Nelson Rockefeller

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Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller

In office
December 19, 1974 – January 20, 1977
President Gerald Ford
Preceded by Gerald Ford
Succeeded by Walter Mondale

In office
January 1, 1959 – December 18, 1973
Lieutenant Malcolm Wilson
Preceded by W. Averell Harriman
Succeeded by Malcolm Wilson

President Eisenhower's special assistant on Foreign Affairs
In office
1954 – 1955

Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.
In office
1940 – 1944

Chairman of the Inter-American Development Commission
In office
1940 – 1947

Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs
In office
1944 – 1945

Born July 8, 1908(1908-07-08)
Bar Harbor, Maine
Died January 26, 1979 (aged 70)
New York City, New York
Political party Republican
Spouse (1) Mary Todhunter Clark (married 1930, divorced 1962)
(2) Margaretta Fitler Murphy (married 1963)
Alma mater Dartmouth College
Religion Baptist

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908January 26, 1979) was the forty-first Vice President of the United States, the forty-ninth governor of New York, a philanthropist, and a businessman.

A leader of the liberal wing of the Republican Party, he was Governor of New York from 1959 to 1973, where he launched many construction and modernization projects. A descendant of one of the world's richest and best known families, he failed repeatedly in his attempts to become president, but he was appointed Vice President in 1974. He served from 1974 to 1977, and did not join the 1976 GOP national ticket with President Gerald Ford. He retired from politics when his term as Vice President was over.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Rockefeller was born in Bar Harbor, Maine. He was the son of John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. He was the grandson of Standard Oil's founder and chairman John Davison Rockefeller, Sr. (who was born exactly 69 years before Nelson) and United States Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, a Republican from Rhode Island. He had four brothers: David (1915- ), Laurance (1910-2004), Winthrop (1912-1973), and John D. III (1906-1978), and one sister, Abby (1903-1976). In 1930, he graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was a member of Casque and Gauntlet (a senior society), Phi Beta Kappa, and the Zeta chapter of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. Rockefeller worked for a time in several family-run businesses and philanthropies before entering public service. From 1939 to 1958, he served as President of the Museum of Modern Art.

[edit] Early political career

Rockefeller was especially active in promoting modernization and economic liberalization in Brazil and other parts of Latin America. He took over various responsible roles during the presidencies of Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower. After the war, he headed the International Development Advisory Board, part of Harry S. Truman's Point Four Program. He “fulfils the functions of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA, 1940-44), is the Chairman of the Inter-American Development Commission and Corporation (1940-47) and the Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs (1944-45).” While at the head of the OCIAA, Nelson Rockefeller relied on his connections in the cultural field to allow a policy promoting North American culture in South America. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) he had created for his mother, became the most important American Museum supporting modern arts of its time, holding 19 exhibitions showing contemporary American paintings which were afterwards showed in a large number of cultural venues around South America. This cultural program was also seen as having the political agenda of contributing to the fight against perceived fascist influences in the region.

He also was one of the architects of the Chapultepec Conference that had for its goal to coordinate continental political cooperation. Together with Secretary of State Stettinius, Rockefeller was at the head of the American delegation and placed a high priority in resisting South American communist movements. The Act of Chapultepec would therefore plan the possibility of collective actions including the possibility of using armed forces against any aggression of a non-American or -North-hemispheric nation and would commit signatories in the negotiation of a permanent reciprocal assistance and Inter-American solidarity treaty.

After dedicating himself to various philanthropic activities including taking a lead role in the running of the MoMA, Rockefeller became Special Assistant to President Eisenhower for Foreign Affairs (1954-55) before being appointed head of the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB) – committee of the National Security Council in charge, amongst others, of supervising secret CIA operations. Working with the CIA was nothing new to Rockefeller. After becoming the Health, Education and Welfare Assistant Secretary, he had been required to organise a colloquium addressing the CIA on the role of the Agency in a different economic world. In March 1955, together with Rowland Hughes (Director of the Budget), he introduced a proposition for the creation of a high-level committee (Planning Coordination Group) that would be in charge of helping develop schedules for the CIA's covert operations.[citation needed]

The election of fellow Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 saw Rockefeller gaining greater public and political influence. In 1956 he created the Special Studies Project, a major seven panel planning group directed by Henry Kissinger and funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, of which he was the then-president. It was an ambitious study created to define the central problems and opportunities facing the U.S. in the future, and to clarify national purposes and objectives; outcomes were finally published in 1961 as Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports.

