Maxwell D. Taylor person
also: General Max Taylor, General Maxwell Taylor, General of the Army Maxwell Taylor, General Taylor, Mack Taylor, Max, Max Taylor, Maxwell D. Taylor, Maxwell Taylor, military advisor, Taylor, the general, the scholarly Taylor
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
John F. Kennedyperson · 21Vietnamcountry · 17CIAintelligence service · 15Robert F. Kennedyperson · 13National Security Councilorganization · 11United Statescountry · 10Edward Lansdaleperson · 9Cubacountry · 8Dwight D. Eisenhowerperson · 7Walt Rostowperson · 7Operation Plutooperation · 6Allen Dullesperson · 5Washington, D.C.place · 5Richard M. Bissell Jr.person · 5Lyndon B. Johnsonperson · 5Bay of Pigsoperation · 4Joint Chiefs of Stafforganization · 4Taylor Commissionevent · 4Fidel Castroperson · 3Lyman Lemnitzerperson · 3Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.person · 3Operation Mongooseoperation · 3McGeorge Bundyperson · 3Robert Komerperson · 3
Claims (61)
Maxwell D. Taylor operated_in
Vietnam documented
document
“It was decided to adopt the first proposal and to send Secretary of Defense McNamara and General Taylor on a fact-finding mission to Vietnam…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.234
Robert McNamara met_with
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
document
“It was decided to adopt the first proposal and to send Secretary of Defense McNamara and General Taylor on a fact-finding mission to Vietnam…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.234
Maxwell D. Taylor worked_for
Kennedy Administration documented
document
“The Committee has taken testimony from all living officials high in the Kennedy Administration who dealt with Cuban affairs…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.133
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
Taylor/Kennedy Board documented
document
“Robert Kennedy General Maxwell Taylor Allen Dulles and Admiral Arleigh Burke comprised the Board…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.135
Maxwell D. Taylor considered
Richard M. Bissell Jr. documented
document
“General Taylor considered Bissell to have been the principal government official in the Bay of Pigs operation…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.135
Richard M. Bissell Jr. met_with
Maxwell D. Taylor reported
document
“Bissell in his 'recent briefings of Taylor and Kennedy 'told the Attorney General that some of the associated planning included the use of Giancana and the underworld against Castro.…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.136
John F. Kennedy appointed
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
document
“On April 22 1961 following the Bay of Pigs failure the President requested General Maxwell Taylor to conduct a reevaluation of 'our practices and programs in the areas of military and paramilitary guerilla and anti-guerilla activity which f…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.149
Robert F. Kennedy worked_for
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
document
“and Robert Kennedy was to be his principal colleague in the effort…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.149
Maxwell D. Taylor met_with
Special Group (Augmented) documented
document
“At an SGA meeting on April 26 General Taylor requested that Harvey 'attend the next meeting and report on agent activities.'…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.167
Maxwell D. Taylor met_with
John F. Kennedy documented
document
“Shortly after the May 3 meeting General Taylor gave the President what Taylor called a 'routine briefing.'…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.168
Robert F. Kennedy relationship_with
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
document
“He said that Robert Kennedy and Maxwell Taylor (SGA Chairman) had "a relation of real trust and confidence.…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.171
Maxwell D. Taylor proposed
Operation Mongoose documented
document
“McNamara's concern 'led to the suggestion by General Taylor that we should consider changing the overall objective [of MONGOOSE] from one of overthrowing the Castro regime to one of causing its failure…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.177
Maxwell D. Taylor headed
5412 Group documented
document
“General Maxwell Taylor who later chaired Special Group meetings on Operation MONGOOSE stated that he had 'never heard of an assassination effort against Castro…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.133
John F. Kennedy relationship_with
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
document
“Evidence of Communist guerrilla activities in Southeast Asia and Africa convinced President Kennedy and his closest advisors including Robert Kennedy and General Maxwell Taylor of the need for the United States to develop an unconventional …”
source: government document — Church Committee Final Report, Book IV: Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Foreign and Military Intelligence · p.73
