejudice against Rockefeller and, in fact, later paid public tribute
to "the splendid service" he rendered during the war. But he was
overwhelmed at the time with tremendous world problems and he
doubtless was not unaware of the criticism that had been directed at
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 230
Rockefeller in connection with the Argentine problem. In any event,
the Assistant Secretary could not get an appointment until he sent
Byrnes a copy of the speech he had written and a note saying it was
important that they discuss it. Byrnes received him on August 23, but
he was harassed and almost brusque.
"What is it you want?" the Secretary asked.
"I want to talk about Argentina/ Rockefeller replied and started
to explain his proposal for a change of policy.
"Frankly," the Secretary said, "there s no use talking. The Presi
dent is going to accept your resignation/
"Well, Mr. Secretary," Rockefeller said, "I have given you a
speech on Argentina which I am going to make tomorrow night/ 7
"Oh, no; because you ll no longer be Assistant Secretary."
"All right, that will free me to make the kind of speech I would
like to make as a private citizen and to tell the true story."
Byrnes was not happy about this prospect. "All right," he said,
"the President won t accept your resignation until after your speech."
Rockefeller made his speech and the next morning his resignation,
because of his desire to return to private affairs, was announced by
the White House. He went to see Mr. Truman before leaving
Washington* "I want to assure you, Mr. President," he said, "that
I did not want to leave the State Department and that I do not want
you to feel that I was unwilling to carry on under your administra
tion. I just want to keep the record straight."
Rockefeller s departure from the department attracted some edi
torial comment.
The record of Inter-American affairs of the last five years is all
the proof that is needed of [Rockefeller s] success [the New York
Times said editorially]. Since the San Francisco conference, Mr.
Rockefeller has been under unceasing and ill-informed criticism
because of his part in forcing through an invitation of participation
for Argentina. His address at Boston last Friday night should
provide the answer as to his own personal attitude toward the
Argentine government. Until then he had accepted without answer
the entire criticism for the San Francisco action. ... He is
NEW REGIONAL FRAMEWORK 231
respected and, what is more important, well liked everywhere in
South America. It is hoped he will cany on unofficially as am
bassador of good will. . . . This country could not have a better
one.
The New Yorfe Times also praised Braden, who was recalled from
Buenos Aires to succeed Rockefeller as Assistant Secretary.
With Braden s appointment the State Department shifted its policy
toward Argentina more or less along the lines set forth by Rockefeller
in his Boston speech, but the new approach never did seem to get
up a full head of steam. The tougher Washington attitude did noth
ing to weaken Peron at home and the whole concept of joiot inter-
American action was neglected. In February, 1946, Per6n was elected
President of Argentina. Furthermore, the August conference at Rio
de Janeiro was postponed by the Department of State despite the
pledges that had been made to Latin American delegates at San
Francisco and despite the protests of Connally and Vandenberg.
This action further weakened the confidence of Latin America in
the United States and the damage was not repaired until 1947,
when the conference finally was held and the treaty implementing the
Act of Chapultepec was signed.
Somehow or other they don t pin medals on men who achieve
for their country some of its most substantial successes [wrote
columnist David Lawrence in September, 1947]. Everybody, for
example, is happy in Washington nowadays over the new Inter-
American treaty . . . yet this magnificent result could not have
been attained if good relations had not been restored with Argen
tina. . . . Without Argentina there really would never have been a
treaty or even a meeting at Rio de Janeiro. . . . Had it not been
for the indefatigable work of Nelson Rockefeller when he was
Assistant Secretary of State, and George Messersmith, when he
became American Ambassador to Argentina, today s applause for
the Rio treaty would never have been heard because there would
have been no such agreement. . . . President Roosevelt was far-
sighted early in 1945 when he accepted and initialed a memoran
dum from Mr. Rockefeller recommending that the Argentine
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 232
government be invited to the meeting at Chapultepec and be given
a chance to join the United Nations. ... It was at San Francisco
that Mr. Rockefeller carried out the wishes of Mr. Roosevelt in
making the fight for admission of Argentina to the United Nations.
... Mr. Rockefeller was bitterly criticized by the left wing press
which didn t know he was operating under instructions covered in
a memorandum approved by Mr. Roosevelt a few weeks before he
died.
Although discouraged by his ouster from the State Department,
Rockefeller was convinced that Latin Americans wanted close co
operation with Washington. He was convinced that they respected
our way of life in an industrial age and that they wanted to be as
sociated with that way of life, not just to seek material progress but
to move forward in the democratic tradition.
"I believed," he said later, "that we could translate this relation
ship into a great postwar force that would help hold together the
free world and give it a new sense of purpose and direction. We had
the great power of a common effort toward common objectives, and
the Latin Americans had come to feel secure in that association."
Rockefeller felt a kind of personal responsibility toward Latin
America because he had made many speeches in which he empha
sized the determination of the United States to carry on its co
operation after the war. One day a Brazilian journalist, Alfonso
Schmidt, came to see him at his office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in
New York, and talked about what had happened to Brazil during
the war. The Brazilians, he said, had had a tremendous rise of confi
dence and hope as a result of their close association with the United
States. They felt they had arrived on the world scene. They looked
to the future with enthusiasm. Then, the war ended and they found
that the interest of the United States also was ending. Their con
fidence was shaken. They were uncertain about the future. As
Schmidt talked, Rockefeller noticed that tears were sliding down
his cheeks. He was talking about what he regarded as a disaster for
his country.
"I knew that what he was saying was true," Rockefeller said later.
NEW REGIONAL FRAMEWORK 233
"It is hard for us to understand the Latin attitude but it was true/
In the following months, Rockefeller devoted a great deal of
thought to the problem and discussed with his associates whether
private efforts could make a small start toward aiding the economic
development of Latin America. He kept thinking that there might be
a cooperative program aimed toward raising standards of living and
developing a greater faith and confidence in the future.
Gradually, he evolved a plan.
TWELVE
The Private Citizen s
Great Experiment
You can have big thoughts and big ideas/ Nelson Rockefeller once
remarked, speaking of his own effort to make his mark in the world,
"but when it comes to doing you usually feel that you are dealing
only with little things. Well, little things can take you a little way
forward if you re headed in the right direction."
Such an expression could be highly misleading to anyone un
acquainted with the range of Rockefeller s ideas. What he regarded
as a big idea, for example, might easily encompass the known areas
of the world and veer off into outer space. A modest idea might
involve only one continent or a large country and little things might
be no more than revolutionizing the economy of the Fiji Islands or
mechanizing the agricultural production of Brazil. "Nelson," an
associate commented, likes big, broad ideas and large-scale action.
He knows how to get thing done in a big way and when he makes a
234
THE PRIVATE CITIZEN S GREAT EXPERIMENT 235
mistake, it s likely to be a whopper, too/
When Rockefeller got back to New York after World War II he
became chairman of the board of Rockefeller Center but it was ob
vious that such a job would not keep him busy. His four brothers
had returned from war service, all of them rather grimly determined to
show that the third generation of Rockefellers could maintain or
exceed the family record for achievement. They were not, however,
at all sure just how they were going to do it.
Family conferences are an old Rockefeller custom which, inciden
tally, is still followed by the fourth generation the great-grandchil
dren of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. There had always been a conscious
drawing together at regular intervals; on Sundays, for instance, it was
more or less expected that all who were within striking distance
would share the noonday meal at the home of Mr. Rockefeller, Sr.,
in the early days and later at the table of Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., a custom
that was continued until after the five brothers were grown and
married. After the war each of the brothers had his own special
interests, but their affairs were so intertwined and their broad objec
tives so similar that they normally got together at least once every
few weeks to synchronize their plans. The relationship among the
brothers John, Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop and David and their
sister, Abby Rockefeller Mauze, was a close one because they were
bound by family interests, but they were distinctly different as in
dividuals. All of the brothers were hard-working and ambitious and,
in many ways, they were rivals. Each was determined to make a
career of his own and none had any intention of being outdone by
his brothers.
The late 1940*8 were a difficult period for all of them and for
their father because they faced important readjustments. Before the
war they were young men just getting started and David had barely
finished his education. In 1946, they were men who had had experience
in the vast, breath-taking effort that marked America s participation
in the war. They had commanded men in action and directed large-
scale wartime enterprises and conducted confidential missions. They
NELSON ROC3KEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 236
were all adults now and they were eager to get back to their careers,
to accept responsibility and to do big things.
Nelson was perhaps the most eager and the most aggressive at the
moment because his particular wartime job had given him con
fidence in aiming at major objectives, and he brought a new sense
of urgency into the family conferences. Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., how
ever, was accustomed to moving with caution and he was not always
in harmony with the ideas of his sons. When they and their sister
proposed that they take over and run Rockefeller Center, for ex
ample, he was a bit surprised and disapproving. He definitely en
couraged his sons to be enterprising and to accept responsibility but
sometimes he wondered whether they were inclined to move too
rapidly. It was Nelson who, once he was convinced of the wisdom
of the move, took the lead in a campaign to convince Mr. Rocke
feller and carried it on so vigorously that he sometimes verged on in
subordination. In the end, his enthusiasm, his arguments and
definitely his persistence prevailed and Rockefeller Center was
taken over by the children, who eventually became its owners.
"Although Nelson and his father are not at all alike," one ob
server once remarked, "Nelson is a good persuader and he could
always deal strongly with Mr. Rockefeller. He was always exploring,
always wanting to do things and always challenging his father, per
haps more than any of the others. This may have distressed Mr.
Rockefeller at times but it also fascinated him because he wanted
his sons to have courage and initiative and, in the end, they always
settled things in a cooperative spirit."
The regular meetings of the Rockefeller brothers enabled them to
carry on their joint enterprises they undertook a program for ex
pansion of Rockefeller Center, for instance, in the next decade and
to plan new endeavors. But these meetings also were important in
giving them an opportunity to iron out their frequent differences of
opinion and to try to avoid stepping on each other s toes. Their ideas
of what to do and how to do it were as disparate as the decor of their
headquarters on the fifty-sixth floor of No. 30 Rockefeller Plaza,
which is marked by a neat bronze plaque reading:
THE PRIVATE CITIZEN S GREAT EXPERIMENT 237
ROCKEFELLER
OFFICE
OF THE
MESSRS
Inside the big glass doors, the visitor who turns right enters a
suite of traditionally furnished offices. There are gleaming paneled
walls, fireplaces with bright brass pokers and tongs, comfortable
leather chairs and not a few rare English and Colonial antiques.
These are the offices of Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., and his eldest son, John
3rd. In the opposite wing are the briskly modern offices of Nelson
and Laurance Rockefeller, with brightly colored walls, severely func
tional furniture and a generous scattering of modern paintings. In an
adjacent corridor there are also offices for use when needed by Win-
throp and David in fact, so many Rockefellers are gathered here
that the family name is seldom uttered by members of the staff,
who avoid confusion only by addressing the brothers as "Mr. John"
or "Mr. Laurance/
When "Mr. Nelson" was again established in his own small
corner office, decorated with rare examples of primitive art and
a couple of modern paintings, he joined with his brothers and
sister in planning how to make the best use of their energy as well
as their money. One step in this direction led by Laurance was
formally accomplished in 1946 by the formation of Rockefeller
Brothers, Inc., which was greeted by the gamin New York Daily
News with a cheery headline: "The Rock Mob Incorporates!" Rocke
feller Brothers, Inc., was originally a limited partnership company but
it was later reorganized as a service agency and, in practice, was a
kind of holding company for the ideas of the five brothers and
their sister, Abby. The Company provided an outlet for the Rocke
fellers venture or risk capital investments, designed to encourage
technological progress by providing funds, managerial ability and
engineering skill for new, pioneering industries. Such investments
normally were for a period of five to ten years and when the new
enterprise was on its feet (or had definitely failed) the Rockefellers
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 238
would withdraw their original capital and profits (or take a loss) for
reinvestment in another similar venture.
n.
Rockefeller s principal interest after the war was centered on Latin
America, and his salesmanship succeeded in directing the attention
of his brothers and sister to that area in a limited fashion. He was
convinced that, despite past friction, the Latin Americans had been
impressed and excited by the wartime glimpses they had had of
technological progress in the United -States. They admired the big
tractors, the road-building machines, the bulldozers and the men
who operated them. They wanted to share in the progress that had
produced such machines in a democratic state, and the prestige of the
United States was high at the end of the war. Furthermore, various
Latin American countries had accumulated surpluses of funds be
cause they had been unable to make normal purchases during the
war. The failure of the United States government to take advantage
of these circumstances after the war prompted Rockefeller to con
sider what might be done by private capital to bolster the Latin
American economies and thus strengthen inter-American political
and cultural ties.
"The third generation of Rockefellers/ a friend commented, "is
still exporting the missionary idea, just as their grandfather did
through his large contributions to foreign missions of the church."
But, if the missionary idea was still dominant, the techniques had
changed drastically.
"In the last century," Nelson Rockefeller summed up, "capital
went where it could make the greatest profit. In this century, it must
go where it can render the greatest service.
"The really exciting and constructive new development in regard
to Latin America at the end of the war was that progressive local
businessmen were no longer thinking in the old European terms of
cartels or of restrictive production. They were saying that if action
could be taken to raise living standards there would be no more sur-
THE PRIVATE CITIZEN S GREAT EXPERIMENT 239
pluses in Latin America but shortages. There was everywere a surg
ing forward of the people seeking opportunity and a better future."
In this connection, it is noteworthy that there was more to Rocke
feller s ideas than just the goal of raising living standards, more than
mere "do goodism." As a capitalist, he was vitally concerned with
the world-wide struggle of totalitarianism as represented by fascist
dictatorships or by the Soviet Union as opposed to the forces of
capitalistic democracy represented by the Western powers. Rocke^
feller had discovered Communism in its hard-headed and implacable
form during the war and at the San Francisco conference, but it was
probably a minor incident as far back as 1939 that was most impor
tant in molding his attitude in the ideological conflict.
Columbia University Teachers College wanted to abandon the
Lincoln School, which Rockefeller had attended as a boy and which
he had enjoyed. With his usual confidence, Rockefeller decided to
step in and find a way to keep the school going in one form or an
other. This proved to be far more difficult and far more complicated
than he had expected, because New York Communists, for reasons of
their own, became active in a prolonged controversy over whether the
school should be closed down, reorganized or continued as in the
past. The complexities of the battle and the principles involved are
not relevant here. The point is that Rockefeller believed it was im
portant to save Lincoln School. He worked out a program for that
purpose, but when he attempted to sell the program to the Parent-
Teacher Association, of which he was president; he was frustrated at
every turn. This was partly due to an honest difference of opinion
that split the P-TA. But Rockefeller was sure the main reason was the
action of a few Communists and fellow travelers who outtalked
him, outwaited him and outmaneuvered him. Rockefeller was con
vinced that their purpose had nothing to do with education but was
to discredit the dean of Teachers College, an outspoken anti-Com
munist. In any event, he got a lesson in tactics that he never forgot
and, finally, he was so utterly defeated that he was forced to withdraw
from the whole affair.
As a result, he began a serious study of modern Communism, its
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 240
methods and its objectives. He became fully aware of the danger
posed to capitalistic democracy by Communist methods. And once
he became interested, he wanted to know everything. When he read
Das Kapitcd, he reacted as if nobody else had ever heard of Karl Marx,
and he insisted on giving copies to his chief associates with a strong
recommendation that they become acquainted with dialectical ma
terialism. He occasionally argued political philosophy with Lom-
bardo Toledano, the extreme left-wing Mexican labor leader.
One night at a private dinner party, he sat next to Mrs. Andrei
Gromyko, wife of the Soviet ambassador, who had just made a trip
to Cuba. She said the lot of workers in Cuba was "terrible" and that
it would never be improved by capitalistic methods. America, she
added, inevitably would turn to Communism. Rockefeller was fas
cinated by her partisan idea s and ended up by giving her a lecture
on what the Institute of Inter-American Affairs had done to assist in
raising living standards in Latin America. She was not impressed.
At no time was Rockefeller either intimidated or puzzled by
Communism. He recognized the gravity of its threat to the demo
cratic and capitalistic way of life. He knew that the "struggle for
the minds" of men entailed a great deal more than mere preaching
of a political philosophy; that it involved tremendous problems of
economy and of national defense and of simply providing food for
empty bellies. But he never doubted that the evolving system of
capitalism under democratic processes was capable not just of with
standing the threat of Communism but of providing a better life for
all than was possible under any system of duress and dictatorship.
In an important way, Rockefeller represented a dynamic aspect of
democratic capitalism as opposed to Socialist dictatorship. , ~
"I believe that the United States can make democracy an idea
that will be felt throughout the American Hemisphere as a force
working for the interests and well-being of the people/* he once said.
"I believe we must do this from the point of view of capitalism as
well as of democracy, and that we must frankly call it capitalism. A
Russian friend of mine, who held a high Soviet office, once told me
that the Russian leaders learned more about planning from capital-
THE PRIVATE CITIZEN S GREAT EXPERIMENT 241
ists in the United States than from any other source. The people in
your great corporations/ he said, are the most effective and ablest
planners in the world and why you don t plan together instead of
working alone and against each other is something we Communists
can t understand/
"It seems to me the great stirring of peoples all over the world is
not a result of Communism but of democracy. It is an indication that
these peoples, for the first time, are conscious of their own destiny.
We should welcome it and help them realize their destiny/
Rockefeller discussed the possibility of some kind of action in Latin
America with many business friends and economic experts. Then one
day, during a visit to Venezuela, Rockefeller called on a cabinet
minister to discuss ideas that he thought might aid that country s
economy. The minister listened with no great enthusiasm and, finally,
reached over and pulled open a drawer on the left-hand side of his
big desk.
"Seiior," he said, "in this drawer I have all the money I need to do
what is necessary/ Then he reached over to the right-hand side of
his desk and pulled out another drawer. "And in this drawer, I have
more project plans than you can possibly imagine." He slammed both
drawers shut for emphasis and exclaimed dramatically: "But what I
don t have is the technical and managerial assistance to pull these
things together and start an integrated program that will produce
results!"
Most countries lacked Venezuela s big oil revenues, but the con
versation illustrated one of the major problems of Latin America, and
it was along this general line that Rockefeller, with the financial aid
of his sister and brothers, began operations south of the border. He
recognized that certain preliminary measures would be necessary. For
example, social services, health and sanitation programs and educa
tional facilities such as are normally provided by government in
Western countries were lacking or were very primitive in the areas
where he planned to operate. With this in mind, the Rockefellers
set up in July, 1946, a philanthropic organization, the American
International Association for Economic and Social Development and
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 242
called the AIA. Shortly afterward they established the International
Basic Economy Corporation, a private company to conduct business
in Latin America, which will be discussed in a subsequent chapter.
The AIA was a nonprofit operation in partnership with local gov
ernments to provide social programs that were essential to general
economic progress in underdeveloped areas. In a letter to his father
explaining the founding of AIA, Rockefeller outlined a philosophy
that strongly reflected tie experiences of the Rockefeller Foundation
in its work abroad.
Reasons for: very simply, I am convinced that the hope for
future peace and security in the world depends on closer relations
and better understanding between the peoples of the world, coupled
with a rising standard of living and a steady improvement of con
ditions.
Objectives: to give leadership in bringing about cooperation
which will result in helping people in other lands to help them
selves in combatting poverty, disease and illiteracy. To strengthen,
through the dissemination of technical knowledge, modern equip
ment and managerial experience, the self-sufficiency and inde
pendence of the individual, the basic forces which make possible
the growth and development of the democratic system (as con
trasted with the system whereby the individual is dependent on
and subject to the control of the state.)
. . , Naturally, with the magnitude of problems which exist
throughout the world today, it seems almost preposterous for a
private group to enter the field. However, it is my feeling that
the pattern can be set and that in a year or so it can be very
materially expanded by public support growing out of a popular
appeal. The ultimate hope would be that our government itself
will recognize the importance of this field.
The AIA method was to work in contractual association with
local governments which agreed to match AIA funds and to con-
tribute personnel to carry out a program of training, educating and
assisting rural workers and farmers in everything from public health
to road building. A basic concept was that the contribution of funds
THE PRIVATE CITIZEN S GREAT EXPERIMENT 243
by the AIA would be gradually decreased and the government con
tribution would be steadily increased until the programs were both
operated and financed locally, enabling the AIA to withdraw or to use
its resources to start other programs. Robert W. Hudgens, a former
banker from South Carolina who had been in the Farm Security
Administration in Washington, was made director of AIA and
brought to it some of the successful farm credit procedures that
had been developed by the FSA during the depression years of the
1930 $. These techniques, combined with methods developed over
the years by the Rockefeller Foundation, provided the basic founda
tion on which AIA was developed.
Rockefeller s activities in Latin America did not meet with uni
versal approval in 1946 or, for that matter, in later years. The AIA
had financial assistance from the oil companies, and this prompted
charges in South American newspapers that the whole program was
nothing but a false front to cover efforts by United States business
men to exploit Latin American natural resources, particularly oil.
Such charges were quickly seized upon by both left-wing and ex
treme nationalist politicians and would provide, through the years,
the ammunition for countless political battles centered around
Rockefeller s name. Typical of such attacks was an editorial in the
nationalistic Brazilian newspaper O Semanario which described
Rockefeller as "the Standard Oil magnate, king of the North Ameri
can oil trust ... the puppet-master who puts pressure on Brazil
for surrender of its black gold, the No. i enemy of our country in
the United States." The editorial made sure that no reader would
misunderstand its viewpoint by adding that Rockefeller was a "rep-
sentative of slave-colonialism, with his hands stained and dripping
with the blood, sweat and tears of the peoples exploited by Standard
Oil ... a strangler of our economy, this cruel, rapacious and piti
less imperialist, this enemy of humanity. . . ." The intent of the
editorial was to defeat a political candidate who had said that
Rockefeller was "a good friend" of Brazil.
Meanwhile, the oil companies had demonstrated a great interest in
improvement of local conditions and had put up $3,000,000 to assist
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 244
a three-year AIA program in Venezuela a program over which they
had no control. Smaller contributions were made then and later by
other businesses and individuals.
m.
Rockefeller had actually started his Latin American venture in
Brazil, more or less on his own. At that time, he was not clear as
to how to proceed. "I got my neck stuck out/ he remarked later.
"But we started some projects and we aroused a lot of enthusiasm
among the Brazilians/ The Brazilian projects attracted attention in
Venezuela and, in 1947, Rockefeller was invited to talk to leaders
of the Caracas government.
There were a number of reasons why Rockefeller was interested in
Venezuela. He had liked the country from the first time he visited
it in the 1930*8. He and his family had been interested in the
Creole Petroleum Corporation. Venezuela, after the war, had a
population of about four million, with the highest per capita govern
ment revenues in the world derived almost exclusively from taxes
and royalties on oil. Its agricultural and other production was so
low that most staples had to be imported, the cost of living was
possibly the highest in the world and the living standard of two-
thirds of the people was very low. These conditions made Venezuela
an ideal laboratory for the kind of experimentation Rockefeller
wanted to undertake. But there was another thing that also inter
ested him. There had been a revolution in Venezuela and the new
President was none other than R6mulo Betancourt, the sharp-
tongued left-wing politician and editor who had so bitingly attacked
Rockefeller in the 1930 $.
Betancourt and his government were trying to create a better
economic balance in Venezuela by a policy of sembrando el
petroleo (sowing the oil), under which 40 per cent of the country s
revenues or about $250,000,000 a year were being plowed back into
basic capital expansion. But he needed still more capital and tech
nical assistance, and he was so happy to see the oil company heir
THE PRIVATE CITIZEN S GREAT EXPERIMENT 245
whom he had once denounced that he sent a cabinet minister to the
airport to welcome him to Caracas. A few hours later Rockefeller
was in the President s office discussing the possibility of inaugurat
ing projects in Venezuela. The about-face made by Betancourt was
not ignored by his political foes. The anti-government weekly U.R.D.
remarked that whereas Betancourt had once demanded that Vene
zuela
liberate itself from the asphyxiating yoke of foreign capitalism,
now it is required that we open our doors to the Messiah . . . and
grant him the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of hectares
of Venezuelan lands. God forbid that we think of Mr. Rockefeller
as a bird of prey or a gangster as he was called [by Betancourt]
eight years ago for he has come to our country to make us bigger
and raise us up. . . . The people though humorous about it
are confused.
Both Venezuelan and the Minas Gerais state governments in
Brazil agreed to match the funds put up by AIA and in some cases
to provide personnel and, in the next few years, the first eight
programs were started. It is not intended here to attempt a review
of the work of AIA in Latin America or its later activities in India,
but a few examples will illustrate its methods. The organization,
in a general sense, was trying to take the world s organized
technical knowledge and step it down and apply it to the lives of
people who needed help. The work was usually started by experts
or specialists from the United States with local help, but one of the
most important objectives was to train local personnel as rapidly
as possible to take over and keep going on their own. Most of the
programs were designed to spread information and educate people
in simple fundamentals.
In the summer of 1950, for example, a resident of a mountain
village in the Venezuelan state of Carabobo contracted smallpox.
The people of the area were backward and superstitious. In the past,
an outbreak of the dread disease the plague had often caused panic
in such villages. The people were frightened and so superstitiously
opposed to inoculation that they fled to the hills or rioted against the
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 246
doctors and soldiers sent to vaccinate them, and an epidemic resulted.
But when smallpox was discovered in 1950 the reaction was quite
different because the AIA experts were prepared to meet the emer
gency. Within a few hours, a bright yellow station wagon arrived
in the village and cruised slowly through the streets broadcasting
a message through a loudspeaker. The message was simple and
friendly. "Everybody is invited to free movies tonight! Come to
the plaza at dusk to see the movies/
Everybody in town was in the plaza at dusk. A motion picture
projector was set up on the station wagon with the white-washed wall
of the church used as a screen. A couple of comedy shorts were shown
and then came an animated cartoon that explained, so even the
children could understand, the dangers of contagious diseases such as
smallpox and how vaccination could safeguard the individual. Later,
a local official informed the people that there was a case of smallpox
in the area and that it was important for all villagers to go to the
doctor the next day for inoculation. An improvised clinic was set up
the next morning and by nightfall practically everybody in the
village had been inoculated. The danger of epidemic was past.
The bright yellow station wagon and the movies were a method
of meeting an emergency but the vitally important work of the AIA
was steady, day-after-day effort in many villages and in many phases of
health and education. Programs were established, often at a very
low cost, to provide instruction in nutrition, infant care, hygiene
and cooking and sewing. There were traveling health dinics in
trucks manned by a doctor and a nurse, who set up shop in village
plazas, on the porch of the city hall or even under a large shade
tree and examined or treated perhaps a hundred persons a day. The
doctor urged the farm families to wear shoes for protection against
hookworm. They were given vermicides to fight parasites. Dietary
instruction was given to the women and local clubs were formed to
disseminate information to the many who could not read. Vege
table seeds and plantings were introduced for home gardens to
improve diets and a fundamental program of sanitary improvement
was widely propagandized.
THE PRIVATE CITIZEN S GREAT EXPERIMENT 247
As local people and officials took over such programs, the AIA
was able to turn to new projects. A series of educational comic books
was produced to provide information on nutrition, improved farming
methods and similar subjects. Radio programs and motion picture
shorts were prepared and distributed to rural areas, and clubs were
formed in the schools to give the children early training in im
proving food habits and better farming practices. After a decade of
experience in Venezuela and Brazil, Rockefeller began seeking ways
to extend the general idea of the AIA program to other Latin Ameri
can countries. Financing was a difficult problem in some areas and
it appeared most practical to attempt to work with established
organizations. In 1958, a three-year project was set up with the Inter-
American Institute of Agricultural Sciences, which has its head
quarters in Costa Rica and to which all of the Latin American
governments contribute. The purpose of the project is to develop
and extend an information program in agriculture, food and related
health fields throughout Latin America and to train personnel in
mass communication so that the work may be carried on permanently
by the institute. Experts on the permanent staff of the institute, as
well as specialists from Costa Rica and elsewhere, assist in instruction
of the students. The first course, lasting five months, was conducted
in 1959.
Although programs to improve health and farm techniques were
essential to Rockefeller s plans, it was also vitally important to estab
lish credit facilities, particularly for farmers. Lack of credit was one
of the reasons why South American small farmers were seldom able
to improve their lot. Even where credit was available, the customary
interest rate of around 20 per cent made it impossible for the
ordinary farmer to borrow and, if crops were poor, he might have to
sell half of his cattle to raise money for the next year s seed. As a
result, even farmers with a couple of hundred good acres were
often in financial trouble, unable to buy equipment or expand their
operations or build modem homes with adequate sanitary facilities.
In 1948, Governor Milton Campos of the Brazilian state of Minas
Gerais, invited Rockefeller to see whether something might be done
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 248
to solve the problem, and the AIA came up with a supervised credit
plan that became known as the "man-woman-and-a-jeep" system.
The idea, as put into practice, called for establishment of an
antononious agency called the Associagao de Cr^dito e Assistncia
Rural (ACAR), for which AIA and the state government each put up
$75,000 a year. The money was not for loans to farmers but to
establish and maintain the ACAR organization and its teams of
trained specialists. Each team consisted of a young man, a young
woman and a jeep, which was the only feasible means of transporta
tion over the rough back-country roads. Each team there were only
four at first established headquarters in an area approximately
as large as a big county in the United States. With the aid of local
officials, they held town meetings at which fanners and their wives
were exposed to an information program, organized local clubs
to promote improved farm and home practices and trained volunteers
to teach everything from sewing to building a trench silo for storage
of com.
