Nelson Rockefeller

• Vice President to:      Gerald Ford - Republican
  
  
• Dates Served: Rockefeller served as Vice President from 1974 - 1977.
  
• Political Party: Rockefeller was a Republican, from New York.
  
• Born: 1908.
  
• Died: 1979, at the age of 71.
  
• The presidential opponent during his campaign was:
  
  
  • Nobody. President Ford appointed him after Nixon resigned.
    
    
  
  
• Notable Facts about Nelson Rockefeller:
  
  
  • Nelson Rockefeller was the grandson of 19th century industrialist John D. Rockefeller.
    
    
  • Religious affiliation: Nelson was nominally a Baptist but, being known as a New York liberal, his public views on religion were almost non-existant. Better safe and silent, than risk stirring the melting pot of his hometown. However, the circumstances surrounding his death revealed his personal moral standards to be about equal to that of many television-evangelists.
    
    
  • Nelson spent much of his life running the family empire at the Rockefeller Center in New York City.
    
    
  • Even through Nelson was a life-long Republican, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him Assistant Secretary of State in 1944 during World War II.
    
    
  • President Truman, also a Democrat, appointed Nelson head of the International Development Advisory Board, a post he also held under President Eisenhower.
    
    
  • He was elected Governor of New York 4 times, serving from 1958 - 1973, responsible for many social programs in the state and speaking out on traditionally liberal issues. Needless to say, many in the Republican Party saw him as a bit of a sell-out.
    
    
  • In 1960 he ran for the Republican nomination for President, but lost to then-Vice President Nixon. He tried again in 1964 but was mowed down under the steamroller of Barry Goldwater supporters that year. He tried a third time in 1968, but lost again to Richard Nixon. Some people just aren't meant to be President.
    
    
  • On Sept 9, 1971, prisoners at the Attica prison in Attica, New York rioted and took over the prison, holding 50 people as hostages. After 4 days of stalled negotiations the police and the National Guard stormed the prison, shooting at will. 42 people were killed (10 hostages and 32 prisoners) and many in the state blamed the high number of deaths on Governor Rockefeller's refusal to intervene.
    
    
  • He resigned as Governor in 1973, to serve as head of the Commission on Critical Choices for America, opening the way for President Ford's nomination of him to keep his old chair warm in the VP corner.
    
    
  • Rockefeller was the richest man to serve as Vice President, with his personal worth estimated at around 1 billion dollars at the time.
    
    
  • During his term as Veep, Nelson presided over a Presidential Commission in 1975 that was investigating the CIA and some of its covert activities. At its conclusion he said that "the CIA has engaged in a number of plainly unlawful programs". But the report was filed away and no one faced any legal consequences.
    
    
  • When Right Wing members of the Republican Party increased their criticism of what they perceived as Rockefeller's too-liberal views and voiced their opposition to the prospect of a second Rockefeller Vice Presidential term, Nelson dropped out of the campaign. Ford chose Bob Dole as his running mate. He lost.
    
    
  • During the election campaign in 1976 Rockefeller was caught on a news-camera "flipping the bird" at a group of demonstrators at a Republican Party rally at New York State University. Bob Dole, who was also there campaigning with Ford, was asked by a reporter why he didn't join Rockefeller in "the salute". He replied, "I have trouble with my right arm".
    
    
  • After the end of his term Nelson returned back to New York to run the family empire.
    
    
  • Rockefeller died under mysterious circumstances in New York City. On January 26, 1979 Nelson suffered a massive heart attack in the middle of having sex with his mistress, Megan Marshak, age 27. Worried about the scandal that would ensue if she was found with him, she waited a full hour before calling an ambulance. He was still alive when paramedics arrived but he didn't survive the ride to the hospital. Rockefeller's wife, who was actually named Happy Rockefeller, had his body cremated within 18 hours of his death in order to prevent medical examiners from investigating the body for evidence of his illicit encounter. (Happy is still alive, as of May, 2006) In his will, Nelson Rockefeller left his mistress a townhouse in New York and $50,000, so no one can ever accuse Nelson of being ungrateful.
    

Notable Events during his Vice Presidency:

• Clemency for Draft Evaders and Deserters, in 1974. President Ford extended an offer of clemency to the draft-dodgers who had fled the country rather than fight in what they considered an un-just war. Ford's offer dictated that they could return provided that they swear an oath of allegiance to the United States and perform 2 years of public service. Soldiers who had deserted while enlisted would be required to also swear an oath of allegiance and serve out 2 years in the military branch they deserted from. Veterans groups criticized the clemency as too lenient, while draft exiles snubbed it as requiring them to admit wrong-doing, which most refused to do.
  
  
• Larry Fine, life-long Stooge and recipient of countless Moe eye-pokes, died on Jan. 24, 1975. Age 72.
  
  
• Moe Howard, head Stooge, died less than 4 months later, on May 4, 1975. Age 77.
  
  
• Collapse of South Vietnam, April 1975. In April alone, the Khmer Rough over-threw the government of Cambodia, the government of Laos became a Communist state, and the South Vietnamese lost the war to the North. The Southern capitol, Saigon, was captured and re-named Ho Chi Minh City, after the leader of North Vietnam.
  
  
• The Mayaguez Incident, May 1975. A US commercial ship, the Mayaguez, on its way from Hong Kong to Thailand was captured by Cambodian ships and the crew held prisoner. 2 days later the US Marines launched a commando raid to rescue the crew and retrieve the ship. They rescued all 39 crewmen, but 41 American soldiers were killed in the process.
  
  
• New York City bailout, 1975. In November of 1975 New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy and asked the Federal government for a bailout. Ford originally refused, with his famous response "Drop dead". But he changed his mind after the city raised city taxes and cut some programs. He issued the city $2.3 billion in short-term loans.
  
  
• First of 2 assassination attempts, Sept. 5, 1975. While greeting the public outside of a hotel in Sacramento, California, Ford reached out to shake the hand of a woman named Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, age 26, who was a follower of cult-leader Charles Manson. She pulled out a gun from a thigh-holster and aimed it at the President. She pulled the trigger but it failed to fire, because the gun was loaded with one blank, which was missing a bullet. She was quickly tackled by the Secret Service, later to be tried and sentenced to life in prison. While eligible for parole, she has been denied each time, as of March, 2001. (She even escaped from prison once, in 1987, to try and meet her mentor Charles Manson in his prison, but she failed and was re-captured.)
  
  
• Second of 2 assassination attempts, Sept. 22, 1975. Only three and a half weeks later Ford was in San Francisco and out on the street again greeting people. From about 40 feet away a woman named Sara Jane Moore, age 45, a radical political activist and FBI informant, pulled out a gun and fired it at Ford. A bystander saw her and hit her arm as she fired the gun, causing her to miss. She was tackled by the ever-present Secret Service and later tried and also sentenced to life in prison. Also eligible for parole, she has so far been denied.
  
  
• The world's greatest game-show, "The Gong Show", premiers on June 14, 1976.
  
  
• November 2, 1976, President Ford looses his re-election bid to Georgia Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter.