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  PRAISE FOR DAVID ROCKEFELLER’S

  MEMOIRS

  “Rockefeller’s 500-page autobiography … gives us an inside look at the man and his complex career. . . . This is a revealing, forthright account of how a young man bearing the Rockefeller mantle of power, privilege, and responsibility came of age as America itself was becoming a dominant world power.”

  —BusinessWeek

  “Touching on his military service in World War II, his career in banking, and his encounters with foreign leaders, Rockefeller has reflected frankly and with feeling about his eventful life.”

  —Booklist

  “It is a rare author who can write about himself with openness and candor, but David Rockefeller has succeeded brilliantly. His discussion of his upbringing and of the obligations imposed by great wealth is fascinating, as are his personal reflections on four generations of Rockefellers. What the book also reveals, unconsciously but with great clarity, is the decency, integrity, and humanity of David Rockefeller himself.”

  —DR. HENRY KISSINGER

  “Rockefeller’s well-organized remembrances present a deeply fascinating, thorough look into the life of a living legend.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A memoir, rich as a Rockefeller, that should fire up historians, pundits, and commentators: every page raises unanswered questions about a remarkable life.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Long before globalization became a household word, David Rockefeller realized the importance of cultivating strong, trusting relationships with countries and their leaders around the world. We are privileged to be the beneficiaries of his lifelong commitment to world peace, and to have his reflections on these experiences in this superb memoir.”

  —NELSON MANDELA

  “Honest and fascinating … Memoirs is a gem worthy of your serious attention.”

  —The Grand Rapids Press

  “In these memoirs, David Rockefeller provides an account of his life that is candid, incisive, and moving. Whether writing about his remarkable family, his distinguished career, or his important role in world affairs, he offers a unique and invaluable perspective on our times.”

  —KOFI ANNAN, secretary general of the United Nations

  “One thing you won’t find here is much second-guessing or introspection. . . . But that doesn’t detract significantly from the quality of this straightforward, honest and highly readable book.”

  —The Washington Post Book World

  “These are the memoirs of a man who clearly appreciates the opportunities and rich experiences he has been given and, at age 87, is able to look back over the years with a deep sense of satisfaction.”

  —Houston Chronicle

  “This very readable and thought-provoking account of an influential financier, philanthropist, and art lover will hold readers’ interest.”

  —Library Journal

  “David Rockefeller is one of the most diversely interesting men of our time. It has been my pleasure to know him and his work, and this book, the product of his unique life, is both attractive and thoroughly engaging. It will attract everyone for the knowledge and pleasure it accords.”

  —PROFESSOR JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  DAVID ROCKEFELLER was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Chase bank for many years. He died in 2017, at the age of 101.

  2003 Random House Trade Paperback Edition

  Copyright © 2002, 2003 by David Rockefeller

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random Trade Paperbacks, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKS and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  This work was originally published in hardcover and in a slightly different form, by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2002.

  A leatherbound, signed first edition of this work has been published by the Easton Press.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Rockefeller, David.

  Memoirs / David Rockefeller.

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-78938-9

  1. Rockefeller, David. 2. Bankers—United States—Biography. 3. Chase Manhattan Bank. 4. Banks and banking—United States—History. I. Title.

  HG2463.R6 A3 2002 332.1′092—dc21

  [B] 2002024800

  Random House website address: www.atrandom.com

  v3.1_r1

  To the memory of my mother,

  ABBY ALDRICH ROCKEFELLER,

  and my wife,

  PEGGY McGRATH ROCKEFELLER

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1. Grandfather

  Chapter 2. Mother and Father

  Chapter 3. Childhood

  Chapter 4. Travels

  Chapter 5. Rockefeller Center

  Chapter 6. Harvard

  Chapter 7. Learning from the Great Economists

  Chapter 8. A Dissertation, a Wife, and a Job

  Chapter 9. The War

  Chapter 10. Embarking on a Career at Chase

  Chapter 11. Launching a Parallel Career

  Chapter 12. Building the Chase Manhattan Bank

  Chapter 13. Conflict

  Chapter 14. Difficult Transitions

  Chapter 15. Creating a Global Bank

  Chapter 16. Taking the Helm

  Chapter 17. Engaging the Soviets

  Chapter 18. Penetrating the Bamboo Curtain

  Chapter 19. Emissary for “Balance” in the Middle East

  Chapter 20. Surviving OPEC

  Chapter 21. Business Turbulence

  Chapter 22. Family Turmoil

  Chapter 23. Brotherly Conflicts

  Chapter 24. The Shah

  Chapter 25. Redemption

  Chapter 26. New York, New York

  Chapter 27. Proud Internationalist

  Chapter 28. South of the Border

  Chapter 29. A Passion for Modern Art

  Chapter 30. Rockefeller Center Redux

  Chapter 31. Partnerships

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  CHAPTER 1

  GRANDFATHER

  There is a picture of all the men in the family waiting at the Tarrytown station for the train carrying Grandfather’s casket from his winter home in Ormond Beach, Florida. He died quietly in his bed on May 23, 1937, at the age of ninety-seven. While the official cause of death was sclerotic myocarditis, it would be simpler to say he died of old age. I had known him as “Grandfather,” not the “robber baron” or great philanthropist of the history books. He had been a constant presence in my childhood: benign, indulgent, revered by my father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and by the family as a whole.