Their main objective, however, was to promote a practical credit
system that would enable responsible farmers to increase and improve
production and to raise their living standards. With the cooperation
of Governor Campos, it was arranged for a state bank of Minas
Gerais to make loans at the comparatively low interest rate of 8
per cent provided the ACAR teams recommended the borrower and
certified that he was willing and able to cooperate in improving
agricultural production. Most important, the ACAR teams carefully
supervised the way in which the money was spent. For example, a
fanner named Sebastiao Onofre da Silveira owned a i4o-acre farm
but had no capital. He needed money for equipment, seed, additional
cattle and to provide safe water and other sanitary facilities at his
home. After investigation, the local ACAR team decided he was a
good risk and went with him to the bank, where they drew up a
specific plan for improvement of his farm and made application for
a loan. The loan was granted but, to make sure that the money was
properly spent, the bank honored Sebastiao s checks only when
they were countersigned by a member of the ACAR team.
THE PRIVATE CITIZEN S GREAT EXPERIMENT 249
The experts then helped the fanner buy fifteen dairy cows and
two oxen of improved breed, material for fences and an outdoor
toilet, insecticides, hybrid seed corn of proved quality and a plow.
They convinced him he should start rotating his crops and that
crops be properly sprayed. A cement floor was put in his house
and the beds on which the family slept were raised from the floor.
SebastiSo and his wife attended community meetings at which all
phases of farm and home life were discussed by trained personnel.
At the end of the first year, SebastiSo cleared 12 per cent more than
his total loan, thanks to a big corn crop and to sale of milk. The
health of his family had improved markedly. But the most important
change, perhaps, was in his attitude. Instead of being a discouraged
farmer with little hope for the future, he had become confident
and proud of his ability to make his own way. He became a leader in
local activities and a regular attendant at community meetings to
discuss mutual problems and study new farming techniques.
The story of Sebastiao and his family was repeated hundreds of
times in various forms as the number of jeep teams in Minas
Gerais state gradually was increased to sixty-one. By 1957, some
six thousand loans had been made to farmers with less than one
per cent defaulting. President Juscelino Kubitschek lent support
to the system and similar agencies were organized in eleven other
states where close to two hundred supervised credit offices had been
established by 1959- Furthermore, the AIA was able gradually to
reduce its financial support to about $50,000 a year while the local
and federal government contributions were steadily increased from
$75,000 in 1949 to around $350,000 in 1959.
In 1956, the credit and farm extension system that Rockefeller
had started with four jeep teams in Minas Gerais became, with
the encouragement of President Juscelino Kubitschek, a national
federation Associagao Brasileira de Crdito e Assistencia Rural
through which the local supervised credit agencies coordinated their
activities, exchanged information and disseminated booklets, motion
pictures and radio programs. In a decade, the system had not by
any means reached all of the huge country of Brazil but it had pro-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 250
vided a highly successful format for attacking a major problem and
was growing rapidly.
In 1959, a report by John R. Camp, AIA vice-president for Vene
zuela, estimated that over a ten-year period Venezuela had improved
agricultural productivity by at least 50 per cent. According to Camp s
estimates the government programs in which AIA participated had
contributed to the reduction of infant mortality by about 30 per cent,
led to a large increase in the use of better seeds and planting
stock, fertilizers and pesticides and farm machinery, tripled the
number of apprentices for industry trained in trade schools and,
through extension courses and schools, benefited at least twenty-five
thousand rural families. AIA also aided in promoting more than
forty rural community centers where methods of home and village
improvement are taught, and had supervised the construction of
some four hundred miles of low-cost farm-to-market roads. The
organization also was instrumental in building up a system of two
hundred rural youth clubs with four thousand members.
Meanwhile, the over-all programs in which AIA participated in
Brazil and Venezuela in ten years had expended approximately
$13,000,000, of which about half had been provided by the Rocke
feller family and by businesses such as the Creole Petroleum Cor
poration, Shell Oil Company of Venezuela, Mene Grande Oil
Company, International Petroleum Company, Ltd., and Socony-
Mobil (Vacuum) Oil Company, Inc. (The oil companies contributed
only to operations in Venezuela.) The other half was in direct
contributions to the AIA programs by the Brazilian and Venezuelan
governments, which already had taken over permanently three
programs and were preparing to assume full responsibility for others.
Thus, gradually one of the little things" that Rockefeller initi
ated in Latin America became a guidepost to help the people find
their own way toward the social and economic progress that is essen
tial to the survival of democracy in a troubled world.
THIRTEEN
Troubles of a Good Knight
Rockefeller s great adventure in Latin America, his major hope that
private enterprise could help raise living standards in under
developed lands was the International Basic Economy Corporation
or IBEC, into which his family eventually put some $16,000,000.
Whereas AIA was a philanthropic organization, IBEC was private
enterprise for profit. As president of IBEC, Nelson Rockefeller set
forth in 1947 somewhat like a well-heeled knight sallying from the
castle gates to slay a dragon and bring prosperity and security to the
land. He had a high purpose, great enthusiasm, considerable dollar
armament and, unquestionably, an abundance of confidence and
courage. Unhappily, he was under considerable pressure to move
swiftly toward his objective, so that on several occasions he tripped
over unforeseen obstacles, fell flat on his face and lost part of his
armament. Even after the battle was joined, the wise money was
on the dragon and, at the end of a dozen years, the beast was still
definitely alive. On the other hand, the knight not only was still on
the attack, but he was much wiser, his confidence was undiminished
251
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 252
and his successes represented one of the remarkable chapters in the
history of relations among peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
Rockefeller s philosophical approach to IBEC was significant be*
cause it was developed at the end of World War II, when the Soviet
Union was struggling to recover from the devastating effects of
military conflict and when Communist imperialism was a com
paratively small, if rapidly growing, shadow on the horizon. He be
lieved it was essential to demonstrate that private capital could
make an important contribution to international cooperation in a
free world; that it was vital to the future of the United States to give
underprivileged peoples positive evidence of America s spiritual and
moral dedication to progress toward a better life everywhere under
democratic processes. Such evidence, he believed, could be just as
important to our national defense as demonstrations of military
strength.
"Look at it this way," he summed up. "The United States is a rich
and powerful country in a poor world; like a rich family in a poor
town. The poor don t want charity, but they would like to be helped
to stand on their own feet. Today, our welfare and security depend
on the welfare and security of other peoples. We have to form a
kind of partnership in which they are given the incentive and the
means to progress. And, as good partners, we have to work together
for mutual gain/
This social-economic theory might have been dismissed and often
was as an echo of New Deal "do good" activities, except for the
fact that the basic principle on which IBEC was founded in 1947
was that it would launch private enterprise businesses intended to
return a profit for investors as well as contribute to the social better
ment of the area in which it operated. The New York business
community was not impressed by Rockefeller s theories but he
sent economist Stacy May and two technical experts, John R.
Camp and Fisher G. Dorsey, to Venezuela to ferret out the major
factors that were retarding economic development and to recommend
how the bottlenecks might be broken. Their report included a wide
range of recommendations and pointed out that the first problem
TROUBLES OF A GOOD KNIGHT 253
obviously was to provide more food at a reasonable cost to the con
sumer. To tackle this problem, IBEC established a subsidiary
known as the Venezuelan Basic Economy Corporation (VBEC) to
cany on business and farming enterprises. The oil companies invested
something more than $10,000,000 in nonvoting preferred stock and
the government acquired, temporarily, about $4,500,000 in non-
voting preferred stock. Offices were established in Caracas and
Rockefeller provided a staff of experts to plan a program.
About this time, Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., gave some thought to his son s
operations in South America and suggested that it would be wise to
start on a small scale, see what problems developed and which
ideas proved most feasible and then expand slowly as conditions
might warrant. Rockefeller considered this advice but he decided
mistakenly that there were sound reasons against limiting the
initial projects. For one thing, his economists took the position that
only by simultaneously starting several comprehensive businesses of an
interrelated nature could VBEC make an impression on the over-all
problem. Furthermore, Venezuelan government officials were eager
to give the national economy balance by building up enterprises
other than the oil industry and they strongly encouraged large-scale
operations. Finally, Rockefeller was by nature in a hurry and he
decided against accepting his father s advice to go slowly and
cautiously.
VBEC started off with a great deal of enthusiasm and supervision
from IBEC headquarters in New York. What IBEC and Rocke
feller wanted was a program for establishment of model farms to
show how food production could be increased, a wholesale food
company to distribute products at lower cost to consumers and a
company that would demonstrate how the fishing industry could
be modernized in order to distribute and popularize food from the
sea. These seemed to be scientifically planned and reasonable first
steps toward solving the food shortage but, in fact, they served
mainly to demonstrate how many unexpected problems IBEC
would encounter.
A VBEC subsidiary known as Productora Agropecuaria, C.A.
NELSON RCX2KEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 254
(PACA), was established with capital of $3,000,000 to tackle the
problem of introducing modern fanning methods. It leased or ac
quired three properties Central Bolivar, 7,800 acres in the state of
Zulia, near the southern end of Lake Maracaibo, to be used largely
for raising cattle; Monte Sacro in the Chirgua Valley, a plantation
with 700 acres of tillable land near Valencia, to be used for truck
fanning and for raising corn and hogs; and Agua Blanca, 18,000
acres near Acarigua in the state of Portuguesa, for raising livestock,
corn, rice and beans. Modern farm machinery bulldozers, auto
matic potato diggers, power sprayers were imported. The work of
clearing and preparing the land was started and trouble developed
almost immediately.
The first big turmoil arose when the Rural Society of the State
of Zulia passed a resolution denouncing IBEC s Central Bolivar
fanning project and calling on the government to prohibit it on the
ground that "the high-powered North American enterprise" would
soon drive local farmers out of business by unfair competition.
Rockefeller was in New York but he cabled the society and made
arrangements to meet with the farmers a few weeks later at
Maracaibo. The founder of IBEC was astounded when he arrived
at the big hall in Maracaibo and discovered that it wasn t large
enough to hold the assembled and hostile crowd. Finally, every
body who could find a chair picked it up and the throng moved out
side to a lighted tennis court so that all could hear.
The speeches were far from friendly to VBEC. "With modern
methods the North Americans may increase production a hundred
times and prices win fall so low that we will be ruined," one farmer
shouted. Another added: "Yes, and they ll buy up our bankrupt farms
and turn the whole area into a mechanized operation!" Other farmers
were opposed to government participation in the VBEC projects and
still others expressed fear that the oil companies were hatching some
nefarious plot against them. All had different fears and all of them
seemed to have a distorted idea of what VBEC was trying to do.
When Rockefeller arose he said that they were correct in believ
ing that VBEC was set up to increase production. "Unless production
TROUBLES OF A GOOD KNIGHT 255
is increased/ he went on, "the country will never achieve an ade
quate food supply at reasonable prices. But don t believe for a
moment that one group such as ours could increase production
enough to have an important effect. If all of our plans worked out
perfectly, which they won t, we might double production on our own
land, but no more than that. And if we doubled our production we
would still be producing less than three per cent of this state s normal
food output. The only way we can do any good for Venezuela is to
demonstrate to you farmers that if you adopt modern methods you
can increase production and the entire countryside will benefit
not just the fanners but the merchants and the consumers!"
The audience was more attentive but still unconvinced. "What,"
one farmer shouted, "are your methods?"
"There is no mystery or magic," Rockefeller replied. "Some of
our methods already are being practiced in this country and in this
state. Others are urged on all fanners by the Ministry of Agriculture*
We will gladly share our knowledge with all of you and we will make
available the tools and the seeds and the fertilizers we use."
The fact that Rockefeller spoke Spanish and his ability to con
vince an audience of his sincerity began to have an effect. The ques
tions became more friendly. With the tide changing, he shifted
to an argument that he knew would appeal to the farmers. "The most
important thing from our viewpoint," he said, "is that we learn from
each other how to improve production. We have technical in
formation, but the fact is that know-how is useless unless it is
supplemented by knowledge of local soil and other conditions. You
know those conditions better than anyone else can know them. If we
have your help and if you have our help, we can progress."
The atmosphere had changed as Rockefeller explained the real
purpose of the VBEC operations and there was a round of applause.
But then a well-known Venezuelan Communist editor stepped to
the platform and began speaking so brilliantly that the audience,
including Rockefeller, was spellbound. The editor lost no time in
making his point: Rockefeller, he said, was a wolf in sheep s cloth
ing, PACA was an imperialist plot to get control of the nation s
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 256
food supply and the Caracas government was so afraid that the small
farmers would progress that they were promoting VBEC as a means
of wiping out all independent farms and businesses. Everybody
listened closely to his witty and pungent phrases and there was a
thoughtful silence as he concluded. Rockefeller knew he could never
match the editor s eloquence but he also knew he was better in
formed in regard to farming.
"Let me point out/ he replied, "that VBEC projects are actually
small, independent operations for the purpose of demonstrating what
can be done, and we could not possibly become a monopoly. Our
purpose is not to gain a monopoly of anything but to promote
competition/
Patiently and in detail he went over his plans and explained how
they would help raise living standards.
After a brief pause, the farmers stood up and cheered and when
the meeting broke up at midnight the hostility toward VBEC, while
not entirely eliminated, was comparatively slight. "It was a good
example," Rockefeller said later, "of how fears and hostility are
bred by misunderstanding and of how such feelings can be ended by
a recital of the facts. The farmers and cattlemen of Zulia became
our good friends/*
n.
In 1948, the death of Mrs. Abby Rockefeller was a heavy loss to
the family. Nelson Rockefeller had been very close to his mother
and he would keenly miss her companionship and guidance.
Work was an antidote to sadness and he had plenty of that in
Venezuela. By 1948, PACA had made a considerable impression on
the Chirgua Valley by its truck-farming methods. At Monte Sacro
plantation, to take a crude example, there were a few dozen old and
gnarled orange and grapefruit trees which had not yielded fruit for
years. As an experiment, the farm manager, in January, hooked up an
automatic posthole digger to his tractor, quickly drilled several holes
at the base of each tree and filled the holes with a mixture of soil
TROUBLES OF A GOOD KNIGHT 257
and 20 per cent superphosphate. None of the local farmers missed a
move and there was wide speculation until the following May when
the old trees produced an extraordinarily fine crop of oranges and
grapefruit. The fine crop did more than tens of thousands of words to
demonstrate the importance of scientific use of fertilizers and, in one
way or another according to their means, farmers in the Chirgua
Valley applied the lesson profitably to their own lands.
Oranges and grapefruit were but a beginning. The local school-
house was a wreck and many of the fifty-three pupils eligible to
attend classes were absent most of the time. Investigation showed
that the children had only black coffee for breakfast and, if they
had a long distance to walk to school, they were often too tired to
get there. Further investigation disclosed that they lived on a diet
of black beans and corn bread and were suffering from malnutrition.
A new schoolhouse was built with a kitchen and lunchroom where
all of the students were given a well-balanced lunch. Attendance
picked up within a few weeks, and so did the morale of the children.
A new church was constructed. Fanners were shown how to build
inexpensive sanitary facilities at their homes. A system of irrigation,
using light, movable aluminum pipes to draw water from deep wells,
was installed to replace the antiquated irrigation by water from the
river, which always failed in the dry season. Crops were sprayed
both to keep down the weeds and to kill insects.
At the end of the first year, a record-breaking crop of vegetables
was harvested and the Monte Sacro project should have been off to
a wonderful start but it wasn t. When it came time to get the
produce to market, transportation facilities were entirely inadequate.
Storage facilities were lacking. Most of what had been gained by
improved farming methods was lost because produce could not be
delivered to consumers before it spoiled.
The experience with vegetable crops at Monte Sacro illustrated,
in an oversimplified way, the tremendous problems that IBEC faced
in Venezuela and Brazil. There was extensive scientific prepara
tion for each project, there was a heavy expenditure of funds and
there was, usually, great enthusiasm and energy. But in areas which
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 258
technologically and socially were far different from the United
States there almost always were obstacles that could not be fore
seen. At Agua Blanca farm, bulldozers cleared land for rice and
corn crops in 1948 and spraying machines were imported to combat
the insects that normally destroyed a good portion of local crops.
That year the corn crops throughout the area were ravaged by "army
worms" but the PACA spraying system saved not only the Agua
Blanca corn but that of neighboring farms. Rockefeller also had
ordered spraying equipment to kill the weeds that grew to great
heights during the rainy season but it failed to arrive on time. The
rains did arrive on time and, almost overnight, the weeds were higher
than the corn. The corn crop was a financial failure. The rice crop
was lost to weeds and heavy rains because of poor management.
A VBEC subsidiary known as Pesquerias Caribe, C.A. (PESCA),
was formed with $1,500,000 capital, and an $800,000 refrigeration and
ice-making plant was built at Puerto La Cruz in an effort to
stimulate the Venezuelan fishing industry. With modern equipment,
the experts argued, fishermen could go farther to sea and bring back
a bigger catch, which could be processed and frozen and which would
help solve the food problem. It was a fool-proof plan on paper but
in practice almost nothing worked out. Some fishermen used their
boats for smuggling. At another time and for an unknown reason they
couldn t catch any fish. After many difficulties, conditions improved
and owners of fishing boats who took part in the PESCA project
increased their average earnings from $180 to about $450 a month.
Crew members were up from $60 to $150 with fish reaching the
Caracas market at the rate of about fifty tons a month, demonstrat
ing that the plan was basically sound. The price paid the fisher
men, however, was not as low as had been hoped and PESCA
couldn t make a profit.
Rockefeller s attempt to improve food distribution through still
another VBEC subsidiary CA, Distribuidora de Alimentos, or
CADA started with a warehouse at Valencia to handle produce
from PACA farms and from a local canning factory. Later four
other warehouses were opened for the purpose of providing farmers
rROUBLES OF A GOOD KNIGHT 259
with a wider market, of stabilizing prices and of reducing the cost
of getting goods to consumers. But overhead costs were higher than
had been expected and, unfortunately, the corner grocery store
proprietor was not happy about passing his savings on to the con
sumer. CADA did help bring prices down slightly but it could not
make a profit on its own wholesale operations*
In Brazil, a great corn-and-hog-growing country, IBEC established
several large experimental farms designed to develop a hardy breed
of pigs that would not be affected by a cholera epidemic that had
wiped out half of the country s herds. A new, inoculated breed of
hogs was imported and the experiment progressed successfully, but
other problems arose. A severe drought skyrocketed the price of feed
so that the farms could not make a profit. Then the Brazilian left-
wing and nationalists newspapers opened a campaign against the
project, charging that Rockefeller was trying to get control of oil
lands and destroy the local meat-processing companies.
"Who is silly enough to believe for one minute that the great
Rockefeller is interested in raising pigs?" one left-wing newspaper
asked. "This whole farm business of his doesn t amount to a hill of
beans: It is just a scheme to get hold of future oil lands/
Another Brazilian project was the Empresa de Mecanizagao
Agricola, S.A., called EMA, which Rockefeller established with
$635,000 capital to introduce heavy mechanized farm equipment.
In 1947, there were only 4,000 tractors in all of Brazil, and such work
as clearing land was slow and costly, EMA imported almost a million
dollars worth of farm machinery in four years and made contracts
with farmers to clear land, to plant and to cultivate certain crops
that could be handled efficiently by machine methods. For half a
dozen years, EMA was a great success. More than 100,000 acres of
land were cleared at high speed and many other thousands of acres
were worked by the company s equipment. Far more important,
EMA demonstrated to Brazilians what could be done with modem
farm machinery and inaugurated a highly important change in
Brazilian farm economy. Furthermore, EMA made a profit on its
operations until inflation hit Brazil. Almost immediately, the cost
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 260
of replacing machinery with imports from the United States rose to
a point that made EMA s activities unprofitable, and continued
inflation made them highly unprofitable.
This recital of IBEC reversals in South America might easily be
taken to mean that Rockefeller s business adventure in under
developed areas was a multi-million-dollar flop, but, as will be shown,
IBEC also had important successes. *We made mistakes, some
of them big mistakes/ Rockefeller commented much later. We
also had administrative troubles. Some of our people were not
familiar with local conditions. There were some language problems.
We had some incompetents and had to make costly changes in
management. We didn t have enough experience nobody had had
much experience in this kind of pioneering work and that in
cludes me. We were constantly improvising to overcome unexpected
obstacles, and at times we floundered in the field. But we learned and
the most important thing we learned was not to try to start on too
big a scale. We thought we had reasons for starting out big in
various projects, but it was a mistake and we should have known it.
"For example: take our efforts to mechanize tropical agriculture.
We went in thinking we would slay the dragon by introducing
modern machinery and we flopped. We didn t know enough then to
do the job. What was needed was experimental work."
About 1950, the early optimism in regard to IBEC had evapo
rated and, a little later, Rockefeller began liquidating various un
profitable projects. Chirgua Valley farm was taken over by
Rockefeller personally for experimentation. The Agua Blanca
property went to the government for experimental use and only the
Central Bolivar livestock enterprise was retained by VBEC. The fish
ing company was liquidated at a loss. In Brazil, the heavy equipment
owned by EMA was gradually sold to farmer cooperative groups, and
the experimental hog farms were liquidated. In all, Rockefeller took
a heavy loss possibly $7,000,000 or more in correcting the mistakes
that were made in the initial stages of IBEC history.
But he wasn t in any mood to quit. Other IBEC projects in Vene
zuela and Brazil were making progress and, in some instances, making
TROUBLES OF A GOOD KNIGHT 261
a profit. The lessons learned had been expensive but they had been
well learned. In the 1950*8, Rockefeller worked out a revised and
a more "hard-boiled" formula of "good partnership/ and he began
putting it into practice with a high degree of success.
m.
Even when his business enterprises were faring badly, Rockefeller
maintained his enthusiasm for Latin America. If government bureau
cracy laid a heavy hand on his plans, he shrugged and shifted to
some other approach to the long-range goal. If nationalistic news
papers denounced him as a buccaneer, he made a special point of
greeting their editors warmly when next they met. If Communist
demonstrators paraded with banners saying "Rockefeller Go Home!"
he redoubled his efforts to meet and shake hands with as many
workers as possible. His attitude toward the people, his direct ap
proach to any problem that arose never failed to amaze his associates
in Venezuela, Brazil and elsewhere.
Once when he was visiting a poor community on a little island
off the Venezuelan coast he hired a taxicab for a journey through
the countryside. The driver of the taxi, impressed by his distinguished
passengers, began speeding down the narrow road, blowing his horn
and dashing wildly through the little villages. In one village, his
car struck and killed a pig but he ignored the accident and careened
on down the road, until Rockefeller, sitting beside him in the front
seat, furiously commanded him to stop.
"Why stop?" the driver asked. "It was only a pig."
Rockefeller made him turn back to the dead pig, get out of the
car and ask who owned it. Nobody seemed to know but Rocke
feller, still muttering in Spanish at the driver, finally located a
woman who said the pig had belonged to her.
"How much was it worth?" Rockefeller asked.
The woman named a modest figure but then, sensing that she was
dealing with someone out of the ordinary, tripled her price. She
was paid and the party drove on, with Rockefeller s companions
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 262
wondering why anyone should be so concerned about a stray pig.
On another trip into the interior, Rockefeller and several govern
ment officials planned to stay all night at a run-down little hotel
some miles from Valencia, Approaching the end of their journey,
they found the road blocked and traffic backed up for a distance of
about half a mile near a crossroads. They sat in the motionless car for
five minutes, which was the limit of Rockefeller s patience.
"I think Til see what s the matter/ he said, getting out and walk
ing down the line of stalled cars in which the passengers waited
patiently for traffic to start moving again. When he reached the
crossroads, he found that a truck carrying cement had hit another
truck carrying a load of steel. There wasn t much damage but the
trucks were locked together, blocking the narrow road. The drivers
were squatting at the roadside, looking at the trucks, and a dozen
spectators were helping them look but nobody was doing anything
about getting the tracks apart. Nobody recognized the North Ameri
can.
"What are you doing about it?" Rockefeller asked one of the
drivers.
"What can one do?" the driver responded. "It is difficult."
"Have you tried backing up?"
"Oh, yes, we tried/
Rockefeller walked around the two tracks. "I think they ll come
apart," he said. "Come on. Get the motors started/ He began giv
ing instructions to the spectators to stand on one bumper and lift
the other bumper. In order to see both sides at once, he climbed
to the top of the cab of the cement track and shouted orders.
Everybody pitched in. The motors roared and, with a grinding bump,
the tracks came apart. Everybody cheered. Rockefeller leaped from
the cab of the track to the center of the crossroads and began
directing traffic. Ten minutes later, his companions drove up and he
got into the automobile.
"You looked like a traffic cop on Fifth Avenue," someone remarked.
"What happened?"
"Nothing much," Rockefeller replied. "Somebody had to do some-
TROUBLES OF A GOOD KNIGHT 263
thing or we d have been there all night/
In the same spirit of getting something done, Rockefeller had made
important progress with several IBEC projects from the time he
started operations.
For example, a remarkable success was a company called Industria
Lactea de Carabobo, S.A. (INLACA), which VBEC organized in
collaboration with a group of Venezuelan milk producers. An old
milk processing plant was modernized at a cost of around $500,000
and paraffinated milk cartons were introduced. At that time 1948
the daily output was 8,000 quarts of milk, and there was a severe
shortage of pasteurized milk in the country. In two years the plant
was selling 37,000 quarts daily and, as better roads were built, it
steadily expanded until by 1959 INLACA was selling 132,000 quarts
daily and delivering to more than 15,000 homes in 30 cities and
towns. By then the company had a gross annual income of around
$11,000,000. But more important, in Rockefeller s eyes, was the fact
that the company had demonstrated what could be done in an im
portant field. By 1959 there were 16 competing milk companies in
Venezuela and production of pasteurized milk had risen from a few
thousand to 400,000 quarts a day.
A successful Venezuelan business grew out of CADA, the un
successful wholesale food distribution project. When it was dis
covered that housewives were not receiving the benefit of CADA s
lower distribution costs, a study showed the necessity of having
retail outlets, and Rockefeller in 1949 introduced modern retail
methods by opening a self-service supermarket at Maracaibo. The
store was called Todos (Everything). It had handsome display
and frozen food counters, neon lighting, pushcarts and all of the
other equipment normally found in supermarkets in the United
States. Todos was an experimental venture but its early success was
more or less assured because there were many United States house
wives resident in Maracaibo and they showed local women how to use
new products. The next step, however, was more risky. A similar
store (called Minimax) was opened at Valencia, where there were
almost no foreign residents. The Valencia store attracted little busi-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 264
ness despite the fact that it offered food at lower prices. Housewives
were curious but they not only were unaccustomed to self-service
they had no idea how to use the products, such as cake mix, that
were on the shelves. The management finally realized that an edu
cational program had to go along with the new stores and home
economics experts were added to the staff to demonstrate the
products. Within a few weeks, business began to pick up. Six months
later the store was making a profit and thereafter it was a highly
successful business.
Using the Valencia formula, five similar stores were opened in
Caracas in the next few years, three more in the Maracaibo area, one
in Judibana, one in Puerto La Cruz and one in Anaco. All of them
were successful. It was also true that all of them were met with
cries of protest from local storekeepers, who complained that they
were being ruined by the North American monopolists. The local
merchants, however, were not ruined. After a few cries of pain, they
began remodeling their own stores and lowering prices in order to
compete. Within a short time, supermarkets were common in the
larger Venezuelan cities Todos has six competitors, for example,
in Maracaibo and prices generally had been reduced by an estimated
15 per cent.
In 1958, the supermarket operations were combined with CADA,
in which IBEC holds 51 per cent of the stock, and Venezuelan in
vestors hold 49 per cent. (The VBEC organization, incidentally, was
entirely absorbed by IBEC in 1955 and all government and oil com
pany participation was ended.) The IBEC supermarkets in Vene
zuela, which now do $28,000,000 business a year, originally had to
import about 80 per cent of their goods. The new merchandising
techniques, however, had an impact on the national economy, par
ticularly in establishing a steady and larger market for producers. As
a result farmers and food processors were able to expand their
operations, and by 1959 approximately 70 per cent of the goods sold
in the stores was purchased in Venezuela and only 30 per cent was
imported.
The success in Venezuela encouraged IBEC to extend its super-
TROUBLES OF A GOOD KNIGHT 265
market activities to other countries. By 1959 the total had grown
to twenty stores with flourishing business in Puerto Rico, Italy and
Peru, and plans were made for further expansion. In Italy, for
example, four stores were doing a $5,000,000 business a year at Milan
and four others were to be opened. These stores are jointly owned
by IBEC and Italian investors but they proved so popular that a
new chain wholly owned by Italian investors was quickly organized
as competition.
IBEC also had important successes in Brazil, particularly in en
couraging farmers to plant hybrid corn. In the 1940 $, two Brazilian
experts had developed a remarkably strong and prolific hybrid which
was resistant to disease, wind and drought and had formed a small
company that -produced about twelve tons of commercial seed a
year. In collaboration with these experts, IBEC organized a company
called Sementes Agroceres, S A (SASA), in 1947, bought an 86y-acre
plantation in Parand state and began raising hybrid seed corn. Only a
few tons were harvested the first year and sold to farmers in the
area. That summer there was a severe drought that destroyed much
of the nation s corn crop but the farmers who had planted the new
hybrid seed harvested a larger yield than normal. -
This result so dramatically demonstrated the superiority of the
hybrid that SASA could not keep up with the demand, although
by 1950 its production was 1,250 tons or enough to plant about 10
per cent of all cultivated corn land in Paran and Sao Paulo states.
During this period, SASA realized profits of around 25 per cent,
but in 1951, because of local overproduction, the company went
into the red. A merger had been discussed earlier with the original
Brazilian hybrid seed corn company, and at this time it was com
pleted. The new company increased its total capital to $375,000
and launched a program to educate farmers all over Brazil to wider
use of the seed. By 1959, SASA had six producing units in four
states, was selling some 5,600 tons of seed annually, had developed
several new hybrid strains and was the largest such company in
Latin America. It was worthy of note that by then the company was
entirely operated by Brazilians, the only United States citizen con-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 266
nected with it being a member of the board of directors.