Maxwell D. Taylor headed
5412 Group documented
document
“Directed by General Maxwell Taylor the report recommended strengthening the top-level direction for operations by establishing a review group with permanent membership…”
source: government document — Church Committee Final Report, Book IV: Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Foreign and Military Intelligence · p.57
Maxwell D. Taylor met_with
William Harvey documented
document
“At a Special Group meeting on April 26 General Taylor requested that Harvey 'attend the next meeting and report on agent activities.…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.118
Maxwell D. Taylor headed
Special Group on Counter Insurgency documented
document
“General Maxwell Taylor chaired this group…”
source: government document — Church Committee Final Report, Book I: Foreign and Military Intelligence · p.60
Maxwell D. Taylor headed
5412 Group documented
document
“For a brief period General Maxwell Taylor President Kennedy's military adviser chaired the group…”
source: government document — Church Committee Final Report, Book I: Foreign and Military Intelligence · p.60
Edward Lansdale met_with
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
document
“Early in the MONGOOSE Program on December 7 1961 Gen Lansdale sent a memorandum concerning the Cuba Project to Maxwell Taylor U A Johnson Roswell Gilpatric and John McCone then DCI…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.349
David Bissell met_with
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
document
“Mr Bissell in his recent briefings of General Taylor and the Attorney General and in connection with their inquiries into CIA relating to the Cuban situation told the Attorney General that some of the associated planning included the use of…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.344
Maxwell D. Taylor worked_for
John F. Kennedy documented
document
“Maxwell Taylor testified that the President would simply listen to what the person briefing him had to say without responding affirmatively…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.328
Maxwell D. Taylor met_with
National Security Council documented
document
“On October 2 McNamara and Taylor returned to Washington and presented their findings to the National Security Council…”
source: government document — Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (Church Committee Interim Report) · p.234
Maxwell D. Taylor appointed
Vietnam documented
“and served as a counterweight to Curtis LeMay, who basically just wanted to bomb everything. Later, Taylor would be named ambassador to South Vietnam, which is critical because he would be overseeing the drug trade from his perch in South V…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Hidden Terrors by AJ Langguth Part 2 @ 37:23
John F. Kennedy appointed
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
“Congress as a whole never explicitly considered the Laos request. It passed on budgets of those agencies that were involved. Most of it classified. Henry Sullivan almost missed his assignment to Laos as an ambassador because Maxwell Taylor …”
▶ The Colonel’s corner President’s secret wars Chap 14 @ 1:01:40
Maxwell D. Taylor headed
Counterintelligence Corps documented
“He convened a number of high-ranking officials and called them the Counterintelligence Group, the CIG. The members arrived, but were not too enthusiastic about being there. Given the time, they would have worked on what they titled Nation B…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Hidden Terrors by AJ Langguth Part 2 @ 36:21
John F. Kennedy appointed
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
“He forms a Cuban study group. The study group consists of Alan Dulles, General Maxwell Taylor, who was a personal military advisor to Kennedy. So that was his guy on the inside. Admiral Arleigh Burke and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The…”
▶ OPERATION GLADIO Exposed by COLONEL TOWNER in The Empire on Which the Black Sun Never Set, Chapter 7 @ 35:05
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
United Wa State Army book_quoted
“But as thoroughly modern, flexible officers, they had like a kind of the macho airborne model. Mack Taylor was not the typical officer. The more conventional army officers were the men who throughout the 50s tried to undermine the developme…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 25:36
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
United Wa State Army book_quoted
“Only three days after Taylor's visit to Gettysburg, Kennedy signed a charter letter appointing Taylor to advise and assist on military matters, which was basically an intelligence function at that point. With these general duties, Kennedy i…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 24:38
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
United Wa State Army book_quoted
