Taylor, Maxwell

Taylor, Maxwell (1901–1987), World War II and Korean War Veteran, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), ambassador to Vietnam.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.

Douglas Kinnard