Maxwell D. Taylor

For more information on Maxwell Davenport Taylor, visit Britannica.com.

Maxwell Taylor graduated from West Point in 1922, being commissioned first in the engineers and subsequently in the field artillery. He spent thirteen of the interwar years in schools, either as teacher or student, culminating in his graduation from the Army War College in 1940.

In September 1943, while part of the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II, he entered Italy behind German lines on a secret mission for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to assess the ability of the Italians to support an American airborne drop near Rome. On Taylor's advice, Eisenhower canceled the plan as a potential disaster.

In March 1944, Taylor assumed command of the 101st Airborne Division and at the D‐Day landing and parachuted with his division behind enemy lines, becoming the first American general to land in Nazi‐occupied France. After the war, Taylor was appointed superintendent of West Point (1945–49) and thereafter held a series of increasingly important assignments until he assumed command of the U.S. Eighth Army in February 1953 during the Korean War. He served as chief of staff, 1955–59, during the Eisenhower presidency. At the end of his tour as he retired from the army, Taylor published The Uncertain Trumpet, a book critical of the Eisenhower administration's emphasis on reduced defense budgets and on airpower and nuclear weaponry over ground forces.

But Taylor is best known for his involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy recalled Taylor to active duty as his military representative and also named him chairman of the Special Group Counterinsurgency. Taylor participated in JFK's decision sharply to increase the scale of U.S. support for South Vietnam. Subsequently, after the president named him chairman of the JCS, Taylor was unsuccessful in opposing the U.S. decision to support the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, the South Vietnamese chief of state.

In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him ambassador to South Vietnam. Taylor strongly supported U.S. air strikes against North Vietnam, but unsuccessfully opposed LBJ's 1965 decision to introduce U.S. combat troops into the war. From 1965 to 1969, he served as special consultant to the president on Vietnam.

Maxwell Taylor was one of the major American military figures of the twentieth century. He was a transition figure—the last of the World War II heroic generals and the first of a new breed, the managerial generals. More soldier than statesman, his major involvement in the American political scene took place during the Vietnam War, in which his role was central but not decisive.

[See also Army, U.S.: Since 1941; Vietnam War: Military and Diplomatic Course; Vietnam War: Domestic Course.]

Bibliography

• Maxwell Taylor, Swords and Plowshares, 1972.
• Douglas Kinnard, The Uncertain Trumpet, 1991

Taylor, Maxwell Davenport (1901-1987) Born in Missouri, Maxwell Taylor graduated from West Point in 1922 with a commission in the engineers. He later transferred to field artillery. In 1942 he became chief of staff of the 82nd Infantry Division and assisted Matthew B. Ridgway in converting it to an airborne unit. He was promoted to brigadier general and jumped into Sicily and Italy with the division. His dangerous secret mission behind enemy lines to Rome found unexpected German strength and prevented a bloody attempt to take the city by airborne assault. As a major general, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division during Operations Overlord and Market-Garden, though he was in the United States when the division made its famous stand at Bastogne. After World War II he served as superintendent of West Point, and commanded the Eighth Army during the last few months of the Korean War. He eventually became commander of all United Nations forces in the Far East, and retired after serving as chief of staff of the army. He was a critic of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's defense policies, and favored “flexible response” over “massive retaliation.” Taylor became very influential within the administration of John F. Kennedy, even briefly returning to active duty as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He retired again to become ambassador to South Vietnam in 1964, a position he held for a year. He then served as a special adviser to Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, and played an instrumental role in getting the United States involved in the Vietnam War.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

General Maxwell Taylor (1901-1987) served the United States for half a century as a soldier-states man-scholar in peacetime and in three wars.

Maxwell Davenport Taylor was born August 26, 1901, in Keytesville, Missouri. He attended school in Kansas City until accepting an appointment to West Point. Graduating fourth in his class in 1922, Taylor joined the Corps of Engineers (later transferring to the Field Artillery). During the 1920s and 1930s Taylor served in several posts in the United States and in France, Japan, and China.

An accomplished linguist, he returned to West Point as a language instructor, 1927 to 1932. But he was foremost a student of military science, graduating from the Army's Command and Staff School in 1935 and the Army War College in 1940. In between schools he held various command and staff assignments.

