The Brothers

For the Rockefeller brothers, the war years provided a release from the disciplines of their father. Nelson discovered his quest would be for political power in Washington. John D 3^rd, out of his father’s grasp for the first time in his life was now ready, as he stated, “to find my real interests. Lawrence had discovered ways to blend his talent for making money with an interest in the new technologies emerging. David went into finance by joining the Chase Bank. Only Winthrop was still not committed.

When the war began, they were still Mr Rockefellers’ boys. When it was over, they became the Rockefeller brothers. They came home filled with confidence, and in their ability to manage the world as they saw fit. They came back to take control of the family from their father (who was 71 years old at this time.  They came back to the family offices on the 56^th floor of the RCA building in Rockefeller Center, to take up where they had left off. They got together and decided there should be a re-allocation of assignments.

Nelson became the dominant figure amongst the brothers. Junior knew his son Nelson only too well. Junior knew that Nelson had a psychopathic streak within him, and was terrified that Nelson would undo all the white-washing that the family had done to clear its public image. Nelson’s quest for global dictatorship would turn the world against them. Both father and son had the same aims, the difference was in their respective styles.

The family office was called Rockefeller Family & Associates, or simply RFA. It was the central node of their power. This office acted as a co-ordinating center for policy formulation, and execution of family plans and strategy. This office controlled all the family’s institutions.

In 1947, Nelson engineered a coup in the office by replacing his father’s lawyer with his own, and family resistance to the brothers collapsed. The brothers created mini-offices of their own, bringing in personal associates to replace Junior’s staff. From that point on, all the institutions which the family controlled- from Rockefeller Center, to the oil companies, the banks, the multitude of industrial companies, to charitable foundations, think-tanks, foreign governments, the US government, down to Pocantico, (their  residential estate outside New York) were all now taken over by Nelson and his brothers.

In 1950, after lengthy discussions, Junior finally gave in on his last fiefdom, Pocantico-the 6,500 acre family estate. Pocantico was divided amongst the brothers: Nelson and Lawrence got 30% each; David got 25%, while John 3^rd and Winthrop each received 7.5%. A year later, Junior capitalised the Rockefeller Brothers Fund with $58 million, overnight becoming the 4^th largest foundation in the country. With a major philanthropy, and all the centers of family power, now under their control, the brothers were ready to strike out on their own. Nelson, as the new head of the family, became the driving force of the brothers. In this regard, in 1945, the father of the Rockefeller boys parceled out the world to his sons: – John D 3^rd was given Asia, Laurence got Europe, Nelson got Latin America, and David got Africa. Winthrop had issues with his brothers from a young age (he was always bullied by them), and he went his own way. Winthrop relocated to Arkansas, and built up his own political empire in that state. The Clinton family emerged from Winthrop’s Arkansas political machine.

A Family Like No Other

Following in his father’s footsteps, Junior maintained unusual notions about the family wealth; “We are merely the stewards of the Rockefeller fortune – its real owner is God”, he said in a 1955 speech. Junior passed onto his children – Abby, John 3^rd, Nelson, Winthrop, and David – more wealth than his father had given him. While Abby Rockefeller pursued charitable work out of the public limelight, her five brothers each carved a reputation in their own right, weaving through the interconnected spheres of business, politics and philanthropy in a manner unlike that of any family in US history.

John D III (JDR3)

 Born in 1906, the eldest of the brothers, John III, devoted his life to foreign affairs and philanthropy. John was reticent, cautious, shy- a man who like Junior, would have seemed an extremely unlikely candidate for success had his name not been Rockefeller. Returning from Washington, he passively accepted all the responsibilities thrust upon him by Nelson.  It all started in Asia. Just as Nelson was attracted to the spontaneous enthusiasm of the Latin temperament, so JDR3 seemed to find comfort in the understatement of the Oriental character. JDR3 began to see Asia less as a family charity, and more as an area vital to the global balance of power. The family’s oil interests in Asia were huge, and they still had to contend with European (mainly Rothschild) interests in the region, besides the many nationalist forces trying to overthrow their colonial masters. He then formed the Asia Society, and later, the Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs.

When the US entered the war in 1941, various Rockefeller entities with expertise in Asia became valued for their intelligence they could provide. The Institute of Pacific Relations had been launched in 1925 with Junior’s financial backing, and it went on to providing the core of the US intelligence network in Asia. So extensive was its monopoly in this area that virtually all OSS chiefs in Asia were IPR members. The OSS was the forerunner of the CIA.

