I don't think they ever wanted to destroy the Republican party. That would never fly. But I theorize they did want the next Republican president to be Rockefeller. And to pull that off, some chicanery was necessary. They needed to get him into the Whitehouse as VP, because the 3 previous attempts to secure the Republican nomination for him had failed. Voters were concerned he was too wealthy. So he just wasn't going to get in by any other mechanism. As the last Republican VP, he would make an obvious candidate for president.
But I think you are correct they almost blew it with Carter. He was very unpopular, but they needed a Democrat to push the environmental agenda. Unfortunately, Reagan stepped into the picture about the same time in 1975 and became a thorn in their side. He was so popular in 1980 they had to abandon their ambitions for Rockefeller.
I don't think they ever wanted to destroy the Republican party. That would never fly. But I theorize they did want the next Republican president to be Rockefeller. And to pull that off, some chicanery was necessary. They needed to get him into the Whitehouse as VP, because the 3 previous attempts to secure the Republican nomination for him had failed. Voters were concerned he was too wealthy. So he just wasn't going to get in by any other mechanism. As the last Republican VP, he would make an obvious candidate for president.
But I think you are correct they almost blew it with Carter. He was very unpopular, but they needed a Democrat to push the environmental agenda. Unfortunately, Reagan stepped into the picture about the same time in 1975 and became a thorn in their side. He was so popular in 1980 they had to abandon their ambitions for Rockefeller.