Nelson Rockefeller and the Liberal Republicans During the 1964 Republican Primaries Christopher Eller Winthrop University, [email protected]
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Winthrop University Digital Commons @ Winthrop University Graduate Theses The Graduate School 12-2017 Running from Behind: Nelson Rockefeller and the Liberal Republicans During the 1964 Republican Primaries Christopher Eller Winthrop University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/graduatetheses Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Eller, Christopher, "Running from Behind: Nelson Rockefeller and the Liberal Republicans During the 1964 Republican Primaries" (2017). Graduate Theses. 72. https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/graduatetheses/72 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at Digital Commons @ Winthrop University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Winthrop University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 RUNNING FROM BEHIND: NELSON ROCKEFELLER AND THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS DURING THE 1964 REPUBLICAN PRIMARIES A Thesis Presented to the Faculty Of the College of Arts and Sciences In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Of Master of Arts In History Winthrop University December, 2017 By Christopher Eller II Abstract This thesis seeks to examine if the conservative victory in the 1964 Republican presidential primaries was inevitable. Based on archival research, primary source materials, and secondary source materials, it is concluded that conservative candidate Barry Goldwater faced numerous instances when his campaign could have been defeated by Republican challengers, campaign blunders, and internal party factions. This thesis focuses on liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller’s campaign with the intention of articulating the fracturing of the Republican Party in the early 1960s. Rockefeller’s quest for the nomination is emblematic of the changing nature of presidential politics in the post-World War II era leading to changes in voter preferences, campaign tactics, and ultimately the path to the White House. III Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..II Introduction……………………………………………………………………….…...…1 Chapter One: Rockefeller Decides to Run………………………………………….…11 A Brief History of Liberal Republicans……………………………………….11 Rockefeller as Governor and the South’s Discontent………………………...23 Chapter Two: Picking Up the Pieces………………………………………………..…31 Ideology and Factions…………………………………………………………..31 1961: Kennedy and Rockefeller Face Setbacks……………………………….42 1962: Rockefeller on the Rise…………………………………………………..48 Chapter Three: An End to the Beginning…………………………………………….58 1963 – Love and Politics………………………………………………………..58 Chapter Four: The Media Acknowledges that Rockefeller is Running……………..73 Polls and Positioning……………………………………………………………74 The Assassination of John F. Kennedy………………………………………..78 Barry Goldwater and the South……………………………………………….81 Southern Politics and a Second Opinion……………………………………....85 IV The Contenders…………………………………………………………………91 Let it Begin in New Hampshire………………………………………………...96 Chapter 5: Primary Season…………………………………………………………...106 A Vacuum in the Republican Presidential Race…………………………….106 Like a Prairie Fire……………………………………………………………..110 Segregation, Reinvention, and Other Primaries…………………………….120 Rockefeller Makes his Move………………………………………………….131 Chapter 6: California and the Republican National Convention…………………..141 You Don’t Have a Kingmaker without Someone to Make a King Out Of...141 They’re Already Here………………………………………………………....148 Laughing and Crying at the Same Thing…………………………………....163 At the Convention………………………………………………………..……169 Bibliography…………………………………………………………...……………....183 1 Introduction Nelson Rockefeller waited in anticipation. Louis XV-style furniture dotted the forty-seven foot living room, touched off by cutting-edge furnishings and art, gilded consoles, ivory tables, and large Picasso paintings. Occupying most of the twelfth floor with a view of Central Park, Rockefeller’s residence consisted of a living room, a formal dining room, a library, a massive two-bedroom master suite complete with a spacious master bath, a staff bedroom with its own bathroom, and a large family room off the kitchen.1 It was Friday night, July 22, 1960, three days before the opening of the Republican National Convention in Chicago. Rockefeller prepared himself for the arrival of Richard Nixon to his apartment at 810 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Days earlier, Citizens for Rockefeller, a political action group spearheading the draft Rockefeller campaign, made a newspaper and television appeal to voters that brought in over a million pieces of mail and telegrams to the Chicago convention along with a flood of telephone calls overwhelming the mail delivery services around the city.2 People demanded that Rockefeller be placed on the ballot for president. Throughout the election cycle, Rockefeller remained coy about the nomination, never fading too far out of focus. By May of 1960, when disarmament talks with had Russia broken down and American interests abroad suffered, Rockefeller sensed a troubling future ahead for the 1 Kay, Andrew, “Rockefeller Rich on Fifth Avenue,” http://iconsofnewyork.com/?p=599 (accessed Dec. 15, 2016). 