  Looking at that picture today, I find it remarkable how well it captured our relationships with one another, where we were in life, and, perhaps, where we would all be going.

  John, characteristically, stands on the periphery. Thirty-one years old, he is the oldest son, inheritor of the dynastic name. After he graduated from Princeton, Father put him on the boards of many family institutions, among them the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and Colonial Williamsburg, grooming him to be the family leader, but he is shy and uncertain of his abilities.

  Nelson, also characteristically, has managed to situate himself at the exact center of the picture and stares authoritatively at the came
ra. At twenty-nine he will soon become president of Rockefeller Center.

  Laurance, twenty-seven, the philosopher and businessman, gazes into the middle distance. He was emerging as a leading investor in the aviation industry and, with Eddie Rickenbacker, the World War I flying ace, would soon buy a large stake in Eastern Airlines.

  Winthrop is the handsomest. Somehow Mother’s Aldrich features—which one might describe as having a lot of “character”—combined with the Rockefeller genes to produce almost movie-star good looks. Win is the most troubled of us and never quite fitted in. Now twenty-five, he is working as a “roughneck” in the Texas oil fields.

  I am the youngest, twenty-one years old, and look very wet behind the ears. I have just completed my first year of graduate work in economics at Harvard and will leave that summer to continue my studies at the London School of Economics.

  Father, beginning to show his sixty-three years, presides over us all, completely forthright, a friendly, kind face. Perhaps a little distant.

  We brought Grandfather back to the mansion that he and Father had built twenty-five years earlier on the family estate at Pocantico Hills. Called Kykuit, the Dutch word for “lookout,” its hilltop site commands a magnificent view of the Hudson River. The next day, with only immediate family and a few close friends present, we held a service for him. I remember it was a beautiful spring day, the French doors open to the terrace, and the Hudson River a glistening blue below us. His favorite organist, Dr. Archer Gibson, played the large pipe organ in the main hall, on which we used to pretend to perform when we were children. Harry Emerson Fosdick, senior minister of Riverside Church, which was built by Father, gave the eulogy.

  After the service, as everyone milled about, Mr. Yordi, Grandfather’s valet, gestured to me. Yordi, a dapper Swiss fellow, had been Grandfather’s valet and constant companion for thirty years. I knew him well, but he had always been reserved in my presence. I went over to him, and he pulled me aside, into a deserted hallway. “You know, Mr. David,” he began (from as early as I can remember, the staff always addressed us in that way, “Mr. Rockefeller” being too confusing with so many of us having that name, and first names would have been too familiar), “of all you brothers, your grandfather always thought you were the most like him.” I must have looked very surprised. It was the last thing I expected him to say. “Yes,” he said, “you were very much his favorite.” I thanked him somewhat awkwardly, but he just waved his hand and said, “No, no, I just thought you should know.” I didn’t really know what to make of it. I thought it would have been Nelson, but I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t pleased.

  “THE STANDARD”

  Grandfather had started at $5 a week as a clerk in a dry goods store in Cleveland, Ohio, and went on to found and run the Standard Oil Company, which for all practical purposes was the oil industry in the United States until the Supreme Court ordered the trust dissolved in 1911 after a long period of acrimonious litigation. Many of the companies that emerged from the breakup still exist: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Amoco, and about thirty others as well.

  Standard Oil made Grandfather rich, possibly “the richest man in America.” He was also, for much of his life, one of the most hated. The tabloid press attacked Standard’s business practices and accused it of crimes—including murder—in its relentless efforts to eliminate all competition and perfect its monopoly of the oil industry. Grandfather was the target of Progressives, Populists, Socialists, and others discontented with the new American capitalist order. Robert La Follette, the powerful governor of Wisconsin, called him the “greatest criminal of his age.” Teddy Roosevelt used him as a whipping boy in his effort to bring the industrial monopolies to heel. Ida Tarbell, who through her writings probably did more than anyone to establish the image of Grandfather as a greedy and rapacious “robber baron,” wrote: “There is little doubt that Mr. Rockefeller’s chief reason for playing golf is that he may live longer to make more money.”