 By June 1949, the Soviet Union had exploded its first nuclear bomb, and the communist forces under Mao Tse Tung were about to conquer China. A meeting was convened in Washington to formulate policy towards Communist China. JDR3 came down hard and said that trade with China should be terminated. With the isolation and encirclement of China forming the backbone of US Asian policy, the pivot of Washington’s strategy in the Far East was fixed on Japan. Japan was going to play the role of America’s policeman in Asia.

 The 1951 trip to Japan had this in mind. It was also a turning point for JDR3, and it was “- – a major step in my independence and a major step outside the family orbit”. By providing this outlet and direction, JDR3 had an alternative to working in RF&A, and running constantly into Nelson. As office manager Don McLean remembers,” Nelson was a big bully. He was fast on his feet and Johnny wasn’t, so it turned out that all of Nelson’s ideas were picked up and not so many of Johnny’s”. He had now become an unofficial ambassador to Japan.

 By 1950, the Rockefeller Empire had amassed a huge booty in Asia which had accrued to them as a result of US victories in Asia, and the collapse of Europe’s colonial holdings. This was in addition to their vast holdings in that part of the world. To all intents and purposes, Japan had now become a colony of the Empire. And JDR3 was on hand to guide Asia and increase the power of his Empire. To make Rockefeller rule effective in Asia, American military forces needed to be deployed. Large numbers of US troops were stationed in Asia.  But, they needed a reason to make their stay more legitimate. Conveniently, the Korean War broke out (1951-53), justifying the presence of US troops in Asia. It also made it easier for US companies to capture more markets in Asia that were closed to it before. The whole Korean War episode was manipulated by the family to achieve this very result. US troops were now in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Guam. And after the Korean War came the Vietnamese War in 1964.

 After the wars end in 1945, French troops re-occupied Vietnam. By 1951, the CIA was providing help to Ho Chi Minh to defeat the French. Which was done in 1954. Within a decade, the country would be divided into two, giving the US a pretext to get militarily involved.

Population Control

 The Japan trip had opened up other areas of interest. This was population control. The family were no strangers to this field. In 1925, the head of the Laura Spellman Rockefeller Memorial Fund had written to Raymond Fosdick, head of the Rockefeller Foundation, to suggest that it was a field in which the family could “profitably” involve themselves. Nine years later, in 1934, the Fund and the GEB were merged into the Rockefeller Foundation. JDR3 then wrote to his father of his concern that the sex education program of the GEB not become part of the Foundation, and suggested that he consider supporting it with private donations: “I take the liberty of making this suggestion to you because of my great personal interest in birth control and related questions – – – I have come pretty definitely to the conclusion that it is the field in which I will be interested in”.

 It was not then a popular cause. The Catholic Church opposed birth control with the intensity it would later marshall against abortion. By the 1950s, some of the stigma would be gone, especially when discussions on birth control focused on Third World countries. As the field grew, it would attract business and military leaders such as General William Draper, who used “population bomb” and other metaphors when discussing the subject.

 JDR3 had come back from his 1951 trip upset at the sight of Asia’s teeming masses, convinced that stability and economic progress of the Third World would require attention to the runaway birth rate. To accomplish this, population research would have to be established as a science with a technology that could be exported. By November 1952, JDR3 set up the Population Council, and funded it. Over the next few years the Pop Council played a crucial role in creating a professional establishment in this field. The Council made grants to universities and institutions, building up the work of a handful of scholars into a full-fledged academic discipline. Gradually, the effects of the pioneering work began to be felt. By the end of the first decade, the population question was an integral part of American foreign policy operations, and its $15 million budget was shared between the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, along with the government. Soon after this, dire statistics about the doubling rate of the global population began to worry the public.

 The Rockefellers were worried for the long-term implications from a financial point of view. When there is an increase in a country’s population, infrastructure has to be built to accommodate the growing population, which would also provide jobs. The Rockefeller’s capital would be “wasted” on this; rather it would be better to re-direct this capital to more productive (for the Rockefeller Empire) investments.