When the United States entered World War II in 1941, Taylor wore the silver leaf of a lieutenant colonel. From then on, however, increasing responsibilities brought rapid promotions. In 1942 he was sent to Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, to assist General Matthew Ridgway informing the Army's first airborne division, the 82d. Taylor commanded the division's artillery in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and in the landing at Salerno, Italy, two months later. From there he slipped behind German lines to Rome, where he established contact with Italian authorities while assessing the strength of German troops in and around the city. Later General Dwight Eisenhower was to call Taylor's secret mission a risk "greater than I asked any other agent or emissary to undertake during the war."

In March 1944 Taylor, now a brigadier general, was ordered to England to command the 101st Airborne Division. He parachuted into Normandy with his men in the early morning darkness of D-Day, June 6, 1944. Later that year he led his division in another airborne assault - Operation Market-Garden - in which American and British forces sought but failed to open the Rhine River as far north as Arnheim, Holland. Taylor was back in the United States when the German army launched its massive attack against the "Bulge" in the Allied lines in the Ardennes. The 101st was surrounded at Bastogne, Belgium, where second-in-command General Anthony McAuliffe made his celebrated reply of "Nuts!" to the German order to surrender.

Taylor hurried back to his command and led the division until the end of the war in Europe, May 8, 1945. Later that year he was appointed superintendent of West Point, moving to chief of staff of U.S. forces in Europe in 1949 and to deputy chief of staff of the Army in 1951.

During the Korean War he took command of the U.S. Eighth Army in February 1953 for five months of fighting until the armistice was signed in July. The next year he took command of all U.S. forces in the Far East and in 1955 was promoted to four-star general and assigned to lead all United Nations forces in the Far East. However, two months later he was recalled to the United States to become army chief of staff, serving in that post until his retirement in 1959.

Taylor reentered government service in 1961 to investigate the CIA role in the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. He then served as military representative of President John F. Kennedy, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam in 1964, and from 1965 to 1969 as special consultant to President Lyndon Johnson. He retired again in 1969, spending much of his private life in writing on national and international affairs.

Slender and athletic, General Taylor looked every bit the picture of a soldier. His military decorations included the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart, as well as numerous foreign honors. In 1925 Taylor married Lydia Gardner Happer. They had two sons, John Maxwell and Thomas Happer.

Further Reading

For more information on General Taylor's role in World War II see almost any good history of the conflict, particularly Dwight Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (reprinted 1977) and Cornelius Ryan, The Longest Day: June 6, 1944 (paperback 1960) and A Bridge Too Far (paperback 1974). Additional information on Taylor can be found in his writings, which are direct and clear-headed. The Uncertain Trumpet (1959) was an attack on the Eisenhower administration's emphasis on "massive retaliation" as the chief defense of the United States. Responsibility and Response (1967) further argued the need for conventional as well as nuclear weapons. Swords and Plowshares (1972) was also a contribution to U.S. defense policies.

Additional Sources

Taylor, John M., General Maxwell Taylor: the sword and the pen, New York: Doubleday, 1989.

Taylor, Maxwell D. (Maxwell Davenport), 1901-1987, Swords and plowshares, New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press, 1990.

Maxwell Davenport Taylor
August 26, 1901(1901-08-26) – April 19, 1987 (aged 85)
General Maxwell Taylor
Place of birth	Keytesville, Missouri
Place of death	Washington, D.C.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1922–1964
Rank	General
Commands held	101st Airborne Division Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy Chief of Staff, U.S. Army Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Battles/wars	World War II Korean War
Awards	Distinguished Service Cross Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star Legion of Merit Bronze Star Purple Heart
Other work	Ambassador to South Vietnam (1964-65)

General Maxwell Davenport Taylor (August 26, 1901 – April 19, 1987) was an American soldier and diplomat of the mid-20th century.

Taylor was born in Keytesville, Missouri and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1922.

