Chapter IX

Web of Influence

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.

Questions? Email me at edepstein@worldnet.att.net
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