“Max wondered if he should ask Dulles to test the waters ahead of him. Allen was in no position to do favors that day. He himself had been in the woodshed with the former president over the botched Bay of Pigs. Neither man needed to have wor…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 23:46
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
United Wa State Army book_quoted
“But one of the main recommendations of the Taylor report was to establish just such an entity with the report called Strategic Resource Group. General Taylor returned to Washington where he declined the offer to serve as DCI, yet he did not…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 24:10
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
United Wa State Army book_quoted
“Robert Kennedy privately talked with Taylor about serving in the administration. He continued to resist, but softened to Robert Kennedy's wit and his skill as a negotiator. Taylor paid Bobby Kennedy the compliment of saying that he would ha…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 22:44
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
West Point book_quoted
“being airdropped into different locations. Later, he had been the last wartime commander of the US 8th Army in Korea, as well as a superintendent at West Point. Having adopted the flexible response argument, Kennedy could not help but be im…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 21:49
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
United Wa State Army book_quoted
“which JFK approved on January 18, 1962. This established the special group called the CI for counterinsurgency to formulate plans subject to the president's approval. Military men who worked on Operation Mongoose remembered that Taylor insi…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 25:07
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts book_quoted
“reiterate one of the first National Security Action Memorandums of his administration, which was NSAM National Security Action Memorandum 3, issued only two days later. As the instruments to effect change within the military, JFK selected M…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 20:51
Maxwell D. Taylor appointed
William Sullivan book_quoted
“We're going to pick up right there. William Sullivan almost missed his assignment to Laos as the ambassador because Maxwell Taylor had wanted him to serve as chief of staff for the new mission in Vietnam. Taylor, as ambassador there, direct…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 1:23
Lyndon B. Johnson appointed
Maxwell D. Taylor book_quoted
“President Johnson had prevailed on Taylor to assume the ambassadorship at Saigon, leaving his post as chairman. That's kind of where we left off yesterday. So Bill Sullivan could hardly refuse the summons. Taylor was President Johnson's lik…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 1:53
Maxwell D. Taylor chaired
Green Board documented
“It was chaired by General Maxwell Taylor. And for those of you who don't remember the story, General Taylor was a military advisor to Kennedy while Lyman Lemonsker was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. When Lyman Lemonsker got fire…”
▶ OPERATION GLADIO Exposed by COLONEL TOWNER in Presidents' Secret Wars Chapter 11 cont @ 7:06
Maxwell D. Taylor recruited
United Wa State Army book_quoted
“A classic field unit was an A-team at the lowest level, small units of Americans who could command and advise larger irregular formations. To perform technical and medical services and furnish support, the A-team had a wide range of skill e…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 32:01
Maxwell D. Taylor headed
Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board book_quoted
“The president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which Nixon reconstituted by executive order on March 20th, 1969, remained the sole alternative. Maxwell Taylor, its first chairman, was in declining health and left after about a year. H…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 33 (35) @ 21:24
George Anderson succeeded
Maxwell D. Taylor book_quoted
“The president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which Nixon reconstituted by executive order on March 20th, 1969, remained the sole alternative. Maxwell Taylor, its first chairman, was in declining health and left after about a year. H…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 33 (35) @ 21:24
Maxwell D. Taylor headed
Taylor Commission documented
“but he failed to halt the White House momentum that was building for Dulles' termination. The battle over Dulles' future as CIA director came to a head during a presidential investigation of the Bay of Pigs, a few days after the failed inva…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Devil's Chessboard Part 18 @ 40:37
Maxwell D. Taylor opposed
Dwight D. Eisenhower documented
“but its interests were scarily known outside the government while army officers trumpeted their opposition to downsizing. The most prominent army spokesperson was General Maxwell Taylor. Specifically, Taylor asserted that the strategy of ma…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Chap 24 (25) @ 36:59