There were, during the 1950 $, numerous other successful IBEC
ventures, ranging from construction of storage elevators for corn,
seed, oil and other products in Brazil to the establishment of profit
able soluble coffee plants in El Salvador and Guatemala. IBEC
Housing Corporation also made a success of a new method for
mass-produced concrete homes and in 1958 was one of the nation s
largest builders of private houses. The company s main projects
were at Margate, Florida (1,800 homes), and in Puerto Rico,
where 3,273 houses were completed and work was in progress on
4,500 others. The houses were built under the National Housing
Act and three-bedroom homes cost from $6,000 to $10,000. When
Rockefeller first inspected one of the Puerto Rican housing develop
mentsthe $10,000,000 Villa Las Lomas project he exclaimed:
"There aren t any trees! Let s plant some trees."
"But" a cost-conscious aide began.
"I think we should plant a tree in front of each house," Rocke
feller went on. "You can t have a treeless housing development. Let s
put two trees on each street corner, too."
The trees were planted and after that nobody waited for the boss
to suggest a little vegetation in the new developments. A tree was
planted in front of every house.
These projects and others became an integral part of the IBEC
pattern as Rockefeller s Latin American adventure gained strength.
Things are going better for us from the business point of view
[Rockefeller wrote in this period]. At first the Venezuela business
community was afraid of us and thought we were going to crowd
them out. Then, when we had trouble and lost money in various
companies, they felt better about us and decided we were just
human beings, although I think that they lost a considerable
amount of respect for us as businessmen. However, now that we
are coming through despite the adversities, there is a very friendly
feeling on all sides, together with a restoration of respect but with
out the fear they had formerly. In a sense, we ve become one of
them.
TROUBIJES OF A GOOD KNIGHT 267
The feeling of confidence was further strengthened in Latin America
generally when experience convinced Rockefeller that the great
economic problems in underdeveloped countries could be satis
factorily solved only if there was an improved system of attracting
capital big capital and little capital for investment in industrial
development. There was a stock exchange in Brazil, for example, but
it failed to attract the necessary capital, particularly from small in
vestors. As a result, most savings were hidden in the mattress or put
into land and not nearly enough was available for new enterprises
that would bolster the national economy.
In 1952, IBEC and the Chase National Bank of New York joined
with a group of Brazilian banks to organize a financing company
along the lines of modern investment banking. The company, Inter-
American Finance and Investment Corporation, underwrote secur
ities in the traditional United States manner. Not all of its securities
(Brazilian companies and foreign subsidiaries operating in Brazil)
were easily sold, the company lost its liquidity and the banks decided
that they wanted to withdraw. IBEC bought all of the stock, changed
the name to Companhia Distribuidora de Valores (CODIVAL) and
transformed it into a sales company for an open-end mutual invest
ment fund, A company called Cia. Empreendimentos e Admin-
istracao Ibec (CEA) also was organized to manage the fund and to
encourage industrial growth by arranging financing for new enter
prises in which foreign manufacturing companies may participate.
The investment fund, which is called the Fundo Crescinco, was
something entirely new in Latin American financing. IBEC had an
initial investment of about $100,000 and another $500,000 was put
up by Brazilian banks and a few individuals. A diversified portfolio of
stocks, including about $100,000 in United States securities, was set
up and certificates were sold at a price based on the current asset
value of the fund. Since a principal purpose of the fund was to
attract small investors, the company spent heavily on advertising and
sold certificates for as little as $33 or, on an installment plan, for
$7 a month. Within a short time, the fund had attracted wide at
tention, some 200 salesmen were at work throughout the country and
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 268
money began coming out of hoarding at the rate of about 40,000,000
cruzeiros ($250,000 in 1959) a month. By 1959, 7,000 investors had
put in an average of around $500 each and the value of the port
folio, which originally was 30,000,000 cruzeiros, had grown to
1,000,000,000 cruzeiros. Cash distributions to investors were above 10
per cent per year and approximately 75 per cent of the participants
were automatically reinvesting their earnings. So successful had
the investment fund become in a few years that arrangements were
made to start similar operations in Colombia, Argentina and Chile.
In some ways, Rockefeller believes that financing has become the
most important method of aiding underdeveloped countries. The
biggest problem, he points out, is industrialization which permits
workers to produce more and therefore earn more, thus raising the
standard of living. Industrial development requires big capital in
vestments. Capital has to come from savings within the country or
from abroad. The investment fund in Brazil was the first to encourage
the funneling of small savings of many individuals into productive
industrial development. In addition to the Brazilian investment
fund, IBEC joined with a group of United States companies in
1957 to buy American Overseas Finance Corporation. The company,
capitalized at $25,000,000, is designed to assist United States corpora
tions in financing exports to international markets and thus to
contribute to economic development of overseas areas that are in
need of assistance.
"We expect to help experienced United States management to
operate abroad and to help foreign companies buy United States
goods/ Rockefeller said in regard to American Overseas Finance
Corporation. "IBEC has made a go of it in various fields and we
now have the experience and the talent for progress. It can greatly
stimulate underdeveloped countries and serve our purpose of bringing
peoples closer together."
It is still not easy to assess the over-all achievements of Rockefeller
in his Latin American enterprises. "IBEC in its own hard-headed
way/ 7 said an article in Banon s,
TROUBLES OF A GOOD KNIGHT 269
is running a kind of Point IV program. The significant thing is that
it is doing so on a sound and paying basis. After some false starts,
the organization now seems to be fulfilling the original concept:
the investment of venture capital abroad, for a return. Its greatest
contribution will be and in this it is just beginning to succeed-
in fostering an investment climate which encourages others to
follow.
On the financial side, IBEC did business totaling roughly $80,000,-
ooo in 1959, when net income was more than $2,000,000.
The importance of IBEC and of AIA may not be measured, how
ever, entirely in dollars and cents. Rockefeller set out to prove that
private capital could render a service and still make a profit in lands
that needed technological and managerial assistance. IBEC, despite its
failures, demonstrated ways in which that objective could be
achieved. But, far more important, Rockefeller with the assistance
of his family used IBEC and AIA to pioneer vitally important ad
vances in the economic and social structure of underdeveloped areas
of the free world and, particularly, of the Americas.
FOURTEEN
Washington Revisited
The struggle between the Western democracies and the Communist
states led by Soviet Russia was intensified during President Truman s
second administration, and it was obvious to United States leaders
that the policy of "containing* 7 Communism by a series of military
alliances was not enough. There had to be a policy of action to
assist underdeveloped countries and to convince uncommitted na
tions that democracy was a positive force through which they could
grow and prosper. Mr. Truman had this idea in mind even while
the more urgent defensive policies the Marshall Plan and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization were being developed, and he once
remarked that during this period he spent most of his time going
over the big globe in his office, "trying to figure out ways to make
peace in the world/ In 1949, at a time when Rockefeller s IBEC
projects in Latin America were well started, the President took a
historic forward step by proposing what became known as the Point
Four program of technical assistance to underdeveloped countries.
Although the Point Four program had "been in the minds of the
270
WASHINGTON REVISITED 271
government," as the President said, for a couple of years, the actual
launching of the idea was less a matter of planning than of im
provisation. Ben Hardy had served in the press division of the CIAA
during the war and had been impressed by what the coordinator s
office as well as the later Rockefeller-founded AIA had done in Latin
America. After the war, he went to work in the Department of State,
where he was something of a crusader for the basic social ideas
fostered by AIA, as distinguished from the much broader economic
program Rockefeller was attempting to carry out through IBEC.
Rockefeller discussed these programs with Hardy on various occa
sions, arguing that AIA represented only one part of the necessary
program and that the technical and social services such as were
sponsored by AIA could achieve only a limited goal.
When material was being prepared for President Truman s in
augural address in 1949, Hardy wrote a proposal that the President
ask for an appropriation to launch a continuing program to help
underdeveloped nations help themselves by sharing with them the
technical "know-how" that had been developed in the United States.
The theory behind this program was that the United States, by a
comparatively small expenditure of capital and a large export of
technical aid, could help to raise living standards, encourage world
wide prosperity and peace and provide an antidote to the spread of
Communism. When material for the President s speech was assem
bled at the State Department, however, the section outlined by Hardy
failed to arouse enthusiasm and it was entirely eliminated before the
speech material was sent to the White House,
Mr. Truman prepared his inaugural address, which set forth three
important courses of action for the United States in the critical post
war period. But when the speech was ready, a day or two before it
was to be delivered, the President was not satisfied and was said to
feel that it lacked punch. About that time, one of his aides, Clark
Clifford, remembered the section Hardy had written and which
Clifford had liked but which had been dropped by the State Depart
ment. He sent for the section and showed it to the President, who
inserted it in his speech as "Point Four." Most of the top echelon
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 272
of the State Department didn t know it was in the speech until they
heard it delivered and then they still didn t like it.
The next morning Rockefeller read the speech in his newspaper
and gave a yelp of delight when he came to Point Four, which Mr.
Truman called "a bold, new program/ Rockefeller had had no con
tact with the White House since the President fired him as Assistant
Secretary of State, but he immediately wrote Mr. Truman an en
thusiastic letter in which he said that Point Four was the most
significant thing that had happened in foreign policy for decades and
that it made secure the position of the President in the history books.
In February, he wrote to an IBEC associate that he had attended
a meeting on another matter in Washington, that the President had
been present and had outlined the objectives of the Point Four
program and "they coincide with ours 100 per cent/ In March, he
wrote in still another letter that
for the first time, government and business are going to have to
work together if we are going to be able to do internationally the
job which needs to be done. ... I am convinced that we can find
[the] patterns which will permit the necessary and effective integra
tion of efforts ... in the best interests of the people of other
countries as well as our own.
It seems reasonable to assume that Rockefeller would have been
willing to be of any kind of service in promoting action in a field
where he had experience and great enthusiasm. But there was no
White House reaction to his letter. In June, 1949, the President
asked Congress to appropriate not more than $45,000,000 to in
augurate the program, an extremely modest beginning. On several
occasions, Rockefeller went to Washington to testify regarding
the techniques which he had learned in Latin America and he was
invited to a series of meetings to discuss plans for legislation carrying
out the Point Four program. At these meetings, Rockefeller vainly
urged that a separate agency not under control of the State De
partment be established. The Act for International Development
finally passed Congress in the summer of 1950 as part of the general
WASHINGTON REVISITED 273
legislation for foreign assistance, but the appropriation for Point
Four was whittled down to $35,000,000. On September 8, 1950,
an executive order was issued delegating to the Secretary of State
the responsibility for carrying out the program and establishing an
International Development Advisory Board, which was to "consider"
plans for achieving the objectives of the "bold new program/ By
then war had broken out in Korea and the United States was bearing
the brunt of a United Nations "police action" to block the armed
expansion of Communism in the Far East.
That summer, 1950, had been a busy one for Rockefeller, For one
thing, the price of coffee from Brazil had shot skyward and there
was so much complaint by consumers in the United States that it
affected relations between Washington and Rio de Janeiro* Rocke
feller went to Brazil, talked to government officials and to business
men and was so concerned over developments that, upon his return,
he flew to Washington to discuss the situation with the President.
Mr. Truman listened attentively to his visitor s exposition of the
deterioration of relations with Latin America. "The Latin American
republics have supported your stand in Korea," Rockefeller said. "But
a leader has to give recognition to his following and I believe, Mr.
President, that you should make a speech to do this. If you just take
off your hat to these people, they will be pleased."
Mr. Truman replied that he was just as enthusiastic about Latin
America as Rockefeller was, if not more so,
"That s wonderful, Mr. President," Rockefeller said. "If you want
me to, I could put together a few thoughts for you that might be
helpful if you make such a speech."
The President said that the idea sounded all right to him but that
Rockefeller should take it up with the Secretary of State and that he
would follow the advice of the Secretary. Rockefeller did call on
Secretary Acheson, who received his suggestions graciously. However,
no speech was made by the President. The problem of relations with
Latin America continued to bother Rockefeller, and later he went to
see the President s special assistant, W. Averell Harriman, who stood
high in the Truman administration. Harriman was sympathetic and
NELSON RCX3KEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 274
immediately understood Rockefeller s concern. His attitude encour
aged Rockefeller who, not long afterward, invited about a score
of prominent businessmen to a dinner at which Harriman also was a
guest. He hoped that they could plan ways and means by which the
business community, in cooperation with the government, could
take more positive action toward helping underdeveloped countries.
The dinner was not a success. Harriman was preoccupied with broad
problems of world economics and politics, and he seemed to feel
that business leaders were not doing enough to help the government
in its struggle to maintain its world position. For their part, the
businessmen were harried by postwar problems and indicated belief
that they could hardly carry out their own expansion plans, let alone
participate in the Point Four program. The meeting the whole
series of events that summer left Rockefeller discouraged about the
future of the program as an antidote to Communism.
The administration, however, had made a start toward the Presi
dent s goal when the State Department set up the Technical Coop
eration Administration, headed by Dr. Henry Garland Bennett. The
TCA began making arrangements with governments in Latin Amer
ica, Africa and Asia to provide technical assistance, particularly to
increase the food supply and to improve health conditions. This,
as the President pointed out, was "the minimum machinery" for
starting the program. Much remained to be done.
Then, in November, 1950, Mr. Truman appointed Rockefeller as
chairman of the fourteen-member International Development Ad
visory Board to recommend policy in the execution of his Point Four
program.
n.
President Truman gave Rockefeller to understand that he wanted
the advisory board to prepare the ground for the assistance program
in the same way that a committee headed by Harriman had prepared
the foundation for carrying out the European Recovery Act (the
Marshall Plan) to strengthen the Western powers against Com
munist expansion. Rockefeller accepted the chairmanship on the
WASHINGTON REVISITED 275
understanding that the advisory board would be authorized by Mr*
Truman to study the entire problem of assisting underdeveloped areas
rather than being limited strictly to the subject of technical aid, and
that its report would paint a broad picture of the situation* On Nov
ember 24, the President wrote him that "any adequate and sound
program of international economic development must be both
broadly conceived in relation to our national interests and so for
mulated as to lend itself to realistic and continuing cooperation be
tween private enterprise and government, here and abroad."
The advisory board membership was: Robert P. Daniel, president
of Virginia State College; Harvey S. Firestone, Jr., chairman of the
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company; James W. Gerard, former
ambassador to Germany; John A. Hannah, president of Michigan
State College; Margaret A. Hickey, an editor of the Ladies Home
Journal; Lewis G. Hines, of the American Federation of Labor; Bertha
Coblens Joseph, of Washington, D.C.; Thomas Parran, dean of the
Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh; Clar
ence Poe, editor of The Progressive Farmer; Jacob S. Potofsky, presi
dent of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; John L.
Savage, consulting engineer to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; and
Charles L. Wheeler, a shipping and lumber company executive from
San Francisco.
The board, with a staff of seventeen experts, worked for five months
in rather remarkable harmony. One of Rockefeller s outstanding
talents lies in getting together a group of divergent personalities who
have had experience in various phases of a certain field of endeavor
and bringing them into agreement on the best over-all method of ap
proaching a common goal. He had certain specific ideas of his own
in regard to the program. For instance, he did not believe the pro
gram could achieve its objective if it was limited to technical assist
ance and he did not believe that it should be under control of the
Department of State. He made his viewpoint clear and the reasons
for it, but his main efforts were directed toward bringing out all
of the knowledge possessed by the various members of the board and
melding their divergent ideas into a harmonious whole. The board
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 276
consulted with leaders in the business world, with lawyers, with
labor experts and many others who were especially equipped to offer
advice. By the time the problem had been explored, the board agreed
unanimously on all points to be included in its report, which was a
far-reaching set of recommendations published under the title Part
ners in Progress.
. . . The prevailing economic pattern of [underdeveloped] regions
could be revolutionized through a consistent investment flow from
the Western industrialized world of several billion dollars a year,
if combined with local capital and channeled into genuinely pro
ductive enterprise. . . . What is really important is that we do
now what can be done with the means available. To do nothing is
to invite despair. To act is to hope.
The major recommendation of the board was for the centralization
of all major foreign economic activities into one over-all agency
headed by a single administrator reporting directly to the President.
The revolutionary purpose of this proposal was to coordinate every
phase of foreign economic policy and to prevent what was being
done by one government department from being nullified by the acts
of another department, as so often happened. It was suggested that
the new agency be called the U.S. Overseas Economic Administra
tion. The board proposed the establishment of regional institutes for
technical assistance in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and South
east Asia similar to the Institute of Inter-American Affairs. The
Point Four programs should require some measure of cooperative local
financing, the report continued, and the United States should take
the lead in creating an International Finance Corporation as an
affiliate of the International Bank to encourage mobilization of local
capital by making loans to private enterprise.
"One third of the people of the world have lost their freedom and
are herded together under Soviet imperialism/ Rockefeller said in a
foreword to the report.
The remaining two-thirds of the world s population is coming to
see that the relentless pressures of military aggression from without
WASHINGTON REVISITED 277
and political subversion from within cannot be ignored or ap
peased. . . . But the free people the world over are awakening to
the fact that defense [of their freedom], in and of itself, is not
enough that there must be a positive force as well. . . .
Basic to defense and to human well-being and the promotion of
free institutions is increased production not in one part or coun
try alone, but in all parts and in all countries. . . , Free men the
world over must feel the surge of hope and faith that can only come
from a united effort toward a common objective the common
objective can only be the peace, freedom and well-being of all. ...
As we worked, it [became] clear that . . , problems [of] defense and
development . . . were indivisible.
While Partners in Progress was being completed in 1951, legislation
was prepared to broaden the Point Four program, but some ad
ministration leaders indicated doubt as to whether it would pass
Congress because Senate conservatives were not inclined to increase
appropriations for foreign spending. Rockefeller had a wide acquaint
ance on the Hill and he discussed the proposed legislation with
everybody who would listen to him, including such foes of spending
as Senator Robert A. Taft, Senator Harry F. Byrd and Senator Eugene
D. Millikin. He appealed for their support on the grounds that the
United States was dependent on underdeveloped areas for raw ma
terials and that we might lose such sources of supply unless those
countries felt they had a community of interest with us.
After some intensive work, Rockefeller felt that there was a good
hope of getting the necessary legislation approved, particularly when
Taft indicated a favorable attitude. Rockefeller urged the Ohio
senator to use his influence in behalf of the. program on the grounds
that it was not a partisan issue.
"All right/ the senator finally said, "I will sit down with the Presi
dent and a bipartisan group and, off the record, review the recom
mendations. Ill discuss with the President the means of getting the
proper legislation to carry this out."
Feeling that he had gotten over the biggest hurdle, Rockefeller
decided to tell Harriman the good news. Harriman, however, gave
NELSON RCK3KEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 278
no indication of being pleased. Their conversation puzzled Rocke
feller, who was so intent on getting congressional support that he
had failed to notice a trend that was clear to his associates. They had
observed that some Truman aides were doubtful about the ambitious
and centralized program recommended by the advisory board and
were concerned that the board s success in rallying nonpartisan con
gressional backing for a separate agency might interfere with the
administration s efforts to get maximum political credit for a mini
mum foreign assistance program. It also seemed probable to some
of them that Harriman believed Rockefeller hoped to become head
of such an agency as possibly he did and had been building up
support for himself in Congress. In any event, Harriman soon made
it clear that he wanted to continue his European Cooperation Ad
ministration, which was supposedly a temporary assistance organiza
tion, and to broaden its scope instead of setting up the organization
proposed by the advisory board to carry out the permanent Point
Four program.
Rockefeller believed that such a procedure failed to present to the
people of the United States either the problem or a workable solu
tion. "The EGA has completed its work," he argued. "The new
program is in our self-interest as well as the interest of others. It
should be organized on a permanent centralized basis to meet the
problems of an interdependent world. It is not a give-away program.
It is the heart of our whole future security and well-being."
By this time, the report of the advisory board had been completed
and the board instructed Rockefeller, as chairman, to present it to
President Truman. The President, however, was resting in Key West
and Rockefeller could not get in touch with him. He offered to take
the report to Key West but Harriman objected. After considerable
delay, Harriman finally took it when he flew to Florida to see
Mr. Truman. Rockefeller s associates believed that because some
leaders in the administration other than the President were not
enthusiastic, the board s recommendations did not receive the con
sideration that otherwise might have been given them. On the other
hand, Rockefeller was of the opinion that the President himself was
WASHINGTON REVISITED 279
both enthusiastic and open-minded about carrying out Point Four
and that he might well have supported the board s recommenda
tions if they had been presented to him in favorable circumstances.
Actually, the House Foreign Relations Committee, after hearing
testimony by Rockefeller and Paul Hoffman, approved a bill very
much in line with the board s proposals. When the Senate Foreign
Affairs Committee considered the bill neither Rockefeller nor Hoff
man was asked to testify, although both had offered to do so. With
some difficulty, the administration representatives kept control of
the Senate legislation and the final result was a bill that met their
wishes rather than the recommendations of the advisory board for
a single over-all agency responsible to the President. The TCA of
the State Department continued to administer part of the program,
while other parts were placed under the new Mutual Security Agency,
which replaced the European Cooperation Administration. Harriman
became director of the Mutual Security Agency on December 31,
1951.
The breadth and vision of the advisory board s report to the Presi
dent was, perhaps, too much for the times; the board was seeking
objectives not likely to be easily or quickly attained. The value of its
work, however, was demonstrated in the next few years when several
of its recommendations, passed over in 1951, were enacted into law,
One such proposal in 1951 was that the United States take the
initiative in creating an International Finance Corporation which, un
like the World Bank, would be able to finance privately-run enter
prises without government guarantees of repayment. The board made
the recommendation on the grounds that the greater risk involved
would be compensated for by the fact that the corporation would
share in earnings of the projects financed. Seven years later this
proposal was enacted by Congress. The board also recommended
establishment of an organization, affiliated with the World Bank,
that could make loans repayable in local currencies. There are many
multiple-purpose government projects in underdeveloped countries
that might be financed in part by the World Bank if the government
involved could raise funds to pay local labor and other local costs.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 280
The board suggested establishment of an International Development
Authority to make grants or loans in local currencies for that pur
pose. Nothing was done in 1951, but in 1959 the World Bank
approved creation of an International Development Association with
a capital of a billion dollars to serve such a purpose.
In general, Rockefeller believed that the advisory board s work
made an important contribution by providing blueprints for future
international cooperation. But when the administration s legislation,
which he felt did not go far enough because it applied principally to
technical assistance or "advice," was enacted in 1951, Rockefeller
decided his usefulness as chairman was ending. He made an appoint
ment to hand his resignation to the President, and arrived at the
White House just as Harriman was leaving. The two men shook
hands cordially, but perhaps with some reservations. There wasn t
much doubt in Rockefeller s mind that the Point Four program was
going to fall far short of the goals set by the advisory board and
of the "bold new program" called for by the President.
"Fm just going in to present my resignation as chairman of the
advisory board," he told Harriman.
"Oh, no!" Harriman protested. "The work is just beginning."
Rockefeller, nevertheless, told Mr. Truman that he believed his
job was ended and showed him the draft of his letter of resignation.
"We had a wonderful talk," Rockefeller said later. "He couldn t
have been nicer."
m.
For two years after resigning from the International Development
Advisory Board in an unhappy mood, Rockefeller pretty well man
aged to stick to his own home town. Now, as a co-owner of Rocke
feller Center, he was more excited than ever to walk the streets of
New York City and study its everchanging skyline. And the change
that interested him most in 1952 was a great new tower that had
sprung up along the banks of the East River the strikingly hand
some glass and aluminum home of the United Nations. Every time
WASHINGTON REVISITED 281
he looked at the United Nations building it gave him a little thrill
of satisfaction because he had a perfect right to say but never did
that it might not be there except for the fact that Nelson Rocke
feller was a stubbornly determined man who regarded New York
as the greatest city on earth.
Rockefeller and his family had long devoted a great deal of effort
and money to the theme of international harmony, but the story
of the United Nations building began in 1946 when Nelson Rocke
feller was a member of the Mayor s committee that was working,
without much hope of success, to have the world organization estab
lish its headquarters in New York City. It had been decided that
the headquarters would be in the United States but New York did
not have a suitable site available and, despite the fact that the
United Nations delegates preferred New York, other cities such
as Philadelphia and San Francisco were strongly in the running.
Early in December, it appeared that Philadelphia might be selected
as the United Nations site, and a final vote was set for December
11. Rockefeller was then in Texas but he flew home on December
9 to make a last effort in behalf of New York. Frank Jamieson had
been keeping in touch with leaders of the United Nations, then
temporarily situated at Lake Success in the New York suburbs, and
he gave Rockefeller a pessimistic report,
"It looks as if it is in the bag for Philadelphia/ he said.
A little later that evening, however, a New York newspaper
reporter telephoned Jamieson and urged that Rockefeller keep trying.
"The delegates/ he said, "really want New York if only they can get
a proper site/
The next day at noon, Rockefeller, Jamieson, Wallace Harrison
and John Lockwood got together in Rockefeller s office just twenty-
two hours before the deadline for bids.
"There must be something we can do/ Rockefeller said. "What
is it?"
"All I m sure of is that we have to do it today," Jamieson remarked.
Various ideas were offered and finally Rockefeller asked: "What
about Pocantico Hills?"
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 282
This explosive idea shocked the meeting into silence for a minute.
The family estate at Pocantico Hills, some thirty miles from New
York, was the spot that Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., loved probably more
than any other in the world. It had been "home" to the family for
three generations. Only a member of the family could fully under
stand the implications of the suggestion that it be shared for any
purpose. Yet there seemed to be merit in the idea and Rockefeller
decided to give it a try. He began putting in telephone calls to
his brothers, who were at the moment scattered all the way from
Wall Street to Virginia and South America. They were by no means
eager to cooperate but once the situation had been explained to them
they agreed to, go along with the proposal. Then came the big prob
lem. What about their father? Hesitantly, Rockefeller telephoned his
father and explained their idea. Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., did not object.
But a little later, when the group in his son s office was hard at work,
he called back.
"Is this what the United Nations prefer?" he asked. "Is this the
ideal location?"
For the next hour or so, the planners checked with United States
and other delegates at Lake Success and despondently came to the
conclusion that a site at Pocantico Hills, if offered, would be turned
down. Just before dinnertime, Rockefeller called his father again and
told him the results of their inquiries. "I guess they d rather have
some place in Manhattan, Pa/ he said, wearily.
There was a brief discussion and Mr. Rockefeller referred to an
area of several blocks on the East Side of Manhattan where a realtor,
William Zeckendorf, was preparing to tear down a slum district and
build skyscrapers. Harrison was familiar with the project and sug
gested that the property might be purchased for $8,500,000.
"Well," Mr. Rockefeller said, "I think that s all right. If you can
get it at that price, Nelson, I ll give it to the United Nations."
"Why, Pa!" Nelson cried.
The next fifteen hours were frantic work. Rockefeller got in touch
with city and federal officials to work out details while Harrison set
out to buy the land from Zeckendorf. He finally found the realtor
WASHINGTON REVISITED 283
and his partner, Henry Sears, in a night club late that evening.
Moving to another table, they spread out the blueprints of the East
Side area and Harrison, raising his voice above the blare of the dance
band, explained the Rockefeller offer. There was some discussion
but in the end Zeckendorf picked up the red pencil with which Harri
son had outlined the area and scribbled on the blueprint an option:
"8.5 million United Nations only. December 10 for 30 days/ On
his way back to Rockefeller s office, Harrison realized that he had
talked himself out of a big fee because he had been scheduled to be
the architect for the Zeckendorf skyscraper project.
It took a lot of work, but by ten-thirty the next morning the
Rockefeller offer was presented to the United Nations and promptly
accepted. None of the Rockefellers was present, but they felt a great
deal of satisfaction not just because the United Nations headquarters
would be in New York but because the family had worked together
toward an end that they regarded as significant in the world s search
for peace.
It would be hard to express in words [Rockefeller wrote his father
on December 14, 1946] what I felt all Tuesday evening concerning
the authorization you gave us in connection with the site for the
United Nations. . . . You ve done many wonderful things in your
life but I don t think that you have ever met any situation with
greater courage ... or with more vision.
Mr. Rockefeller s reply was a rather poignant summation of his re
lationship with his second son:
. . . that you and I have so successfully supplemented each other,
each bringing assets without which the other could not have gone
forward, to me adds greatly to the joy and satisfaction of our joint
accomplishment. You cannot, in all the kindness of your heart,
begin to be as proud of me as I am of you.
FIFTEEN
Eisenhower s Appointee
The first Republican presidential election triumph in twenty years
took Rockefeller back to Washington in 1952, almost before the
smoke of political battle had cleared away. President-elect Dwight D.
Eisenhower appointed him on November 30 to be chairman of the
President s Advisory Committee on Government Organization to
recommend ways of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the
executive branch of government. Rockefeller s interest in and his
talent for government and politics had developed steadily over more
than a decade and he was in high spirits at the prospect of working
for the first time in an administration of his own political allegiance.
There were some remarkable differences between the young, in
experienced and impatient Rockefeller who set out to coordinate
most of Washington and all of Latin America in 1940 and the forty-
four-year-old Rockefeller who returned in 1953 as chairman of the
President s advisory committee. After a dozen years, Rockefeller was
familiar with the intricate twists and turns and the many blind alleys
of the federal bureaucratic maze. He had a high respect for Congress
and had proved his ability on many occasions to deal successfully
284
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 285
with its committees. He had a remarkably wide acquaintance in the
executive branch and on the Hill and had reason to believe that his
friends were many and his enemies, including some bitter ones, were
comparatively few. 1 Even more important, however, he had learned
that politics and government in the United States are the net result
of a vast, amorphous and often tedious effort by many men and
women to sift and evaluate and reconcile countless divergent ideas,
and that exhaustive preparation and patience are essential to solid
political achievement.