The Special Studies Project came into national prominence with the early release of its military subpanel's report, whose principal recommendation was a massive military buildup to counter a then-perceived military superiority threat posed by the USSR. The report was released two months after the launching of Sputnik in October, 1957 and its recommendations were fully endorsed by Eisenhower in his State of the Union address in January, 1958.[1] Partly as a result of his work with the Special Studies Project, Eisenhower appointed Rockefeller first as chair of the President's Advisory Committee on Government Reorganization and later as an undersecretary in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1953-1954).

This initial contact with Kissinger was to develop into a lifelong relationship; Kissinger was later to be described as his closest intellectual associate. From this period Rockefeller employed Kissinger as a personally funded part-time consultant, principally on foreign policy issues, until the appointment to his staff became full-time in late 1968. In 1969, when Kissinger entered Richard Nixon's administration, Nelson paid him $50,000 as a severance payment.[2]

[edit] Governor of New York

Gov. Rockefeller meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968
Gov. Rockefeller meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968

Rockefeller left federal service in 1956 to concentrate on New York state and national politics, where he served in various capacities. In 1958, he was elected governor by over 600,000 votes, defeating incumbent governor, multi-millionaire W. Averell Harriman, even though 1958 was a banner year for Democrats elsewhere in the nation. Despite his great wealth and famous lineage, Rockefeller seemed approachable and down-to-earth, establishing a friendly relationship with the local press. Reporters generally made no mention of the governor's frequent vacations, even when he appeared remarkably tan during harsh New York winters.

[edit] Tough laws on drug offenders

Rockefeller served as governor of New York from 1959 to 1973 (elected to four terms, he served three and a half). As governor of New York, he successfully secured the passage of strict laws against the possession and/or sale of drugs. These laws — which became known as the "Rockefeller drug laws" — took effect in 1973 and are still on the books, albeit in moderated form. They ranked among the toughest in the United States.

[edit] Liberal Republican

Rockefeller was opposed by conservatives in the GOP such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan because of his liberal stances on many issues.

As governor, Rockefeller took liberal stances on economic issues, spending more than his predecessors. Rockefeller expanded the state's infrastructure, took environmentalist stances, New Deal regulations of business, and Social Security. Unlike most conservatives, who were opposed to organized labor, Rockefeller collaborated with unions, especially the construction trades, which benefited from his extensive building programs.

In foreign affairs, Rockefeller was opposed to the more assertive policies of the conservatives and supported US involvement in the United Nations as well as US foreign aid. He also supported the U.S.'s fight against communism and its membership in NATO.

As a result of Rockefeller's policies, some conservatives sought to gain leverage by creating the Conservative Party of New York. The small party acted as a counter-weight to the Liberal Party of New York State.

[edit] Attica Riots

On September 13, 1971, after four days of riots at the state prison in Attica, N.Y., Rockefeller gave the order for 1,000 New York State Police troopers and National Guardsmen to storm the prison.

More than 40 people died, including 11 of 38 hostages (most of whom were prison guards). Most of the deaths were attributed to the gunfire of the National Guard and state police. The prisoners had been demanding better living conditions, showers, education, and vocational training. Opponents blamed Rockefeller for these deaths in part because of his refusal to go to the prison and talk with the inmates, while his supporters, including many conservatives who had often vocally differed with him in the past, defended his actions as being necessary to the preservation of law and order.

[edit] Massive construction programs

Rockefeller engaged in massive building projects that left a profound mark on the state of New York, so much so that many of his detractors claimed that he had an "Edifice Complex."[3] He was personally interested in planning, design, and construction of the many projects intitiated during his administration--consistent with his interest in art. Rockefeller was the driving force in turning the State University of New York into the largest system of public higher education in the United States. He demanded the imposition of tuition fees at the New York city colleges in return for conferring university status on them.