Dwight D. Eisenhower rejected
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
“the threat at any level. At the CIA, which saw paramilitary action as a rung on the conflict ladder, the secret warriors undoubtedly cheered this approach. But at the White House, Eisenhower gave short shrift to Taylor's views. Again, they …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Chap 24 (25) @ 37:28
Julian Ewell conveyed_responses_for
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
“Ewell, the general's kind of strong-arm guy, soaked up Bissell's comments and gave back Taylor's responses. Bissell's paper grew odd tentacles in successive drafts over the fall of 1961, presenting an update on covert action procedures to K…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Chap 24 (25) @ 42:27
Robert Komer recommended
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
“Bissell suddenly spoke of regaining public confidence in the CIA's covert action by revealing the existence of the special group, much as Eisenhower had once revealed the Killian board. At another point, Bob Comer did a summary of Bissell's…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Chap 24 (25) @ 42:53
Maxwell D. Taylor chaired
National Security Council documented
“the matters continued and said the nomenclature had now been reversed. The 5412 group became the insider jargon. A third special group also appeared. The special group augmented. The difference was that Max Taylor chaired the 5412 group exi…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Chap 24 (25) @ 54:04
Maxwell D. Taylor exposed
Operation Pluto book_quoted
“concluded that it had been incumbent on the president at the latest by November or December of 1960 to make basic decisions as to how far the U.S. was willing to go. By not confronting that choice himself, Eisenhower left questions history …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 21 (22) @ 18:19
Maxwell D. Taylor appointed
Edward Lansdale book_quoted
“Robert McNamara and Bobby Kennedy sat in on the meeting. A Goodwin note on November 22nd indicates that the secret warrior had already put his thoughts on paper. When Maxwell Taylor convened the special group the same day, he said that Edwa…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 26 (27) @ 15:18
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
National Security Council book_quoted
“Robert McNamara and Bobby Kennedy sat in on the meeting. A Goodwin note on November 22nd indicates that the secret warrior had already put his thoughts on paper. When Maxwell Taylor convened the special group the same day, he said that Edwa…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 26 (27) @ 15:18
Maxwell D. Taylor member_of
Joint Chiefs of Staff book_quoted
“They wanted to identify countries where propaganda gains against Castro were possible and issues the CIA could use to that end. For all the work built to a meeting with Kennedy in the Oval Office on March 14th, 1962, everyone was there. The…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 26 (27) @ 21:53
Maxwell D. Taylor ordered_assassination_of
Fidel Castro book_quoted
“Acting on specific instructions from Maxwell Taylor, the executive secretary of the special group asked Taylor's assistant to develop a contingency plan. What was wanted was a plan against the contingency that Castro would in some way or an…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 26 (27) @ 36:46
Maxwell D. Taylor succeeded
Lyman Lemnitzer documented
“It was chaired by General Maxwell Taylor. And for those of you who don't remember the story, General Taylor was a military advisor to Kennedy while Lyman Lemonsker was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. When Lyman Lemonsker got fire…”
▶ OPERATION GLADIO Exposed by COLONEL TOWNER in Presidents' Secret Wars Chapter 11 cont @ 7:06
Maxwell D. Taylor asserted
Dwight D. Eisenhower book_quoted
“Specifically, Taylor asserted that the strategy of massive nuclear retaliation could not counter brushfire wars and that the U.S. should adopt a strategy of flexible response to be able to conduct conflict at any level. At the CIA, where pa…”
▶ OPERATION GLADIO Exposed by COLONEL TOWNER in Presidents' Secret Wars Chapter 12 @ 19:08
John F. Kennedy appointed
Maxwell D. Taylor book_quoted
“Only three days after Taylor's visit to Gettysburg, Kennedy signed a charter letter appointing Taylor to advise and assist on military matters, which was basically an intelligence function at that point. With these general duties, Kennedy i…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 24:38
John F. Kennedy appointed
Maxwell D. Taylor book_quoted
“But one of the main recommendations of the Taylor report was to establish just such an entity with the report called Strategic Resource Group. General Taylor returned to Washington where he declined the offer to serve as DCI, yet he did not…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 24:10
