The
eldest son. John Davidson Rockefeller III, was born
in 1906 at a time when his illustrious grandfather was
still hiding out from government investigators. The
public outcry over the Ludlow massacre was part of his
childhood memories. 'Mr John', as he was called, chose
like his father to establish himself in philanthropies
rather than business.
After graduating from Princeton
in 1929, He traveled by ship to Japan immediately the
first of sixteen such trips and concentrated his energy
on Asia. His mission became to provide the funds and support
to assist Asian nations to control their populations.
He served in the military government that occupied Japan
after the Second World War and as a consultant to the
U.S. Peace Settlement Mission in Japan, and helped create
the Asia Society. He won such honors in Asia as Grand
Cordon Order of the Rising sun (in Japan), president of
the Japan Society; chairman of the Asian Society; Most
Noble Order of the Crown (in Thailand); Order of the Thousand
Elephants and White Parasol (in Laos). The Population
Council, which he sponsored, had a staff of some 250 doctors,
demographers, and social scientists scattered among the
less affluent nations of Asia (and later the world), with
"showcases" of birth control in South Korea and Taiwan.
Though he was awarded the Order of the Auspicious Star
of China when he was director of United China Relief (for
the Nationalists) , he subsequently counseled the State
Department (in 1949) on another form of population control
for Communist China, suggesting that "trade with China
. . . should be limited. It seems to me that the fastest
way to contain Communism is to discredit it in the eyes
of the people of China. It seems to me if the [Chinese]
economy worsens that this will arouse opposition to it."
He thus helped make food a weapon in the Cold War.
He died in 1978, in a car crash,
not far from Pocantico Hills.
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