He also led in the creation and/or expansion of many major highways (such as the Long Island Expressway, the Southern Tier Expressway, the Adirondack Northway, and Interstate 81) which vastly improved road transportation in the state of New York. To create more low-income housing, Rockefeller created the unprecedented-in-its-power New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC), which could override local zoning, condemn property, and create financing schemes to carry out desired development. (UDC is now called the Empire State Development Corporation, which forms a unit, along with the formerly independent Job Development Authority, of Empire State Development Corporation.)

In addition, Rockefeller's construction programs included the $2 billion South Mall in Albany, later renamed the Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza. It is a vast campus of government skyscrapers and plazas punctuated by an egg-shaped arts center. He worked with the legislature and unions to create generous pension programs for many public workers, such as teachers, professors, firefighters, police officers, prison guards, in the state. He pushed through the highest-in-the-nation minimum wage. Public-benefit authorities (some 230 of them, like UDC) were brought into existence by Rockefeller. They were often used to issue bonds in order to avoid the requirement of a vote of the people for the issuance of a bond; such authority-issued bonds bore higher interest than if they had been issued directly by the state. The state budget went from $2.04 billion in 1959-60 to $8.8 billion in his last year 1973-74.

Rockefeller also reformed the governing of New York City's transportation system, creating the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1965. It merged the New York City subway system with the publicly owned Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the Long Island Rail Road and, later, Metro North Railroad, which were purchased by the state from private owners in a massive public bailout of bankrupt railroads.

In taking over control of the Triborough Authority, Rockefeller shifted power away from Robert Moses, who controlled several of New York state's public infrastructure authorities. Under the New York MTA, toll revenue collected from the bridges and tunnels, which had previously been used to build more bridges, tunnels, and highways, now went to support public transport operations, thus shifting costs from general state funds to the motorist. In one controversial move, Rockefeller abandoned one of Moses's most desired projects, a bridge from Rye to Oyster Bay in 1973 due to environmental opposition.

[edit] Conservation

Consistent with his personal interest in design and planning, Governor Rockefeller began expansion of the New York State Parks system and improvement of park facilities. He persuaded voters to approve three major bond acts to raise more the $300 million for acquisition of park and forest preserve land.[4] Rockefeller initiated studies of environmental issues, such as loss of agricultural land through development--an issue now characterized as "sprawl." In such concerns he was enlightened for his time (the late 1960s), at least in government, although notions were becoming more common in some circles. The State Commission for the Preservation of Agricultural Land issued a report early in 1968. In September, 1968, Rockefeller appointed the Temporary Study Commission on the Future of the Adirondacks. This led to his introduction to the Legislature in 1971 of a bill to create the controversial Adirondack Park Agency.[5]

[edit] Crime

Rockefeller was a supporter of capital punishment and oversaw 14 executions by electrocution as Governor[6]. The last execution, of Eddie Mays in 1963, remained to date the last execution in New York and was the last pre-Furman execution in the Northeast[7].

However, despite his personal support to the capital punishment, Governor Rockefeller signed a bill to abolition death penalty except murdering police officers in 1965[8].

Rockefeller was also a supporter of the "law and order" platform[9].

[edit] Presidential campaigns

Nelson Rockefeller at the 1976 Republican National Convention along with (left to right) Robert Dole, Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Susan Ford and Betty Ford.
Nelson Rockefeller at the 1976 Republican National Convention along with (left to right) Robert Dole, Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Susan Ford and Betty Ford.

Rockefeller was a glad-hander who appeared affable and approachable, and maintained good relationships with the press. He easily won time and again in New York, but he wanted to be president. He spent millions in attempts to win the Republican primaries in 1960, 1964, and 1968. His bid in 1960 was ended early when then-Vice President Richard Nixon surged ahead in the polls. After quitting the campaign, Rockefeller backed Nixon enthusiastically, and concentrated his efforts on introducing more moderate stances into Nixon's platform.

