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Rockefeller did not try to defend the Goldberg book. "Let's face it," he testified. "I made a mistake. I made a hasty, ill-considered decision in the middle of a hectic campaign. It is one of the most unhappy things that's ever happened in my life." As he recalled events, Lawyer John A. Wells, his campaign manager in his abortive try for the presidency in 1964, had come to him with the idea for the book. It was to be written by one of Wells' clients, right-wing Author Victor Lasky, who had already produced J.F.K.: The Man and the Myth and Robert F. Kennedy: the Myth and the Man. After a meeting that lasted 15 minutes, Rockefeller asked his brother Laurance to find some financial backers. Laurance, in fact, became the sole backer, contributing $65,000. A corporation was set up in Delaware to handle the publication. But the book had minimal impact on the campaign. Rocky thought so little of the book that he did not get around to reading it until two days before his appearance before the Rules Committee. "It has got to be the most overrated, misrepresented, innocuous political dud ever perpetrated in a partisan political campaign," he said.
Altered Account. While not arguing with Rockefeller's description of the book, his inquisitors were plainly concerned about the secrecy surrounding the project. Why, Byrd wanted to know, had the money behind the book been "laundered"? The Rockefeller name, not the money, had been laundered, replied the witness. The family feared that if it was discovered that they were backing the book, no one else would invest in it. Byrd wondered why that mattered since a mere $65,000 was involved—a sum easily raised by Rockefellers.
The Senators were even more troubled by the fact that Rockefeller had sharply altered his account of the affair. When first questioned by reporters, he denied that he had initiated the book and said that Laurance had financed it. But in his testimony last week, he took full responsibility himself; the book was such a trivial item in the campaign, he said, that he had simply forgotten that he had authorized it. "My statement was totally unfair to my brother, who is one of the nicest people in the world."
Pressing the attack, Byrd asked why Rocky had not come up with the true story sooner since he had been questioned twice by the FBI about the book. Rocky answered that he had been so busy gathering other information for investigators and for the press that he had overlooked the book. "I didn't realize it was the big deal it turned out to be." Not very satisfied, Byrd remarked that getting the truth piecemeal was "a throwback to what we have had over the past two years." Flustered for the only time, Rockefeller responded: "I have to bitterly object to that."