Nelson Rockefeller

Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Nelson Rockefeller shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Nelson Rockefeller offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Nelson Rockefeller at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Nelson Rockefeller? Wrong! If the Nelson Rockefeller is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Nelson Rockefeller then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Nelson Rockefeller? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Nelson Rockefeller and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Nelson Rockefeller wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Nelson Rockefeller then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Nelson Rockefeller site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Nelson Rockefeller, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Nelson Rockefeller, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox_Vice_President | name=Nelson Rockefeller| image=N_rockefeller.jpg|none|Nelson Rockefeller| order=41st Vice President of the United States [1974 [1977| successor=[Walter Mondale| term_start2=[January 1 1959 [1973| predecessor2= [W. Averell Harriman| birth_date=| birth_place=[Bar Harbor, Maine, [New York (married 1930, divorced 1962)
(2) [Happy Rockefeller (married 1963)| party=Republican Party (United States)| religion=Baptist-->Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller ([July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the forty-first Vice President of the United States, governor of New York State, philanthropist, and businessperson.

A leader of the Rockefeller Republican of the Republican Party (United States), 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 Rockefeller family, he failed repeatedly in his attempts to become president, but he was appointed Vice President of the United States 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.

Early life Rockefeller was born in Bar Harbor, Maine. He was the son of John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. and his wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. He was the grandson on his father's side of Standard Oil's founder and chairman John D. Rockefeller (who was born exactly 69 years before Nelson) and on his mother's side of United States Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, a Republican from Rhode Island. He had four brothers: David Rockefeller (1915- ), Laurance Rockefeller (1910-2004), Winthrop Rockefeller (1912-1973), and John D. Rockefeller III (1906-1978), and one sister, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé (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.

Early political career Rockefeller was especially active in promoting modernization and democracy in Brazil and other parts of Latin America. He took over various responsibility 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 with the cultural field to allow a policy promoting North American culture in South America. The MoMA he had created for his mother, had become the most important American Museum supporting modern arts and therefore carried out 19 exhibitions showing contemporary American paintings which were afterwards showed in a large number of cultural venues around South America; he thus contributed to the fight against fascist influences in the region.

He also was one of the architects of the Chapultepec Conference that had for goal to coordinate a continental cooperation of politics. Together with the Secretary of State Stetenius, Rockefeller was at the head of the American delegation. The United States firmly warned South American military forces against an even more fearsome enemy than the Nazis: USSR and communism. 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 staying aside for a while and dedicating himself to various philanthropic activities and the direction of the MoMA, Rockefeller became Special Assistant to President Eisenhower for Foreign Affairs (1954-55) before he accessed the head of the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB) – committee of the National Security Council in charge, among others, of supervising secret operations of the CIA. Working with the CIA was nothing new to him. After becoming the Health, Education and Welfare Assistant Secretary, he had been required to organise a colloquium addressed to 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 introduces a proposition for the creation of a high-level committee (NSC 5412/2 Special Group) that would be in charge of helping the development of schedules for the secret operations of the CIA.

The election of fellow Republican Dwight 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; it was finally published in 1961 as Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports.

It 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. It 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.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) Partly as a result, Eisenhower subsequently appointed him first as chair of the President's Advisory Committee on Government Reorganization and later as an undersecretary in the United States 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 used him as a personally paid part-time consultant, principally on foreign policy issues, until the appointment to his staff full-time in late 1968. In 1969, when Kissinger entered Nixon's administration, Nelson paid him $50,000 as a severance payment.Relationship with Kissinger - see Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography, New York: Simon & Schuster, Revised edition, 2005. (pp. 90-93),

Governor of New York 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 of New York 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, evenwhen he appeared remarkably tan during harsh New York winters.

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. They ranked among the toughest in the United States.

Liberal Republican Rockefeller was opposed by conservatives in the GOP such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan because of his liberal stances on a whole host of issues.

As governor, Rockefeller took liberal stances on economic issues, spending more than his predecessors. Rockefeller expanded the state's infrastructure, took environmentalism 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.