The ability to wait, to be patient, did not mean, however, that
Rockefeller was any less industrious. He still could not find enough
hours in the day to do all that he thought should be done. He still
ate luncheon almost every day at his desk and expected staff members
or visitors to keep right on with business while they shared his mid
day meal of a sandwich, ice cream and a chocolate brownie. At times,
when he was concentrating on some problem, it seemed utterly im
possible for him to understand why anybody in the office would want
to take a whole hour off to go out to lunch. And so contagious was
his enthusiasm that the staff ate more lunches at their desks, with
only occasional complaints, than at restaurants. "It didn t seem fair
to complain/ one stenographer remarked later, because he simply
assumed that you were just as interested in getting things done as
he was. And then he made up for it in other ways. He often did
thoughtful things and I don t think I ever heard him say a cross word
to the hired help."
There was no diminution either in Rockefeller s aggressiveness.
"When he was convinced the time was right and he was on the right
track," an associate commented, "he wanted action and, with ex
perience in Washington, he knew a lot of ways to get action. If one
thing didn t work, he would try another and another. He reminded
1 Even Senator Langer, who had harassed him and on various occasions had
voted against his confirmation, expressed his approval when Rockefeller appeared
as a witness at a closed session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Langer
said he wanted the committee to know that if another opportunity arose he
would vote for confirmation, and this so pleased Rockefeller that "with some
hesitancy" he mentioned it in an interoffice memorandum.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 286
me at times of a whole passel of yellow jackets because he could stab
away at you from all sides. Needless to say, this drove some bureau
crats crazy and, if they were powerful enough, they tried to cut him
down."
Generally speaking, Rockefeller s services in the Eisenhower ad
ministration were less flamboyant, less spectacular in the eyes of news
paper reporters and the public than his activities in the 1940^. He
was frequently frustrated. But, viewed at long range, his accomplish
ments were both solid and highly important, particularly in connec
tion with the work of the advisory committee, which included Dr.
Milton Eisenhower and Arthur Flemming, in setting up a new gov
ernment department known as Health, Education and Welfare.
Actually, Rockefeller worked on various government reorganization
committees from 1952 until 1958. The experience was of great value
because it gave him a remarkable knowledge of a wide variety of
government operations which would be of importance later.
On two occasions, Rockefeller participated in surveys on reorgani
zation of the Department of Defense. The first was at the request of
Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson, who had once remarked that
"any time Nelson wants a government job he can have it with me."
In 1953, a committee headed by Rockefeller and including a number
of top military and scientific personalities investigated duplication
and overlapping in the Defense Department setup. It was believed
unlikely in Washington that the committee members would be able
to reconcile their highly divergent viewpoints but they surprisingly
agreed on a thirty-nine-page report which Wilson and Rockefeller
took to the White House. At the door, the Secretary handed the
report to Rockefeller and said: "Now, Nelson, you re more familiar
with this and you better present the details to the President." Slightly
stunned, Rockefeller found himself in the unenviable position of
telling the nation s most famous soldier what to do about military
organization. The President, however, seemed to be satisfied with
the recommendations.
The advisory committee later recommended a second study looking
to reorganization of the Defense Department after Wilson had re-
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 287
signed and Secretary Neil McElroy had taken over. A committee of
experts was set up to make a study and recommendations to the
President and Rockefeller was named as one of the consultants to
the committee. The study was complicated and it immediately ran
into strong feelings of rivalry among leaders of the various branches
of the armed services, each of which was determined to hold its own
ground in any reorganization.
Rockefeller favored far greater reorganization of the armed forces
than was possible during the 1950*5 when Congress failed to overrule
the recalcitrant service leaders. His attitude was indicated later by
the report of a panel of experts in which he participated and which
proposed that the three services be removed from the channels of
operational command and that unified commands be organized to
perform the missions called for by the nation s stategic requirements.
The report suggested a reorganization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
on a unified basis under control of the chairman, who would be prin
cipal military advisor to the Secretary of Defense and the President.
It also proposed that all promotions above the rank of brigadier gen
eral come from the Department of Defense rather than from the
various services and that such officers be designated as officers of the
armed forces rather than of a particular service.
Testifying before a Senate committee in 1958, Rockefeller said that
it was "absolutely basic" to defense reorganization to amend the Na
tional Security Act of 1947 in regard to prohibition of any change in
the combat functions assigned to the various military services. Until
Congress acts, he once said, plans for unification are futile and "there
will continue to be competition and duplication and confusion that*
will cost increasing billions in unnecessary defense expenditures and
which could conceivably be catastrophic in case of emergency/
During the years Rockefeller served as chairman, the President s
advisory committee recommended a total of thirteen reorganization
plans. It was a measure of the work done that ten of the thirteen
were approved by Congress and became law, effecting basic changes
in the Defense Department, the Agriculture Department and the
Office of Defense Mobilization, among others.
NELSON RCXKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 288
The work of the advisory committee covered the entire executive
branch, giving Rockefeller an opportunity to exercise his skill in
planning and to get an insight into several major problems which
had not been solved when he resigned. He was, for example, tre
mendously interested in the various agencies that supervise interstate
transportation facilities and came to the conclusion that they should
be brought together under one tent as part of a comprehensive pro
gram to get public transportation on a more solid basis. The com
mittee also studied reorganization of the office of the presidency,
particularly for the purpose of taking some of the routine burden off
the President and giving him more time for long-range planning and
policy-making. Mr. Eisenhower was interested in White House reor
ganization and he frequently needled Rockefeller by asking:
"Well, when are you going to get around to working on the White
House, Nelson?"
Eventually a plan for streamlining the White House operations
was developed but it was not made public while Rockefeller was a
member of the committee.
n.
One of the first and most important jobs that confronted Rocke
feller when he became chairman of the advisory committee was to
plan the consolidation of the federal health, education and social
security programs and agencies into a single cabinet department. It
was not a new idea, having first been proposed in the Republican ad
ministrations ~of the 1920*8 and later by Democratic Presidents, but
it was an extremely difficult undertaking because each agency was
inclined to fight for its own independence and each one usually had
supporters in Congress who could block a merger.
1 The committee devoted a great deal of time and effort to recom
mendations and legislation for creation of the Health, Education and
Welfare Department (HEW), seeking to overcome as many as possi
ble of the arguments against consolidation and to win the support
of congressional committees interested in the various independent
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 289
agencies. This was no easy task and the fact that the legislation was
prepared and that Congress approved it in April, 1953, was regarded
in Washington as a kind of minor political miracle. Mrs. Oveta Gulp
Hobby was nominated by the President as the first Secretary of
HEW. Mrs. Hobby had been head of the Federal Security Admin
istration. She had been impressed by Rockefeller s "skill, knowledge
and patience" in the work of creating the new department, and she
asked Mr. Eisenhower to nominate him as Under Secretary. Rocke
feller had been impressed by Mrs. Hobby and he believed that it was
of great importance to the Republican party, which had so frequently
been stuck with a Wall Street label, to get the department off to a
good start. He felt that it was essential to show that the sound innova
tions of the New Deal era social security, for example would not
only be retained but improved by the Republican administration..
Furthermore, most of the affairs with which HEW was concerned,
such as education and public health, were fields in which he had had
experience and in which he was intensely interested. When the
President asked him to become Under Secretary, he accepted the
job and became what Mrs. Hobby described as "general manager"
of the huge department, in charge of a staff that numbered thirty-
five-thousand persons. Under direction of the Secretary, he was re
sponsible for administering the department s budget of more than
$2,000,000,000 in addition to the handling of $4,000,000,000 in
annual social security benefits.
Rockefeller "was bouncing a good many balls at one time when he
moved to HEW/ an aide remarked. "He was still deeply involved
in the reorganization program and was devoting a good deal of time
to plans for strengthening and unifying federal policy on water re
sources, which he regarded as vitally important. He had a lot of big
jobs. The fact that he could handle so many things without getting
into hot water was impressive. He has shortcomings as an adminis
trator. He works amid considerable confusion. But he gets things
done. He repeatedly showed that he could pick the right man for a
job and he knew how to get work out of his associates. It soon became
a common saying around HEW that Rockefeller would never get
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 290
ulcers he let other people get them by worrying about details while
he concentrated on new and bigger objectives."
One of Rockefeller s first acts at HEW was to set up a chart room
or briefing room. The heads of all principal agencies in the depart
ment were invited to "command performances" once a week. They
thus became a kind of departmental council and each was required
to use visual aids in making regular progress reports and explaining
future plans so that all would know what was going on in the de
partment. "Scratch a Rockefeller/ 7 one bureaucrat quipped, "and
you ll find a chart/
Among other things, Secretary Hobby in the fall of 1953 de
veloped a legislative program in which Rockefeller regarded changes
in the social security law as most important. He arranged for Roswell
B. Perkins, a young New York lawyer, to make an exhaustive study
of the entire history of social security and this was presented, with
the usual charts and graphs, at briefing sessions. Perkins later re
mained with HEW at Mrs. Hobby s request. Secretary Hobby and
the staff then developed a long-range policy on social security. Rocke
feller conferred repeatedly with leaders of congressional committees
involved and legislation was drafted and guided through Congress
to cover almost ten million additional workers by extension of social
security benefits and to increase benefits substantially for retired
workers and their families and for widows and dependent children.
Rockefeller also was instrumental in the passage of legislation ex
panding the federal-state vocational rehabilitation program, broaden
ing the federal-state hospital construction program to provide more
nursing homes and chronic-disease hospitals for aged persons. He
helped develop legislation authorizing the White House Conference
on Education as a major effort to foresee the future educational needs
of the nation.
Rockefeller failed in an effort to reorganize the federal programs
granting aid to states for vocational education, child welfare and other
purposes. His study of the grant programs showed that the various
agencies involved had different formulas for dividing federal money
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 291
among the states and for requiring the states to match federal funds.
The result was a hodgepodge that often failed to serve the purpose
for which the funds were intended. Rockefeller proposed legislation
to put the grant programs on a more uniform basis, to encourage the
states to expand and improve their programs as circumstances might
require in order to be eligible for federal funds, and to foster research
into new and important fields. Five committees in the House
and four in the Senate were- involved in hearings on the legislation,
and not even Rockefeller s sales talk could swing all of them to sup
port of the various bills, which eventually were compromised to death.
During the final weeks of his tenure at the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare, Rockefeller was instrumental in developing
legislation to provide federal aid for school construction in localities
without adequate resources to provide fully for their own building
needs. This proposal became, after Rockefeller had left the depart
ment, President Eisenhower s first proposal for federal aid for school
construction.
By the autumn of 1954, Rockefeller decided that HEW was a
going organization and that his job was ended. He was interested in
getting back into a foreign affairs job. The President was agreeable and,
when Rockefeller resigned in December, 1954, Mr. Eisenhower asked
him to become Special Assistant to the President for Foreign Affairs
to give "advice and assistance in the development of increased under
standing and cooperation among all peoples."
Before he left HEW, however, there were a couple of incidents
that were typical of Rockefeller. When Halloween rolled around, the
Rockefeller chauffeur appeared at the office with a carload of pump
kins, which were placed on the desks of secretaries and stenographers.
Then the Under Secretary appeared and jovially announced that "the
boss" Mis. Hobby was gone for the day and that it was a great
chance to devote a little time to a contest to see who could make
the best jack o lantern. He produced carving knives and everybody
started to work, including the Under Secretary. Some fanciful pump
kin faces were produced and first prize went to one that, with a
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 292
few frills added, resembled an elephant. Rockefeller s wasn t so easy
to identify but majority opinion was that it resembled a Picasso
painting and he was awarded a consolation prize.
Another Rockefeller idea that autumn was that the United States
government should recognize Winston ChurchilTs eightieth birthday
by striking a medal in his honor. The President approved and said
he would be happy to present the medal to the British wartime
hero. There were, however, complications. The medal would have to
be cast by the United States Mint and that meant it had to be ap
proved by the Treasury and Justice Departments. The Justice De
partment decided that there was no statute to cover such a medal but
that Congress could pass an act authorizing it. Such complications
were familiar to Rockefeller and he went about solving them with his
usual energy. The medal was designed and cast by the mint, with a
profile of Churchill on one side taken from a painting by Eisenhower.
It was a handsome medal and the presentation to the former British
Prime Minister was a noteworthy event.
But then more problems arose. Who was going to pay for the
medal? The White House didn t feel up to footing the bill. If Con
gress paid, it would require special legislation and congressional
leaders didn t want to get mixed up in that. Treasury Secretary George
Humphrey balked at paying. Eventually, a bill for around $2,000 for
one gold medal for Winston Churchill arrived on the desk of Under
Secretary Nelson Rockefeller, who had had the idea in the first place.
Without further ado, he paid it.
in.
Rockefeller moved over to the White House executive offices with
a pocketful of ideas and, as usual, enthusiasm. His job basically was
to assess the psychological aspects of United States foreign policy. The
time had come, Mr. Eisenhower informed him, "for all of us to
renew our faith in ourselves and in our fellow men. The whole world
has been far too preoccupied with fears. It is time for people through
out the world to think again of hopes, of the progress that is within
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 293
reach. . . ." Such words struck a highly responsive chord in Rocke
feller s mind. Furthermore, the President asked him to attend meet
ings of the cabinet, the National Security Council, the Council on
Foreign Economic Policy and the Operations Coordinating Board
so that he would be in a position to know what was going on in all
phases of foreign policy. And, most important of all, Rockefeller
would report directly to the Chief Executive. For the first time, he
reflected, there would not be any road block between him and the
White House. Or so he imagined.
Rockefeller s most important effort in his White House job was the
creating of a Planning Coordination Group (PCG) that was intended
to serve as a review section for economic, information and other pro
grams abroad. There already existed a Planning Board which funneled
programs into the National Security Council and an Operations
Coordinating Board which directed execution of the council s ap
proved policies abroad. The Bureau of the Budget, however, had
recommended the establishment of a new group that would review
programs, ride herd on the implementation of policy abroad and co
ordinate the departments that were responsible for such endeavors.
The task stirred Rockefeller s imagination and, in a short time, he
achieved a great deal in a preliminary way, but he also ran into a
number of road blocks and several major as well as bitter inter
departmental fights, particularly with Under Secretary of State
Herbert Hoover, Jr., who was head of OCB and who resented the
creation of PCG.
In his new job, Rockefeller had a staff of about twenty persons,
including half a dozen liaison officials on loan from other executive
branch offices such as Central Intelligence Agency and the Depart
ment of Defense, and a few of his own experts who were on his pay
roll in New York. His first problem, however, was an able executive
assistant to take charge of the staff and he asked friends at
the Pentagon to suggest a career officer who could do the job.
They came up with the name of Major General Ted Parker, a
West Point graduate who was stationed in Chicago in command of an
antiaircraft outfit. Rockefeller s secretary, Donna Mitchell, telephoned
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 294
Parker and handed the receiver to the new presidential assistant.
"General," he said, "this is Nelson Rockefeller at the White
House. I believe you ve been informed about the job I d like to have
you do. Do you want to try it?"
He paused as Parker replied. Then Rockefeller said: "Oh?"
There was another pause in the White House office. Then Rocke
feller s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Oh," he said again in a rather flat voice. Then he exclaimed:
"Fine! What I want is an honest man who knows how to speak his
own mind."
He hung up the receiver with a bang and turned to his secretary.
"You know what he said? He said he would come to Washington if
he was ordered to do it."
Several years later, when he was a lieutenant general, Parker re
called that he had told Rockefeller he liked his job in Chicago and
didn t want to move to Washington. "But," he added, "I got my
orders and I went to Washington and I must say I ve never regretted
it."
One of the first things Rockefeller wanted to do at the White
House was to introduce some of the methods he had tried out in
other executive branch offices, particularly the use of visual aids at
conferences. A year or so earlier, he had had occasion to present a
proposed project to the President and had used charts to speed up
the discussion. The presentation had been scheduled for twenty min
utes, and at the end of that time Roswell Perkins, who was in charge,
paused and asked whether any further explanation was desired. Mr.
Eisenhower urged him to continue and the presentation lasted fifty
minutes. The charts enabled the President to grasp facts and figures
and the basic idea of the project almost at a glance, Rockefeller said
later, whereas the same problem presented in the form of a memoran
dum would have required several thousand written words. Mr. Eisen
hower expressed enthusiasm for the method and, as a special assistant,
Rockefeller hoped to use visual aides regularly at White House con
ferences.
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 295
Unfortunately, there wasn t any suitable briefing room in the
White House offices. When charts were used on one occasion at a
meeting of the National Security Council the space was so inadequate
that they fell down and created something of a shambles. So what
was needed was a briefing room where the NSC or the Operations
Coordinating Board or any other group could meet and where ap
paratus could be permanently installed for use of the graphic system.
"Rockefeller began looking around for the right kind of a room/
a friend said later. "It was awesome to see him prowling the White
House and the executive offices, eying every wing and floor for a
suitable chamber. His face lighted up when he spotted the White
House bowling alley. It would be perfect for his purposes but, un
happily, the President didn t feel that the bowling alley could be
torn out. Rockefeller kept on looking. He even eyed the White House
swimming pool, although I don t know whether he was planning to
get rid of it or just cover it over. Finally, he climbed to the top floor
of the Executive Office Building (the former State Department)
across the street from the White House. There was an old library
there with a skylight, turret rooms and a complicated set of stacks for
books all around the walls.
" Maybe this is it! he said. We could clear it out and use the
turret rooms for the various study groups and researchers/ His en
thusiasm lasted long enough to make an investigation of problems
that would be involved. The Secret Service promptly reported that
it was impossible to provide proper security for the President in the
maze of rooms and corridors on the top floor. And an engineering
survey showed that the library floor was so old that, if its burden was
increased, it was likely to cave in and Rockefeller s office was directly
underneath!"
It was not, however, obstacles of this nature that stopped Rocke
feller, What stopped him was the top echelon of the Department of
State. A word of explanation is due here because, throughout the
period of his service in Washington, Rockefeller had frequently been
in conflict with high officers of the department and it might seem
that he was always out of step in regard to foreign policy. This was
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 296
seldom true, nor was it at the root of the problem. The basic trouble
was threefold. First, both President Roosevelt and President Eisen
hower appointed him to jobs that, by their very nature, tended to
infringe on the long-established prerogatives of the department and
therefore to cause conflict. Second, Rockefeller usually wanted to go
further on foreign aid than the department. Third, he had always
strongly believed in people-to-people diplomacy the idea that it was
vitally important for the peoples of the various nations to know and
understand each other in order to promote good feeling and coopera
tion and peace. Thus, in respect to the method and machinery for
achieving an objective rather than in field of actual foreign policy,
Rockefeller frequently did disagree with the traditional methods of
experienced diplomats because he regarded foreign relations as far
more than a strictly legalistic procedure between the various govern
ments in power.
"You might explain it this way/ a man who was a very close ob
server once said. "A diplomat and lawyer like Dean Acheson is
wonderfully trained and disciplined. He is precise and legalistic. He
reads and understands a document in exact legal terms. He believes
in the rational man. Rockefeller never was trained to read or to speak
in exact or legalistic terms. He does not see a problem in abstract
terms but he intuitively understands it in human terms. He is like a
painter who never learned to be a skilled draftsman but nevertheless
can produce a good painting. You could say that the traditional
diplomat would recognize Rockefeller s lack of skill as a draftsman
and conclude perhaps contemptuously that he was no good. But
Rockefeller would conclude that the legalistic diplomat knew nothing
about how people felt or what they wanted/
In addition, one observant diplomat pointed out, Rockefeller re
sembles his paternal grandfather in that he "is a man who wants to
have his own way/
He had sometimes had his own way in clashes with the department.
More often he had not, but this did not discourage him from trying
something else, nor did it cause him to feel resentment. To the con
stant bewilderment of his associates, Rockefeller almost always
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 297
seemed to be convinced that his failure to put across an idea in
which he firmly believed was due only to the fact that others did not
fully understand the circumstances and that if the next problem were
approached in a more sympathetic and thorough manner then every
body would be able to get together in a friendly and cooperative
spirit and find the way to reach their common goal. This did not
keep him from being a persistent fighter for his own ideas but it
did often give his activities an accent of naivet6. A man who had
crossed swords with him one day might, upon meeting him the
following day, take an "on guard" position, only to have Rockefeller
throw an arm around his shoulders and greet him like an old pal.
Rockefeller s efforts as Special Assistant to the President for
Foreign Affairs, however, were inevitably doomed to put him in an
unfavorable light at the Department of State, regardless of what he
did or how he did it. Secretary John Foster Dulles was a man with
a strong will and a determination to conduct the nation s foreign
affairs in his own way. The idea of anybody being a Presidential
Assistant for Foreign Affairs must have been repugnant to him and,
for excellent reasons, he had no intention of letting Rockefeller get
between him and Mr. Eisenhower. Obviously, he made this clear
at the White House because Rockefeller found that he had to sell
his ideas to the State Department Dulles was away from Wash
ington a great deal but in his absence the special assistant had even
rougher sledding because Under Secretary Herbert Hoover, Jr., not
only protected his superior s position but was definitely out of sym
pathy with Rockefeller s methods and ideas/ Hoover was generally
aligned with Treasury Secretary George Humphrey/Budget Director
Roland Hughes and ICA Director John HolHster known in Wash
ington as the 4-H Club to hold down government spending.
Rockefeller not only believed in maintaining an adequate national
defense but he was convinced that money spent wisely on foreign
economic cooperation would save the taxpayers huge sums in the
future. Hoover was in a position to stop him and he seldom lost
an opportunity to do it in small affairs, such as setting up a chart
room, or in large affairs, such as pushing the President s atoms-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 298
for-peace program. Some progress was made on the atoms-for-peace
project but the champions of economy were not enthusiastic about
the foreign aid program, particularly not along the lines Rocke
feller believed essential. He argued in behalf of a loan for a $130,000,-
ooo program for expansion of the Tata steel works, a privately owned
enterprise in India, at a low rate of interest and without an Indian
government guarantee. The company planned to buy American equip
ment at a higher price than it might have gotten it elsewhere, but
insisted that it could do so only if granted a low interest rate on a loan
by the Export-Import Bank. Rockefeller urged the administration to
agree as a demonstration of good will and support to private enter
prise in an underdeveloped country but, at the last minute, Secretary
Humphrey and others opposed the deal so strongly that it was
abandoned.
There were other instances in which the "4-H Club" blocked
proposals which Rockefeller believed would bolster United States
foreign policy. He urged that funds appropriated by Congress for
economic aid to Indonesia be spent to offset Communist efforts to
infiltrate the former Dutch colony. Under Secretary Hoover believed
such funds should be withheld until it could be determined whether
Indonesia was pro-Russian or an ally of the Western powers. There
was a definite division between a policy of action as opposed to a
policy of inaction, and in the long run Rockefeller spent too much
of his time at the White House in a fog of frustration. "Yet," said
a man who followed these developments closely, "I never knew him
to be vindictive against those who rightly or wrongly were block
ing him. Not even in the privacy of his office did he ever berate any
one, although there were times at conferences when he had been the
target of remarks so crude that almost everyone there was embar
rassed. I am sure he was bitter but his strongest reaction to his staff
would be to shrug and shake his head in a kind of despair."
Rockefeller began to realize that he was caught in a trap. Yet there
did come a time when he was able to act effectively, and it was an
important time.
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 299
IV.
In 1955 the cold war between the Western democracies and the
Communist nations led by Soviet Russia had reached a point of
crisis that prompted many statesmen to decide that only a meeting
of opposing heads of state could relieve world tensions. This led to
the first so-called Summit Conference at Geneva, with the United
States, Great Britain, France and Soviet Russia participating.
While it was hoped that some concrete results might be obtained
at Geneva, the conference obviously offered a perfect sounding board
for propaganda, and the participating nations knew that all of the
world would be listening to their words. Thus Geneva called for the
best efforts of the United States psychological warfare experts and
especially of the President s Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs
as well as the Planning Coordination Group.
The PCG accomplished no miracles but it gave Rockefeller a basis
from which to work when plans were being made for the Summit
Conference. He had received from the government information
service abroad the raw results of surveys, made in European countries,
of public opinion on the cold war. They showed that many Euro
peans felt the United States was just as much to blame for the cold
war as Soviet Russia, that the atomic bomb should be banned and
that United States bases in Europe should be abolished. The results
indicated to Rockefeller that the Russians were doing a much better
propaganda job than the United States, and he believed that our
biggest problem at Geneva would be to counteract the idea that
the Soviets were leaders in seeking peace.
To meet the problem, Rockefeller arranged through PCG for a
kind of seminar of experts at Quantico, the U.S. Marine Corps base
near Washington. Those attending were from colleges and private
groups and government, all of them experts in international affairs
and all of them cleared for top secret information. Accommodations
at Quantico were less than luxurious and a bit crowded. An army
officer who dropped by Rockefeller s suite the first morning was
NELSON ROCKEFF.T.T.KR A BIOGRAPHY 300
surprised to find him standing third in line among the five persons
occupying the suite, waiting for a chance to shave at the single
bathroom mirror.
The seminar, however, was a considerable success; out of the dis
cussions came a proposal that the United States should make a
dramatic peace gesture at Geneva by reviving an "open-skies" plan
for international aerial inspection of all lands as a safeguard against
secret preparations for atomic warfare. When the Quantico meetings
ended Rockefeller had the proposal outlined in a one-page memor
andum which he took to President Eisenhower. The President was
immediately interested; very much interested, Rockefeller thought.
He picked up the telephone and asked for Secretary Dulles.
"Foster," he said, "here s an idea/ Then he briefly sketched the
open-skies proposal and added that it had come out of Rockefeller s
seminar.
Dulles replied that the State Department had a copy of the pro
posal, and that was about the end of the conversation. It was almost
the end of the open-skies plan, too. A few days later, the President
asked Rockefeller to attend a briefing with Dulles in the President s
office. The Secretary of State seemed a bit surprised to see Rocke
feller present but he promptly got down to business. He leaned back
in his chair, placed his fingertips together on his chest, looked up
at the ceiling and began speaking brilliantly and with the utmost
clarity about plans for the Geneva conference. The net result of his
remarks was that the important thing for the President to do at the
Summit Conference was to identify the issues in the cold war. Then
he should leave it up to the conference of foreign ministers, which
was to follow, to work out the proper solutions, providing solutions
could be found.
Rockefeller did not agree. "I believe, Mr. President/ 7 he said, "that
you should make a pronouncement that will reassure the world as to
the peaceful intentions of the United States. It is important that you
destroy the idea some peoples have that the United States is a war
monger with an atomic bomb. You can be sure the Russians will
attempt to make themselves out as leading the search for peace. The
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 301
Russian argument will be propaganda, but it will be important psy
chologically."
Dulles was strongly opposed and came back to his belief that the
President should merely define the issues. He made it clear, too, that
the nation could have only one Secretary of State and that, as
Secretary of State, he did not appreciate interference in execution
of the President s foreign policy. Rockefeller tried to get back into
the discussion but Mr. Eisenhower suggested that perhaps the
meeting had gone on long enough.
Rockefeller went back to his office and tried to take another look
at the whole situation. He knew that the State Department had con
fined itself to preparing position papers for the President along the
lines proposed by Dulles. He intuitively believed that when the
time came such papers would not be enough. So he instructed his
staff to go ahead with preparation of position papers along the lines
discussed at Quantico, particularly in reference to the open-skies
proposal. The State Department didn t want Rockefeller to accom
pany the President to Geneva, but after some discussion the President
asked Rockefeller; Deputy Defense Secretary Robert B. Anderson;
Admiral Arthur W, Radford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;
and Harold Stassen, who was the President s Special Assistant for
Disarmament, to journey to Paris and there await further instruc
tions.
In Paris, the four got together in an unhappy mood. Rockefeller
had the position papers that his staff had prepared on the open-skies
plan and in favor of freer world communications, and he showed
them to the other exiles. Radford and Anderson were impressed.
They consulted General Alfred M. Gruenther, then commander of
NATO, and he, too, liked the idea. With nothing to do but wait,
the group worked over the papers and suggested changes. Meanwhile,
the chiefs of state and their foreign ministers were gathering at
Geneva and the Russians, as expected, were making the most of the
opportunity for peace propaganda. They appealed directly to the
fears of Europeans, for example, by proposing the destruction of all
atom bombs. The United States delegation started off by attempting
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 302
to define the issues in the cold war but, after the first day, they
appeared to be running out of steam in the contest for favorable
world reaction.
These developments offered an opening for the Paris exiles and
they sent a message suggesting that the President might desire
to revive the open-skies proposal. On Wednesday, they were en
couraged by the receipt of orders to move from Paris to a hotel in
Lausanne. Then Rockefeller and Stassen were instructed to continue
to Geneva. Several State Department officers appeared to be sur
prised when they encountered Rockefeller in Geneva. But the Presi
dent had come to the conclusion that he needed to, make a dramatic
gesture to recapture the initiative at the conference and the open-
skies plan still appealed to him as a way to emphasize the peaceful
intentions of the United States. Stassen was given the job of drafting
the proposal into Mr. Eisenhower s speech but, at the last minute, it
was decided that the effect might be more striking if the President
interpolated the plan in his prepared statement.
The climactic day Thursday of the conference was overcast and
stormy. When his turn came, Mr. Eisenhower arose and began
reading his prepared statement. But in the middle of his speech he
laid aside his text and took off his glasses and looked around at the
representatives of the most powerful nations on earth. There was,
he said solemnly, a grave danger that, in an atomic age, the nations
would destroy each other. The time had come to put the military
blueprints on the table and open both Russia and the United States
to unlimited aerial inspection by each other s airplanes. "I propose,"
he said, "that we take a practical step; that we begin an arrangement
very quickly as between ourselves immediately!"
Just at that moment there was a tremendous clap of thunder and
the lights in the conference room flickered. Sitting directly behind
the President, Rockefeller felt that the storm added an unexpected
but welcome touch of drama to the speech and to the President s
able presentation of the open-skies plan. The proposal was enthusias
tically received by the Western delegates and hailed by the news
papers of Europe. Even Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin had a
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 303
few kinds words for the proposal. But when Rockefeller walked out
of the chamber with Mr. Eisenhower they encountered a short > bald
and roly-poly man named Nikita S. Khrushchev, the powerful Secre
tary General of the Russian Communist party, and Khrushchev
bitterly denounced the Eisenhower speech. The President more than
held his own in the brief argument and then asked Rockefeller to
accompany him to luncheon.
