McCloy and the Rockefellers

Rockefeller Land, Bill Zeckendorf and John J. McCloy

William Zeckendorf was acting in 1946 as real estate adviser for John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and a few years later by his sons--Nelson, David, Winthrop and Aldrich.  Behind all these transactions was the attorney John J. McCloy, High Commissioner for Germany following World War II, followed by presidency and chairmanship of the Chase Manhattan Bank of New York.

 

FLUSHING, N. Y., (UP). — The United Nations general assembly plans to put its final stamp of approval today on the choice of New York City for permanent U. N. headquarters. The assembly had before it an
overwhelming recommendation of the U. N. headquarters committee in favor of building a skyscraper world capital in midtown Manhattan. Thirty-three nations voted to accept the offer of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., of land worth $8,500,000 along the East river. Seven nations — all of them Moslem nations except Australia — opposed the site.

 

Leonard Lyons column - DECEMBER 22, 1949

The Rockefeller family has retained William Zeckendorf, head of Webb & Knapp, as their real estate advisor for Radio City, the largest single privately-held parcel in the world. Nelson Rockefeller, consummated the deal with Zeckendorf, who was also responsible for selling to the Rockefellers the site on which the new U.N. buildings are being erected.

January 14, 1955

Biggest Bank Merger
Okayed By Directors

NEW YORK (AP)—The biggest bank merger in history has been approved by directors of Chase National Bank and the Bank of the Manhattan Co. If the plan is approved by stockholders and the New York superintendent of banking , Chase would be merged into Bank of the Manhattan Co. to produce the nation's second largest bank.

Bank of America in California is the largest bank with total resources of around 94 billion dollars. The Chase Manhattan Bank, as it would be called, would have resources of about 7 billion. Chase Manhattan would become the largest bank in New York—a position now held by National City Bank of New York.
On Dec. 31, Chase had deposits of $5,379,000,000 and Bank of the Manhattan Co. deposits totaled $1,479,000,000. The two thus would have deposits of $6,858,000,000 compared with Bank of America's $8,270,000,000 and National City's $5,639,000,000.
 
John J. McCloy, Chase chairman, would be chairman of the new bank and J. Stewart Baker, Manhattan's chairman, would become president and chairman of the executive committee. Percy J, Ebbott, president of
Chase, would have the post of vice chairman, the two banks announced.

 We can't leave here without connecting one more dot: how Zeckendorf became involved in Texas with the Wynne family in Dallas. That, too, began with our friend Jack McCloy. Author/historian Kai Bird tells us at p. 409 in The Chairman: John J. McCloy, The Making of the American Establishment (1992):

"Only three days after Eisenhower issued his 'clarification,' McCloy came to the White House for one of the president's intimate stag dinners. He was one  in The Chairof fourteen tuxedoed guests that evening. Others included such old friends as Bernard Baruch, Milton Eisenhower, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, and Dr. Henry Wriston, the president of Brown University. Seated across from him at dinner was Sid Richardson, a Texas oil man who was then one of America's wealthiest individuals. Richardson had met Ike aboard a train traveling from Texas to Washington, D.C., in December 1941. The two men had kept in close touch since the end of the war, and Ike now counted the oil magnate as one of his closest friends. For years, Richardson had kept the Eisenhowers' freezer stocked with hundred of pounds of Texas beef, sausage, and hams. As president, Eisenhower consulted Richardson on oil and economic matters and used the Texan to influence the newly elected Senate minority leader, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson.

"That evening, Richardson took an instant liking to McCloy and invited him to visit his farm in Texas. In a very short time, their friendship would also include some business dealings. But on this occasion, the dinner talk was all politics."

The Texans, Sid Richardson and Clint W. Murchison, have been shown many times to have been parts of an intricate network of businessmen in Texas tied up with all sorts of "deep political" intrigue. The first researcher to make the connection was Peter Dale Scott, whose work led this writer to engage in many other research projects following up on this fascinating connection. Those links can be seen in this blog at various tags and also in another website called Minor Musings. Search key words here.