Attica Riots On September 13 1971, after Attica Prison riots at the Attica Prison, Rockefeller gave the order for 1,000 New York State Police troopers and United States National Guard to storm the prison.

More than 40 people died, including 11 of 38 hostages (most of whom were prison guards), the largest loss of life in armed conflict between groups of Americans since the American Civil War. 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.

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." "Is the Rock Still Solid?", TIME Magazine, 19 October 1970 He was personally interested in planning, design, and construction of the many projects intitiated during his administration--consistent with 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 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, eminent domain, 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 Transit Authority 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.

Conservation Consistent with his personal interest in design and planning, Governor Rockefeller in the 1950s 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."Theodore Roosevelt – Alfred E. Smith – Nelson Rockefeller – George Pataki." The New York State Preservationist. NYS Ooffice of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Fall/Winter 2006, p. 20 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 Adirondack Mountains. This led to his introduction to the Legislature in 1971 of a bill to create the controversial Adirondack Park Agency. Graham, Frank, Jr. The Adirondack Park: A Political History. New York City: Knopf, 1978

Crime Rockefeller was a supporter of capital punishment in the U.S. and oversaw 14 executions by electric chair as Governor.Rockefeller was also a supporter of the "law and justice" platform.

Presidential campaigns along with (left to right) Bob 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 primary elections 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 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 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 still quite scandalous). 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.

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.

Vice Presidency 1974 – 77 Following President Nixon's resignation, new president Gerald Ford nominated Rockefeller 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.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. Time Magazine article

Beginning his service on December 19, 1974, Rockefeller was the second person appointed Vice President under the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution — 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..." "Excerpts From Rockefeller Conference Explaining His Withdrawal", The New York Times, 7 November 1975, p. 16 Journalists speculated "Mutual Decision: Vice President's Letter Gives No Reason for his Withdrawal", The New York Times, 4 November 1975, p. 73 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.

(second on left) entertain President Gerald R. Ford (left) his wife Betty Ford (second on right) and their daughter Susan Ford (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 United States 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 Aerospace for the first part of his time in office. It was operated under the call sign Executive Two when the United States Vice President was onboard. Initially Rockefeller felt he was doing the taxpayer a favor saving money by not using government funded transportation. Finally the United States 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 McDonnell Douglas DC-9 that was serving as Air Force Two at the time."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.

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

Marriages On June 23 1930, Rockefeller married Mary Rockefeller They had five children: Rodman Rockefeller, Anne, Steven, and twins Mary and Michael Rockefeller. In 1963, they were divorced, a few weeks before his marriage to Happy Rockefeller. He and his 2nd wife had two children together, Nelson, Jr. and Mark Rockefeller. They remained married until his death in 1979.

Death Rockefeller died on the evening of Friday, January 26, 1979 at age 70 from a Myocardial infarction under circumstances whose details have never been completely revealed. Initial reportsSee, for example, CBS News report of February 8, 1979, Roger Mudd reporting on conflicting stories about circumstances of Rockefeller's death. 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 54th St. Manhattan townhouse in the presence of 26-year-old aide Megan Marshack and that some time later Marshack 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.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 "Marshack Friend Makes Statement on Rockefeller", The New York Times, 11 February 1979. Much speculation went on in the press regarding a personal relationship between Rockefeller and Marshack,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. Neither Marshack nor the family has commented since on the circumstances surrounding Rockefeller's death.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."

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 of the United States not to have one.

Art collector Rockefeller was a noted collector of both modern and non-Western art. During his administration the 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.

Trivia He is the subject of the song "This Nelson Rockefeller" by McCarthy (band). He is also referenced in the title of the Charles Mingus composition "Remember Rockefeller at Attica."

His codename given by the Secret Service was "Sandstorm"http://www.nndb.com/lists/050/000140627/.

Bibliography

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

See also

Rockefeller Republican
Henry Kissinger
Rockefeller family
David Rockefeller
Kykuit The Rockefeller family estate
Rockefeller Center
Museum of Modern Art
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
GE Building (Room 5600 - The Rockefeller Family Office)
World Trade Center
Wallace Harrison
Robert Moses
J Edgar Hoover
United Nations
Gerald Ford
Richard Nixon
Franklin D. Roosevelt

References

External links

Rockefeller Archive Center: Nelson Rockefeller Contains details on the collection of public and private papers available to researchers at the Center.
The Rocky Roll An extended portrait by Time Magazine of Nelson campaigning for New York Governor in 1958.
Rockefeller Archive Center: Archived papers of the Special Studies Project, 1956-1960.
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress biography
Spartacus Educational Biography
www.rca5600.be Contains details about the relation between Rockeffeller's role in US policy and his role in Cultural policy

{{succession box| title=Governor of New York| after=[Malcolm Wilson (New York)| years=1959 – 1973-->{{succession box| title=Vice President of the United States| after=[Walter Mondale, [1974 – January 20, 1977-->

{{Infobox_Vice_President | name=Nelson Rockefeller| image=N_rockefeller.jpg|none|Nelson Rockefeller| order=41st Vice President of the United States [1974 [1977| successor=[Walter Mondale| term_start2=[January 1 1959 [1973| predecessor2= [W. Averell Harriman| birth_date=| birth_place=[Bar Harbor, Maine, [New York (married 1930, divorced 1962)
(2) [Happy Rockefeller (married 1963)| party=Republican Party (United States)| religion=Baptist-->Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller ([July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the forty-first Vice President of the United States, governor of New York State, philanthropist, and businessperson.

A leader of the Rockefeller Republican of the Republican Party (United States), 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 Rockefeller family, he failed repeatedly in his attempts to become president, but he was appointed Vice President of the United States 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.

Early life Rockefeller was born in Bar Harbor, Maine. He was the son of John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. and his wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. He was the grandson on his father's side of Standard Oil's founder and chairman John D. Rockefeller (who was born exactly 69 years before Nelson) and on his mother's side of United States Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, a Republican from Rhode Island. He had four brothers: David Rockefeller (1915- ), Laurance Rockefeller (1910-2004), Winthrop Rockefeller (1912-1973), and John D. Rockefeller III (1906-1978), and one sister, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé (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.

Early political career Rockefeller was especially active in promoting modernization and democracy in Brazil and other parts of Latin America. He took over various responsibility 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 with the cultural field to allow a policy promoting North American culture in South America. The MoMA he had created for his mother, had become the most important American Museum supporting modern arts and therefore carried out 19 exhibitions showing contemporary American paintings which were afterwards showed in a large number of cultural venues around South America; he thus contributed to the fight against fascist influences in the region.

He also was one of the architects of the Chapultepec Conference that had for goal to coordinate a continental cooperation of politics. Together with the Secretary of State Stetenius, Rockefeller was at the head of the American delegation. The United States firmly warned South American military forces against an even more fearsome enemy than the Nazis: USSR and communism. 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 staying aside for a while and dedicating himself to various philanthropic activities and the direction of the MoMA, Rockefeller became Special Assistant to President Eisenhower for Foreign Affairs (1954-55) before he accessed the head of the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB) – committee of the National Security Council in charge, among others, of supervising secret operations of the CIA. Working with the CIA was nothing new to him. After becoming the Health, Education and Welfare Assistant Secretary, he had been required to organise a colloquium addressed to 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 introduces a proposition for the creation of a high-level committee (NSC 5412/2 Special Group) that would be in charge of helping the development of schedules for the secret operations of the CIA.

The election of fellow Republican Dwight 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; it was finally published in 1961 as Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports.

It 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. It 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.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) Partly as a result, Eisenhower subsequently appointed him first as chair of the President's Advisory Committee on Government Reorganization and later as an undersecretary in the United States 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 used him as a personally paid part-time consultant, principally on foreign policy issues, until the appointment to his staff full-time in late 1968. In 1969, when Kissinger entered Nixon's administration, Nelson paid him $50,000 as a severance payment.Relationship with Kissinger - see Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography, New York: Simon & Schuster, Revised edition, 2005. (pp. 90-93),

Governor of New York 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 of New York 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, evenwhen he appeared remarkably tan during harsh New York winters.

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. They ranked among the toughest in the United States.

Liberal Republican Rockefeller was opposed by conservatives in the GOP such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan because of his liberal stances on a whole host of issues.

As governor, Rockefeller took liberal stances on economic issues, spending more than his predecessors. Rockefeller expanded the state's infrastructure, took environmentalism 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.

Attica Riots On September 13 1971, after Attica Prison riots at the Attica Prison, Rockefeller gave the order for 1,000 New York State Police troopers and United States National Guard to storm the prison.

More than 40 people died, including 11 of 38 hostages (most of whom were prison guards), the largest loss of life in armed conflict between groups of Americans since the American Civil War. 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.

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." "Is the Rock Still Solid?", TIME Magazine, 19 October 1970 He was personally interested in planning, design, and construction of the many projects intitiated during his administration--consistent with 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 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, eminent domain, 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 Transit Authority 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.

Conservation Consistent with his personal interest in design and planning, Governor Rockefeller in the 1950s 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."Theodore Roosevelt – Alfred E. Smith – Nelson Rockefeller – George Pataki." The New York State Preservationist. NYS Ooffice of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Fall/Winter 2006, p. 20 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 Adirondack Mountains. This led to his introduction to the Legislature in 1971 of a bill to create the controversial Adirondack Park Agency. Graham, Frank, Jr. The Adirondack Park: A Political History. New York City: Knopf, 1978

Crime Rockefeller was a supporter of capital punishment in the U.S. and oversaw 14 executions by electric chair as Governor.Rockefeller was also a supporter of the "law and justice" platform.

Presidential campaigns along with (left to right) Bob 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 primary elections 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 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 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 still quite scandalous). 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.

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.

Vice Presidency 1974 – 77 Following President Nixon's resignation, new president Gerald Ford nominated Rockefeller 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.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. Time Magazine article

Beginning his service on December 19, 1974, Rockefeller was the second person appointed Vice President under the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution — 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..." "Excerpts From Rockefeller Conference Explaining His Withdrawal", The New York Times, 7 November 1975, p. 16 Journalists speculated "Mutual Decision: Vice President's Letter Gives No Reason for his Withdrawal", The New York Times, 4 November 1975, p. 73 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.

(second on left) entertain President Gerald R. Ford (left) his wife Betty Ford (second on right) and their daughter Susan Ford (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 United States 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 Aerospace for the first part of his time in office. It was operated under the call sign Executive Two when the United States Vice President was onboard. Initially Rockefeller felt he was doing the taxpayer a favor saving money by not using government funded transportation. Finally the United States 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 McDonnell Douglas DC-9 that was serving as Air Force Two at the time."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.

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

Marriages On June 23 1930, Rockefeller married Mary Rockefeller They had five children: Rodman Rockefeller, Anne, Steven, and twins Mary and Michael Rockefeller. In 1963, they were divorced, a few weeks before his marriage to Happy Rockefeller. He and his 2nd wife had two children together, Nelson, Jr. and Mark Rockefeller. They remained married until his death in 1979.

Death Rockefeller died on the evening of Friday, January 26, 1979 at age 70 from a Myocardial infarction under circumstances whose details have never been completely revealed. Initial reportsSee, for example, CBS News report of February 8, 1979, Roger Mudd reporting on conflicting stories about circumstances of Rockefeller's death. 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 54th St. Manhattan townhouse in the presence of 26-year-old aide Megan Marshack and that some time later Marshack 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.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 "Marshack Friend Makes Statement on Rockefeller", The New York Times, 11 February 1979. Much speculation went on in the press regarding a personal relationship between Rockefeller and Marshack,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. Neither Marshack nor the family has commented since on the circumstances surrounding Rockefeller's death.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."

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 of the United States not to have one.

Art collector Rockefeller was a noted collector of both modern and non-Western art. During his administration the 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.

Trivia He is the subject of the song "This Nelson Rockefeller" by McCarthy (band). He is also referenced in the title of the Charles Mingus composition "Remember Rockefeller at Attica."

His codename given by the Secret Service was "Sandstorm"http://www.nndb.com/lists/050/000140627/.

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.