Rockefeller, representing moderate and liberal Republicans, was considered the front-runner for the 1964 campaign against the more conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona who led the right wing of the Republican Party. Rockefeller was originally the front runner for the Republican party's presidential nomination but his divorce and subsequent remarriage turned many socially conservative voters off. Rockefeller finished third in the New Hampshire primary in February, behind write-in Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (from neighboring Massachusetts) and Goldwater. He then endured dismal showings in several primaries, before winning an upset in the Oregon primary in May. The birth of Rockefeller's child during the California campaign put the divorce issue in the headlines (divorce was scandalous at that time). After a furious contest, Rockefeller lost the California primary in early June and dropped out of the race.

Rockefeller again sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1968. His opponents were Nixon and Governor Ronald W. Reagan of California. In the contest, Rockefeller again represented the liberals in the GOP, Reagan representing the conservative Goldwater element, and Nixon representing the moderates. Nixon was always clearly the front runner throughout the contest because of his superior organization and he easily defeated both Reagan and Rockefeller.

After Gerald Ford's elevation to the Presidency and Rockefeller was named Vice President, he was initially mentioned and reportedly considered running for President for a fourth time in 1976, if Ford declined to seek his own term[10].

[edit] Commission on Critical Choices for Americans

In November of 1973, Rockefeller established an organization called the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans, of which he served as chairman. He resigned as Governor of New York in December of 1973, devoting himself to his new commission and the possibility of another presidential run.

[edit] Vice Presidency 1974 – 77

Following President Nixon's resignation, new president Gerald Ford nominated Rockefeller, age 66, to serve as the 41st Vice President of the United States, after a long process of considering various candidates. Rockefeller's top competitor had been George H.W. Bush.

Vice President Rockefeller bust from the Senate collection
Vice President Rockefeller bust from the Senate collection

Rockefeller underwent extended hearings before Congress, which caused embarrassment when it was revealed he made massive gifts to senior aides, such as Henry Kissinger. He had paid all his taxes, no illegalities were uncovered, and he was confirmed. Although conservative Republicans were not pleased that Rockefeller was picked, most of them did vote for his confirmation. However, some, including Goldwater, voted against him.[11]. Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat of West Virginia) frequently questioned Vice Presidential nominee about his wealth, but voted for his confirmation[12].

Beginning his service on December 19, 1974, Rockefeller was the second person appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment — the first being Ford himself. Rockefeller often complained that Ford gave him little or no power, and few tasks, while he was Vice President. Ford responded to this by putting Rockefeller in charge of his "Whip Inflation Now" initiative. In November 1975, Rockefeller told Ford he wanted off the ticket, saying that he "didn't come down (to Washington) to get caught up in party squabbles which only make it more difficult for the President in a very difficult time..."[13] Journalists speculated[14] that Ford, a moderate, decided to drop Rockefeller in favor of the more conservative Robert Dole under pressure from the conservative wing of the party.

Vice President Rockefeller (right) and his wife Happy (second on left) entertain President Gerald R. Ford (left) his wife Betty (second on right) and their daughter Susan (center) at Number One Observatory Circle on September 7, 1975.
Vice President Rockefeller (right) and his wife Happy (second on left) entertain President Gerald R. Ford (left) his wife Betty (second on right) and their daughter Susan (center) at Number One Observatory Circle on September 7, 1975.

While Rockefeller was Vice President, the official Vice Presidential residence was established at Number One Observatory Circle on the grounds of the United States Naval Observatory. This residence had previously been the home of the Chief of Naval Operations; prior Vice Presidents had been responsible for maintaining their own homes at their own expense, but the necessity of massive full-time Secret Service security had made this custom impractical to continue. Rockefeller already had a luxurious, well-secured Washington residence and never actually lived in the home as a principal residence, although he did host several official functions there. His wealth enabled him to donate millions of dollars of furnishings to the house.