  Today most historians would agree that the picture painted of Standard in those contemporary accounts was highly partisan and often inaccurate. Grandfather and his partners were tough competitors, but they were guilty of no more than the common business practices of their day. It was a different world then. Few of the laws that regulate business competition today were in place. Standard was operating on the frontiers of the economy; it was new, unexplored territory, in some cases literally like the Wild West. Muckrakers idealized the first years of the petroleum industry as some kind of entrepreneurial Eden. It was, in fact, exceedingly cutthroat. Prices gyrated wildly, with huge swings in production and alternating gluts and droughts of oil. Refiners and producers were bankrupted and driven out of business overnight. Grandfather was no romantic; he thought the situation was speculative, shortsighted, and wasteful, and he set about to correct it in a tough-minded fashion.

  The accusations that Standard cheated widows of their inheritance, bombed rival refineries, and drove competitors into ruin by any means available—all gleefully repeated by Tarbell and others—were absolute fiction. The real story is that Standard was considerably more honorable in its dealings than many of its competitors. During the process of consolidation, Standard offered not only an honest, but often a generous price for competing refineries—so generous, in fact, that competitors often reentered the business simply for the opportunity to be bought out again. Grandfather’s partners complained bitterly about this persistent pattern of “blackmail,” but he continued to buy in order to complete his plan.

  Standard was a monopoly. At its height it controlled 90 percent of the domestic oil industry and was trying hard to buy up the last 10 percent. Grandfather, however, never saw anything wrong with dominating the market, not only for the owners and workers in the industry, but for consumers and the country as a whole. This runs so contrary to textbook assumptions that many people find it hard to credit his sincerity on the matter. But as Standard’s market share increased, the cost of petroleum products to the consumer—principally kerosene during Standard’s first decades—dropped dramatically. Kerosene became universally available, and Standard’s product was cheaper and better. The company invested in new technologies to improve the range and quality of its products and to develop new uses for by-products that earlier had simply been poured onto the ground or dumped into the nearest river. Gasoline is the most obvious example of a waste product that eventually found a prime use in the internal combustion engine and became the most valued petroleum product.

  It was Grandfather’s policy to lower prices, believing that the less expensive the product, the more of it people would buy; and the larger the market, the more economies of scale Standard would be able to employ. Without having studied economics, he understood the meaning of “elastic demand.” He always believed that it was good practice to “do a larger volume of business at a smaller profit per unit.” Many economists talk of business as “responding to market demand”; but that isn’t how Grandfather operated. He also created demand by setting up new channels of distribution at home and abroad. For instance, as a marketing device, Standard often gave away lanterns to ensure that consumers would buy kerosene to burn—much as Gillette gives away razors so that the customer will continue to purchase razor blades. Grandfather drove his associates to buy refineries, to develop new oil fields, and to increase production long before demand existed. Standard acted most aggressively during economic downturns when others retreated, because Grandfather had a long-term vision of the industry and how it should be operated.

  A number of factors distinguished Standard from its rivals: a willingness to invest in new technologies, a constant concern for the cost of production, and great attention to the marketing of its products. Grandfather successfully integrated within one cohesive organization the diverse elements of the industry from production at the wellhead to the final delivery to the customer. Standard was the first modern, fully integrated economic enterprise. That was Grandfather’s greatest achievement: building the petroleum indust
ry and, in the process, creating the modern corporation. It was an organizational triumph that transformed the business world.

  The American public welcomed the Supreme Court’s dissolution of the Standard Oil Trust in 1911 with great acclaim. However, it should be remembered that the ultimate result of Grandfather’s consolidation of the oil business was a cheaper, better, and more reliable supply of petroleum that helped the United States make the transition from a decentralized, agrarian nation to a highly centralized industrial democracy.

  EQUANIMITY IN THE FACE OF THE STORM

  My father, who later had his own troubles with the press, used to describe with a kind of envy Grandfather’s equanimity in the face of the storms raging against him. When Grandfather read the Tarbell book, he remarked to everyone’s consternation that he “rather enjoyed it.” In my view it was Grandfather’s deep religious faith that gave him his placid self-assurance in the face of personal attacks, and supreme confidence that enabled him to consolidate the American oil industry. He was a devout Christian who lived by the strict tenets of his Baptist faith. His faith “explained” the world around him, guided him on his way through it, and provided him with a liberating structure. The most important of these principles was that faith without good works was meaningless. That central belief led Grandfather to first accept the “doctrine of stewardship” for his great fortune and then to broaden it by creating the great philanthropies later in life.

  Grandfather was raised in modest circumstances in central New York State. William Rockefeller, his father, was something of an absentee parent and had a shady past, but his mother, Eliza Davison Rockefeller, who actually raised Grandfather and his siblings, was an extraordinarily devout and principled woman.