There is no question but that President Eisenhower was the
diplomatic figure at the conference [Rockefeller wrote to one of his
children]. His integrity, his ability and his personality dominated
the scene, and the Russians were fascinated by him. ... He kept
the initiative with them all the time. . . . [His] proposal took the
Russians completely by surprise, and as you know made a tre
mendous impression around the world as to the sincerity of the
President and the American people in their desire for peace. . . .
Again on Friday, the President made another strong positive state
ment this time a recommendation to reduce the barriers to
remove those causes which prevent freer flow of ideas, people and
goods between East and West. . . . The United States is indeed
fortunate to have in this critical period General Eisenhower as
President and Mr. Dulles as Secretary of State. They are uniquely
able and informed, and make a wonderful team.
It was not, however, a team on which Rqckefeller was going to
find a satisfactory place.
Not long after Rockefeller had returned from Geneva, Defense
Secretary Wilson came around to offer him a job as Deputy Secretary
of Defense, a post that was about to be vacated. Rockefeller was very
much interested and said he would be happy to accept if the Presi
dent approved. He discussed the Wilson proposal with the President s
chief-of-staff, Sherman Adams, and with Mr. Eisenhower, and both
said they would approve if Rockefeller felt he wanted to move to
the Defense Department. Then Secretary Humphrey learned of the
plan. He did not approve of Rockefeller s willingness to spend money
and apparently he didn t like the idea of moving him into the
Defense Department. One day after a cabinet meeting, Wilson
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 304
stopped to talk to Rockefeller and said that lie was sorry but he
would have to withdraw the offer of a job as deputy. Rockefeller
didn t have to ask why.
At this time, Rockefeller had been away from family business
affairs for more than three years and he felt there were urgent
reasons for him to get back to his office in Rockefeller Center. One
day he sat down and did a lot of hard thinking about the past and
the future. His service in public office had given him unusually wide
administrative experience and an insight into the intricate operation
of the federal government that few men could claim at his age. As
chairman of reorganization committees, as an Under Secretary, as
the head of an agency and as a White House assistant, he had acquired
a detailed knowledge of almost every executive department. He had
had his ups and downs, too.
As the creator of CIAA, he had been a pioneer and, in the opinion
of most observers, a successful if not a brilliant administrator. As
Assistant Secretary of State he had been a center of controversy but
he could look back on that period with a great deal of satisfaction. At
HEW, he had taken a back seat but it was generally known that he
had been the driving force in setting up the new department and
getting it off to a good start. At the White House, he had promoted
some successful ideas but, in general, he had failed and that was a
bitter pill. The answer to all this, he decided, was that an appointed
official was always subject to the policies and plans of his superior.
Policy was made at a higher level and the appointed office holder had
to stay within bounds. It was the elected official who was in the
driver s seat because he had put ideas before the people and had won
a mandate to act.
In December, 1955, Rockefeller told Mr. Eisenhower that per
sonal affairs made it necessary that he resign as Special Assistant to
the President. If he was discouraged, he didn t show it when he
went around to his office at the end of the year to dictate a few final
letters and pack his personal papers. Once he stumbled over a date
while dictating and turned to his secretary to ask: "What year is
this, anyway?" He roared with laughter when she replied: "Now,
EISENHOWER S APPOINTEE 305
Mr. Rockefeller, don t you clutter up your mind with what year
this is. I ll take care of that"
But he was in a serious mood when he stopped to say good-by to
General Parker, who was working on a record of their year in the
White House.
"I m convinced of one thing/ Rockefeller said as he turned to go
out the door. "You can t have a voice in your party unless you ve
proved that you know how to get votes."
SIXTEEN
The Politician
When Rockefeller returned to his private affairs in New York early
in 1956 he made it clear that his brothers had been carrying the
load of family responsibility for some years and that he was leaving
public service because it was his turn to lend a hand at home. Some
Washington political reporters predicted that he would eventually
get into politics in one way or another. They pointed out that he
had always been interested in public life and politics just as his
Grandfather Aldrich had been. He had been taught from childhood
that his most important mission in life was to be of service* It was
unlikely, therefore, the Washington experts theorized, that he would
remain in private business. Rockefeller, however, had no political
plans and, for that matter, no particular prospects. Yet he would
continue to be much interested in the national welfare and he had
some definite ideas as to the need for better public understanding
of foreign affairs and other national problems.
Rockefeller sometimes discussed these ideas with a few of his
closest associates Frank Jamieson, John Lockwood and Wallace
306
THE POLITICIAN 307
Harrison and with his brothers. Harrison had been an important
influence in Rockefeller s career since the 1930*8, when he was one
of the architects of Rockefeller Center. A tall, tireless and engaging
man, he had interests as wide as the world and an ability to under
stand and clarify complex problems in a manner that was of in
valuable assistance to Rockefeller during his service in Washington
and in connection with his enterprises in Latin America, Lockwood s
precise legal mind also had been important to Rockefeller s career
since early in World War II. But it was Jamieson, perhaps, who had
been most important to him in the political field. The slight, deb
onair former newspaperman brought a new note into the offices at
Rockefeller Center when he established a rather elaborate research
and public relations setup for all of the Rockefeller brothers after
the war. He was a man who could plow through a lot of work, swiftly
but so easily that it seemed no effort at all. He liked to laugh and
he liked to get his feet up on his desk in moments of relaxation. And,
unlike most of the Rockefeller associates, he was not a bit alarmed
by the interest of newspaper reporters in the affairs of the family.
Jamieson and Rockefeller, except for an inner tenseness, were re
markably unlike. Rockefeller is broad-shouldered, stocky, with a kind
of calculated disorderliness in the way he wears his excellently tail
ored clothes. He seems to be always in motion and usually a little
behind the pace he sets for himself. His changing moods gaiety,
charm, earnestness, sincerity are instantly reflected in an open face.
As he talks, he goes through a restless, intricate series of gestures with
his hands. Beside him, Jamieson was outwardly an almost nonchalant
figure, a thin-faced man with white hair brushed smoothly back from
his forehead, an easy smile and, often, a quizzical expression that
made him pleasantly owlish behind his horn-rimmed glasses. Yet,
the two men seemed almost from the beginning of their association
in 1940 to complement each other in a remarkable way, to spark
ideas and to generate action. "Their personalities rub off on each
other," a politician once remarked. Jamieson had long been familiar
with many areas of politics and public opinion that were important
to his boss and he did not hesitate to make his viewpoint clear. The
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 308
two men traveled together extensively in the United States and Latin
America over the years.
n.
One of the ideas that Rockefeller had when he left the White
House job in 1955 was for a private study of major problems that
would confront the people of the United States in the next ten or
twenty years. Almost ten years earlier, he had felt the need for a
better knowledge and understanding of the capitalistic system and
had then arranged to make a comprehensive study of past,
present and future political economy. The results of that study,
showing drastic modification of the capitalistic system over half a
century, had contributed to Rockefeller s education in economic
affairs and may have influenced his attitude toward the use of his
wealth. Then, as presidential assistant, he had been impressed by the
success of the seminar of experts on foreign policy that he had
sponsored at Quantico in preparation for the Summit Conference at
Geneva and by a second Quantico seminar that studied and analyzed
the results of the Geneva sessions.
When he returned to private business in New York he discussed
with various friends and associates the possibility of using the
"Quantico technique" to study major national problems and, par
ticularly, to give the people of the United States a better understand
ing of economic, military, educational, moral and other situations
they would be required to face in the future. Basically, the idea would
be to look ahead to conditions in 1965 and then try to determine
what could be done now to meet critical future problems. Rockefeller
found the idea exciting and he suggested to his brothers that they
finance a Special Studies Project under the title of America at Mid-
Century in an effort to provide a blueprint for approach to future
national problems. They agreed to do so through the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, a philanthropic organization they had set up in 1940
which had made contributions of more than $15,000,000 to many
charities, civic organizations and educational endeavors. A group of
THE POLITICIAN 309
thirty men and women recognized as leaders in all phases of Ameri
can endeavor were selected as an over-all panel for the Special Studies
Project and they, with a corps of experts, formed seven panels to
study seven basic problems ranging from military security and foreign
policy to education and the "moral framework of national purpose."
Rockefeller had met Dr. Henry A. Kissinger of Harvard University at
the Quantico seminars and, with some difficulty, persuaded him to
take over as Special Studies director.
"The way Nelson puts things to you as a public duty makes it
hard to refuse him," Kissinger remarked later to a friend. The panel
ists represented every phase of American life General Lucius D.
Clay; Lester B. Granger, of the National Urban League; Henry R*
Luce, of Time, Inc.; Jacob S. Potofsky, of the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers of America; Edward Teller, University of California nuclear
expert; Frazar B. Wilde, of the Connecticut General Life Insurance
Company; and Chester Bowles, former ambassador to India, among
others.
Rockefeller acted as chairman of the over-all panel and worked
extensively on writing the reports, but his main effort was directed
toward achieving agreement among the panelists on a basic approach
to the seven problems. This was no simple task. The panelists held
widely divergent political and economic views. They were all individu
alists who had strong opinions and had risen to prominence by assert*
ing them. It seemed most likely in the beginning that they would be at
loggerheads and do nothing or that they would break up in a bitter
controversy without agreeing on any report. "I don t think there
are many persons other than Rockefeller who could have persuaded
such a diverse group to put aside prejudices and work together in the
national interest/ one panelist said later. "He made everybody feel
that it was important not to give up our own opinions but to forget
personal prejudices in favor of finding the best possible solutions to
the problems posed. Even so, the whole effort might have flopped
if it had not been for his persistence. He never gave up. He cajoled
some and he prodded others. Briefly, he got the best effort from some
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 310
of the finest minds in the country. And, surprisingly, nobody dis
sented from the seven reports."
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund reports attracted nationwide atten
tion because they laid down blueprints for security, educational and
economic programs at a critical time. The first reports were released
at a time when Congress and the public generally were greatly con
cerned by Russian scientific achievements, such as the launching of
the first earth satellites, and when there was widespread controversy
over defense and educational expenditures in the United States. As
a result the America at Mid-Century recommendations were given
front-page attention by the country s newspapers and were widely
studied by congressional leaders.
Meantime, there had been various suggestions, publicly and pri
vately, that Rockefeller should run for Mayor of New York City or
otherwise take an active political role in his home state. One nation
ally prominent Republican leader had offered to help him get a New
York City political job as a step toward running for Congress, but
Rockefeller wasn t interested. L. Judson Morhouse, chairman of the
New York State Republican Committee, had talked politics to
Rockefeller on several occasions. Rockefeller said he would "like to
be helpful" in political areas but gave no hint as to how he might be
helpful. Morhouse began thinking of him as a possible candidate for
some office and, in 1956, suggested that he run for the United States
senatorial seat being vacated by Irving Ives. Rockefeller declined. He
felt he was temperamentally more suited to administrative duties than
to a legislator s career.
At this time, however, Rockefeller did take advantage of an op
portunity to make an exhaustive study of the affairs and the govern
mental structure of New York State. There was considerable demand
for a convention to revise and simplify the state constitution. The
question of calling such a convention had political implications. The
Democratic administration under Governor W* Averell Harriman
wanted to hold a convention because they hoped to reapportion the
state and thus gain seats in the Legislature from upstate areas. The
Republicans, who controlled the Legislature, were opposed to holding
THE POLITICIAN 311
a convention because they had no intention of opening the way to
reapportionment that would favor the Democrats. The Legislature
did, however, create a Temporary State Commission on the Consti
tutional Convention to compile data on proposals for constitutional
changes in preparation for a possible convention.
The temporary commission was divided between Republicans and
Democrats, and it might have engaged in a political donnybrook that
would fan the flames of politics. An early deadlock arose when the
Republican legislative leaders and the Democratic Governor could
not agree on selection of a chairman for the commission. Republican
State Chairman Morhouse was still hoping to get Rockefeller into
the political picture. Now he suggested that both the legislative
leaders and the Governor could trust Rockefeller and that he be
appointed chairman of the temporary commission. They agreed and
Rockefeller accepted the job.
One of Rockefeller s first moves was to telephone a man he had
never met, George Hinman, a quiet, highly successful lawyer in
Binghamton with a vast knowledge of state politics and governmental
affairs. Hinman was a bit startled to be asked to become counsel for
the commission but, after he had met Rockefeller, he accepted the
job. "I was surprised and pleased by his down-to-earth manner,"
Hinman remarked. "It wasn t just charm. He was completely bi
partisan in his approach and he had picked an excellent staff of
experts headed by Dr. William J. Ronan of New York University."
The commission over which Rockefeller presided held hearings in
various parts of the state and listened to the recommendations of
countless individuals and organizations. Rockefeller also arranged for
professors from various state colleges to compile a series of studies
of the background of the constitution, the way it worked under
modern conditions and what should be done to improve it. In the
end, the electorate voted against holding a constitutional convention
but the commission s series of reports objectively brought into focus
the entire problem of constitutional revision.
"He turned out to be a man who knew how to dissolve contro
versy," Hinman said much later. "Members of the commission and
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 312
witnesses started out in an intensely partisan manner. Everybody had
a political axe to grind. But the hearings never did develop in a
partisan spirit. Rockefeller was seeking the answers to bipartisan
questions and nothing else and he firmly refused to be led off the
track. Everybody got a hearing but he never let the hearings deterio
rate into political controversy. I felt that this ability could be a great
attribute in public life/
m.
In March, 1957, Governor Harriman made a speech at the dinner
of the legislative correspondents organization in Albany, in the
course of which he remarked lightly that the Republican party should
nominate Nelson A. Rockefeller to run against him in 1958. His re
marks then and later indicated that he believed Rockefeller s politi
cal views were more liberal than those of state Republican leaders
and that he would never get the nomination. Later, an insurgent
Republican group in New York County, including John Roosevelt,
set up a "draft Rockefeller" committee.
None of these developments, which amounted to no more than
minor newspaper publicity, drew any reaction from Rockefeller. He
did consult with leaders of the Republican party in his own county,
Westchester, where Assemblyman Malcolm Wilson was a young and
increasingly popular figure with many upstate friends. But the sum
mer of 1957 rolled around and he was undecided about running for
office. Occasionally, Morhouse or Hinman talked to him about the
gubernatorial race, but without arousing much response. The for
tunes of the Eisenhower administration in Washington were at a low
ebb as a result of a business recession and a poor record in the 1956
congressional elections. Everybody kept saying that 1958 would be
a Democratic year and that Governor Harriman, who had worked
hard to win voters away from the Republicans upstate and who
was regarded as a liberal politically, would easily be re-elected. That
summer the state committee vice chairman, Jane Todd, con
vened a conference of Republican women upstate and Rockefeller
THE POLITICIAN 313
was asked to be one of the speakers. He appeared on a hot, humid
day when everybody was uncomfortable in the hall. He discussed the
Eisenhower administration s budgetary position and bored most of
his audience to the point of exhaustion. Morhouse, who had helped
arrange for the speech, was despondent but he cheered up later when
Rockefeller made a hit by chatting with the delegates informally.
In September, 1957, Hinman invited Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller
to his home in Binghamton, and asked William H. Hill, publisher
of the Binghamton Star, to come to dinner. A slight, handsome man
with white hair and a gracious manner, Hill was then eighty years old,
retired from Congress but still the Republican leader of Broome
County. He had been a power in upstate New York political affairs
for many years and his newspaper editorials carried weight with state
politicians. At dinner, the talk soon got around to the 1958 guberna
torial race and Hill indicated an interest in Rockefeller as a candi
date. They talked generally about how a campaign might be launched
but Rockefeller gave no indication of his own attitude; in fact,
Hinman decided that he was definitely cool to the idea of running.
The dinner with Hill was never made known, nor was a second visit
by Rockefeller to Binghamton to confer with the publisher in
November.
In the spring of 1958 several Republicans were angling for the
gubernatorial nomination, including State Senate Leader Walter J.
Mahoney of Buffalo, and Assembly Leader Oswald D. Heck of
Schenectady, but the most active candidate was Leonard Hall, of
Oyster Bay, a former congressman and recently retired as Republican
National Chairman. Morhouse, however, had become convinced that
Rockefeller was the party s best hope of opposing Harriman and the
obvious national trend to the Democrats. He dared the wrath of
other candidates and began moving around the state, urging county
chairmen not to declare themselves but to wait until they had a
chance to get acquainted with Nelson Rockefeller. The New York
Herald Tribune published a poll of delegates to the 1954 Republican
state convention showing that Rockefeller was the most popular
choice for the gubernatorial nomination, with Hall running a close
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 314
second. The New York Porf, a strong supporter of Harriman, ran a
series of articles about Rockefeller, including an interview in which
he said that he was a Republican because "I think that as a party
the Republicans have more competence organizationally and admin
istratively" but "I m not one to believe that one party wears horns
and the other is exclusively composed of angels." He declined, how
ever, to discuss New York State politics. Meantime, publisher Hill
began a "draft Rockefeller" campaign in his newspaper and published
the results of privately taken party polls purporting to show that
Rockefeller would run better than other aspirants for the office.
The idea of seeking elective office posed many problems for
Rockefeller. There was, first of all, his family to consider; not only
his immediate family but the Rockefellers in general. He did not, at
some particular time, put the idea of entering politics up to his
family. Instead, the possibility that he might seek office emerged
gradually in their minds and in their conversations and then slowly
evolved into a distinct possibility, Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., was pleased
with the idea but Nelson s four brothers were by no means unanimous
in urging him to run for office. They were accustomed to the idea
of public service but not of public service through elective office.
Some members of the family definitely preferred to keep off the
front pages and others wanted to think about the effect of a political
campaign on the family generally. Nobody tried to tell Rockefeller
that he should not ran but, as the months passed, it was evident that
the family position ranged from a cautious nonapproval to enthusi
astic approval. Finally, there was never any given time when Rocke
feller told them he had made up his mind. But the decision was
made and, by a kind of evolutionary process, all of them became
aware of it.
Of greatest importance to Rockefeller was the effect that politics
might have on his immediate family. For some time, Mrs. Rockefeller
had known that running for public office was on his mind. She
apparently was not comfortable with the idea at first, knowing that
it would mean a great change in the life of the family. Her own
family were loyal Republicans without interest in public office,
THE POLITICIAN 315
except for two cousins Mrs. Eleanor Clark French, vice phairman
of the New York State Democratic Committee, and Joseph S. Clark,
Jr., a Democrat who became Mayor of Philadelphia and went on to
the United States Senate in 1956. She herself had shown independ
ence in her political views by registering in the Liberal party in New
York several years earlier. But, except for her cousins, she was in
clined to regard politicians in general without enthusiasm, largely
because she had never had much contact with them. She had no
intention of trying to influence her husband s decision, but she was
somewhat concerned that a political career would mean difficult
readjustments for the children.
The children, however, were delighted with the idea of their father
seeking elective office. Rockefeller had always encouraged them to
try new things, to learn about people everywhere. Mrs. Rockefeller
often felt that he carried the spirit of adventure too far in urging
the children to spend their summers in Brazil or Honduras or Europe,
usually in some kind of a job, but these expeditions had always proved
successful. Rodman, who had been graduated from Dartmouth,
spent summer vacations as an oil company worker and as a farmhand
in Venezuela before he went into the army for almost two years 7
service abroad. In 1953, he married Barbara Ann Olsen of Bronxville,
N.Y. They have two children. In 1957, Rodman was working as a
credit analyst for the American Overseas Finance Company in New
York, and taking an active part in local political affairs.
Ann, who attended Brearley School and Wellesley College, went
to London in 1953 to spend her vacation as a social worker in the
city s most dismal slums, living in a $ioa-week youth hostel. While
there she met Robert Laughlin Pierson, a student at the Episcopal
Seminary at Nashotah, Wisconsin. He was ordained the next year
and the couple was married in 1955. They have three children and
live in Evanston, Illinois, where Father Pierson is vice-chairman of
Christ the King Foundation, an educational organization.
Steven, whom his father calls "chief," worked on the Rockefeller
farm in Venezuela during summer vacation while a student at
Princeton prior to his army service. Michael spent a summer as a
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 316
clerk in a supermarket in Puerto Rico during a vacation from his
studies at Harvard, and Mary, while a student at Vassar, worked in
a Cornell Navajo Medical Research project in Arizona.
One of Rockefeller s greatest pleasures always had been in taking
his family or as many of them as were available on trips to the
Far West and abroad, particularly to Mexico and South America.
Then, in 1956, he decided they ought to know more about the
continent of Africa, where there were widespread political unrest and
mounting demands for independence from colonial rule. Mrs, Rocke
feller and the children industriously read history books, travel books
and guide books to prepare for the African trip but Rockefeller
merely sent word to numerous friends that he was on the way. En
route, Mrs. Rockefeller filled in his scanty background on the various
countries they visited, particularly those along the Gold Coast and in
the Congo River basin.
"But to father the important thing was what he could see and
hear/ a member of the family said later. "We went through fourteen
countries and I don t think he ever stopped to rest. He wanted to
see everything and to talk to everybody from the top government
officials to the people working in the fields. He saw factories, churches,
art galleries, theaters and farms, all at a terrific pace. He talked to
political rebel leaders, merchants and Dr. Albert Schweitzer, to
educators and artists and industrialists. And he came away knowing
more about those countries and remembering it than I could learn
in several years. What he really had were strong impressions visual
impressions that would stick with him and be of use to him later."
The children enjoyed every minute of such trips with their parents,
whether they were going to Yellowstone Park or to the Far East,
and they were ready to join their father any time he wanted to try
something new like a political campaign.
A political campaign must have been very much in Rockefeller s
mind by the late winter of 1958. He had made his own surveys of
public sentiment in the state. He had listened to a lot of advice from
friends and party leaders, some of whom strongly warned him that
it was hopeless to oppose Harriman in that "Democratic year/ He
THE POLITICIAN 317
clearly saw that the odds were against him but his intuition told him
just as clearly that now was the time to move, and he had great con
fidence in his own intuitive powers.
Sometime that spring Rockefeller himself probably could not put
his finger on the exact date he decided to become a candidate for
the Republican gubernatorial nomination. His closest associates
claimed later to believe that he was undecided until late spring, prob
ably in May. He never did announce his decision either to them or
to his family, but "it just evolved there came a day when we knew
in our own minds that he was going to do it." Later, Rockefeller
himself was inclined to give Hinman credit for getting him into the
race but Hinman was no better informed as to his intentions than a
dozen others.
For Morhouse, the day of decision came in June when the Republi
can party held its $ioo-a-plate dinner in New York. That evening
he asked about fifteen leaders from all parts of the state to meet with
him the next morning at the Roosevelt Hotel. When they were
assembled, Morhouse set up ten charts that illustrated the results
of polls and of his own investigations in key areas. He said that the
party needed new leadership and that he believed Rockefeller was
the man who could best provide it. He referred to Rockefeller s
experience in state and federal government jobs, his business back
ground and the initiative he had demonstrated in progressive and
forward-looking endeavors such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund
reports. , ."
"Look, gentlemen, I ve been in this job for four years," he con
cluded. "I believe in this man. You can look at these charts and
see that he will probably be a more popular candidate than anyone
else we can put up. Now you know politics and you know that you ve
either got to be with the organization or against it. I say that the
organization has to go for Rockefeller and if it doesn t I will step
out as state chairman."
Not all of the group was convinced. Some still wondered whether
the Rockefeller name was a political liability. But, in the end, all of
them decided to go along with Morhouse and the race was on. There
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 318
was some effort at the time to spread the impression that Rockefeller
was being drafted for the job; that a country lawyer named Jud
Morhouse had "persuaded" him to get into the contest. No one,
however, wheedled him into running. Rockefeller, once he had de
cided that the time was reasonably good, went after the job in a
tough, competitive spirit that made the eyes of veteran politicians
pop.
"He is an incredible competitor!" one of his new political friends
gasped as he sank into an easy chair after a session in Rockefeller s
office. "He s got drive and he s got guts, and anybody who thinks
this fellow is a soft, do-good rich boy is crazy. He knows what he s
doing."
The Rockefeller boom stirred no enthusiasm in the breasts of
rock-ribbed Republicans. The right-wing National Review summed up
old guard reaction that summer in an article denouncing high-priced
publicity ballyhoo behind the boom, charging that Morhouse was
circulating "phantom" public opinion polls and contending that
Rockefeller was closer to New Deal than to Republican philosophy.
New Dealer Harry L. Hopkins, the magazine said, would have
understood the drive to secure the Republican gubernatorial
nomination for Nelson Rockefeller. For he had a taste for what
he used to call "tame millionaires/ As early as 1934 he collected
Averell Harriman, who had grown weary of Wall Street and turned
eagerly to Ideology. ... It is the New Yorfe Herald Tribune that
has provided the chief ballyhoo for the Rockefeller buildup . . .
with the result that its news columns have consistently magnified
and exaggerated pro-Rockefeller developments. . . . Rockefeller s
ties with the Liberal Party in New York are reported to be very
close. His wife used to enroll in the Liberal Party . . . because she
was "disgusted" with both major parties. . . . Nowhere does Rocke
feller speak up for Republican principles of the free, non-statist
society. His position seems to be that Republicans can do a superior
job of implementing a Democratic philosophy of government.
On June 3oth, Rockefeller called a press conference at his office
on the fifty-sixth floor of No. 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where reporters
THE POLITICIAN - 319
gathered in a small modern library graced by the stark bronze bust
that William Couper had sculpted of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., in his
old age. Richard Amper, a former political reporter on the New York
Times, had recently joined the Rockefeller organization and was serv
ing as press secretary, and none of the reporters was surprised when
Rockefeller said he * would welcome the opportunity of accepting the
challenge should the Republican party choose me as its nominee.
"I have reached this decision/ he continued, "because of my deep
conviction that a new approach to government must be taken in
New York State. Government must be given a new energy and
efficiency to make it capable of solving the emerging and complicated
social and economic problems of our times. . . . What we need is a
transfusion of political courage to grasp the opportunities and the
ideas of men who have convictions and creative talent and faith in
the future. The challenge is to match the aspirations of the sixteen
million people of this great state. Any man who accepts it must be
mindful of the obligation it imposes/ 7
Rockefeller s first goal, of course, was the rounding up of enough
delegates to the Republican state convention to win the nomination.
With his son Steven and Malcolm Wilson, he set out on an auto
mobile campaign through the critical districts of the state at a
thousand-miles-a-week pace. Morhouse, Hinman and other workers
industriously paved the way. The Republican organization was
discouraged by national reaction against the Eisenhower administra
tion and had little hope of defeating Harriman. But Rockefeller
exuded confidence. He was a new face and crowds responded to him
enthusiastically, despite the fact that he was not yet a fluent public
speaker. If the odds had been in favor of a Republican victory in
November, Rockefeller s path would unquestionably have been
rougher. But, without much hope of success, many county leaders
were in a mood to try something different. They began lining up
behind the new man. By the end of July, Mahoney and Heck were
out of the race and on August 7 Len Hall announced that he was
withdrawing as a candidate for the nomination.
"I probably couldn t have gotten the nomination," Rockefeller
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 320
remarked later without convincing anyone that he was right, "if
everybody hadn t believed that 1958 was a Democratic year,"
On the evening of August 25, ten thousand cheering spectators in
the great hall of the War Memorial at Rochester hailed the nomina
tion of Rockefeller. While Mrs. Rockefeller, her five children and
one daughter-in-law looked on, the nominee waved his arms in the
glare of spotlights and denounced the Harriman administration as
"short-sighted, vacillating and indecisive." He said that, if elected,
he intended to create a climate for expansion of jobs, industry, busi
ness and agriculture, to meet the "challenge" of the state s educa
tional needs, juvenile delinquency, health and welfare problems and
the threat of organized crime. "The reason we are going to win," he
shouted, "is the dismal record of vacillation and veto of the Harriman
administration. The box score of these last four years has been: no
hits, no runs but, oh myl what errors!"
The correspondent of the New York Herdd Tribune was moved
to write that "an unmistakable spirit swept through the hall the
spirit of an army girding for victory." Most other correspondents
present described it as a good political show and noted that the wise
money was still on Harriman to be re-elected.
The contest between Harriman and Rockefeller was promptly
dubbed "The Multimillionaire Sweepstakes." The tabloid newspapers,
without much imagination, fumbled around for nicknames that would
fit into headline type. They soon settled for "Rocky vs. Ave*" Novelty
manufacturers quickly produced a button labeled "Roll with Rock."
The campaign attracted national attention from the start because,
wrote columnist Marquis Childs, "that old John D/s grandson should
today be the Republican candidate for Governor of New York and,
what is more, a liberal candidate who has a chance to win support
of left-of-center and minority groups is one of the political miracles
of our time."
Both Harriman and Rockefeller, however, ran into trouble in
THE POLITICIAN 321
their own ranks before the state conventions, held simultaneously,
were ended. There was a political tradition that the two top places
on the ticket should be divided between New York City and upstate.
Rockefeller defied this rale when Wilson, a resident of Westchester
County, was nominated as the lieutenant governor, partly because
his conservatism was regarded as a balance for the gubernatorial
nominee s liberalism. The most serious Republican problem, however,
arose in regard to a nominee for the United States Senate. Tradition
again dictated that the choice should be a man of Italian ancestry
because there was a political myth that New York City could not
be carried without an Italian name high on the ticket. Rockefeller
wanted Joseph F. Carlino, a state assemblyman from Nassau County,
for the post but the powerful Nassau party leader, J. Russell Sprague,
was grooming Carlino as an eventual candidate for Governor and
refused to approve, possibly because the prospects for a Republican
victory of any kind in New York were so slight. Eventually, and with
some difficulty, U.S. Congressman Kenneth B. Keating of Rochester
was persuaded to abandon his rather secure seat in order to accept
the nomination for senator.