Contents 1 World War II 2 After World War II 3 Return to duty 4 The Vietnam War 5 Criticisms 6 Second retirement 7 Dramatic portrayals 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links

World War II

Taylor's rise to the highest echelons of U.S. government began under the tutelage of General Matthew B. Ridgway in the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division when Ridgway commanded the division in the early part of World War II. In 1943, Taylor's diplomatic and language skills resulted in his secret mission to Rome to coordinate an 82nd air drop with Italian forces. General Dwight D. Eisenhower would later say that "the risks he ran were greater than I asked any other agent or emissary to take during the war."^[1] Hundreds of miles behind the front lines of battle, Taylor was forced by rules of engagement to wear his American military uniform, so that if captured he could not be shot as a spy. He met with the new Italian Prime Minister, Marshal Pietro Badoglio. The air drop near Rome to capture the city was called off at the last minute, when Taylor realized that it was too late. German forces were already moving in to cover the intended drop zones. Transport planes were already in the air when Taylor's message canceled the drop, preventing the suicide mission. These efforts behind enemy lines got Taylor noticed at the highest levels of the Allied command.

After the campaigns in the Mediterranean, Taylor was assigned to command the 101st Airborne Division, which was training in England, after the 101st's first commander Major General Bill Lee suffered a heart attack.

Taylor jumped into Normandy on June 6, 1944, with his men. He was the first Allied general to land in France on D-Day. He commanded the 101st Airborne Division for the rest of the war, among other things during the operation Market Garden in The Netherlands, but missed out leading the division during its most famous conflict, the Battle of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, because he was attending a staff conference in the United States. The Division Artillery commander, Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe exercised command in his absence. Some of the paratroopers resented Taylor for this later. General Taylor called the defense of Bastogne the 101st Airborne Division's "finest hour" of the war and stated that his absence there was one of his greatest disappointments in World War II.^[2]

After World War II

Honor Monument at West Point

From 1945 to 1949 Taylor was superintendent of West Point. In 1947, he drafted the first official Honor Code publication marking the beginning of the written “Cadet Honor Code” at West Point.^[3] Afterwards he was the commander of allied troops in Berlin from 1949 to 1951.

In 1953, he was sent to the Korean War. From 1955 to 1959, he was the Army Chief of Staff, succeeding his former mentor, Matthew B. Ridgway. During his tenure as Army Chief of Staff, Taylor attempted to guide the service into the age of nuclear weapons by restructuring the infantry division. Observers such as Colonel David Hackworth have written that the effort gutted the role of US Army company and field grade officers, rendering it unable to adapt to the dynamics of combat in Vietnam.

During 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered General Taylor to deploy 1,000 troops from the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce Federal court orders to desegregate Central High School during the Little Rock Crisis.

As Army Chief of Staff, Taylor was an outspoken critic of the Eisenhower Administration's "New Look" defense policy, which he viewed as dangerously over-reliant on nuclear arms and neglectful of conventional forces; he also criticized the inadequacies of the Joint Chiefs of Staff system. Frustrated with the administration's failure to heed his arguments, General Taylor retired from active service in July 1959. He campaigned publicly against the "New Look," culminating in the publication in January 1960 of a highly critical book entitled "The Uncertain Trumpet."

Return to duty

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As the 1960 presidential campaign unfolded, Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy criticized Eisenhower's defense policy and championed a muscular "flexible response" policy intentionally aligned with Taylor's views as described in "The Uncertain Trumpet." After the April 1961 failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Kennedy, who felt the Joint Chiefs of Staff had failed to provide him with satisfactory military advice, appointed Taylor to head a task force to investigate the failure of the invasion.

Both President Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, had immense regard for Taylor, whom they saw as a man of unquestionable integrity, sincerity, intelligence, and diplomacy.^{[citation needed]} The Cuba Study Group met for six weeks from April to May 1961 to perform an "autopsy" on the disastrous events surrounding the Bay of Pigs Invasion. In the course of their work together, Taylor developed a deep regard and a personal affection for Robert F. Kennedy, a friendship that was wholly mutual and which remained firm until Kennedy's assassination in 1968.

Taylor spoke of Robert Kennedy glowingly: "He is always on the lookout for a 'snow job,' impatient with evasion and imprecision, and relentless in his determination to get at the truth." Robert Kennedy named one of his sons Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy (better known as an adult as "Max").

Shortly after the investigation concluded, the Kennedys' warm feelings for Taylor and the President's lack of confidence in the Joint Chiefs of Staff led John Kennedy to recall Taylor to active duty and install him in the newly created post of military representative to the president. His close personal relationship with the President and White House access effectively made Taylor the President's primary military adviser, cutting out the Joint Chiefs. On 1 October 1962, Kennedy ended this uncomfortable arrangement by appointing Taylor as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a position in which he served until 1964.