 Secondly, raw mineral exports from these countries would be reduced to accommodate growing local consumption. These exporting countries might then demand better “terms of trade” for their exports. To intercept this future problem, JDR3 woke up Wall Street and the Pentagon. The State Department released a report which warned that “rapid population growth might prove to be one of the greatest obstacles to economic and social progress, as well as to the maintenance of political stability in the Third World”. From the Pentagon, General William Draper said that long-term economic aid to the Third World would fail unless population control was part of the program.

At about the same time that JDR3 launched the Pop Council, he also founded the Agricultural Development Council., or ADC. The brothers were always big on terms such as “council”, “commissions”, etc., and used them often.  The ADC program was Asia-focused, and worked with the Rockefeller Foundation, to disseminate research on miracle grains, and to push for a green revolution.

 By the end of the 50s, JDR3 had come a long way from the days when he was a glorified clerk for his father. He was the central figure in the population and food movements- he was the key policy maker. It was through all of this that a family company, Monsanto, became infamous for its GMO agenda. Biowarfare played a huge role in later years in reducing Third World populations. JDR3 was the godfather of all of this.

 Among those who counted, JDR3 was also becoming known as “Mr. Asia”. Every year he visited Asia, visiting many countries over several months. It was hard work. To Taiwan where the Pop Council was experimenting with IUD; to Manila where he visited the Magsaysay Foundation (which he helped set up), the Rockefeller Foundation’s Rice Institute, to Bangkok for the annual meeting of the ADC. In between he kept a check on the many family investments in Asia.

 Of all the brothers, JDR3 was the one who pushed his brothers in regard to Vietnam. To back up his moves in Asia, JDR3 needed the active muscle of the Pentagon. When South Vietnam’s President, Ngo Dinh Diem made his first trip to the US in 1957, JDR3 gave a luncheon in his honor. And he later joined David to host a reception for Diem at Pocantico, at which members of the Asia Society mingled with bankers and business leaders.

 As the eldest brother, JDR3 was also the intellectual leader amongst them. During 1975 the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations-the premier Rockefeller think tank that shapes policy for the family) drafted a series of policy blueprints for the 1980s, much as they had done at the crucial turning point in the 1957 recession. And this new policy, in turn, used John D Rockefeller’s 1972 book, “The Second American Revolution”, as its inspiration. The CFR stated, in its account, that “- – a degree of controlled disintegration in the world economy is a legitimate objective for the 1980s”. What was disintegrating, however, was the entire fabric of traditional industrial and agricultural development in the Third World. The first World was not left out either. This book brought about policies that ushered in the age of globalization.

In summary, JDR3 was the father of “population control”, “GMO” foods, and “bio-warfare”, which the world will witness in coming decades through the unleashing of such viruses such as AIDS, Sars, Ebola, and Covid 19! In this regard, David worked hard to cartelize the food and pharmaceutical companies over the next few decades.

 He also created the Lincoln Centre, now one of the world’s leading performing arts centers. He chaired many organizations, and was the recipient of many awards given to him by the nations and rulers of Asia. John III also founded and supported numerous NGOs before his untimely death in a car crash in 1978. His only son, Jay Rockefeller (JDR4th) would become a US Senator from Virginia.

Nelson

Nelson was perhaps the most high profile of the siblings. Despite his father’s efforts to instil in him the values of restraint and modesty, Nelson always had grand plans and spoke about becoming president from childhood. After a stint at Chase Manhattan Bank, he went on to lead the development of the Rockefeller Centre through a tumultuous economic period, eventually serving as its president.

In the early 1940s, Nelson took over Latin America, as “Co-ordinator”. At wars end, he resigned from this post as he felt that the Truman Administration wasn’t paying enough attention to Latin America. .He called a meeting of his brain trust to formulate ideas on ways to gain even more influence in Latin America, with a special focus on Brazil and Venezuela. Maintaining his government connections, he went onto to play a decisive behind-the-scenes player in America’s efforts in Latin America.

 Nelson’s uncle Winthrop Aldrich persuaded General Eisenhower to run for US President, and ensured his success in this. Now, with Eisenhower in the White House in 1952, Nelson got appointed as the chairman of the President’s Advisory Committee on Government Organization. His duties were deliberately kept vague, which provided a cover for his scheming. His main job was to watch over the CIA, the Pentagon, as well as making changes within the government as per the family’s strategy.

 He put his maternal cousins – the Dulles brothers- in charge of the CIA (Allen), and John (Secretary of State), and staffed the Eisenhower Administration with Rockefeller men.