At Buffalo, meantime, the Democratic State Convention had
nominated Harriman for re-election and then run into even more
trouble than the Republicans. Harriman wanted Thomas K. Finletter
as the Democratic candidate for United States senator. So did most
of the so-called liberal wing of the party, including former Governor
Herbert Lehman and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. But Carmine De Sapio,
who had often been labeled the "modern" or "reform" boss of New
York City s Tammany Hall, had been campaigning diligently to
extend his influence to upstate New York and thus to become recog
nized as the party leader for the entire state. De Sapio had his own
candidate for the senatorial nomination, District Attorney Frank
Hogan of New York, and he decided to assert his political power to
stop Finletter. He was successful in a long and bitter behind-the-
scenes conflict that soon broke into open warfare and brought out
spoken condemnation from Lehman, Mrs. Roosevelt and other
prominent party liberals. After attempting to resist, Harriman rather
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 322
apologetically accepted the nomination of Hogan, who had been an
outstanding public servant but had no particular qualifications for
the Senate, and thus opened the way for charges that he was domi
nated by Tammany Hall.
Rockefeller lost no time after the convention in getting organized
for the campaign. His staff was growing, and most of the newcomers
were young and enthusiastic. Dr. Ronan, who had directed the state
constitutional convention study, headed the speech-writing staff and
Roswell Perkins, having resigned from the HEW in Washington,
took over direction of research- R. Burdell Bixby, a law partner of
Thomas E. Dewey and an experienced political campaigner, came
in to plan speaking schedules, Harry O Donnell handled state com
mittee publicity and another young lawyer, Charles M. Metzner, who
had worked in Dewey campaigns, assumed charge of financial affairs.
Rockefeller had never been particularly close to Dewey but the former
Governor was consulted on several occasions and later made a state
wide television speech in behalf of the ticket. The candidates tele
vision and radio activities were directed by Tom Losee and Sylvester
Weaver.
Rockefeller headquarters occupied the seventh floor of the Hotel
Roosevelt and was repeatedly described by reporters who visited it as
a huge, smoothly organized machine where scores of experts, politi
cians, speech writers, researchers, television and radio professionals,
volunteer workers, secretaries and stenographers went about their busi
ness with efficiency and skill and no confusion or wasted effort. No
body who worked there during the campaign agreed with these
descriptions. Rockefeller s ability to keep a dozen balls bouncing at
once as well as the amazing physical strength that enabled him to
work at least eighteen hours a day kept the back rooms of the head
quarters in a purposeful but chaotic kind of turmoil throughout the
campaign. As in every campaign, the candidate frequently changed
his mind at the last moment, speeches were rewritten an hour before
delivery, and emergencies arose every hour on the hour. Over all the
turmoil, Jamieson presided in a quiet, unexcited manner as a chief
of staff to the nominee, keeping Rockefeller s ideas and objectives
THE POLITICIAN 323
dominant in the minds of Morhouse and others who were directing
the firing on the political battiefront.
Rockefeller was a demanding, hard-driving nominee, expecting al
most as much of others as of himself. He wanted a Citizens-for-
Rockefeller Committee established to attract independent voters.
Headquarters was set up for the group, with General Lucius Clay as
honorary chairman and with Oren Root, Jr., and Mrs. Russell Daven
port the former a veteran of the Willkie campaign as co-chair
men. About a week later, Rockefeller complained sharply to an aide
that he had driven a considerable distance around midtown and had
seen only two places where citizens committee banners were flying
and campaign literature was being handed out.
"Well, it takes a little time to get started," was the reply.
"We haven t got a little time/ the candidate snapped. "I want to
see those citizens signs all over town. Everywhere you go/
A week later the citizens committee had manned twenty vacant
stores and plastered the store fronts with Rockefeller pictures and
bunting, and more were being opened. A lot of Republican party
workers accustomed to a leisurely pace suddenly discovered they were
going at a rapid clip and not enjoying much sleep, but they also felt
they were getting somewhere.
Rockefeller s board of strategy, meeting daily for luncheon at the
Roosevelt Hotel headquarters, munched sandwiches and apple pie
and agreed that the main problem was to take and hold the initiative
in the campaign. Jamieson had no difficulty in seeing the most in
viting target in Harriman s defenses the hole opened by DeSapio s
rough rejection of the liberal wing of the Democratic party in order
to nominate Hogan. There was, however, considerable reluctance on
the part of some Republican professionals to exploit the opening by
attacking DeSapio and Tammany Hall.
"The only way Rockefeller can win," they argued, "is to cut into
Harriman s support in New York City. The biggest bloc of voters
in the city is of Italian descent. DeSapio is of Italian descent. Further
more, we don t have a single Italian name in a top spot on the Re-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 324
publican ticket. If we attack DeSapio, we will alienate the Italian
vote and we re sunk."
Neither Jamieson nor Rockefeller was impressed by this argument.
Jamieson took the general position that Rockefeller had to be himself
in the campaign and that he was not going to be hampered by politi
cal myths about voting blocs. The Republicans needed the support
of independent and liberal voters to win and these voters were angry
at De Sapio. Rockefeller, with the help of Rod Perkins research staff,
came up with an effective way to keep them from forgetting that they
were angry. In a speech that was frequently repeated throughout the
campaign, the Republican nominee recalled the 1924 Democratic
state convention at which Tammany Hall attempted to force Gov
ernor Alfred E. Smith to accept its candidate for the United States
Senate. Smith refused and, when the pressure was turned on, he re
tired to his hotel room and said he would renounce the gubernatorial
nomination if the convention accepted the Tammany candidate. He
stayed in his room for three days until Tammany gave up. Rocke
feller then compared the performance of Smith, a hero of New York
liberals, to that of Harriman and charged that the latter didn t have
the courage to buck Tammany corruption. In the draft of the original
speech, Rockefeller stuck out the word "courage" and substituted the
word "guts" but he reluctantly changed back to "courage" when
some advisors suggested that he was getting too tough.
From the charge of Tammany domination, it was only a short step
to the corrupt past history of Tammany Hall and to the so-called
1957 Apalachin crime convention an assembly of sixty-three top-
drawer gangsters from all over the country and from Cuba at the
country home of a well-known racketeer in upstate New York. The
convention, believed to have been called to divide up racketeering
territory, was broken up almost by accident by alert state troopers,
who arrested most of the participants but were unable to prove much
against them except some long criminal records. How, Rockefeller
asked, could racketeering be suppressed if the state administration
was going to "knuckle under" to Tammany Hall? This line of attack
may have been short on logic but it was effective. Harriman never
THE POLITICIAN 525
really recovered the initiative. Then he made the error of attempting
to campaign against the Eisenhower administration and tried, in
vain, to force Rockefeller to defend the national Republican record.
Rockefeller kept hammering away at charges that businesses and
jobs were fleeing New York State, that educational facilities were
neglected, that middle-income housing needs were ignored and that
health and welfare laws could be improved.
But the real key to the campaign was Rockefeller himself. Having
discovered that the candidate projected both charm and sincerity to
an audience, the board of strategy pointed out that his biggest handi
cap was that the people of the state didn t know him. They brought
in one of Madison Avenue s best-known advertising firms to direct a
television and radio campaign that would give him "maximum ex
posure" to the people, and they recommended that he visit as many
as possible of the state s sixty-two counties.
"Only sixty-two counties?" Rockefeller replied. Til visit all of
them."
He did visit all of them flying by seaplane into the last one, re
mote Hamilton County, near the end of the campaign. He traveled
more than 8,000 miles and made 135 formal speeches in 103 com
munities. He made so many impromptu speeches and shook so many
hands that nobody even tried to keep count. No farmer working his
fields, no factory worker eating his lunch, no housewife doing the
marketing was safe from the rumpled, smiling, bare-headed man
who stuck out his hand and said: "I m Nelson Rockefeller and I m
running for Governor." On street corners and in halls, the people
gathered to see and hear a live Rockefeller in search of a job. "It s
curiosity," the experienced politicians said. "It won t last" But it
not only lasted, it gathered momentum. People came to see a Rocke
feller and stayed to be convinced. The newspaper reporters got tired
of quoting anonymous housewives as saying that "he s as easy to
talk to as an old neighbor and so sincere!" and the newspaper
readers got tired of reading it. But it wasn t long before the political
experts were saying they hadn t seen anything like it since Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was Governor.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 326
"Nelson does not just have a flair for politics/ an old and loyal
friend said. "He wants to make people understand he s interested in
them. His mother had the same way of reaching out to people, of
seeing the best in them and making them feel a kind of dignity.
Nelson s been doing that all his life."
In addition, the nominee s family turned out to be good cam
paigners. Mrs. Rockefeller went with him almost everywhere and
often they were accompanied by one or more of the children, who
shouted encouragement when their father took a practice turn on
the pitcher s mound at a Rochester Red Wings baseball game or
donned a silk cap and drove a racing sulky down the track at a county
fair or posed with a freshman beanie on his head at a college campus.
Mrs. Rockefeller tried to keep the family s private affairs separate from
her husband s political career. She could be tart and blunt when she
thought reporters were too inquisitive and once when she was being
questioned about her political background and was asked if she had
ever been in Albany, she snapped: "No, I haven t have you?"
But, because a political career "is what Nelson wants," she shook
hands with enthusiasm up and down the state. She rose at dawn and
was on the go all day and started out at dawn the next day and
was amused and pleased one weary afternoon when a woman ap
proached her in a crowd and said: "I thought I ought to tell you,
Mrs. Rockefeller, that your stockings don t match!" She began, too,
to appreciate the art of politics at the grass roots and to understand
the tremendous effort her husband put into the campaign.
Rockefeller s stamina was a remarkable factor. His voice some
times faded to a whisper in his office but when he got before a crowd
he could speak up strongly. As his speaking improved, his confidence
mounted and he repeatedly complained to his speech-writing staff
that they were giving him "stuff that doesn t sound like me." Toward
the end, he threw away the speeches and spoke from notes except on
a few occasions. He was accompanied almost everywhere by his own
motion picture cameraman and sound man, and short movie reels
were made for distribution free to twenty-three television stations for
use, if desired, on their news programs. Needless to say, such films
THE POLITICIAN 327
always showed Rockefeller in a favorable light. "The secret ingredient
of this campaign/ one reporter cracked after touring with both can
didates, "is money/*
In the final drive down the home stretch, upstate polls showed that
Rockefeller was doing well. He then concentrated on the New York
City area, where the Democrats normally piled up a huge majority.
His tactics were the same, and he shook hands along Seventh Avenue
as vigorously as he had on Main Street. Plunging into the East Side
slums, he made the grave error of remarking that he had never been
there before but he ate blintzes and Italian sausage by the bucketful
in delicatessen stores and lunchrooms and exuded good will* His ap
pearance in a crowd of 300,000 at famous Coney Island beach
touched off a friendly but intense mob scene that wrecked conces
sionaires booths along the boardwalk. In the suburbs, he talked about
the need for better school facilities, gobbled picnic lunches and signed
autographs for children who, on one occasion, rushed him with such
wild enthusiasm that he had to climb atop an automobile to escape
being crushed. And he stayed there for half an hour writing his name
on pieces of paper thrust up by youngsters. In Harlem, he appeared
on a street platform with Count Basic s band and joined in the roar
of laughter when the band leader shouted that "this man Rocky got
so much money he could air-condition a cotton patch."
But it was in New York s Spanish-speaking districts, overcrowded
with Puerto Ricans worried about rent control and welfare benefits,
that Rockefeller received his most spectacular publicity. Thousands
of persons jammed the streets to hear him speak at an outdoor "block
party/ cheered when he addressed them in Spanish and, finally, broke
through police lines to lift him on their shoulders and carry him away
with a big straw sombrero jammed on his head. It was a Rockefeller
performance that would have seemed incredible to John D. Rocke
feller, Sr., and one that, except for the publicity, didn t do the oil
magnate s grandson much good. Of the 700,000 Puerto Ricans in
New York City, comparatively few bothered to cast a ballot on elec
tion day.
Near the end of the campaign there were a couple of developments
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 328
that attracted attention without having much bearing on the out
come. Vice President Nixon had taken charge of the Republican
national campaign and made a series of bitter attacks on the Demo-
cratic party as he traveled around the country in an effort to rally
despondent Republican forces. Nixon understood that it was politi
cally wise for Rockefeller to avoid national issues in his campaign
because he was trying to attract independent and Democratic votes.
The Vice President had said he would cooperate and either come
into the state or not come in as Rockefeller might desire. In October,
when Rockefeller s chances of winning were increased, the New York
situation apparently looked more inviting to the Washington strate
gists and, without consulting Rockefeller, Nixon decided to visit New
York, ostensibly to help Keating and other congressional candidates.
A date for him to deliver a television speech in New York City was
arranged by the Republican State Committee, and various news
papers, aware of Rockefeller s attitude, began speculating on whether
the two would meet.
Rockefeller was on a speaking tour upstate in his private plane
when the Vice President arrived in the city and went to a hotel.
Morhouse went around to pay his respects and found Nixon was
working on his speech and somewhat miffed. Rockefeller was due
back in the city late that afternoon but a storm blew up, delaying
air travel, and it looked as if he might not return until the next day.
Some of his advisors were hoping he would be delayed but the weather
improved and his plane landed at Newark airport about seven o clock
in the evening. Rockefeller immediately telephoned Jamieson.
"What s the situation, Frankie?" he asked.
"Well, everybody s in a stew about what you re going to do in re
gard to Nixon," Jamieson replied. "I ve been getting advice all day,
half of it in favor of avoiding him if you want to get the independent
vote in the city and the other half warning that the upstate Re
publicans will stay home on election day if you don t see him. Every
body seems to have a different idea/
"Oh, to hell with that," Rockefeller replied with the air of a man
who makes his own decisions. There was a short silence on the wire.
THE POLITICIAN 329
Then he added: "He s the Vice President and he s here and he s
going to speak and the only decent thing is to go see him. Til tele
phone him right away/
He telephoned Nixon s hotel, only to be informed that the Vice
President was working on his speech and couldn t talk to him. This
gesture of irritation did nothing to change Rockefeller s plans. He
said he would call again and, later, made a date to see Nixon the
next morning. The Vice President s speech was an appeal for support
of the Republican candidates, including a graceful reference to Rocke
feller and the state ticket, without any remarks to which Democrats
could take exception. Nixon poured a cup of coffee for Rockefeller
the next morning at breakfast in his hotel. Both men smiled for the
photographers and avoided any significant remarks.
The second last-minute development in the campaign came on
the afternoon before election day when the final edition of the New
York Post ran a front-page editorial signed by its publisher, Mrs.
Dorothy SchifL The Post had been a strong Harriman supporter
throughout the campaign, although a weekly column written by Mrs.
Schiff had frequently spoken favorably of Rockefeller. Then, in the
final days. De Sapio seemed to sense defeat and attempted rather
desperately to regain the initiative by launching a series of charges
against Rockefeller. One of these concerned the activities of United
States oil companies in Arab countries of the Middle East and pur
ported to show that the Rockefellers were anti-Semitic. At that point,
Mrs. Schiff abandoned Harriman and wrote an editorial urging the
election of Rockefeller. The surprising last-minute shift was too late
to have any real influence on the election but it left little doubt as
to the outcome. "
The outcome on election night was a resounding defeat for the
Republican party across the nation but a victory by 557,000 votes for
Rockefeller and election for Keating and all but one of his Republican
running mates in New York State. About ten o clock, with a happy
crowd of party workers shouting for him in the Roosevelt Hotel
ballroom, Rockefeller waited patiently until he received a telegram
of congratulation from Harriman. Then he thanked the assembled
NELSON ROOKEFEULER A BIOGRAPHY 330
party leaders, walked into his private office with the air of a man who
had known it all the time and silently shook hands with Jamieson. A
little later, behind a spearhead of police, he struggled through the
roaring crowd in the ballroom, followed by Mrs. Rockefeller and the
children, who were able to reach the platform only by joining hands
and pulling each other along in Indian file.
About ten-thirty o clock on New Year s Eve, 1958, the Governor-
elect took the oath of office in the executive mansion at Albany with
his hand on his Grandmother Rockefeller s Bible. The evening swear
ing-in is customary in New York because the retiring Governor s term
expires at midnight. The next day Rockefeller broke his first precedent
by doing away with the traditional top hat and frock coat inaugural
costume in favor of a business suit when he was sworn for a second
time at formal ceremonies in the assembly chamber of the state
capitoL
"As this sixth decade of our twentieth century nears its end," Gov
ernor Rockefeller said in his inaugural address, " we are nearing, too,
what could be the fatal testing time for free men and freedom itself
everywhere. . . .
... we see the world divided, the weapons of war perfected to
deadly extremes and humanity seeming at times about to turn and
prey upon itself. . , . The world ... is divided, essentially, between
those who believe in the brotherhood of men under the fatherhood
of God and those who scorn this as a pious myth.
It is divided between those who believe in the dignity of free
men and those who believe in the monstrous supremacy of the
totalitarian state.
It is divided between those whose most potent force is their
faith in individual freedom and those whose faith is force itself.
It is divided between those who believe in the essential equality
of peoples of all nations and races and creeds and those whose
only creed is their own ruthless race for power.
This division of the world and this time of decision leave
no comer of the earth, no fraction of humanity, untouched. From
this basic struggle, there can be no refuge nor escape . . . every
THE POLITICIAN 331
citizen in each community all face a common challenge and
share a common cause.
The graveness of the challenge is matched by the greatness of
our opportunity to serve this common cause. Knowing this, we
have no reason to fear but every reason to strive.
For the spiritual resources of free men are unique, and the
strength of free men is unsurpassed if united in common purpose.
. . . For the first time in history, the revolution of science and
industry makes possible the realization of man s ageless dream of
individual opportunity and well-being. The commonwealth of
humanity at large can be served now as never before in the story of
man. Disease can be conquered. The hungry can be fed. The home
less can find shelter. . , . Through these means we can serve - . . the
true end of freedom; not merely checking menace and peril to free
peoples but assuring to free men of all nations the chance to
nourish their spirit, enrich their mind, each to live a life of promise
true to his chosen destiny. . . .
Let us unite in common cause with hope and faith and love,
with vision and courage. Together we can thus work toward the
goal of freedom of opportunity for men everywhere in a world of
peace.
Some newspapers noted editorially the next morning that the
speech sounded a bit more like the inaugural address of a President
than of a state Governor. And it is quite possible Rockefeller intended
it that way.
SEVENTEEN
The Governor
Governor and Mrs. Rockefeller moved into the ninety-nine-year-old
executive mansion at Albany in the middle of the afternoon of the
last day of 1958, a few hours before they were to entertain political
and family friends at dinner, Mrs. Rockefeller supervised the unload
ing of trunks, and saw that preparations were in progress for the eve
ning. Her husband began hanging favorites from his collection of
modern paintings on the walls of the nondescript mansion that was
first occupied by a Governor Samuel J. Tflden in 1874, The paint
ings should have looked out of place in the old house but Rockefeller
has a good eye for space and color and a feeling for design. Walking
along Fifth Avenue one day, he noticed that one of the trees planted
at Rockefeller Center was slightly out of line with others. When he
suggested that it be moved into line, the center s engineers insisted
that he was mistaken because they had measured with the accuracy
of surveyors when the trees were planted. Nevertheless, they received
orders to measure again and the recheck disclosed that one tree was
332
THE GOVERNOR 333
about five inches out of line. Rockefeller has a passion for orderliness
in such matters. Books on the table in his study must be perfectly
aligned. A small primitive carving on his desk must be placed exactly
so. He will get up from a conference table to adjust a picture that is a
quarter inch awry on the wall of his office or, for that matter, in
any office he happens to be in. In the Governor s mansion, the hang
ing of modern paintings demanded a good deal of ingenuity but
Rockefeller managed to achieve a reasonably harmonious effect. He
was still in shirt sleeves, hanging the last paintings, when the first
dinner guests arrived.
The town of Albany, as well as the executive mansion, is reminis
cent of Victorian America and it has long been accustomed to strong
personalities in the Governor s office. Since the time of President
Tilden s tenancy, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt and Frank
lin D. Roosevelt had gone on to the White House and several others,
including Alfred E. Smith and Thomas E. Dewey, had been con
tenders for the presidency. Yet the man who took office on the first
day of 1959 didn t fit into any pattern established by his predecessors.
On the street, Rockefeller was a slightly rumpled figure in a shape
less hat, yet there was about him an aura of great wealth and he had
just flown back from a vacation on his huge ranch in the far-away
mountains of Venezuela, He was as easy to talk to as an old friend,
yet he filled his home with strange, inexplicable paintings by artists
named Mir6 and Picasso and L6ger and Shahn. He presided over
and paid for the biggest and fanciest inaugural ball of the century,
but at other times he seemed to have the most fun when he invited
everybody in his office to the executive mansion, lent a hand at roll
ing up the rugs and led the dancing to a Cab Galloway jazz band
recording on a two-speaker high fidelity set. People didn t find it easy
to think of him as a politician, but even before he reached Albany he
was being hailed in newspapers across the country as a rare survivor
of Republican disaster at the polls and as a potential nominee for the
presidency.
Mrs. Rockefeller, too, lent a different touch to life in the executive
mansion. She now had a handsome streak of gray in her brown hair
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 334
"the gray is natural/ she once retorted to an inquisitive reporter. She
was expert at cultivation of exotic flowers. She supervised relandscap-
ing of the mansion s grounds and the building of a garden for outdoor
entertainment. She presided gracefully and efficiently over official
functions, and she coped with the threats of an excellent but tem
peramental chef to quit on the spot when the Governor arrived for
luncheon with fourteen guests instead of the expected three. She
participated in an endless round of Republican women s meetings
with a land of no-nonsense-let s-getthings-done air that pleased most
of her co-workers. She discovered that politicians were people and
often admirable people when you got to know them. At an office
party, she demonstrated how the Charleston was danced in the
1920*8. She didn t develop any great enthusiasm for newspaper re
porters but she cooperated with them and, because she is five feet,
ten and one-half inches tall, she once kicked off her high heels in
order not to tower over a group of women reporters with whom she
posed at the mansion. She later regretted it when she saw the picture
in the newspapers because the photographers ignored the group and
snapped the Governor s lady in her stocking feet.
In the huge granite state capitol on a hillside overlooking Albany s
business section and the Hudson River valley, Rockefeller showed
himself to be little concerned with tradition and precedent. Joseph
Zaretzki, Democratic leader of the Senate, gaped in surprise when the
Governor barged into his office to talk over a legislative problem.
House Speaker Oswald D. Heck was pleased when Rockefeller in
sisted on coming to his office for Republican conferences because the
Speaker was still feeling the effect of an illness. The Governor listened
attentively to the experienced Republican leaders, most of them con
servatives, but after Heck died he was content to see Joseph Carlino,
a youthful liberal Republican from Long Island, elected to the
Speaker s job. "Rockefeller was smart from the beginning in the way
he handled the Democratic leaders as well as the Republicans," one
Democratic senator from an upstate city commented. "He conferred
with them and he kept them informed in regard to his general plans.
They ll fight him publicly, of course, but privately they acknowledge
THE GOVERNOR 335
respect for him and think he s a pretty good fellow. So do I, although
I usually vote against him/
Once the Governor broke precedent by quietly taking a seat in the
Senate gallery during debate on a bill in which he was particularly
interested. And any day the Legislature was in session he was likely
to be seen surrounded by a dozen visiting schoolchildren in the cor
ridors or trotting down the capital s famous "million dollar" staircase
because he didn t have time to wait for an elevator or talking earn
estly with an assemblyman whose arm was caught in the Governor s
friendly but firm grip.
Rockefeller has a small office but he also often uses the im
posing executive chamber, a room sixty feet by forty feet on the
southeast comer of the second floor. The walls of the chamber are
wainscoted to a height of sixteen feet with red mahogany, surmounted
by a carved molding, and the ceiling is covered with Spanish leather.
There is a big, carved stone and oak fireplace on one wall. In recent
years, the chamber had been used primarily for public ceremonies
and hearings. Rockefeller moved six portraits from an outside corridor
into the chamber, including those of Hamilton Fish, General Lafay
ette, Governor Theodore Roosevelt, President Martin Van Buren,
Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and the first Governor, George
Clinton. Visitors at first tried to read some significance into the por
traits he hung in the chamber, only to discover that his choices were
based solely on the ground that they were the better paintings.
As Governor, Rockefeller continued to save time by eating at his
desk and continued to be entirely indifferent to what he ate, which
was usually a sandwich from a nearby lunchroom. "He never says he
wants any particular kind of sandwich," his secretary, Ilene Slater,
once remarked, "and he occasionally gets some odd ones. But, except
for one occasion, I never heard him complain or say not to bring that
kind again/ Rockefeller spends most of his time in Albany during
legislative sessions but during the remainder of the year he commutes
in his private plane to New York, usually accompanied by key mem
bers of his executive staff. He established new offices in a converted
private house on Fifty-fifth Street after becoming Governor and
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 336
seldom went to his Rockefeller Center office, which he left in charge
of his efficient personal secretary, Louise Boyer.
"There are obviously certain advantages to having a lot of money
when you re Governor/ a newspaperman remarked wryly not long
after Rockefeller took over at Albany. "The Governor was supposed to
go to New York last night to have dinner with a dozen friends but
at the last minute he couldn t get away. So, did he cancel the dinner
date? Of course not. He sent his plane to New York, picked up his
guests, flew them to Albany for dinner and flew them home again
before midnight."
The newspaperman might have added that there also are some dis
advantages. Just before moving to Albany, Rockefeller bought a new
limousine, a handsome black number with much special equipment,
including an air-conditioning unit. He was pleased with the new auto
mobile and, exercising the inalienable right of a state s chief executive,
he instructed his driver to have the No. i license plates put on the
vehicle. A little later the driver showed up with a red face.
"Sorry, Governor/ he said, "but the Motor Vehicle Bureau tells
me the No. i license plates can t be put on private cars. The law
says they have to go on a state-owned car. You can have them for
your official automobile."
For a man with only a moderate fortune, that probably would have
ended the matter. But Rockefeller didn t want the No. i plates on
his official car; he wanted them on his new limousine. He thought
the problem over and, with a sigh, decided to give his new limousine
to the state for use by the Governor.
Sometimes having a lot of money is expensive.
n.
Rockefeller wasted no time in taking command. His aggressiveness,
his ability to look ahead and his willingness to face up to big and
difficult problems demonstrated an eagerness to lead from the day
he took office. Veteran party leaders in the Legislature who ex
pected to influence and guide him discovered that he welcomed
THE GOVERNOR 337
their advice and that he made up his own mind. Die-hard political
foes discovered that there were many areas in which he preferred
to cooperate but that, in a showdown, he had a professional grasp
of political maneuvering and in-fighting. "His tools/ one political
correspondent noted, "were patience and persuasion. He didn t
twist arms, he patted them/ He recognized the necessity of meeting
political patronage problems, but in major affairs affecting the state
he frequently ignored partisanship and the protests of Republican
leaders in order to appoint the best-qualified man. By the end
of the first month of his tenure, nobody in Albany had any
doubt who was running the state or who was leader of the Republi
can party in New York.
Just where he was leading the party was another matter. "Rocke
feller is a new type of politician, as yet undefinable," wrote one
newspaper correspondent.
He does not fit into any bracket. He insists that labels are
meaningless as far as his approach to his job is concerned. Such
terms as liberal and conservative, right and left, annoy him deeply.
. . . They are out of date and have no application to present day
problems, he says with feeling. He seems to be one politician who is
genuinely uninhibited by any kind of dogma, Republican or Demo
cratic.
Other political correspondents suggested that Rockefeller s leader
ship was modifying the traditional attitude of the Republican party
in the state. The New York Times said there was
a growing realization among Republican leaders upstate that
fashions in politics are changing. . . . The election results are
convincing some local leaders that they need Mr. Rockefeller s help
in retaining control of their county and town administrations far
more than he needs theirs for his legislative program.
Rockefeller s program was big. He set out to achieve the most
thorough overhaul and modernization of state government since
the days of Alfred E. Smith. He proposed to raise taxes to make up
for a prospective budgetary deficit. In line with his rather extravagant
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 338
campaign promises, he proposed action to revitalize the state s
economy, to increase agricultural research, to create an Office of
Transportation to attack the New York commuter transportation
crisis, to expand educational facilities, to strengthen civil rights pro
cedures, to improve social insurance programs, to transfer pension
rights of workers who change jobs, to help safeguard union funds
from abuse, to improve basic health insurance coverage for retired
persons and for unemployed persons, to mobilize "all the forces of our
communities" to reduce juvenile delinquency and to stimulate "a
major flow of private capital in the field of middle-income housing in
urban areas."
Some of these proposals were a continuation or expansion of pro
grams initiated by the Harriman administration, and others, ad
mittedly, were not likely to be carried out in the immediate future.
Yet, there was much in the program that was new and dynamic,
representing goals toward which Rockefeller intended to work.
Furthermore, progress was made before the Legislature adjourned.
For example, the Legislature:
Enacted a labor law regulating the fiduciary status of union
officials in the use of union funds and putting curbs on conflicts
of interest in their financial and business transactions. The bill
made union leaders legally responsible for the funds they admin
ister and required unions and employer associations to file annual
financial reports to help safeguard union funds and eliminate
financial abuses.
Enacted legislation providing for a "tapering-off" of extended
unemployment insurance benefits so that recipients would not have
benefits cut off, irrespective of federal action.
Enacted legislation for building up of a revolving fund from which
workmen s compensation awards can be paid promptly even if
the employer has failed to carry workmen s compensation insur
ance and has failed to make payments to the fund.
Established statutory basis for studies by Industrial Commissioner
of the impact of automation on employment and the need for
retraining programs.
Provided tax relief for railroads and made it possible to purchase
THE GOVERNOR 339
four hundred passenger coaches with funds of the Port of New
York Authority for lease to suburban commuter railroads.
Prepared, in the form of a constitutional amendment, a program
for streamlining the state judicial system, which had long been in
need of an overhaul.
Enacted legislation designed to help meet the shortage of school
facilities by assuring lower interest rates for local school bonds.
Created a Commission on Economic Expansion to aid in accel
erating the state s economic growth. Created a state Office of
Atomic Development.
Extended and strengthened the residential rent control law and
enacted a $300,000,000 housing program to meet a critical short
age of homes for "the forgotten middle-income families" by com
bined state and private enterprise financing.
These examples of a busy legislative program were supplemented
by executive activity on numerous other fronts* By autumn of 1959,
Rockefeller had established approximately fifty "task force" groups
to study and report on state problems ranging from hospital facilities
and medical care programs to juvenile delinquency and overcrowded
schoolrooms.
The Governor stepped into a highly controversial issue by endorsing
the recommendation of one of his special "task forces" for a law
requiring construction of shelters against nuclear bomb fallout in
homes and office buildings. This was a subject that had intensely
interested Rockefeller since 1955 when, almost by chance, he heard
a nuclear scientist s exposition of the hazards of atomic warfare.
The recommendations, however, were largely the work of Oscar M.
Ruebhausen, the Governor s long-time legal associate, who was
counsel to the Office of Scientific Research and Development during
World War II. The vast cost of such a program, the scientific con
troversy over whether it would do any good in event of atomic war
and, especially, the unpopularity of requiring every homeowner to
spend at least several hundred dollars to build a shelter prompted
some of Rockefeller s political advisors to urge him to forget the
recommendations as quickly as possible. Instead, he reiterated his
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 340
support of the plan, regardless of the fact that it appeared unlikely to
get anywhere.
Rockefeller became involved in a brief controversy over civil rights
when Charles Abrams, Republican chairman of the State Com
mission Against Discrimination, resigned and charged that the
Governor had failed to support legislation giving him power to
initiate investigations into discrimination instead of waiting for com
plaints to be filed. Elmer Carter, a Negro, was appointed to succeed
Abrams, who had been in controversy with the Legislature for some
years. Meanwhile, Rockefeller had supported expansion of the civil
rights bureau in the office of the attorney general and, later, he
announced that he would ask the Legislature in 1960 for a state
law banning racial discrimination in private multiple-dwelling hous
ing. "I believe/ he added, "that segregation is on its way out in the
nation. Furthermore, I believe that other forms of racial discrimina
tion are on their way out."
There were, too, a great many other large and small things that
kept the Governor busy during his first year in office. He signed a
bill that replaced the state harness racing commissioner with a
three-man commission and pushed through legislation for stricter
regulation of racing. He advanced the opening day of the trout
fishing season. He extended the length of the horse racing season.
He joined the State Employees Pension Fund. He ordered his
staff not to accept any free passes to prize fights or similar sports
events. He directed state employees to fasten their safety belts while
riding in state cars. He instructed his Secretary of State to economize
by dropping gold lettering from official documents. He drove an
eleven-ton National Guard armored personnel carrier while reviewing
troops at Camp Drum. He vetoed a bill that would permit school
teachers to spank recalcitrant pupils, despite the fact that his son
Rodman told reporters his father "gave attention to us with a hair
brush when we needed it"jHe arranged to build a new private "week
end office," costing him around $80,000, at Pocantico Hills.
* We are undecided," said the Wall Street Journal, "whether to be
admiring, but we certainly are aghast at the dash of the Governor.
THE GOVERNOR 341
That daring young man must have New Yorkers dizzy on their flying
trapezel"
Rockefeller s biggest and most difficult and most significant achieve
ment in his first year as Governor, however, was none of these things*
It was his politically daring move to put the state s fiscal house in
order by a tax boost of $272,000,000 to pay for improved state
services. For a while, it looked as if his political balloon was going to
collapse before it got off the ground.
m.
There is a familiar saying that it is impossible or at least very
difficult to be a bad Governor of New York because Alfred E.
Smith, in the 1920*5, put through a reform program that, among other
things, made a balanced budget mandatory. Rockefeller charged in
his campaign speeches, however, that the state had been living beyond
its income in recent years because it had been borrowing and tapping
accumulated reserves to pay for social services, highways, aid to
education and similar items that were both required and desirable in
modern society. As a result, when he took office he declared that,
with the state reserves down to $47,000,000, the government faced
a $700,000,000 deficit and "the most serious fiscal problem in more
than a generation."
The last Harriman administration budget was $1,800,000,000. By
the time Rockefeller had totaled up his first budget, including almost
$200,000,000 of additional mandatory or obligatory spending, he
proposed to expend a total of $2,041,000,000, an increase of about
$240,000,000 and $424,000,000 more than expected revenues. This
was bad news on the political front but Rockefeller had before
him the disastrous examples of other states that had failed to main
tain fiscal order and he had no intention of evading the issue. He
announced that he expected to put the state on a pay-as-you-go
basis as soon as possible. Meantime, he proposed to meet the 1960
budget figure by borrowing $100,000,000, by using $47,000,000 left in
the reserves and by calling on the Legislature to approve a whopping
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 342
tax increase of $277,000,000. A little later, he added a proposal for
a withholding tax system of collection. He also ordered a drive for
maximum economy and efficiency in all departments of the govern
ment.
The cries of protest against the tax program started immediately
and swelled to a state-wide chorus as details of the increase became
known. More than two thousand letters and telegrams a week,
virtually all of them protesting any tax increase, were received at the
Governor s office. Democratic legislators and politicians led the
verbal assault, concentrating on the Governor s proposal to lower
state income tax exemptions from $2,500 per couple to $600 per
individual. "It s a soak-the-poor plan/ they charged. "Rockefeller
is a rich man and he has no conception of what a difference the
increased tax will mean in the food and clothing budget of a working
man s family." At one public appearance in New York City, the
Governor was greeted by a chorus of boos. He took it with a grim
smile and remarked that he didn t "expect anybody to dance in
the streets because they have to pay more taxes." To a group of
indignant Republican politicians in an upstate city, he said: "I
know how you feel. Somebody said my grandfather spent the last
years of his life giving away dimes and here I am trying to get
them back again, all at once." Everybody laughed but it was uneasy
laughter.
It was no joking matter with Rockefeller. He was in favor of the
services the state was providing; in fact, he hoped to expand them.
But he saw no point in closing his eyes to the fact that they had to
be paid for. The Governor argued that the tax increase was evenly
distributed among poor and rich, and his charts showed that actually
the percentage increase would be very slightly greater for taxpayers
with incomes over $6,000 annually. But this was far from enough
to offset the protests which created alarm among a pivotal group of
Republican legislators. Another factor also was bothering the
Republican legislative leaders. They did not want to create a public
impression that they were prepared to rubber-stamp whatever pro
gram the Governor proposed. As a result, the majority leader, Senator
THE GOVERNOR 343
Mahoney, undertook to make some compromise adjustments that
reduced budget expenditures by $35,000,000 and slightly reduced the
tax boost for married couples. A small group of Republicans under
pressure from their home areas organized a "revolt" against the tax
increase and claimed they had enough votes to block it.
Rockefeller did not want to crack down in order to get his program
passed. When some of his advisors became alarmed, he went on
television to explain the tax increases and to argue for them. He
called the tax rebels to his office but instead of swinging a whip he
urged upon them the wisdom of fiscal solvency. He gave a little,
unimportant ground but, when the going was roughest, he became
increasingly firm against compromise. One day when the newspaper
headlines said the tax bill was in danger of defeat, he stalked into
his office with a grim expression on his face and said to a friend:
"This bill may be poor politics but it s good government and I m
going to get it through come hell or high water." Softly but firmly,
he began putting on the pressure. On the evening of March 9,
with newspapers predicting a close vote, he cleared off his desk,
shrugged his broad shoulders into a wrinkled topcoat, perched an old
hat on his head and walked through the adjacent office of Press
Secretary Richard Amper on his way home. Amper and several
reporters were discussing the bill s prospects, and they were not
optimistic. For a moment, they didn t notice the Governor, who
might well have been mistaken by a stranger for another but less
distinguished-looking newspaperman. Then everybody turned to him.
"Don t worry, fellows," he said. "It s in the bag."
He went on out the door. "At least," one reporter commented,
"you can t ever say he lacks confidence."
The next day, the Republican leadership conferred with the rebels
for two hours. The tax bill was reported out of committee and on
March 11 the measure, very slightly modified, passed the Senate
by a vote of 31 to 25 and the Assembly by a vote of 78 to 69, just two
votes more than the required majority. All of the Democratic legis
lators voted against the bill.
"He s tough, this Rockefeller," a Democratic assemblyman mut-
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 344
tered to a reporter as the session recessed. "He knows how to get what
he wants/
Whether Rockefeller got what he really wanted remained to be
seen. He certainly failed, despite his detailed statements and tele
vision speeches, to get across to the voters his contention that the
tax boost was vital to their own interests. His popularity with the
general public plummeted downward in alarming fashion in the fol
lowing weeks. On the other hand, his national prestige did not suffer
and, in certain ways, it increased. He had demonstrated that he was
a strong leader in control of a difficult political situation. He had
gotten his most unpopular task out of the way in a hurry, the state s
finances were in good shape for the remainder of his term and there
would be time, perhaps, for the voters to forget.
"Rockefeller demonstrated a political grasp to match any profes
sional/ wrote James Desmond, political correspondent of the New
York Daily News. "He . . . exhibited . . . audacity in his proposals,
toughness in sticking by the main objectives, resilience in giving a
little here or there to achieve the over-all goal and, of course, patience
in waiting out recalcitrants." The chief correspondent of the
Gannett newspapers, Emmett N. O Brien, added that the victory
"establishes him as a real leader of his party, a man who can get
things done/ and ... an administrator who is unafraid to tackle
the tough problems of government/ Rockefeller, commented the
New York Times, "succeeded in this momentous test of leadership.
... He thus set a standard for fiscal courage ... at a time when
deficit financing and deferred reckoning have become so habitual as
to be accepted as orthodox government/
Eyed in the most favorable light, the Rockefeller administration
is seen as bold in advocating an unpopular rise in taxes, effective
in welding together dissident sections of the GOP majority, and
responsible in fostering legislation which fulfills campaign promises
[R. Stafford Derby wrote in the Christian Science Monitor]. This
was a major exhibition of leadership. It was so accepted outside
the confines of the state. Plaudits from other areas where governors
THE GOVERNOR 345
had failed to show such courage and state finances were in very bad
shape received notice in local and syndicated news stories.
Although these comments generally indicated the tenor of reaction
to Rockefeller s first legislative session, there were exceptions. The
Democrats had no intention of letting the voters forget that the
Governor had "unnecessarily" saddled them with new taxes and they
bore down on the charge that he had soaked the poor and favored
special interests, such as banks and stockbrokers, in connection with
special taxing powers granted to New York City. There was a plain
tive note of criticism, too, from a source that seldom found itself in
the same political corner as the Democrats in New York City. The
legislative representative of the Real Estate Board of New York, Inc.,
wrote in the organization s weekly publication that
despite the fact that [Rockefeller] has interests in a realty com-
pany which owns $150,000,000 worth of improved property in
( Manhattan, the Governor . . . has shown no concern with the
problems of the real estate industry. His pledges all through the
state campaign last year indicated sympathy for every state under
taking which would add to realty s burden. With the Governor
determined to keep these pledges, there was ^little chance of fending
off the inevitable attacks on property during the recent [legislative]
session.
Relaying this "unconscious tribute to Rockefeller, the property
owner" to its readers, the New York Times commented: "It looks
as though the Governor has lost the landlord vote.
In the spring of 1959 the fortunes of the Republican party were
at a new low outside of New York State. A poll of Republican
party members showed that 44 per cent believed a Democrat would be
elected President in 1960 and another 13 per cent were uncertain.
Vice-President Nixon, who had presided over the 1958 election
catastrophe, was still urging the party to get up off the floor and
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 346
fight. He had secured a strong grip on the party machinery and was
generally conceded to be all but certain of the presidential nomination
in 1960. There was, to be sure, talk about Nelson Rockefeller. The
liberal wing of the Republican party, which had little enthusiasm
for Nixon, watched the New York Governor with increasing interest.
Others emphasized the fact that any Republican presidential nominee
had to capture a heavy Democratic vote to win and, because of his
battering attacks on the opposition, it seemed unlikely Nixon could
raid the majority party as Rockefeller had done in New York. On
the other hand, Nixon was known everywhere as a result of numerous
campaigns across the country whereas Rockefeller was little known to
the people outside of a few Eastern states. In April, a group of young
Republican business and professional men formed a "California-for-
Rockefeller" organization in Nixon s home state without causing
any alarm among party professionals. In June, Nixon was estimated
by professional pollsters to be the choice of 63 per cent of Republi
cans and Rockefeller of only 20 per cent.
The summer brought further gains for the Vice President, par
ticularly in connection with his visit to Russia, where he opened
the United States exhibition at Moscow. Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev at that time was vigorously pressing his campaign to
soften the cold war, to promote a state of "peaceful coexistence"
with the Western democracies and to bring together the heads of
the Big Four powers in another "meeting at the Summit." He had
also, presumably as part of his maneuvering toward these goals,
threatened to create a grave international crisis by unilaterally
breaking up joint Big Four control of the city of Berlin. In these
circumstances, Nixon s Russian visit attracted world-wide attention,
particularly when he favored a visit by Khrushchev to the United
States, Nixon also engaged in an ideological debate with Khrushchev
at the public opening of the United States exhibition. What, if any
thing, the debate proved was less important in the public mind than
Nixon s blunt manner in confronting the Russian dictator with the
advantages of the American way of life. The Vice President s visit
was a political triumph that increased his prestige at home.
THE GOVERNOR 347
Throughout the first half of 1959, Rockefeller tended to his busi
ness as Governor of New York. He had developed a friendly and
often witty manner of turning aside the questions of reporters in regard
to his presidential ambitions. As such questions became more fre
quent, Press Secretary Amper placed on his own desk a huge cam
paign button on which was inscribed: "As he said, my interest is in
doing a good job for New York." This did nothing to stop the
questions. Reporters had learned that the Governor had a weakness
for off-the-cuff conversation. He wanted to keep them informed
of what was going on in his administration, "He s candid with us,"
one Albany correspondent commented. "He likes to level with us
and we don t get many no-comment answers." Rockefeller s press
advisors often thought he was far too candid because his ready
answers created political problems that might easily have been
avoided. Once, before a press conference on an important state
issue, they strongly impressed on him that he must not reveal
that he intended to take a certain action. The conference went off
smoothly, the reporters got their story and Rockefeller did not say
anything about his intended action. Then he and an aide flew to
another city for a political meeting. As they got off the plane, a
local reporter greeted the Governor and asked:
"Are you going to take such-and-such action?"
"Yes, I am," Rockefeller replied, while the aide shuddered.
When the reporter had gone, the press secretary asked: "Why
didn t you say you had no comment? Why did you tell him yes ?"
"Well," the Governor replied, "he asked a question, didn t he?"
In regard to the presidential campaign of 1960, Rockefeller man
aged for a long time to avoid any definite statements but he did noth
ing to discourage newspaper comment. Political columnist Joseph
Alsop wrote that Rockefeller s phenomenal rise
is in fact an essay in modem conservatism. It is a test of the
"progressive conservatism" that President Eisenhower used to talk
about, before he finally began to see the nation s problem exclusively
through the eyeglasses provided by George M. Humphrey. In the
most literal sense of the word, it is obviously unconservative to stint
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 348
the nation s defense in a time of great danger. In the same fashion,
it would have been unconservative of Rockefeller to stint New
York State s essential services instead of raising taxes ... it is
equally unconservative not to raise the money to meet the bills
as they come in.
. . . The Rockefeller [political] problem is simple. After riding
very high at the time of his great victory in New York, Governor
Rockefeller dropped behind Vice-President Nixon . . . when he
presented his program to increase New York state taxes. Still
running second, he cannot exploit the "Nixon-can t-win" slogan.
If he waits to make his Presidential bid until next year ... it may
be too late.
The political correspondent of the liberal New York Post, William
V. Shannon, spent three days touring the state with Rockefeller
and wrote that
he has established mastery over his Legislature and his party. Al
though money, ideas and political organization have all played a
part, this has not been a triumph of money nor intellectual power
nor political skill. It has been singularly a triumph of personality.
Nelson Rockefeller personally took the politicians and the voters
by storm. He is a winner. . . . Rockefeller clearly has the basic
good health, the sure self-confidence, the ready energy and the
mental poise which high public office demands. , . . Most [politi
cians] are too guarded to be witty. Rockefeller, alert yet relaxed, is
excellent on the quick comeback. To put the matter simply, he is
fun to be with. . . . His cabinet appointees ... as a group . . .
insure him a competent administration. ... He has established
successful personal relations with his legislative leaders, some of
whom are old guardsmen who might have caused him much
trouble. . . .
. . . but can the Republican party possibly be a vehicle for
liberalism? . . . There is little doubt that Rockefeller . . . would
make a better conservative President than Eisenhower. The case
being made for him, however, goes beyond this. It is argued that
Rockefeller would also be a success in liberal terms. . . . The
fundamental argument against believing in this conception of a
drastically liberalized Republican party headed by a figure like
THE GOVERNOR 349
Rockefeller is that the GOP is a party of business. Conservative
businessmen would not permit their party to become for very long the
vehicle of liberal programs. ... To think otherwise is to indulge in
romantic sentimentality. Rockefeller may have Franklin Roose
velt s personal charm, but FDR constructed the New Deal on a
social and political base that Rockefeller as leader of the business
men s party will not have.
In June, the New York Times political writer Leo Egan reported
that Morhouse was under heavy pressure to get a presidential
campaign started in Rockefeller s behalf but that he was keeping
the drive in "low gear/ And the following month, Donald Grant
of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch traveled around with Rockefeller
and concluded that he
is no Hamlet, unable to make up his mind; he would like to be
President of the United States both because he enjoys politics and
because he believes that as President he would be able to accom
plish certain things in the general public interest that even a
Rockefeller as a private citizen or as a state governor cannot
accomplish. . . . The volume of mail reaching Rockefeller from all
parts of the country is increasing daily most of it urging him to
run for the presidency. . . . The things that concern [Rockefeller]
most [are] a life of purpose and meaning and equal opportunities
for all Americans, peace in the world and an extension of the
community of mankind "the commonwealth of humanity at
large 7 is Rockefeller s phrase around the globe. On one occasion
... he said: "We live in an age that requires bold dreams and
great visions, for we have learned that our imagination may be
more of a limiting condition than technical problems." . . . Nor
does he think the problems that face the nation today can wait.
In Nelson Rockefeller s view we already have been drifting too
long.
Only a couple of times during the summer, however, did Rocke
feller s name figure prominently in the nation s headlines, and on
one of those occasions he was in a distinctly secondary role. In
August, a Renter s news dispatch from Soegne, Norway, said that
NELSON RCK3CEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 350
the Governor s second son, Steven, was in town and romancing a
pretty, blonde Norwegian girl who had once been a maid in the
Rockefeller household in New York. Her name was Anne-Marie
Rasmussen, and her father was a retired fish merchant and owner
of a small grocery store. The newspapers and news agencies were
quickly in full cry after a "Cinderella love story/ Rockefeller gave
them no assistance, referring all questions to Steven, who was spend
ing most of his time touring the Norwegian countryside with Miss
Rasmussen on a tandem motorbike.
Actually, the Rockefellers knew all about Steven s trip to Norway,
but they weren t absolutely sure that Miss Rasmussen had said
"yes." The Norwegian girl had come to New York in 1956. At that
time, she spoke the language poorly and about the only job she
could get was as a maid. After she learned to speak more fluently,
she got a secretarial job, but by then Steven had fallen in love with
her. In 1959, she went home to see her parents and Steven followed
her after telling his parents that he hoped to marry Miss Rasmussen.
Governor and Mrs. Rockefeller said they were delighted. "I couldn t
be happier," Rockefeller said when he and his wife and children
arrived for the wedding in the little Norwegian town. There were
only 180 guests in the church but 5,000 persons gathered outside
to cheer as the couple emerged after the ceremony to face 100
reporters and a battery of motion picture cameras. Mrs. Rockefeller
thoroughly disapproved of the hullabaloo stirred up by the press,
which she regarded as an unwarranted invasion of the couple s
privacy.
Governor Rockefeller s other news-making trip was to Puerto Rico
to attend the Governors Conference as chairman of the civil defense
committee. The committee s report, however, received less attention
than a party Rockefeller threw for all of the governors and their
wives at a plush new Puerto Rican golf club resort, built by his
brother Laurance, and a press conference at which the Governor s
candor outweighed his political judgment. In more than an hour
of give-and-take about the 1960 presidential race, he finally made
the error of referring to impending public opinion polls as being a
THE GOVERNOR 351
factor in deciding what he would do about seeking the Republican
nomination. His political advisors were horrified the next day when
they read news stories giving the impression that the Governor
would decide whether to seek the nomination on the basis of his
showing in polls to be taken in November rather than on the basis
of a fighting campaign for the job. Rockefeller had to call a special
press conference in Albany to get off the hook, pointing out that he
had not hesitated to run for Governor when nobody thought he
could win and he would not let polls decide what he would do about
the presidential nomination.
With the end of the summer, Rockefeller and his board of strategy
realized that, while it would be poor politics to announce his
candidacy, he had to get busy if he hoped to be in the running in
1960. On September 25, he addressed the annual meeting of As
sociated Industries of New York State, Inc., reviewing action by
his administration to create a more favorable climate for the growth
of business, industry and agriculture. But, he added, that he thought
it only fair to point out that every segment of our economy bears
a responsibility toward the achievement of our common goal.
Therefore, I would like to suggest ... the role that you in industry
can and must play. This role might be called "industry s responsi
bility to the community/ but I prefer to think of it as your role
in our common effort to achieve a sustained economic growth. . . .
We need your talents and vast experience in government. . . * You
and your employees are in a position as individuals and as corpora
tions to participate in every phase of public life. . . . You can
encourage your people to take an active part in the local political
organizations ... to run for public office ... to take appointments
in government and on commissions at all levels where their talents
are so badly needed. And you can encourage them and most
importantly by setting the example yourselves in participating in
all manner of community activities that are the backbone of
citizen participation in our free society.
When Russian Premier Khrushchev made his remarkable visit to
the United States in September, both the Soviet and the United
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 352
States governments put great emphasis on the necessity for an ac
commodation that would assure international peace as the only
alternative to world suicide by atomic warfare. Rockefeller had no
official role in the Khrushchev visit except to cooperate with the
State Department s arrangements and to extend a formal welcome
to New York. This he did in a private call on the visitor, but he
also took advantage of the opportunity to give the Communist
dictator some pointed advice on the democratic way of life by re
minding him that the people of New York or their ancestors had
all come here from other lands many to escape persecution and
all to find freedom and opportunity. While we are proud of our
great productive capacity and high standard of living, even though
much is left to be done, I hope [you] will sense and feel more
intangible values which are of even greater significance to an un
derstanding of America the values in which we believe as a
people freedom and dignity of the individual, equal opportunity
for all to develop their intellectual, spiritual and cultural capacities
to the fullest, as well as equal opportunity to meet their material
needs. * . . These values grew out of our basic spiritual beliefs in
the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God. . . . These
values, we are convinced, reflect the deepest aspirations of all man
kind and we, as a people, are dedicated to their universal realiza
tion.
Rockefeller had no reason to doubt that Khrushchev was interested
in promoting a relaxation of international tensions, but he had
serious questions whether the Soviet Union wanted "peaceful co
existence" on any terms except those that would further its goal
of world Communism. On October 8, the theme of the annual
Gold Awards dinner of the New York Board of Trade, Inc., was
"world peace through world trade and world travel." President
Eisenhower sent a message of greeting to the fourteen hundred guests
saying that international understanding through increased trade
and travel would help the people of the world thrive. As the princi
pal speaker at the dinner, Rockefeller was thoroughly in favor
of world trade and world travel but he struck a disharmonious note
TOE GOVERNOR 35?
by warning against accepting Communist methods of using discrimi
natory trade practices to further their political strategy.
The real problem and the real issues . . . [lie] precisely in the
highly discriminatory system in accordance with which the Soviet
bloc conducts its trade with the rest of the world. ... On the
present basis any increased volume of communist trade will add in
direct ratio to their power to disrupt and dominate the world trade
by Trojan Horse tactics. The best way to deal with a Trojan Horse is
to see that it carries no lethal weapons before it is allowed through
the gates.
He charged that the Russians repeatedly used their own economic
wealth to "disrupt vulnerable economies" for political purposes. For
example, they sent arms to Egypt in exchange for cotton and then
dumped the cotton in Egypt s European markets at less than Egyp
tian prices.
Even in its present small dimensions [he added], communist
bloc trade can cause serious dislocations to free world markets if we
allow it to be conducted on communist terms. If this trade were
to continue on the present basis, it might well become sufficiently
large ten years from now to become a real menace. ~ . . Let us
insist that if the Soviet Union really wants to normalize its rela
tionships with the great community of nations, it must observe the
rules and practices which have been adopted by the free peoples
of the free world.
Three weeks later he returned to the question of Russian inten
tions at a time when the United Nations was considering a proposal
by Khrushchev for complete world disarmament. Appearing on a
question-and-answer television show, he said he "personally" favored
resumption of the underground testing of nuclear weapons, which
President Eisenhower had suspended in 1958. "I think that we cannot
afford to fall behind in the advanced techniques of the use of
nuclear material," he said. "I think those testings could be carried
on, for instance, underground where there would be no fallout."
How long, a questioner asked, did he believe the United States
and the Soviet Union should go on "not trusting each other"?
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 354
"Oh, I think you can trust them all right/ Rockefeller replied,
summing up his attitude toward the Communist leaders. "I think
you can trust them to try and carry out their stated objective of the
domination of the world."
v.
After more than a year of direct action in the field of politics,
Rockefeller was neither disgusted (as some friends had predicted he
would be) nor discouraged. He gave observers the strong impression
of a man with a mission a man performing a service in which he
believed and enjoying every minute of his incredibly busy life. He
had been since childhood intensely serious about anything he un
dertook and to this he had added a steadiness of approach without
sacrificing either spontaneity or enthusiasm. He could still exclaim
that a routine, boring political session was "great fun" or that a set
of budgetary figures was "wonderfully exciting!" He had become, on
most occasions, a skillful politician and if he sometimes seemed to
overdo the backslapping, the handshaking and the hugging of
small children, it was a fault that was utterly natural to him and
one easily forgiven by voters whose backs were slapped, whose
hands were shaken and whose offspring were swept up in the Gover
nor s arms.
But more important, Rockefeller s first year as a professional
proved to his own satisfaction that politics successful politics
could be the highest and most honorable calling. Something of
this conviction he expressed on October 22, 1959, at a memorial
dinner for former Governor Alfred E. Smith.
We need, as a people and as a nation, to be one thing and
one constant and honest thing in the sight of all. . . . There can
be no safety in preaching one thing while practising another. . . .
We cannot preach of equality or of freedom to the world of
nations, if we do not fully practice freedom and respect equality
in the cities and in the lives of our own nation. We cannot win the
respect, and trust, of black men in Nigeria or Ghana until we have
THE GOVERNOR 355
honored the citizenship of Negroes in Georgia or Alabama. We
cannot stir and summon the hopes of millions who are stifling in
the slums of Calcutta or Djakarta if great American cities are too
lazy, too fat with pride, to clean the slums from their own earth.
We cannot inspire the admiration of a score of new nations hungry
for ways to speed their own economic progress if the economic
growth of America slows or falters. . . ,
Within our own politics, the same rules . . . apply with equal
force. And if any young man caring about politics, as he should,
were to contemplate a life in politics and were he to come and
ask my first counsels and warnings, I would tell him these equally
plain things. You can only be one thing to all citizens, wherever you
go, whatever you say, whatever you seek. You cannot trim your
principles to fit your ambitions or change your convictions as you
change your audiences. You cannot cheer loudly for civil rights in
one part of the nation, and speak softly and evasively of them in
another. You cannot promise to fulfill the most lavish hope of every
group or sector for then you are only pretending to be inde
pendent of each by the strange method of becoming the slave of
all. . . . Neither hopes nor votes can be won except, finally, by the
truth, not just openly spoken, but honorably lived. , . .
We dare not we cannot live as a nation in repose, calmly
waiting for each new challenge to emerge on the far horizon, ad
vance slowly and implacably toward us, finally confront us in
the grim shape of crisis. We live in an age of revolution and ex
plosion. . . . And, in such an age, we ... shall learn to be the
masters of circumstance or we shall be its victims. . . . We need a
sense of full purpose a dream if you will. We need such a dream
in order to live the waking life in this tormented world. For with
out such a sense of purpose ... we could only be a nation of sleep
walkers stumbling toward ever deeper darkness.
In the last months of 1959, Rockefeller carried his plea for "a
sense of full purpose a dream if you will" to a wider audience by
making speaking tours to the Pacific Coast states, to Indiana, Mis
souri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas and Florida. The
purpose of these whirlwind trips was to sample political sentiment,
particularly within the Republican party, preliminary to deciding
NELSON ROCKEFELLER A BIOGRAPHY 356
whether he would oppose Vice President Nixon for the Republican
presidential nomination in 1960. He put much emphasis in his
speeches on party unity and teamwork. He also sought to define issues
on which he might challenge Nixon s strong grip on the party
machinery- He urged, for example, a more coherent, consistent and
concrete foreign policy program as well as a revised long-term land-use
program and a system of stabilization supports (based on production
costs and farmers* net income) to relieve the problem of huge farm
surpluses.