2 Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960, New York: Harper Perennial, 2010, 215. 2 country. These factors all reinvigorated his drive for the presidency. Like Taft in 1952, Rockefeller’s supporters envisioned themselves streaming towards the convention hall singing the praises of their nominee. To Governor Rockefeller, it seemed like a grand possibility. Nelson’s grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, was once the richest man in the world, after having built the family fortune through the merciless business practices of Standard Oil. Estimates of the Rockefeller fortune ranged from three to six billion dollars.3 A sum so large that the Rockefeller family saw fit to re-envision the skyline of New York City, build the Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts and the Museum of Modern Art, and give rise to the Rockefeller plaza and the Rockefeller Center. The name “Rockefeller” became an institution unto itself, not confined to New York or even the Northeast, but all across the country. Money poured into an array of projects ranging from medical research and education to real estate and missile development. Despite this immense power, John D. Rockefeller closed himself off from the public. He taught his children and grandchildren to avoid bringing bad publicity on the family name by staying out of the newspapers. He, a titan of nineteenth-century finance, tried to avoid the press. Rockefellers were not to have their picture in any publication nor were they to publically participate in politics aside from discreet donations to the Republican Party. Nelson Rockefeller changed all of that by accepting Franklin Roosevelt’s offer to become Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs in 1940. He then served as a special advisor on international affairs in the Truman administration followed by a position as a diplomat 3 White, Making of the President 1960, 210. 3 under Dwight Eisenhower before becoming the governor of New York, the most populous state in the country. Rockefeller, in the words of a friend, “felt he had to run for elective office, because nobody really paid any attention to someone who was only an appointee.”4 He was an egalitarian extrovert who succeeded by using his charm and persuasion, prompting his defeated opponents to marvel at his political magic.5 By 1960, Nelson Rockefeller appeared as the liberal Republicans’ golden boy, the New York governor with the potential to swing the presidential election and Richard Nixon took notice. Nixon arrived at the Fifth Avenue apartment under unusual circumstances. Rockefeller had requested a secret meeting with Nixon and wanted there to be an announcement afterwards that the meeting had taken place at the vice president’s request. He also wanted a “joint” agreement over changes to the party platform ahead of the convention.6 Accompanied by an aide and a Secret Service agent, Nixon took the elevator up to the twelfth floor at 7:30 that evening. Rockefeller’s shift from not seeking the candidacy in December 1959 to announcing that he would not campaign but make himself available for a party draft at the convention had kept him on the cusp of the nomination, at least in the public’s eye. He spent that time advocating liberal Republican ideals that threatened not only party unity but Nixon’s chance at winning the election. Nixon, toeing the line between being shrewd and pragmatic, was trying to have it both 4 “The Rocky Roll,” Time, Oct. 5, 1958, 18. 5 Manchester, William, “Nelson Rockefeller’s Moral Heritage,” Harper’s Magazine, May. 1959, 26. 6 Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, New York: Nation, 2009, 116. 4 ways. He appealed to the conservatives while repeatedly seeking liberal Republican support, sending mixed signals to both factions. Republicans like Barry Goldwater pushed Nixon to take a strong stand on conservative issues like reducing spending, balancing the budget, and ending bureaucratic growth. Nixon agreed to their points and even promised to advocate for a right-to-work plank in the Republican Party platform.7 To ease the worries of conservatives, Nixon told Goldwater that he had no intention of meeting with Rockefeller until after the convention. But, Rockefeller’s sudden surge, bolstered by the Citizens for Rockefeller, changed the political