The Vietnam War

See also: McNamara Taylor mission

Taylor was of crucial importance during the first weeks and months of the Vietnam War. Whereas initially President Kennedy had told Taylor that "the independence of South Vietnam rests with the people and government of that country," Taylor was soon to recommend that 8,000 American combat troops be sent to the region at once. After making his report to the Cabinet and the Chiefs of Staff, Taylor was to reflect on the decision to send troops to South Vietnam: "I don't recall anyone who was strongly against, except one man, and that was the President. The President just didn't want to be convinced that this was the right thing to do.... It was really the President's personal conviction that U.S. ground troops shouldn't go in." ^[4]

Taylor opposed the 1963 South Vietnamese coup that overthrew President Ngo Dinh Diem.

A series of short-lived juntas followed, and after Taylor was made ambassador in 1964, he frequently clashed with General Nguyen Khanh.

Criticisms

Taylor received fierce criticism in Maj. (now BG) H.R. McMaster's book Dereliction of Duty. Specifically, Gen. Taylor was accused of intentionally misrepresenting the views of the Joint Chiefs to Secretary of Defense McNamara, and cutting the Joint Chiefs out of the decision-making process ^[5]. Whereas the Chiefs felt that it was their duty to offer unqualified assessments and recommendations on military matters, Gen. Taylor was of the firm belief that the chairman should not only support the president's decisions but also be a true believer in them. This discrepancy manifested itself during the early planning phases of the war, while it was still being decided what the nature of American involvement should be. McNamara and the civilians of the office of the secretary of defense were firmly behind the idea of graduated pressure—that is, to escalate pressure slowly against North Vietnam in order to demonstrate U.S. resolve. The Joint Chiefs, however, strenuously disagreed with this and believed that if the US got involved further in Vietnam, it should be with the clear intention of winning and through the use of overwhelming force. McMaster contends that using a variety of political maneuvering, including liberal use of outright deception, Gen. Taylor succeeded in keeping the Joint Chiefs' opinions away from the President and helped set the stage for McNamara to begin to dominate systematically the U.S. decision making process on Vietnam.

Second retirement

He again retired and became Ambassador to South Vietnam from 1964 to 1965, succeeding Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. He was Special Consultant to the President and Chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1965–1969) and President of the Institute for Defense Analyses (1966–1969).

General Taylor died in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 1987, of Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

Dramatic portrayals

• Taylor was portrayed by Paul Maxwell in A Bridge Too Far and by Bill Smitrovich in Thirteen Days.

See also

United States Army portal

• The Best and the Brightest

Notes

1. ^ Krebs, Albin (1987-04-21). "Maxwell D. Taylor, Soldier and Envoy, Dies". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/21/obituaries/maxwell-d-taylor-soldier-and-envoy-dies.html. Retrieved 2009-04-22. 
2. ^ Cole C. Kingseed (Fall 2003, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IAV/is_1_92/ai_114049389). "An American Soldier: the Wars of General Maxwell Taylor - Book Review'". ”Infantry Magazine. 
3. ^ West Point
4. ^ Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy: His Life and Times
5. ^ Dereliction of Duty McMaster, p. 63

References

• For Bay of Pigs and Vietnam War material - "Robert F. Kennedy and His Times", Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

• "The Chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." Ronald H. Cole, Lorna S. Jaffe, Walter S. Poole, Willard J. Webb. Joint History Office, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1995. Section II, pp. 77–84. http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/history/jcspart2.pdf

• "An American Soldier: the Wars of General Maxwell Taylor" John M. Taylor, Presidio Press, 1989

External links

• General Maxwell Taylor, Official Army Bio
• General Maxwell Taylor, Official Joint Chiefs of Staff Bio in pdf format
• Maxwell Davenport Taylor, General, United States Army at Arlington National Cemetery Website

Military offices
Preceded by Francis Bowditch Wilby	Superintendents of the United States Military Academy 1945–1949	Succeeded by Bryant Moore
Preceded by Gen. Matthew Ridgway	Chief of Staff of the United States Army 1955–1959	Succeeded by Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer
Preceded by Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer	Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1962–1964	Succeeded by Gen. Earle G. Wheeler
Preceded by Lt Gen. James Van Fleet	Commanding General of the Eighth United States Army 1953–1955	Succeeded by Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer
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Preceded by Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.	U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam 1964–1965	Succeeded by Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

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