John F. Kennedy supported
Maxwell D. Taylor book_quoted
“in Korea, as well as a superintendent at West Point. Having adopted the flexible response argument, Kennedy could not help but be impressed with the man. As Taylor recalls, within a few days of the inauguration, he refused an offer to be th…”
▶ OPERATION GLADIO Exposed by COLONEL TOWNER in Presidents' Secret Wars Chapter 12 @ 21:57
John F. Kennedy appointed
Maxwell D. Taylor book_quoted
“General Taylor returned to Washington where he declined the offer to serve as DCI, yet he did not escape from intelligence. President Kennedy immediately offered Taylor a position in the White House as his special military representative. O…”
▶ OPERATION GLADIO Exposed by COLONEL TOWNER in Presidents' Secret Wars Chapter 12 @ 24:22
John F. Kennedy appointed
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
“The President Kennedy responded to the recommendations with a National Security Action Memorandum 55 and 56. 55, in fact, appointed the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for military-type actions in time of peace as well as war. 56 orde…”
▶ OPERATION GLADIO Exposed by COLONEL TOWNER in Presidents' Secret Wars Chapter 11 cont @ 14:08
Maxwell D. Taylor headed
Bay of Pigs Invasion book_quoted
“He remained for the moment in New York, where he read confused reports about the Bay of Pigs. Two days after the fall of Garon, President Kennedy called and personally asked Taylor to head the inquiry into the Bay of Pigs. The general began…”
▶ OPERATION GLADIO Exposed by COLONEL TOWNER in Presidents' Secret Wars Chapter 12 @ 22:24
Maxwell D. Taylor headed
Green Board documented
“This investigation was done by a committee, of course, and it's called the Green Board. It was chaired by General Maxwell Taylor. And for those of you who don't remember the story, General Taylor was a military advisor to Kennedy while Lyma…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner – Presidents’ Secret Wars Chapter 11 cont’d @ 8:10
Lyman Lemnitzer succeeded
Maxwell D. Taylor documented
“This investigation was done by a committee, of course, and it's called the Green Board. It was chaired by General Maxwell Taylor. And for those of you who don't remember the story, General Taylor was a military advisor to Kennedy while Lyma…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner – Presidents’ Secret Wars Chapter 11 cont’d @ 8:10
Mentions (73)
▶ 57:02
The only reason he was ever indicted was the D.A. Morgenthau followed this up for years and put all of the pieces together without any help from the Department of Justice at all. This this this dude was involved in quite a few things. Look …
▶ 35:29
Now, JFK had just finished the Bay of Pigs. He had a little egg on his face with the military, so he didn't want to firefight him, like make him retire. So he just said, you need to move. I'm backfilling you with Maxwell Taylor, and I want …
▶ 17:54
who had just returned from a trip, was suggesting that that's probably something that was needed. Rostow had taken Ed Lansdale along with him on a special assignment to compile a survey for unconventional warfare. The Taylor-Rostow report a…
▶ 18:23
along with increased covert offensive operations against the North. Once more, President Kenney rejected the troop requests while approving almost everything else. Indeed, more secret warriors were reaching South Vietnam. The same day he se…
▶ 31:18
a CIA officer by the name of Alfonso Spero, S-P-E-R-O, to tell the Vietnamese generals that the substance of Hillman's cable and to say the U.S. would not oppose a coup if they could conduct one. McCone went on to oppose the coup initiative…
▶ 42:02
Both DeSoto patrols and the 34-A operations were temporarily halted while Washington debated the policy. The Joint Chiefs of Staff argued for open military action bombing North Vietnam and relaxing the rules of engagement of actual combat m…
▶ 19:46
and known since March 31, 1959 as Air America. General Lansdell's memorandum in 1961 to Maxwell Taylor on unconventional warfare, published as part of the Pentagon Papers, confirmed this. This is an actual quote from those papers. Civil Air…
▶ 36:21
He convened a number of high-ranking officials and called them the Counterintelligence Group, the CIG. The members arrived, but were not too enthusiastic about being there. Given the time, they would have worked on what they titled Nation B…
▶ 36:52
who had dropped from favor during the Eisenhower administration for warning the country against the Pentagon's reliance on nuclear weapons. He wrote in his views on a new frontier that he regarded would be a hybrid of different measures in …
▶ 37:23
and served as a counterweight to Curtis LeMay, who basically just wanted to bomb everything. Later, Taylor would be named ambassador to South Vietnam, which is critical because he would be overseeing the drug trade from his perch in South V…
