Controversial Globalist David Rockefeller Dies at 101

David Rockefeller — a controversial Republican banker who advocated for globalization — died this week. His death has sparked conversation about the impact of his legacy on the world.

David Rockefeller, who died Monday morning at the age of 101, leaves a legacy that eludes a simple description. At once the grandchild and heir of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller and a globe-trotting billionaire banker in his own right, Rockefeller also earned a reputation as a prodigious patron of the arts.

Rockefeller died of congestive heart failure at his home in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., family spokesman Fraser P. Seitel confirmed to NPR.

In a statement released Monday, former President George W. Bush commended Rockefeller as “one of the most generous philanthropists — and brightest Points of Light — whose caring and commitment to the widest range of worthy causes touched and lifted innumerable lives.”

“David’s Bank”

At the time of his death, Forbes estimates, Rockefeller’s net worth was $3.3 billion — a fortune he inherited and built upon as a longtime executive at Chase Manhattan Bank. For roughly two decades, according to the family’s statement, Rockefeller occupied the lofty heights of the bank’s management — serving as chairman of the board and co-chief executive beginning in 1961 and ultimately taking the reins as sole CEO in 1969.

He would eventually step down from that position in 1980, retiring entirely about a year later.

During that time, Rockefeller’s leadership — and internationally oriented policies — became synonymous with Chase Manhattan, an institution so shaped by his reputation and vision it was occasionally tagged with the moniker “David’s Bank.”

As Reuters reports, that could be a double-edged sword:

“Chase Manhattan grew from a $4.8 billion institution in 1946 when he joined to a bank with $76.2 billion in assets when he stepped down in April 1981. But it slipped from its standing then as No. 3 in the world and was purchased by Chemical Bank of New York in 1996. Today it is part of JPMorgan Chase & Co.”
“From 1974 to 1976 its earnings fell 36 percent, while those of its biggest rivals — Bank of America, Citibank, Manufacturers Hanover and J.P. Morgan — rose 12 to 31 percent,” the New York Times notes, adding that a scandal in the mid-1970s led the Federal Reserve and the comptroller to term Chase a “problem” bank.

Rockefeller took an intensive interest in foreign relations during this time — again, for better and for worse. His frequent meetings with world leaders helped Chase Manhattan “become the first American bank with operations in those countries,” says the Times. As he told NPR’s Scott Simon in 2002, he even debated Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on the merits of capitalism in the mid-1960s.
“It was quite fascinating,” Rockefeller recalled. “We went at one another with strong views each on our own side, yet throughout I think we did respect one another and it was never a hostile debate.”

At the same time, he earned his fair share of bad press for meeting with dictators such as Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Chile’s Augusto Pinochet and Cuba’s Fidel Castro. In fact, it was partly on the basis of his and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s urging that President Jimmy Carter allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to enter the U.S. for medical treatment in 1979 — a decision that Bloomberg reports led to “the seizure of American hostages in Tehran from 1979 to 1981.”

Still, Rockefeller retained the respect of politicians from both sides of the U.S. political spectrum. As the Times reports, both Carter and President Richard Nixon asked him to serve as their Treasury secretary. He turned down both offers.

Rockefeller’s form of Republicanism may have proved somewhat popular in his heyday, but Donald Trump seems to be moving the GOP away from the big-government globalist policies of party’s past.

Source: NPR