 For the first few months, Nelson’s team turned out one re-organization plan after another. One of these entailed welding the New Deal program in health, education and social security into a single department. Formed in April 1953, the new department was called the Department of Health, Education and welfare, or HEW. Nelson was named to the No 2 spot.  Nelson regarded this as a holding pattern, and at the end of 1954, he was appointed as Presidential Co-ordinater for the CIA. This now gave him a better position to push through policies of benefit to the Empire. In 1955, he urged the mandatory construction of bomb shelters, counting on the fear factor raised by the Rockefeller-controlled media. Next, he made Eisenhower sign a bill that pushed for a highway construction boom in the country, which Nelson said would help people in the cities to escape to the countryside, in the event of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. In reality, these highways being built would increase the use of cars being driven, thus pushing up fuel consumption! More profits to the family’s oil companies.

 It was in this position that he implemented moves which gave rise to what we now know as the Cold War. The benefits of the Cold War to the family was immense. The defense industry was in the doldrums, and Nelson was pushing for increase in military spending, by raising the threat of nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union, thus increasing the climate of fear .This, would, in turn lead to increases in military expenditures, which would benefit the families many companies in this field.

 As is usual in cases like this, the policy planners have to come up with various ideas as to how to script this whole scenario. Nelson’s first move was to assemble a large staff of technical experts, researchers, and ideas men in an atmosphere of secrecy at the Marine base of Quantico (the FBI training school). After several days of discussions, the group came up with a plan called Quantico 11, which is still highly classified. This involved a virtual master plan for the future conduct of the Cold War and carried a price tag of $18 billion, over 6 years.

 It was at Quantico that Henry Kissinger first met up with Nelson. Kissinger was a part of this group. He came from Harvard University, and was an assistant professor there. Kissinger was a part of the assembled group. As Kissinger later recounted of this meeting, “Nelson entered the room slapping backs, calling each of us by our first names, at once outgoing and remote”. The experts took turns giving Nelson advice. Kissinger so impressed Nelson, at this first meeting that he kept Kissinger at his side constantly.

 Prior to this Kissinger was being groomed (along with many others) in the various institutions of the family. John J McCloy was the one who recommended Kissinger for the Quantico session. McCloy was nicknamed the “Prime Minister” of the Rockefeller Empire. At this time, he was the head of Chase Bank, the World Bank, and the CFR. Kissinger’s Harvard professor, William Elliot, was the one who steered Kissinger in the right directions, and as well as opening doors for Kissinger, by getting him grants from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Rockefeller met Henry Kissinger in 1954, when Kissinger was appointed a director of a seminal Council on Foreign Relations study group on nuclear weapons, of which David Rockefeller was a member. He named Kissinger to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and consulted with him frequently, David Rockefeller supported his “opening of China” initiative in 1971 as it afforded banking opportunities for the Chase Bank.

 Now that Nelson managed to steer the US government on the right track, he left Washington in December 1955. The family had its pulse on the business, financial and political heartbeat of the country, through its various institutions, banks and companies. While they shaped the contours of America’s postwar strategy, the policy technicians – men like McCloy, Douglas Dillon, James Forrestal, the Dulles brothers – individuals such as Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski- were busily working their way up through the complex of universities and think tanks which the family played a role in creating.

 Nelson resumed his old positions of influence, and again became a presence in the family office. The most ambitious effort he took was assembling the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Panel Studies. It was a show of the brother’s joint ability to influence national policy. Titled “Prospect for America”, it took 3 years to complete, and cost $1 million. This report would form the blueprint of every administration from JFK in 1961, and would exert a profound influence of Washington’s domestic and military policies over the next decade.

 The international holdings of the family were beyond immense, and they needed to be protected from governments and competitors. At the same time, the Empire was busy dismantling the European colonial holdings in Africa and Asia. These needed to be brought into the US and Rockefeller orbit. By creating threats of communist takeovers, and a fear of them, the need for a large military army overseas was justified. If there was no threat, then periodic outbreaks and threats would have to be manufactured, such as the Korean War (1950-53) and the Vietnam War (1964-1974). When the report was completed in May 1958, Nelson released Kissinger to return to Harvard.