Rockefeller was slow to embrace the use of the government aircraft that were provided for Vice Presidential transportation. Rockefeller continued to use his own private comfortably equipped Gulfstream for the first part of his time in office. It was operated under the call sign Executive Two when the Vice President was onboard. Initially Rockefeller felt he was doing the taxpayer a favor saving money by not using government funded transportation. Finally the Secret Service was able to convince him they were spending more money flying agents around to meet the needs of his protective detail and he began to fly on the DC-9 that was serving as Air Force Two at the time.[15] His codename given by the Secret Service was "Sandstorm".[16]

On January 10, 1977, Ford presented Rockefeller with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[edit] Marriages

On June 23, 1930, Rockefeller married Mary Todhunter Clark They had five children: Rodman, Anne, Steven, and twins Mary and Michael. In 1963, they were divorced, a few weeks before his marriage to Margaretta "Happy" Murphy. He and his second wife had two children together, Nelson, Jr. and Mark. They remained married until his death in 1979.

Nelson Rockefeller and Jimmy Carter in October 1977
Nelson Rockefeller and Jimmy Carter in October 1977

[edit] Death

Rockefeller died on the evening of Friday, January 26, 1979 at age 70 from a heart attack under circumstances whose details have never been completely revealed. Initial reports[17] said Rockefeller was at his office at Rockefeller Center working on a book about his art collection, where a security guard found him slumped over his desk; however, it was later disclosed that Rockefeller actually had the fatal heart attack in his 13 West 54th Street Manhattan townhouse in the presence of 26-year-old aide Megan Marshak and that some time later Marshak had called her friend, news reporter Ponchitta Pierce, to the townhouse and it was Pierce who phoned emergency approximately an hour after the heart attack.[18] Much speculation went on in the press regarding a personal relationship between Rockefeller and Marshak,[19] Neither Marshak nor the family has commented since on the circumstances surrounding Rockefeller's death.[20]

Nelson Rockefeller was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. His ashes were scattered at the Rockefeller Estate in nearby Tarrytown. He does not have a final resting place in a cemetery, the first Vice President not to have one.

[edit] Artistic involvement

In 1933 the Rockefeller family wanted to have a mural put on the wall in Rockefeller Center. Nelson Rockefeller wanted Henri Matisse or Pablo Picasso to do it because he favored their modern style, but neither was available. Diego Rivera was one of Nelson Rockefeller's mother's favorite artists and therefore was commissioned to create the huge mural. He was given a theme: New Frontiers. Rockefeller wanted the painting to make people pause and think.[21]. However, the painting caused great controversy due to the inclusion of a painting of Lenin (depicting communism), which upset Rockefeller.[21] Rockefeller asked Rivera to change the face of Lenin to that of an unknown laborer's face as was originally intended but the painter refused.

The work was paid for on May 22, 1933, and immediately draped. People protested but it remained covered until the early weeks of 1934, when it was smashed by workers and hauled away in wheelbarrows. Rivera responded by saying that it was "cultural vandalism." At Rockefeller Center in its place is a mural with Abraham Lincoln as its focal point. The Rockefeller-Rivera dispute is covered in the films Cradle Will Rock and Frida.

Rockefeller was a noted collector of both modern and non-Western art. During his governorship, New York State acquired major works of art for the new Albany governmental complex and elsewhere. He continued his mother's work at the Museum of Modern Art, as president, and turned the basement of his Kykuit mansion into a noted museum while placing works of sculpture around the grounds (an activity he enjoyed personally supervising, frequently moving the pieces from place to place by helicopter). While he was overseeing construction of the State University of New York system, Rockefeller built, in collaboration with his lifelong friend Roy Neuberger, a museum on the campus of SUNY Purchase College, the Neuberger Museum, designed by Philip Johnson.

He commissioned Master Santiago Martínez Delgado to make a canvas mural for the Bank of New York (City Bank) in Bogotá, Colombia; this ended up being the last work of the artist, as he died while finishing it.

