Nelson Rockefeller and his quest for inter-American unity

Nelson Rockefeller had a long and varied career dealing with Latin America, both as a government official and as a private businessman. "Nelson Rockefeller And His Quest For Inter-American Unity" illustrates from a biographical point of view precisely how his upbringing as a "Rockefeller" shaped his future conduct. It examines his tenure as a young executive with a family-owned oil company in Venezuela in the 1930s, his leadership of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs during World War II, his tenure as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs in 1944-5, his chairmanship of the International Development Advisory Board under the aegis of the Truman Administration, and his Special Presidential Mission to Latin America in 1969 for President Nixon. Rockefeller also believed in private efforts to aid Latin America; in the late forties he created the American International Association for Economic and Social Development, a nonprofit and philanthropic organization that aimed to modernize Latin America's educational, health, and agricultural infrastructures. At the same time he started the International Basic Economy Corporation, a private sector profit-making development company responsive to human needs and the economies of the developing Latin American nations.;Rockefeller also served under Eisenhower as a member of the President's Committee on Government Organization, Under Secretary of the newly created Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and as Special Assistant for Cold War Planning. This dissertation illuminates how Rockefeller's experience in dealing with Latin America shaped his approach to these jobs and his overall foreign policy outlook as he maneuvered for the presidency beginning in the late fifties.;Rockefeller's conflicts within the government throughout the tenure of his various jobs serves as a case study of how jurisdictional overlap and basic territorial jealousy in the executive branch can prevent original and creative ideas from truly being heard. Understanding the forces that forged Rockefeller's philosophy, as well as study of his successes and failures in implementing his approach, offers insight into United States' policy decisions regarding Latin America.