▶ 39:18
When Lyndon Johnson became president, he sent Ambassador Johnson to South Vietnam as deputy ambassador to Taylor. Alexis Johnson's committee recognized immediately that there was a new central and more powerful police office, and that decis…
▶ 36:15
In Washington, an array of top representatives of the U.S. government were edgy. The March 31st telecon to Gordon came from Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, the General of the Army Maxwell Taylor, General Andrew Amaro, CIA Director John McCone, …
▶ 1:23
We're going to pick up right there. William Sullivan almost missed his assignment to Laos as the ambassador because Maxwell Taylor had wanted him to serve as chief of staff for the new mission in Vietnam. Taylor, as ambassador there, direct…
▶ 1:53
President Johnson had prevailed on Taylor to assume the ambassadorship at Saigon, leaving his post as chairman. That's kind of where we left off yesterday. So Bill Sullivan could hardly refuse the summons. Taylor was President Johnson's lik…
▶ 19:02
The most prominent Army spokesperson was Chief of Staff General Max Taylor. Specifically, Taylor asserted that the strategy of massive nuclear retaliation could not counter brushfire wars and that the U.S. should adopt a strategy of flexibl…
▶ 20:51
reiterate one of the first National Security Action Memorandums of his administration, which was NSAM National Security Action Memorandum 3, issued only two days later. As the instruments to effect change within the military, JFK selected M…
▶ 21:20
as president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, which was then in its final stages of construction. This employment seemed to make Taylor even more attractive to JFK. Here was a general who was cultured, who had writ…
▶ 21:49
being airdropped into different locations. Later, he had been the last wartime commander of the US 8th Army in Korea, as well as a superintendent at West Point. Having adopted the flexible response argument, Kennedy could not help but be im…
▶ 22:20
Taylor himself had just signed a five-year contract at the Lincoln Center. He remained for the moment in New York, where he read confused reports about the Bay of Pigs. Two days after the fall of Garonne, President Kennedy called and person…
▶ 22:44
Robert Kennedy privately talked with Taylor about serving in the administration. He continued to resist, but softened to Robert Kennedy's wit and his skill as a negotiator. Taylor paid Bobby Kennedy the compliment of saying that he would ha…
▶ 23:17
Bobby Kennedy told the general that the president was going to replace Allen Dulles at the CIA and offered Taylor the job. While still considering the offer in June of 1961, Mack Taylor helicoptered to Gettysburg with Allen Dulles to brief …
▶ 23:46
Max wondered if he should ask Dulles to test the waters ahead of him. Allen was in no position to do favors that day. He himself had been in the woodshed with the former president over the botched Bay of Pigs. Neither man needed to have wor…
▶ 24:10
But one of the main recommendations of the Taylor report was to establish just such an entity with the report called Strategic Resource Group. General Taylor returned to Washington where he declined the offer to serve as DCI, yet he did not…
▶ 24:38
Only three days after Taylor's visit to Gettysburg, Kennedy signed a charter letter appointing Taylor to advise and assist on military matters, which was basically an intelligence function at that point. With these general duties, Kennedy i…
▶ 25:07
which JFK approved on January 18, 1962. This established the special group called the CI for counterinsurgency to formulate plans subject to the president's approval. Military men who worked on Operation Mongoose remembered that Taylor insi…
▶ 53:18
And it's worth noting that the parallel argument that Congress had in effect approved a declaration of war by appropriating money for the Vietnam was later ruled invalid. Just because you fund it doesn't mean you're allowed to do it. Harry …
▶ 1:01:40
Congress as a whole never explicitly considered the Laos request. It passed on budgets of those agencies that were involved. Most of it classified. Henry Sullivan almost missed his assignment to Laos as an ambassador because Maxwell Taylor …
▶ 1:02:09
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So Taylor, as ambassador, directed all aspects of the U.S. operations, including the military advisory command. President Johnson had prevailed on Taylor to assume the ambassadorship in Saigon, lea…
▶ 1:02:41
LBJ saw it as putting his first team in place. Bill Sullivan could hardly refuse the summons. Taylor was the president's man in LBJ, much as for JFK, while Sullivan was the State Department officer chairing the Washington interagency meetin…
▶ 8:10
This investigation was done by a committee, of course, and it's called the Green Board. It was chaired by General Maxwell Taylor. And for those of you who don't remember the story, General Taylor was a military advisor to Kennedy while Lyma…
