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changed people's thinking. JDR3 first displayed this newfound sen- JDR3's other creation was the Population Council, which he sibility in the early 1950s, after having served in the US Navy dur- _ founded in 1952. It is a more controversial creation, one that belies ing World War II and later as a cultural consultant to John Foster the essentially benevolent purposes that some of his more sympa- Dulles, then heading the US negotiation on a treaty with Japan. Out —_ thetic biographers have attributed to him. According to Steve of that period of activity in service of government, JDR3 developed Weissman, JDR3 and other founders of the early "Eco- a deep and abiding interest in all things Asian. This more expan- Establishment", which comprised the Population Council and sive world outlook Junior's eldest son resolved to impress upon Laurance Rockefeller's Conservation Foundation, are united by the Americans in general. view that natural resources must be conserved or, to be more pre- In the 1950s, determined to improve relations between Japan and _cise, protected from being exploited by smaller businesses and indi- America, JDR3 revived the then moribund Japan Society. He also viduals so as to maintain an ongoing supply of resources for the sought to restore and upgrade governmental and non-governmental exclusive benefit of larger business entities in the long run. ° relations between the US and most of Asia. This proved a more Controlling the population formed an inevitable part of this pro- difficult task than propping up the Japan Society with his patronage — gram of conservation—something that JDR3 had embraced with and financial support, for the political environment had changed. obvious enthusiasm since his days with the Rockefeller-funded The Institute for Pacific Relations (IPR), to which the Rockefeller Bureau of Social Hygiene. This was in tune with the long-term Foundation had given support, was attacked for allegedly facilitat- interests of the Rockefellers in this issue, something evident since ing the "loss" of China to the Communists. Leading the charge 1936 when the Rockefeller Foundation had provided funds to the against the IPR and foundations in general was the Special House Office of Population Research at Princeton University.’ Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations (the Reece JDR3 was arguably motivated by such goals, although he was Committee). Although many of the Reece Committee's charges always careful not to be too explicit, suggesting his objectives were were perhaps unjustified—especially given Senator Reece's refusal those of an idealist. As JDR3 explained in his lecture to the United to allow foundation leaders to formally challenge the accusations Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in the Second against them—it had succeeded, if only temporarily, in restraining McDougall Lecture in 1961, the "grand mission" of the Rockefeller the operations of the foundations. JDR3 sought to get around this Foundation, like the FAO, was the "well-being of mankind". JDR3 by recreating the IPR under a new argued that there was a "relationship guise by dispersing its responsibilities between population growth and social to a range of new and existing organi- development" and that "responsible sations. The IPR's academic func- i i leaders" in each country needed to Controlling the population formed y tions, for instance, were transferred to an inevitable part of this program "decide whether population stabiliza- the Far Eastern Association, while its , tion was required". "To my mind," he cultural role was med by JDR3's of conservation—something that explained, "population growth is sec- own creation, the Asia Society, for- JDR3 had embraced with obvious ond only to control of atomic weapons mally launched in 1956. as the paramount problem of the day." Although publicly only concerned enthusiasm since his days with the There was a "cold inevitability, a cer- with fostering cultural relationships Rockefeller-funded Bureau of tainty that is mathematical, that gives between the US and Asia, JDR3 had Social Hyai the problems posed by too-rapid pop- in mind another function for the Asia ocial Fiyglene. ulation growth a somber and chilling Society in the longer term. As Harr (a former speechwriter to JDR3) and Johnson observe in their curiously caste indeed". The language was indeed careful, but the implications were soon apparent: the "grim fact" titled book, The Rockefeller Conscience (1991), although "comfort- of population growth, he warned, "cuts across all the basic needs of able" with cultural affairs JDR3 was "well aware" of the need for mankind and...frustrates man's achievement of his higher needs" * and value of a "comprehensive approach to foreign affairs" in the In his book, The Second American Revolution (1973), JDR3 per- region. sisted in likening overpopulation to nuclear war, arguing that it was But JDR3 was also conscious that in the mid-1950s "political the "slow way" to "render [the] planet uninhabitable"; in fact, "no factors constrained the freedom of action of philanthropy". So, problem is more fundamental in long-range terms". JDR3 noted although seemingly devoted to cultural projects, JDR3 in effect | with some pride the findings of the Commission on Population planned for the role of the Asia Society to "grow into other activities | Growth and the American Future, set up by Congress in 1970 with in due course"? him as Chairman,’ that the "time has come for the United States to Sure enough, evolving from its original cultural beginnings, the welcome and plan for a stabilized population" and that "no substan- Asia Society has grown into an organisation that now describes its tial benefit will result from further growth of the nation's popula- mission somewhat more tantalisingly as "fostering understanding of _ tion". But for JDR3, getting population stabilisation right in the US Asia and communication between Americans and the peoples of was merely a dress rehearsal for applying such methods globally. Asia and the Pacific". The Asia Society now considers issues of By being able to "cope with these broad problems on the home foreign, economic and defence policy in the region as a matter of _ front", JDR3 wrote, America would be "better equip[ped] to play a routine and describes its "pan-Asian approach" as inherently sensi- constructive role internationally".'” ble at a time when "many Asia/Pacific nations are forging stronger JDR3's warning about the population explosion was mirrored by economic and political links with their neighbors, and many press- others in the Rockefeller family and its organs. The Rockefeller ing issues, from trade to security to the environment, cut across Brothers Fund report, "Prospect for America", raised the prospect national boundaries".* The implications of this "pan-Asian of "extreme nationalism" arising out of the "restlessness produced approach", especially when seen in the context of Nelson's and in a rapidly growing population", something magnified by "the pre- David's own advocacy of regional integration, are too obvious to ponderance of youth".'' David Rockefeller also made his contribu- warrant further exposition. tion, using language perhaps more revealing than JDR3 chose, but Controlling the population formed an inevitable part of this program of conservation—something that JDR3 had embraced with obvious enthusiasm since his days with the Rockefeller-funded Bureau of 30 - NEXUS Social Hygiene. www.nexusmagazine.com FEBRUARY — MARCH 2004