Rockefeller's early visits to Mexico kindled a collecting interest in pre-Columbian and contemporary Mexican art, to which he added works of traditional African and Pacific Island art. In 1954 the Museum of Primitive Art was established out of his personal collection; the museum opened to the public in 1957 in a townhouse on West 54th Street in New York City. In 1969 he transferred the museum's collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1978, Alfred A. Knopf published a book on primitive art from Rockefeller's collection. Rockefeller, impressed with the work of photographer Lee Boltin and editor/publisher Paul Anbinder on the book, co-founded Nelson Rockefeller Publications, Inc. with them, with the goal of publishing fine art books of high quality. After Rockefeller's death less than a year later, the company continued as Hudson Hills Press, Inc.

[edit] In Popular Media

  • He is referenced in the title of the Charles Mingus composition "Remember Rockefeller at Attica."

[edit] Electoral history

[edit] Bibliography

  • Bleecker, Samuel E. The Politics of Architecture: A Perspective on Nelson A. Rockefeller, Rutledge Press, 1981. Deals with the architecture of New York State buildings.
  • Cobbs, Elizabeth Anne. The Rich Neighbor Policy: Rockefeller and Kaiser in Brazil, Yale University Press, 1992.
  • Cobbs, Elizabeth A. "Entrepreneurship as Diplomacy: Nelson Rockefeller and the Development of the Brazilian Capital Market," Business History Review, 1989 63(1): 88-121. Examines NR's Fundo Crescinco, a mutual fund that he started in Brazil in the 1950s to continue FDR's Good Neighbor policy. It reflected both liberal assumptions about the importance of the middle class to economic development and the concerns of business people about placating Latin American nationalism.
  • Colby, Gerard & Charlotte Dennett. Thy Will be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil, 1995.
  • Connery, Robert H. and Gerald Benjamin. Governing New York State: The Rockefeller Years, 1974. An in-depth analysis.
  • Bernard J. Firestone and Alexej Ugrinsky, eds. Gerald R. Ford and the Politics of Post-Watergate America. Volume: 1. Greenwood Press, 1993. (pp 137-94). One chapter has analysis by scholars of the Vice-Presidency.
  • Deane, Elizabeth, (Director). The Rockefellers, A documentary film, 1999.
  • Donovan, Robert John. Confidential Secretary: Ann Whitman's Twenty Years with Eisenhower and Rockefeller, New York: Dutton, 1988.
  • Isaacson, Walter, Kissinger: A Biography, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992, (updated, 2005).
  • Kramer, Michael and Roberts, Sam. "I Never Wanted to Be Vice-President of Anything!": An Investigative Biography of Nelson Rockefeller, 1976.
  • Light, Paul. "Vice-presidential Influence under Rockefeller and Mondale." Political Science Quarterly 1983-1984 98(4): 617-640. in JSTOR
  • Perlstein, Rick. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, 2002. On the 1964 election.
  • Persico, Joseph E. The Imperial Rockefeller: A Biography of Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York: Pocket Books, 1982 (The author was a senior aide).
  • Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer, 1908-1958, New York: Doubleday, 1996. {Volume 1 of the most comprehensive biography of Nelson ever written, the author had accessed many papers in the Rockefeller Archive Center for his research but died before writing Volume 2, covering the crucial period from 1959 to 1979.}
  • James Reichley; Conservatives in an Age of Change: The Nixon and Ford Administrations, Brookings Institution, 1981.
  • Rivas, Darlene. Missionary Capitalist: Nelson Rockefeller in Venezuela. University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
  • Straight, Michael. Nancy Hanks, an Intimate Portrait: The Creation of a National Commitment to the Arts. Duke University Press, 1988. She was a top aide (and lover).
  • Turner, Michael. The Vice President as Policy Maker: Rockefeller in the Ford White House, New York: Greenwood, 1982.
  • Underwood, James E. and Daniels, William J. Governor Rockefeller in New York: The Apex of Pragmatic Liberalism, New York: Greenwood, 1982.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Creation of the Special Studies Project in 1956 - see Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer, 1908-1958, New York: Doubleday, 1996. (pp. 650-667)
