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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Nelson Rockefeller.md

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-Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 - January 26, 1979), named after his maternal grandfather and US Senator [[Nelson Aldrich]], was the dominant figure in US-Latin American relations from World War II through the mid-1970s. As coordinator of inter-American affairs (1940-1944), assistant secretary of state for American republic affairs (1944-1945), and later as President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s special assistant for national security, he built the institutional architecture that governed American policy toward Latin America and shaped the intelligence community's covert operations in the Western Hemisphere. His private vehicles, the [[IBEC]] (International Basic Economy Corporation) and the [[AIA]] (American International Association), extended Rockefeller family commercial interests into the Brazilian Amazon and beyond.
+Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 - January 26, 1979), named after his maternal grandfather and US Senator [[Nelson Aldrich]], was the dominant figure in US-Latin American relations from World War II through the mid-1970s. As coordinator of inter-American affairs (1940-1944), assistant secretary of state for American republic affairs (1944-1945), and later as President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'s special assistant for national security, he built the institutional architecture that governed American policy toward [[Latin America]] and shaped the intelligence community's covert operations in the Western Hemisphere. His private vehicles, the [[IBEC]] (International Basic Economy Corporation) and the [[AIA]] (American International Association), extended Rockefeller family commercial interests into the Brazilian Amazon and beyond.
 
 ### Early Formation
 
@@ -26,11 +26,11 @@ Born at [[Bar Harbor]], Maine, Nelson was the second son of [[John D. Rockefelle
 
 A childhood trip to the American Southwest in 1924 exposed him to Taos Pueblo Indians and Navajo reservation lands, trips organized partly by the [[Colorado Fuel and Iron Company]] (CF&I), a Rockefeller-owned mining firm. The experience introduced him to how Standard Oil subsidiaries and Christian missionaries together operated on lands being stripped of Indian tenure.[^2]
 
-Nelson suffered from dyslexia, which his father treated punitively, and compensated by developing exceptional interpersonal skills and a domineering confidence his siblings lacked. He attended the Lincoln School of Teachers College at Columbia University, graduating in 1926, then enrolled at [[Dartmouth College]], where he graduated cum laude in 1930 as a Phi Beta Kappa member with an A.B. in economics. His senior economics thesis defended Standard Oil, flattering his father while revealing his political instincts. He made two failed runs for class president and settled for vice president, a pattern he would repeat on the national stage.[^3]
+Nelson suffered from dyslexia, which his father treated punitively, and compensated by developing exceptional interpersonal skills and a domineering confidence his siblings lacked. He attended the Lincoln School of Teachers College at [[Columbia University]], graduating in 1926, then enrolled at [[Dartmouth College]], where he graduated cum laude in 1930 as a Phi Beta Kappa member with an A.B. in economics. His senior economics thesis defended Standard Oil, flattering his father while revealing his political instincts. He made two failed runs for class president and settled for vice president, a pattern he would repeat on the national stage.[^3]
 
 ### The Road to Washington
 
-After Dartmouth, Nelson worked briefly at [[Chase National Bank]] under his uncle [[Winthrop Aldrich]], then moved into the management of [[Rockefeller Center]], where he served as president beginning in 1938. There he oversaw the building's politics and learned, through the Diego Rivera mural controversy, the limits of his instincts. From 1935 onward he served as a director of [[Creole Petroleum Company]], a [[Standard Oil of New Jersey]] subsidiary operating in Venezuela, which grounded his understanding of Latin American extractive economics. His tour of Latin America in the mid-1930s, combined with the family's existing oil investments through Standard Oil of New Jersey in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, convinced him that the hemisphere required a coordinated American strategy.[^4]
+After Dartmouth, Nelson worked briefly at [[Chase National Bank]] under his uncle [[Winthrop Aldrich]], then moved into the management of [[Rockefeller Center]], where he served as president beginning in 1938. There he oversaw the building's politics and learned, through the Diego Rivera mural controversy, the limits of his instincts. From 1935 onward he served as a director of [[Creole Petroleum Company]], a [[Standard Oil of New Jersey]] subsidiary operating in Venezuela, which grounded his understanding of Latin American extractive economics. His tour of Latin America in the mid-1930s, combined with the family's existing oil investments through Standard Oil of [[New Jersey]] in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, convinced him that the hemisphere required a coordinated American strategy.[^4]
 
 In 1936-1940, Nelson assembled a coterie of trusted advisers he called "the Junta," including [[Frank Jamieson]] (journalist and future campaign manager), [[John Lockwood]] (lawyer), [[Wallace Harrison]] (architect and planner), and [[Berent Friele]] (a Brazilian coffee importer). These men became the core of his wartime and postwar operations.[^5]
 
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ Rockefeller "attempted to head off inclusion of the subject" of CIA assassinatio
 
 Despite the Commission's vote to include the assassination material, the Ford White House suppressed it. An entire 86-page section, "Summary of Facts: Investigation of CIA Involvement in Plans to Assassinate Foreign Leaders" (dated June 5, 1975), covering plots against [[Fidel Castro]], [[Rafael Trujillo]], and references to [[Patrice Lumumba]] and [[Sukarno]], was removed from the final report before public release. Then-Deputy White House Chief of Staff [[Richard Cheney]] made handwritten edits throughout the draft on or around June 1, 1975, altering language describing CIA activities from "unlawful" to merely "improper" in most instances, while drug experiments on US citizens retained the characterization "illegal." White House Counsel [[Philip Buchen]] coordinated the suppression. Commission public affairs director Peter Clapper warned that deleting the section would "cast doubt on the rest of the report" and be perceived as a cover-up; his objection was overridden. Senator [[Frank Church]] personally visited Rockefeller in early May 1975, alleging that CIA documents were being withheld from the Church Committee by the Rockefeller Commission. President Ford wrote to Church on October 31, 1975, urging suppression of assassination findings; Church rejected the request, stating that "the national interest is better served by letting the American people know the true and complete story." These internal documents are collected in National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 543, published February 29, 2016, edited by John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi.[^23]
 
-Rockefeller's chairmanship of the commission investigating the agency he had supervised under Eisenhower was widely considered a conflict of interest. Key findings were withheld or classified. The Commission also added Recommendations 29 (civilian oversight committee) and 20 (periodic declassification reviews) to the report without a Commission vote, under White House direction.[^24]
+Rockefeller's chairmanship of the commission investigating the agency he had supervised under Eisenhower was widely considered a conflict of interest. Key findings were withheld or classified. The Commission also added Recommendations 29 (civilian oversight committee) and 20 (periodic declassification reviews) to the report without a Commission vote, under [[White House]] direction.[^24]
 
 ### New York Politics and the Vice Presidency