Treaty of Fifth Avenue

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The Treaty of Fifth Avenue refers to the agreement reached between two Republicans, U.S. vice president Richard Nixon and New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, in July 1960.

Although Rockefeller had little influence over the Republican Party's conservative wing, he was the de facto leader of the liberal Republicans. Nixon felt he needed the support of Rockefeller to secure the Republican Party nomination. Nixon feared that Rockefeller, who had recently written an indictment of the Republican Party, would refuse to support him unless the party platform was changed. Nixon and Rockefeller met at Rockefeller's Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City where, over the course of four hours (and with other participants joining by phone) ^[1] they agreed to this fourteen-point compact of security and economic issues. The compact called for increased defense spending on U.S. nuclear capability as well as the establishment of a flexible response force to deal with armed conflicts. In addition, the document supports planks to the party platform that stimulate economic growth, "remove the last vestiges of segregation or discrimination," and provide government funding for education. While the compromise might not have profoundly changed the party's platform, it strained Nixon's relations with the party's conservative members who disagreed with Rockefeller's more liberal views.