The
brothers Rockefeller had firmly laid the foundation
for cultural as well as political power in America.
They possessed not only an immense fortune, which was
still controlled as a unit from Room 5600 in Rockefeller
Center, but also impressive individual qualities and
talent. John Rockefeller III had established a sphere
of influence in the cultural and scientific universes
through his generous disbursement of grants and contributions
from the foundations under his aegis. Nelson proved
himself a brilliant manager of public opinion and an
able politician. Lawrence, an intelligent entrepreneur
worthy of his grandfather, demonstrated that he was
able to take full advantage of the developments in military
technology that came to his attention and play a dominant
role in the emerging environmental establishment. Winthrop,
though a maverick, managed to establish a political
base for himself in the South. And David, through his
ability and connections, had assumed full control over
a financial institution that touched almost all major
forms of business in the world.
Their public image had been elevated
from that of outcasts at the time of their grandfather's
trust-building to that of dedicated public servants. This
feat had been accomplished through a 40-year-long refinement
of public data about the family by such masters of public
relations as Ivy Lee, Francis Jamieson, and William Ruder,
and the organizations these men built for the family account.
Through their tax-exempt foundations and "philanthropies,"
and the dispensation of over $1 billion to intellectual
and scientific enterprises, the brothers had also woven
a strong, if sometimes invisible, web of influence that
touched in one way or another virtually all the activities
of those who articulate issues in the mainstream of public
life.
In 1956, for example, the brothers
involved more than a hundred of the most influential men
in America in a four-year long dialogue on various issues
of concern to the family. The agenda for these panels
was planned by Henry A. Kissinger who would late become
President Nixon and Ford's national security adviser and
Secretary of State, and who had been an advisor to Nelson
Rockefeller for a dozen years. These Rockefeller panels,
as they were called, were aimed at forming a consensus
among the decision-making elite on such issues"'foreign
policy," the nature of the "communist threat," responses
to "concealed aggression," "nuclear strategy," "economic
policies", and the "reconstruction of the democratic consensus".
Through such meetings, they effectively defined what became
the establishment position on these issues for the balance
of the millennium.
While many families in America
aggregated great fortunes, as can be judged by the annual
Forbes 500 list, the Rockefellers managed to transmute
their accumulated wealth into a much rarer commodity:
the power over the political- intellectual cultural complex. |