Nelson’s next move into politics was to run for governor of New York State. He ran against Averell Harriman, who worked for the William Rockefeller branch. He served 4 terms between 1953 and 1973. Nelson was by far the richest American ever to be elected to high office. “Only in the US,” said a puzzled head of state when he visited Nelson in 1959, “would the people be asked to choose between a billionaire and a multi-millionaire”. As Governor, Nelson passed legislation for a freeway costing $250 million that would run past Pocantico that would greatly benefit the family.

The JFK Assassination & Cuba

 John Kennedy became US President in November 1960. From the time he assumed office, his policies ran counter to the Rockefeller family on several issues, namely economic and foreign policy.

• One of these was Cuba. To create a sense of fear of communism, thus boosting military expenditures, and a willingness on the part of the American public to go along with an imperial policy of increased military power to “fight Godless communism, the public were fooled by a “Cuban Missile Crisis”, wherein the Soviet Union was blamed for placing nuclear missiles in Cuba – just a short hop away from Florida. After this incident, the CIA got into the act, and used a mercenary force of Cuban expats to invade Cuba. This invasion was deliberately allowed to fail, as Nelson didn’t want Cuban leader Fidel Castro toppled. In 1960, David Rockefeller hosted Castro at the CFR in New York. The rest followed above.

This upset JFK greatly, and he vowed to break up the CIA into a thousand pieces. To lessen reliance on the CIA, JFK created a new military intelligence division called the Defense Intelligence Agency-the DIA, and he parked it under Pentagon control.

• The second issue was when JFK began issuing money on his own authority, bypassing the Federal Reserve.
• The third issue was Vietnam. JFK, in June 1963, signed an order recalling the nearly 2,000 US troops and advisors stationed in Vietnam at that time. These last two points assured his death sentence from the Empire. Within a few months, JFK was assassinated.  The Rockefeller-controlled Warren Commission covered up the involvement of the CIA in this tragedy. No blame was put on either Nelson or David.

 In 1969, Nelson made a fact-finding tour of Latin America for President Nixon. Here is what happened:

• In HONDURAS, there was widespread rioting, and one student was killed;
• In the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, a Standard Oil refinery was blown up;
• In COSTA RICA, 2,000 students demonstrated;
• In PANAMA, the National Guard had to be called out;
• In VENEZUELA, the government had to cancel Nelson’s visit. Students had seized university buildings, and there was street fighting with rocks and guns;
• In COLOMBIA, a 20,000- man special security force was called out to try to control student strikes and heavy street fighting;
• In ECUADOR, Nelson’s car was almost overturned, and 10 demonstrators were killed by police;
• In BOLIVIA, Nelson’s scheduled 22-hour visit was cut to 3 hours in the airport because of rioting;
• In PARAGUAY, Nelson was embraced by dictator Alfred Stroessner while demonstrators burned the American flag;
• In CHILE, Nelson wasn’t allowed into the country. Nationwide strikes and demonstrations had forced the cancellation of his visit;
• In BRAZIL, Nelson’s stay was relatively calm. The government had arrested thousands of potential demonstrators, and press censorship had eliminated anti-Rockefeller articles;
• In URUGUAY, the GM plant was burnt down;
• In ARGENTINA, 9 Rockefeller-owned supermarkets were bombed and burnt. There was also a nationwide labor strike, and 1 demonstrator was killed by police.

 President Nixon had not suggested any more Latin American fact-finding tours for Nelson.

 When Nelson entered politics, he transformed the New York skyline through the numerous construction projects he instigated while serving as Governor of New York State. One of the more famous projects was the World Trade Center, completed in 1972. This was David’s brain child, and he wanted to re-vitalise the area around Wall Street. With that in mind, he persuaded Nelson to build it, using state funds. Critics nick-named these two towers as “Nelson” and “David”.

Watergate

 Nelson had by 1971, achieved most of his dreams – but one – the White House. From a young age, he desired to be the US President, but he knew that the public won’t support him in this. So, he reasoned, if he can’t get in through the front door, why not get in through the back door. Nixon was President, and Spiro Agnew was the Vice President. A milk scandal was used to force out Spiro Agnew. But, instead of appointing Nelson to be his Vice President, Nixon chose Gerald Ford. This infuriated Nelson and David to no end. Nixon rightly feared that if Nelson was his VP, then an assassination would end his life, thus making Nelson the US President, BY DEFAULT! This is when they concocted the entire Watergate saga.