  2. ^ Relationship with Kissinger - see Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography, New York: Simon & Schuster, Revised edition, 2005. (pp. 90-93),
  3. ^ "Is the Rock Still Solid?", TIME Magazine, 19 October 1970
  4. ^ "Theodore RooseveltAlfred E. Smith – Nelson Rockefeller – George Pataki." The New York State Preservationist. NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Fall/Winter 2006, p. 20
  5. ^ Graham, Frank, Jr. The Adirondack Park: A Political History. New York City: Knopf, 1978
  6. ^ List of pre-Furman executions in New York
  7. ^ Regional Studies Northeast
  8. ^ Craig Brandon, The Electric Chair: An Unnatural American History, 1999
  9. ^ American Experience | The Rockefellers | People & Events
  10. ^ Peter Collier, David Horovitz, The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0-03-008371-0
  11. ^ Time Magazine article
  12. ^ Peter Collier, David Horovitz, The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0-03-008371-0
  13. ^ "Excerpts From Rockefeller Conference Explaining His Withdrawal", The New York Times, 7 November 1975, p. 16
  14. ^ "Mutual Decision: Vice President's Letter Gives No Reason for his Withdrawal", The New York Times, 4 November 1975, p. 73
  15. ^ "Petro, Joseph; Jeffrey Robinson (2005). Standing Next to History: An Agent's Life Inside the Secret Service. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 0-312-33221-1.
  16. ^ Secret Service Codename
  17. ^ See, for example, CBS News report of February 8, 1979, Roger Mudd reporting on conflicting stories about circumstances of Rockefeller's death.
  18. ^ See, for example, this transcript of The Rockefellers (Part 2) a PBS American Experience documentary aired in 2000 about the Rockefeller family and these print media articles: Robert D. McFadden, "New Details Are Reported on How Rockefeller Died", The New York Times, 29 January 1979; Robert D. McFadden, "Call to Emergency for Stricken Rockefeller Did Not Identify Him", The New York Times, 30 January 1979; Robert D. McFadden, "Rockefeller's Attack Is Now Placed at 10:15, Hour Before Emergency Call", The New York Times, 7 February 1979; Robert D. McFadden, "Rockefeller Aide Did Not Make Call to Emegency", The New York Times, 9 February 1979; and "Marshak Friend Makes Statement on Rockefeller", The New York Times, 11 February 1979.
  19. ^ For example, long-time Rockefeller aide Joe Persico said in the PBS documentary about the Rockefeller family (see this), "It became known that he had been alone with a young woman who worked for him, in undeniably intimate circumstances, and in the course of that evening had died from a heart attack." further fueled by reports that she was a named beneficiary in his will.This was widely reported at the time; see, for example, Peter Kihss, "Bulk of Rockefeller's Estate is Left to Wife; Museums Get Large Gifts", The New York Times, 10 February 1979; this piece that aired on NBC's Evening News on February 9, 1979; and this piece by Max Robinson that aired on ABC Evening News on February 9, 1979.
  20. ^ Robert D. McFadden, "4 Rockefeller Children Say All At Hand Did Their Best", The New York Times, 15 February 1979: the statement released by Rockefeller's children concludes, "...we do not intend to make any further public comment."
  21. ^ a b Rockefeller Controversy. Diego Rivera Prints. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.
  22. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - R Primaries Race - Feb 01, 1960
  23. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - R Primaries Race - Feb 01, 1964
  24. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - R Convention Race - Jul 13, 1964
  25. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - R Convention Race - Jul 13, 1964
  26. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Primaries Race - Mar 12, 1968
  27. ^ Our Campaigns - US Vice President Appointment Race - Dec 19, 1974
  28. ^ Our Campaigns - US Vice President Appointment Race - Dec 19, 1974

[edit] External links

Political offices
Preceded by
W. Averell Harriman
Governor of New York
1959 – 1973
Succeeded by
Malcolm Wilson
Preceded by
Gerald Ford
Vice President of the United States
December 19, 1974January 20, 1977
Succeeded by
Walter Mondale
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