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ROCKEFELLER INTERNATIONALISM ROCKEFELLER INTERNATIONALISM Power-hungry Nelson Rockefeller, second son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr, had a plan fora New World Order that would make nation-states redundant. by Will Banyan © 2002-2003 (Revised January-April 2003) Email: banyan007@rediffmail.com n the 1940s and 1950s, the American power-elite held great expectations for the five sons of John D. Rockefeller, Junior. (Reflecting the prejudices of the time, Junior's daughter Abby was excluded from these deliberations.) Books such as Alex Morris's fawning effort, Those Rockefeller Brothers: An Informal Biography of Five Extraordinary Young Men (1953), for example, openly speculated on how Junior's progeny would advance the Rockefeller philanthropic agenda. Some of these expectations were met. John D. II and Laurance both seemed content to assume a patrician lifestyle steeped in phil- anthropy, while attempting to influence government from behind the scenes. David, of course, took this to a much higher level, combining it with a banking career; while Winthrop took the opposite route, dabbling in business and serving as Governor of Arkansas—then a relatively obscure position on the US political landscape. It was Nelson, Junior's second-eldest son, who decisively broke the mould. In contrast to his more reserved brothers and at odds with family expectations, Nelson aggressively pursued a career in the highest levels of the US government, first as an official and later as a politician. That he would do so was inevitable, for he was the dominant personality in the new generation. He was an extrovert and was seemingly immune from Junior's pious strictures and prohibitions. Nelson also possessed a vast appetite for power, but, in a deviation from the family tradition of trying to dampen popular fears about Rockefeller power by maintaining a low public profile, he also sought to be widely known as a powerful individual. Thus it was Nelson who had shunted aside the eldest son, John D. III, to take centre stage in family affairs, determined to control the philanthropic network. And then, after an erratic and unfulfilling career in government, he clumsily attempted to seize the ultimate political prize: the White House. And yet, for Nelson, the rewards would be mixed with frustration, and ultimately the toll would be high for him and the family name. Even David eventually came to see Nelson not as "the hero who could do no wrong but as a man who was willing to sacrifice almost everything in the service of his enormous ambition"* From Technocrat to Politician Having no reservations about trading on the family name, Nelson used the doors it opened to pursue a wide-ranging career in the US government, in foreign policy positions in the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations, although his path was hardly smooth. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Nelson served as Coordinator of the Office of Inter-American Affairs (1940-44), Chairman of the Inter-American Development Commission (1940-47) and Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America (1944-45). His fortunes fell under Harry Truman, who dismissed Nelson from the State Department, appar- ently at the insistence of new Secretary of State Dean Acheson who resented Nelson's suc- cessful effort to have Axis-sympathetic Argentina included in the United Nations. A chas- tened Nelson retreated into philanthropy, pausing only to accept the token appointment as Chairman of the International Development Board (1950-51). Under Dwight Eisenhower, Nelson's star briefly rose again. He served as the President's Special Assistant on Foreign Policy (1954-55) and as head of the secret "Forty Committee" charged with overseeing the CIA's covert operations. Nelson had been on the verge of securing a senior position in the Department of Defense; however, concerted opposition from other Cabinet members, who had convinced Eisenhower—correctly—that Nelson was JUNE — JULY 2003 NEXUS + 27 THE PUBLICIST: NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER (1908-1979) www.nexusmagazine.com