The entire Watergate saga was scripted and directed by Nelson, and his intelligence team of dirty-tricks operatives, called the Plumbers. In charge of the Plumbers was David Young, a Wall Street lawyer who worked for the family before being promoted to Kissinger’s staff. After Watergate, Young was sent to London on a cushy job. His three Musketeers (Kissinger, Al Haig –the chief of staff, and Alexander Butterfield-the Secret Service head) ran the show inside the White House. The tipping point was the revelation that Nixon recorded Oval Office conversations. Why then, did Nixon,, the ultimate political opportunist, did not burn the tapes?. Because he did not control them, or he knew that there was more than one set. In short, he did not destroy the tapes because he could not. After Watergate, Butterfield was promoted to be the head of the family’s private security force.  Before joining the White House staff of Nixon, Haig was a colonel. Nixon promoted him to a general. It was Haig who had control of the vault where the Watergate tapes were kept. After Watergate, Al Haig was promoted by Nelson to be a 4-star general heading up NATO. Haig became a general in the Rockefeller Army.

 As for Kissinger, he reflected his boss’s dislike of Nixon. And when Nixon became the President, Nelson forced Kissinger to join his staff at the White House, and gave Kissinger a $50,000 bonus when Kissinger agreed. Kissinger would go on to serve the Rockefeller Empire in more ways than one. Nelson then served as Vice President of the US under President Gerald Ford between 1974 and 1977. He passed away in 1979.

Laurence

 The 3^rd of Junior’s sons was born in 1910. Of the 5 brothers, Laurence is the wheeler dealer, and a venture capitalist. .Since the family has many companies in the military-industrial complex, Lawrence focused on them. He profits accrued to the family from World War 2, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Laurance also had a big impact on New York, but via Wall Street, as a pioneer in venture capitalism. During his decades on the New York Stock Exchange, Laurance invested in hundreds of start-ups that focused on defense, electronics, aviation, computers and biotechnology. Laurance had a talent for sensing the next big thing, as can be seen in his early investments in Apple and Intel.

 The family had to move into such new fields, as Lawrence once remarked, “- – the technological advances of the post-war period would man new centers of power with which the family had to connect with if they were not to become a second-rate power. To see his investments through what he called their “10-year- cycle”, he assembled a group of employees to watch over his investments. His associates were different from the employees his brothers brought into RF&A. They were money men, technicians who looked after his investments, bringing proposals for what they called “new horizon products” – new technologies ranging from optics to computer science nurtured by the fall- out from the defense industry.

 He then moved into the field of conservation, heading the Jackson Hole Preserve in Wyoming, founded by his father. In 1947, he helped start the Conservation Foundation, soon to be one of the most prestigious in the field. He was instrumental in establishing and expanding numerous national parks throughout the US, from Wyoming to Hawaii. Among other ventures, Lawrence founded or funded McDonnel Aircraft, Eastern Airlines, Reader’s Digest, and National Geographic.

While a visionary entrepreneur (Reverend Gates) had been the main advisor to his grandfather, and a conservative attorney (Debevoise) to his father, for the 3^rd generation, it would be a financial man. Lawrence and David went on a talent hunt, finally settling in 1957 on a young investment banker, J. Richardson Dilworth. This in itself was of great significance, as Dilworh was one of the bright sparks at Kuhn, Loeb- a premier Rothschild investment bank on Wall Street. With Frank Jamieson and John Lockwood, Dilworth became part of a troika guiding the family, although it was clear that someday he would be the power in RF&A.

He died in 2004, leaving one son, Larry.\

Winthrop

Junior’s 4^th son was born in 1912. He was the most independent of the brothers. As a child, Nelson used to get the other brothers to gang up on Winthrop, and make a fool of him, and the butt of their children’s antics. This affected Winthrop, so much so, that when he grew up, he wanted to be as far away from Nelson and his brothers. .Lessons in modesty worked for Winthrop, who was unwilling to merely waltz his way to the top based on his family name alone. Instead, he started his career as an apprentice working in his family’s oilfields. So hated was his family name, that he needed constant protection, with an escort of bodyguards. After the Second World War, he moved to the state of Arkansas, went into politics and serving as governor between 1967 and 1971. He died in the winter of 1974. Bill Clinton came from this political machine, first becoming governor of Arkansas, and later the US president – a Rockefeller man.

The story continues with the 5th brother David in Part 5, https://behindthenews.co.za/the-rockefeller-empire-part-5-of-a-6-part-series/