His tours attracted national attention. His reception varied from
unexpectedly large and enthusiastic public turn-outs in some cities
to very cool reaction in other cities, particularly where party leaders
were firmly committed to Nixon. The net result, however, was suc
cessful enough to convince political and newspaper observers that
he would strongly challenge Nixon for the nomination. But Rocke
feller had other ideas. On the day after Christmas, he surprised the
nation by a "definite and final" announcement that "I am not, and
shall not be, a candidate for nomination for the Presidency. . . .
Quite obviously I shall not at any time entertain any thought of
accepting nomination to the Vice Presidency/
The decision, he said, was dictated by the conviction that "the
great majority of those who will control the Republican convention
stand opposed to any contest for the nomination" and that "any quest
of the nomination on my part would entail a massive struggle . . .
demanding so greatly of my time and energy that it would make im
possible the fulfillment of my obligations as Governor of New York."
He added that he intended to continue to devote his efforts to
strengthening and invigorating the spirit of the Republican party,
and expected to support its nominees and programs in 1960.
As to our country: the national and world issues before us, I
deeply believe, hold omen of both menace and hope, both danger
and opportunity. . . . Every one of them invites scrutiny. . . . For
such a time as this calls for a profound and continuous act of na
tional self-examination. I shall contribute all I can to this political
act. I shall speak with full freedom and vigor on these issues that
confront our nation and the world.
THE GOVERNOR 357
In view of all the circumstances, it was not surprising that many
political observers read the statement skeptically, looking for some
hidden meaning or some devious political maneuver. The fact was,
however, that Rockefeller had followed his customary practice of the
direct approach. He had, as usual, faced the facts and made a decision,
and he had explained both the facts and the decision as frankly as
possible.
Commenting on Rockefeller s statement, the New York Times said
editorially that "he still remains a nationally important figure. No
one in his party has spoken with more eloquence or conviction. . . *
He has undoubtedly increased his influence and his stature." Political
columnist Walter Lippmann commented that the Governor of New
York had shown by his past actions that "he is not afraid" to face
great and grave national problems, and concluded that "in these
fundamental matters, Rockefeller is a man of the future/
. . . 11:34 a.m.> Wednesday, January 13, 1959
The Governor s plane circled monotonously through dirty gray clouds
as the pilot awaited control tower orders to drop blindly down to
ward the airport runway. Inside the cabin, the noise of the engines
had subsided to an impatient hum.
"Governor, youVe said we have to have a sense of purpose maybe
some people would call it a dream. Just what are we going to aim
at as a nation?"
"First, remember we re living in a world that s in a kind of revo
lution scientific, political, everything/ he replied, his hands moving
restlessly on the writing table as if he were reaching for the right
words. "We ve got to be a part an influential part of that world,
a generating force, you could say, to help guide this revolution along
democratic principles and create an orderly world community. We
can t do that unless we show that our system will help peoples who are
trying to raise their own social and economic standards."
"Do you mean the government must spend a lot more money to
help these underdeveloped countries?"
"I mean the government must pave the way by measures, includ-
358
... 11:34 A.M., WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1959 359
ing technical aid, that will enable business, labor and capital to do
the main job of providing managerial and scientific knowledge and
funds. It is realistic in an inter-dependent world and it is in our own
self-interest. If we help step up the buying power of other countries
our own economy benefits in the long run."
"These are broad ideas, Governor. Do they mean much to the
average citizen?"
"Well, world peace is a broad idea but it means a lot to every
body. We ve got to understand the kind of world we are going to live
in if we expect our kind of life to survive."
"Survive in competition with Communist Russia?"
"Pm not forgetting the Communists, We re not going to surrender
our values to any kind of totalitarianism. But if Soviet Russia were
to disappear tomorrow, the problems of the world community would
remain. It is not what we re against that counts. It s what we re for."
At the front of the airplane cabin, the fasten-your-seat-belt sign
blinked on. The tempo of the engines picked up to a steady, urgent
beat. The gray world outside the windows thinned to cottony white
as the plane came on course and thrust its groping electronic fingers
down toward the unseen airport runway.
"Of course," the Governor said, "our national purpose has to start
at home. If we don t preserve our social gains and guard the rights
of our citizens and move on to new levels of well-being at home,
then we ll have no say in the future of the world community. And
you can be sure of one thing: we ve got to work and we ve got to get
rid of our softness and indifference. Only our best will count in
these days."
The wheels touched down on the runway with an angiy but com
forting hiss. The Governor raised his clasped hands above his head
and shook them in a silent gesture of congratulations toward the
cockpit. The cloud ceiling seemed almost down to the top of the
airport control tower. Across the Potomac River, even the Washing
ton Monument was hidden by a pearly curtain of mist.
January 30, 1960
Guilford, Conn.
Inde
x
Abrams, Charles, 340
Acheson, Dean, 202, 221, 273, 296
Act of Chapultepec, see Chapultepec,
Act of
Adams, Sherman, 303
Advisory Commission of the Council
of National Defense, 135-136
Agriculture Department, 287
AIA, see American International As
sociation for Economic and Social
Development
Aldrich, Abby, see Rockefeller, Mrs.
John D., Jr.
Aldrich, Lucy (aunt), 78, 85
Aldrich, Nelson W. (grandfather), 4,
69
Aldrich, Winthrop (uncle), 100
Alsop, Joseph, 347-348
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of
America, 6, 275, 309
America at Mz d-Century, 308, 310
American Federation of Labor, 104-
105, 275
American International Association for
Economic and Social Development
(AIA), 241-248, 271
American Overseas Finance Corpora
tion, 268, 315
American Radiator Company, 93
Amper, Richard, 319, 347
Anderson, Robert B., 301
Andrade, Victor, 206
anti-U.S. sentiment, Latin America,
139, 172-173
Argentina, dispute over, 201-202, 207,
210-211, 216, 223, 229-230; Nazi
and Fascist influences in, 185-186,
189, 192, 200-201
Armstrong, Tom, 125
Armstrong, William, 82
Associate de Cr6dito e AssistSncia
Rural, 248
Associated Industries of New York
State, Inc., 351
Associated Press, 138
Atlantic Charter, 193
Austin, Warren, 190
Bangkok, visit to, 86
Barnes, Janet, 137
Barren s, 268-269
Baudry, Mme. Louise, 96
Bellevue School of Nursing, 97
Belt, Guillermo, 208, 217-218, 224
Bennett, Henry Garland, 274
Berg, Moe, 147
Berle, Adolf A., Jr., 172, 197-198
Betancourt, Romulo, 118, 244-245
Bickd, Karl A., 138, 168
Bixby, R. Burdell, 322
Board of Economic Welfare, 180
Borella, Victor G., 138
Bottome, Robert, 126
Bowles, Chester A., 309
Boyer, Louise, 336
Braden, Spruille, 199, 201, 228-229,
231
Brazil, AIA program in, 244-248;
criticism in, 243; Point Four Pro
gram in, 178-179; postwar changes,
232
briefing room" program, 139-140
Bulganin, Nikolai A., 302
Bullock, Tad, 29
Bureau of the Budget, 167
169
bureaucracy, 135, 154,
361
INDEX
362
Burma, trip to, 87
Bush, Dr. Vannevar, 150
Butler, George, 172
Butler, Hugh, 151
Byrd, Harry K, 277
Byrnes, James F., 213, 227-230
C.A. Distribuidora de Alimentos, 258
Galloway, Pete, 34
Camacho, Avila, 161, 195
Camargo, Alberto Ueras, 197-198, 218,
224
Camp, John R., 250, 252
Campos, Milton, 247-248
capitalism, democracy and, 252
Caracas, Venezuela, 119
Cardenas, Lazaro, 122
Carlino, Joseph F., 321, 334
Carter, Elinor, 340
Central Bolivar farming project, 254,
260
Central Intelligence Agency, 293
Chapultepec, Act of, 196, 198, 201,
204-205, 216-217, 219-220, 231-232;
see also Mexico City conference
Chase National Bank, 84, 94, 100, 113,
i<3, 267
Childs, Marquis W., 320
Christian Science Monitor, 344
Chrysler, Walter, Jr., 54
Churchill, Sir Winston S., 191, 228,
292
CIAA (Office of Coordinator of Inter-
American Affairs), 134, 137-139,
146, 150-151, 163, 165-166, 172-
175, 179-180, 187, 226, 271, 304;
Budget Bureau and, 167-169; organi
zation and operation, 138-140; State
Department and, 155-158
Clark, Edward White, 95
Clark, Eleanor, see French, Mrs. Elea
nor Clark
Clark, Joseph S., Jr., 315
Clark, Mary Todhunter, 78-79; see also
Rockefeller, Mary Todhunter (Mrs.
Nelson A.)
Clay, Gen. Lucius D., 309, 323
Clayton, Will, 138, 187, 189
Clifford, Clark, 271
coal strike, 191 3, 9, 58
Cohen, Ben, 126
cold war, 299-300, 346
Coles, William F., 126
Colombia, SA., 193
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 9,
5 8
Columbia University Teachers College,
X 7
Communism, struggle against, 118, 175-
176, 188, 252, 270, 274, 352-353,
359; study of, 239-241
Compafiia de Fomento Venezolano,
126-127
Connally, Sen. Tom, 218-219, 221,
225-226, 231
Contreras, E16azar L6pez, 126
Coordinator of Information (COI),
165-166
Corcoran, Tommy, 126
Cortesi, Arnoldo, 212-213
Costa Rica, 189, 247
Council on National Defense, 143
Couper, William, 319
Coy, Wayne, 148
Crane, Jay, 113, 125
Creole Petroleum Company, 112-113,
116, 119, 121, 244, 250
Dalrymple, Martha, 138
Daniel, Robert P., 275
Dartmouth College, 26, 29, 52, 138
Davenport, Mrs. Russell, 323
Davis, Elmer, 164
Davison, Eliza (great-grandmother), 3
Defense Advisory Committee on
Women in the Services, 97
Defense Department, 286
Delhi, trip to, 88
DeLozada, Enrique, 167
Derby, R. Stafford, 344
De Sapio, Carmine, 321, 323-324, 329
Desmond, James, 344
Dewey, John, 17
Dewey, Thomas E., 322, 333
Dickey, John S., 138
discrimination, legislation on, 340
Division of the American Republics,
158
Donovan, Maj. Gen. William J., 164-
166
INDEX
Dorsey, Fisher G., 252
Douglas, Percy L., 137
Douglas, Walter, 122, 160
Dubinsky, David, 6
Dudley, George, 140
Dufy, Raoul, 95
Duggan, Laurence, 158
Dulles, John Foster, 218, 227, 297, 300-
301
Dumbarton Oaks conference, 191-192,
204, 216
Dunham, Maj. Gen. George C., 138
Dunn, James C., 202, 216
Ecuador, 208-209
Eden, Sir Anthony, 207
Edison, Charles, 138
Edison, Thomas A., 104
Egan, Leo, 349
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 6, 284-305,
347
Eisenhower, Dr. Milton, 286
Empresa de Mecanizagao, 259-260
English-Speaking Union, 97
European Cooperation Administration,
278-279
Evatt, Dr. Herbert V., 224, 226
Export-Import Bank, 298
Far East, trip to, 84-89
Farm Security Administration, 243
Far West, trips to, 316
Federal Bureau of Investigation, 172
Federal Security Administration, 289
Finletter, Thomas K., 321
Firestone, Harvey S., Jr., 275
Flemming, Arthur, 286
Ford, Edsel, 100
Forrestal, James V., 131-132, 135
Fosdick, Harry Emerson, 55
"Four-H Club," 297-298
Foxworth, Percy, 172
Francisco, Don, 138
Frantz, Harry W., 138
French, Mrs. Eleanor Clark, 96, 113,
3 X 5
French, John, 31, 38, 41-43
French, Mary M. Billings, 31
Fundo Crescinco, 267
363
Gallagher y Canaval, Manuel C., 195,
197
Gandhi, Mohandas K., 89
Garner, John Nance, 137
Geneva Summit Conference, 299-300,
308
Gerard, James W., 275
Germans, in Latin America, 117; see
also Nazi propaganda
German U-boat warfare, 178
Giesecke, Dr. Albert A., 113
Gifford, Charles L., 153
Goldstone, Harmon, 139
Good Neighbor policy, 152
Goodyear, A. Conger, 106
Granger, Lester B., 309
Grant, Donald, 349
Grenfell, Sir Wilfred T., 80
Grew, Joseph C., 188
Group, The, 125-126, 129
Gruenther, Gen. Alfred M., 301
Gumbel, Robert, 84
Haiti, Republic of, 182
Halifax, Lord, 90
Hall, Leonard, 313, 319
Hannah, John A., 275
Hardy, Ben, 271
Harriman, W. Averell, 273- 3 74> 2 77
278, 280, 310-313, 316, 319-321,
324, 329, 3*8
Harrison, Wallace K., 76, 101, 125,
138, 187, 281-283, 306-307
Health, Education and Welfare De
partment, 286, 288-289
Heck, Oswald D., 313, 319, 334
Heckscher, August, 94
Hellman, Geoffrey T., 106, 136
hemisphere security, see Western Hem
isphere solidarity
Hickey, Margaret A., 275
Hill, William H., 313
Hillman, Sidney, 135-136
Hines, Lewis G., 275
Hinman, George, 311-313, 3 1 9
Hiss, Alger, 191, 204-205
Hitler, Adolf, 128
Hobby, Oveta Gulp, 289
Hoffman, Paul, 279
Hogan, Frank, 321-322
INDEX
Hollister, John, 297
Holman, Eugene, 116
Hood, Raymond, 101
Hoover, Herbert, Jr., 293, 297
Hopkins, Dr. Ernest Martin, 27, 32, 36,
40, 52
Hopkins, Harry L. 7 128-129, 133, 172,
177, 318
Hudgens, Robert W., 243
Hughes, Charles Evans, 335
Hughes, Roland, 297
Hull, Cordell L., 131, 133, 169, 184-
187, 202
Humphrey, George M., 297, 302, 347
IBEC, see International Basic Economy
Corporation
Industria Lactea de Carabobo, S.A., 263
Institute of Inter-American Affairs, 145,
177-178
Inter-American Conference, Mexico
City, see Mexico City conference
Inter-American Development Commis
sion, 181
Inter-American Education Foundation,
Inc., 179
Inter-American Finance and Invest
ment Corp., 267
Inter-American Institute, 138, 182, 247
Inter-Departmental Committee on
Inter-American Affairs, 141
International Basic Economy Corpora
tion (IBEC), 251-264, 272
International Development Advisory
Board, 273-274
International Development Association,
280
International Grenfefl Association, 80
International Ladies Garment Workers
Union, 6
International Petroleum Company,
Ltd., 250
international relations, human element
in, 124
Italian vote, 323
Ives, Irving M., 310
Jamieson, Francis A., 138, 145, 167-
168, 281, 306-308, 323-324, 328-
339
364
Jones, Jesse H., 141, 163, 176
Jones, John Price, 138
Joseph, Bertha Coblens, 275
uquilpan de Juarez, 122
Kapurthala, Maharajah of, 88
Keating, Kenneth B., 321, 328-329
Khrushchev, Nikita S., 6, 303, 346,
351-352
King, W. L. Mackenzie, 58
Kirstein, Lincoln, 145
Kissinger, Dr. Henry A., 309
Knox, Frank, 168
Knudsen, William S., 135, 148, 150
Knutson, Harold, 153
Korean War, 273
Krock, Arthur, 213
Kubitschek, Juscelino, 249
La Follette, Robert M., 188
La Guardia, Fiorello, 106
Langer, William, 153, 285 n.
Lasso, Galo Plaza, 208-209
Latin America, 5, 106, 111-112, 129,
238; Point Four program in, 270-
280; U.S. relations with, 117-118,
121-122, 149-151, 166, 170-183, 205,
223-225
Lawrence, David, 226, 231
Lee, Ivy, 67
legislative program, New York State,
337-339 , ^
Lehman, Herbert D., 321
lend lease, 176
Levy, Larry, 137
Liberal party, 315, 318
Linam, Henry E., 119
Lincoln, Abraham, 104
Lincoln School, 17, 27, 32, 239
Lindsay, Vachel, 55
Lippmann, Walter, 357
Litvinov, Maxim, 171
Lockwood, John, 172, 306
Losee, Tom, 322
Lublin regime, Poland, 205-207, 214
Luce, Henry R., 309
Ludlow massacre, 10
MacDonald, Sir Ramsay, 87
McElroy, Neil H., 287
INDEX
McKellar, Kenneth D., 148-150, 152,
177
McLean, Edward, 7
McLean, Evalyn, 7
MacLeish, Archibald, 202
Mahoney, Walter J., 313, 319
Marshall Plan, 270, 274
Martin, Randolph, 29, 32
Marx, Karl, 240
Masaryk, Jan, 206
Matisse, Henri, 95
Mauze, Abby Rockefeller (sister), see
Rockefeller, Abby
May, Stacy, 252
Meany, George, 6
Mene Grande Oil Company, 250
Messersmith, George, 159, 231
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 92, 105-
106, 114
Metzner, Charles M., 322
Mexican railroad project, 161
Mexico, CIAA projects in, 159, 161-
163; cultural history of, 122; ex
propriation of oil properties in, 116,
122; U.S. relations with, 123-124
Mexico City conference, 190-199, 201,
204, 211, 218; see also Chapultepec,
Act of
military reorganization, 286-288
Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 55
Millikin, Eugene D., 277
Minas Gerais, Brazil, 245, 247-249
Mir6, Joan, 333
missionaries, work of, 91
Mitchell, Donna, 293
modern art, support of, 106-107
Molotov, Vyacheslav M., 206-207, 209,
214
monopoly vs. free competition, 45
Monroe Doctrine, 217, 219-220
Monte Sacro project, Venezuela, 256-
258
Morgenthau, Henry, 174-175
Morhouse, L. Judson, 310-311, 317-
3*9> 349
Mount Desert Island, 7, 11-12, 78-79,
100
Museum of Modern Art, 74, 106-107,
109, 122
365
Museum of Primitive Art, 107
Mutual Security Agency, 279
Naidu, Mo Sarojini, 89
National Security Act of 1947, 287
NATO, see North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
Nazi propaganda, in Latin America,
131, 139, 172-173, 185-186
New Deal, 289, 318
New York Daily News, 237, 344
New Yorker, The, 106, 136
New York Herdd Tribune, 313, 320
New York Journal- American, 220
New York Post, 314, 329, 348-349
New York State legislative program,
New York State Republican Commit
tee, 310
New lork Times, 82, 196, 212, 228,
230-231, 319, 337, 344"345> 349>
New York World, 9
Nixon, Richard M., 328-329, 346-348
North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
189, 221, 227, 270, 301
O Brien, Emmett N., 344
O Donnell, Harry, 322
Office of American Republic Affairs,
204
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-
American Affairs, 145; see also CIAA
Office of Defense Mobilization, 287
Office of Facts and Figures, 167
Office of Production Management, 135,
148
Office of Strategic Services, 166
Office of War Information, 164, 167
oil fields, Venezuela, 117-121
Oil Trust, 8
Olsen, Barbara Ann (Mrs. Rodman
Rockefeller, daughter-in-law), 315
"open skies" plan, 301-303
Operation Coordinating Board, 293
Oreamuno, Rafael, 189
Otis Elevator Company, 172
PACA, see Productora Agropecuaria,
C.A.
INDEX
366
Padilla, Foreign Minister, 189, 198,
206
Pan-American Highway, 171
Pan-American Society, 181
Paracas, Peru, 113
Parker, Maj. Gen. Ted, 293-294, 305
Parran, Thomas, 275
Partners in Progress, 276-277
Pasvolsky, Leo, 191, 196-197, 204-205,
216, 219
Peace League, 217
Pearl Harbor, 172, 174
Peck, Kelso, 126, 138
Perkins, Milo, 180
Perkins, Roswell B., 290, 294, 322,
324
Per6n, Col. Juan, 185, 192, 195 n.,
200-201, 207, 228, 231
Peru, trip to, 113-114, 195
Pesquerias Caribe, C,A. (PESCA), 258
Picasso, Pablo, 95, 333
Pierson, Robert Laughlin, 315
Pittsburgh Courier, 226
Planning Coordination Group, 293, 299
Pocantico Hills, Tarrytown, home at,
10-12, 22-23, 31, 79, 91, 95-96, 136,
281-282, 340
Poe, Clarence, 275
Point Four program, 178, 270-280
Poland, Lublin government in, 205-
207, 214
Potofsky, Jacob S., 6, 275, 309
Potsdam Conference, 228-229
President s Advisory Committee on
Government Organization, 284 if.
Princeton University, 25, 39, 147, 315
Productora Agropecuaria, C.A., 253-
258
Proudfit, Arthur, 119
Puerto Rico, Governors Conference at,
350-35 1
Quantico seminar, 299, 308-309
race prejudice, 76-77
Radford, Adm. Arthur W., 301
Radio City Music Hall, 105
Rasmussen, Anne-Marie (Mrs. Steven
Rockefeller), 350
Reader s Digest, The, 151
Reconstruction Finance Corporation,
176
Republican party, 312 if., 337, 345-346
Republican State Convention, 319-320,
328
Reston, James, 196
Richberg, Donald R., 123
Rivera, Diego, 101-104
Robbins, Edward H., 126, 138
Roberts, George B., 95
Roberts, Mrs. Lawrence, 109
Robertson, Hugh S., 103-104
Rockefeller, Abby (sister), 10, 19, 235,
237
Rockefeller, Aldrich (grandfather), 306
Rockefeller, Ann Clark (daughter), 97,
Rockefeller, David (brother), 10, 200,
Rockefeller, John Davison, Sn (grand
father), 4, 8, 12-13, 44> 66 6 9> % 2 >
137, 153, 235, 319, 327
Rockefeller, John Davison, Jr. (father),
7, 10, 13, 15, 19, 21, 44, 48, 50, 57,
59-63, 66, 70, 75-76, 79, 82, 91, 93,
99-101, 116, 144, 181-182, 235-237,
253, 282-283, 314
Rockefeller, Mrs. Jol
John D., Jr. (mother),
16-17, 10, 21, 34, 57, 69-70, 73, 79,
144, 256
Rockefeller, John Davison, 3rd
(brother), 10, 19, 92, 235-237
Rockefeller, Laura Spelman (grand
mother), 4
Rockefeller, Laurance (brother), 2 n.,
10, 14, 19, 39, 80, 235-237
Rockefeller, Mary (daughter), 136,
316
Rockefeller, Mary Todhunter Clark
(Mrs. Nelson A.), 95-96, 313-316,
ichael (son), 136, 315-
320, 326, 332-334
Rockefeller, Michael
316
Rockefeller, Nelson Aldrich: character
traits, 3-4; birth and early childhood,
7-16; school work, 25-26; college
years, 29-56; thesis on Standard Oil,
45-48; marriage and travel, 57-83;
relations with John D., Sr., 06-69;
enthusiasm for art, 73-74; trip to
INDEX
Paris, 1928, 78; Arctic trip, 80-81;
begins business career, 84 if.; trip to
Far East, 84-86, 89-90; forms N.Y.
firm, 93-94; first child, 97; enters
family business affairs, 97-99; second
European trip, 1934, 100; labor re
lations program, 104-105; bear hunt
ing incident, 107-108; boating ac
cident, 108-109; restlessness about
career, 109 ff.; South America en
thusiasms, 111 ff.; Latin American
studies, 116-118; meeting and friend
ship with Cdrdenas, 122-126; Wash
ington duty, World War II, 128-153;
head of CIAA, 134; working habits,
137-142; exchange with McKellar,
149-150; reprimand from Roosevelt,
157; Mexican program dispute, 159-
160; struggle with Gen. Donovan,
165-166; fight against Communism
in Latin America, 175-176; Carib
bean trip, 1944, 182-183; Asst. Sec
retary of State, 187-188; Inter-
American Conference at Mexico
City, 190-199; at San Francisco UN
conference, 200-214; solves problem
of Act of Chapultepec, 219-220; rep
rimand by Stettinius, 223-224; resig
nation from State Department, 230-
231; chairman of Rockefeller Center,
235; study of Communism, 239-241;
AIA projects in Brazil and Venezuela,
243 ff.; Point Four program, 270-
280; arranges gift of UN site, N.Y.,
282-283; chairman of Eisenhower s
Advisory Committee, 284 ft.; under
secretary of Health, Education and
Welfare, 289-290; at Geneva Sum
mit Conference, 300-303; enters
N.Y. politics, 306 ff.; chairman of
Special Studies Project, 309; candi
date for governor, 317; election cam
paign, 321-331; elected governor,
329-332; "money advantages," 336;
on presidential candidacy, 347-348;
rejects candidacy in favor of Nixon,
356-357
Rockefeller, Rodman Clark (son), 97,
136, 315
367
Rockefeller, Steven (son), 136, 319,
349-350
Rockefeller, Mrs. Steven (Anne-Marie
Rasmussen), 350
Rockefeller, William Avery (great
grandfather), 3
Rockefeller, Wi
21, 23, 113* !$%>
Rockefeller Brothers
3*
mthrop (brother), 10,
Fund, 107,
107, 308-
Rockefeller Center, 93-94, 101-105,
109, 235-237, 280-281, 304, 307,
33 2 > 33
Rockefeller Foundation, 242
Rogers, Will, 67
Ronan, Dr. William J., 311, 322
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 321-322
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 5, 128-
133, 135, 155, 157-158, l6l > l6 4
166, 170-173, 184, 192-193, 200,
203, 224, 227, 231, 325, 333, 349
Roosevelt, John, 312
Roosevelt, Theodore, 8, 333, 335
Root, Oren, Jr., 323
Rosenberg, Mrs. Anna, 131, 166
Rosenman, Sam, 168-169
Rovensky, Joseph, 113, 125, 138
Ruebhausen, Oscar M v 339
Ruml, Beardsley, 125, 129
Russell, Bertrand, 55
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 349
Sandburg, Carl, 55
San Francisco Conference (UN), 201-
214, 239
Santos, Eduardo, 193
Sarabhai, Mr. and Mrs., 89
Savage, John L., 275
Schiff, Dorothy, 329
Schmidt, Alfonso, 232
school aid, 291
Schweitzer, Dr. Albert, 316
Seal Harbor, Me., 11-12, 20-21, 29,
76, 79, 84, 100, 136-137
Sears, Henry, 283
Sears, J. Montgomery, 7-8
self-defense, in Act of Chapultepec, 220
Sementes Agroceres, S.A. (SASA), 265
Senate Appropriations Committee, 148,
152
INDEX
368
Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, 279
Sert, Jos6 Maria, 104
Shannon, William V., 548
Shell Oil Company of Venezuela, 250
Sherman Antitrust Law, 9
Sinclair, Upton, 8
Slade, Madeleine, 89
Slater, Ilene, 335
Smith, Alfred E., 324, 333, 337, 341,
354
Smith, Harold, 167-168
Socony-Mobil (Vacuum) Oil Co., Inc.,
250
South America, see Latin America
Southern Pacific Railroad, 122
Soviet Union, cold war with, 299-300;
at Geneva Conference, 302-305;
Moscow exhibition, 346; struggle
with, 240, 252, 270, 276-277, 352-
Spaeth, Carl B., 126, 138, 145
Spanish language courses, 112, 116, 120
Special Studies Project, 308-310
Special Work, Inc., 94, 97, 101
Sprague, J. Russell, 321
Stalin, Joseph, 171, 191, 228
Standard Oil Company, 8, 44-48, 68,
84, 92, 111-112, 122
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey,
9 1X 5
Stark, Sheldon, 32
Stassen, Harold, 219, 302
State Department, 155-159, 184, 204,
208, 217, 230-231, 271, 279, 295-
297, 302, 352
Steffens, Lincoln, 8
Stettinius, Edward R., Jr., 185-188,
191-193, 195, 197, 203-205, 207-
2O8, 212, 21O, 221, 223, 226
Swope, Gerald, 39
Taft, Robert Alfonso, 277
Tagore, Sir Rabindranath, 88
Tammany Hall, N.Y., 321-324
Tarbell, Ida M., 8
tax program, N.Y. State, 340-343
Technical Cooperation Administration
(TCA) 274, 279
Teller, Edward, 309
Tello, Dr. Julio C&ar, 113
tennis games, 141-142
Thomas, Dr. Allen M., 8
Those Rockefeller Brothers, 15 n., 146
n.
Tibet, trip to, 86
Tflden, Samuel J., 332
Todd, Jane, 312
Todd, Webster, 93
Truman, Harry S., 203, 211, 213, 227,
270, 272-275, 278
Turck, Fenton, 93
Ukraine, 206, 210
United Nations, 191, 224, 273, 353;
beginnings of, 203-214
United Nations building, N.Y., 280-
281
United Press, 138
Uruguay, 193
Van Buren, Martin, 335
Vandenberg, Arthur, 211, 216-217,
220, 225-226, 231
van Gogh, Vincent, 95
Venezuela, 111, 116-121, 241-245
Venezuelan Basic Economy Corpora
tion (VBEC), 253-264
veto power, UN, dispute over, 224
Villa, Pancho, 124
Vincent, Mr. and Mrs. George E., 88
visual aids, fondness for, 294-295, 326-
3*7
Wallace, Henry A., 141, 167-168, 180
Wall Street Journal, 340
Warren, Avra M., 204
Washington, D.C., tour of duty in,
128-153
Washington Post, 212
Watson, Gen. Edwin M., 157, 168,
184
Weaver, Sylvester, 322
Welles, Sumner, 131, 133, 154, 157,
168, 173, 177
Western Hemisphere solidarity, 139,
175, 187, 202, 228
Wheeler, Charles L., 275
White House, Washington, D.C., 128,
133, 141, 158, 164, 193, 201, 230,
272, 280, 208, 292-305
INDEX
White Russia, 206, 210 World Bank, 279-280
Whitney, John Hay, 138, 159 world disarmament, 352-353
W
369
Wilson, Charles E., 286, 303-304 y
Wilson, Malcolm, 312, 319, 321 Zaretski, Joseph, 334
Winant, John G., 144 Zeclcendorf, William, 282-283
1 02 457
co