▶ 10:08
and that the Operation Pluto plan itself had had marginal character, which increased with each additional limitation. But not actually rejecting the CIA plan outright, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Taylor, seemed to have approv…
▶ 12:06
That the plane sitting on the ground in Cuba didn't look anything like the same model that you landed there and pretended that was theirs, that was exposed by the first junior reporter that took a picture of it. But that's not a CIA intelli…
▶ 17:11
basically Operation Gladio style shit. So they end up with a whole bunch of recommendations. And though the CIA might not have looked so bad in the Taylor report, there is no question that the debacle stripped away the veneer that Dallas ha…
▶ 36:59
but its interests were scarily known outside the government while army officers trumpeted their opposition to downsizing. The most prominent army spokesperson was General Maxwell Taylor. Specifically, Taylor asserted that the strategy of ma…
▶ 37:28
the threat at any level. At the CIA, which saw paramilitary action as a rung on the conflict ladder, the secret warriors undoubtedly cheered this approach. But at the White House, Eisenhower gave short shrift to Taylor's views. Again, they …
▶ 37:58
The general retired to write a book that advanced forces to meet the full spectrum of contingencies, including brush fire wars, as he called them. No doubt Tracy Barnes agonized over the Bay of Pigs, paid little attention when a letter cros…
▶ 41:54
which is basically CIA sheep dipped into the Pentagon. Closely watched at the White House, Bissell's study became almost his swan song at the CIA. In contrast to pre-Cuba days, he now listened hard to what the White House had to say. From t…
▶ 42:53
Bissell suddenly spoke of regaining public confidence in the CIA's covert action by revealing the existence of the special group, much as Eisenhower had once revealed the Killian board. At another point, Bob Comer did a summary of Bissell's…
▶ 43:22
which his assistant, John Bross, distributed in November of 21, or on the 21st. Although Comer assured Bissell that his summary changes changed nothing in the paper, he told his boss, McGeorge Bundy, quote, I took advantage of Walt's immine…
▶ 53:04
The countries are not threatened. The United States oligarchs are threatened. Bissell's last act would thus be to move Kennedy to reorganize his machinery for covert action. In fact, the special group talked over Bissell's report on Decembe…
▶ 54:04
the matters continued and said the nomenclature had now been reversed. The 5412 group became the insider jargon. A third special group also appeared. The special group augmented. The difference was that Max Taylor chaired the 5412 group exi…
▶ 54:39
Identical, save for his addition and its specific focus on Cuba. Maxwell Taylor had been a paratrooper. In the Army in his time, paratroopers were considered military elite. Solidly cast in the airborne mold, Max Taylor was unusual, just as…
▶ 1:02:15
rosto on amazingly jacobin.com and i actually put it in the purple pill and it literally says that he his he advocated for capitalism by virtue of brutal um uh by brutal war tactics against other other countries yes yes they're they're pred…
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Max Taylor was head of the 82nd Airborne and the 101st Airborne. He actually would have been at Bastogne, but he was in D.C. at the time because they were figuring he wouldn't have been there. But the guy who said nuts to the Germans should…
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And that responsible action meant to do whatever's necessary. They've boxed JFK into a corner and they had every intention of using military forces. The plan depended on it. The post-mortem conducted later by a panel under General Maxwell T…
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That no American were to be involved in combat remained a fundamental assumption. After the fiasco in Indonesia, it is doubtful whether Eisenhower would have accepted any direct involvement. But before the end of his administration, America…
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proved very active, and Maxwell Taylor's special group made sure it stayed that way. Army civilian executive Joseph Califano Jr. came to think that Krulak's nickname, Brute, B-R-U-T-E, was well chosen. Richard Bissell had been an enthusiast…
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It's worth noting that a parallel argument that Congress had in effect approved a declaration of war by appropriating money for the Vietnam War. That would be ruled invalid by the courts. Larry Houston believed it was for the administration…
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with how the special group could monitor implementation. But then they heard Max Taylor say his group had no such capability. A judgment seconded on another occasion by the State Department U. Alexis Johnson. Queried on September 1963 by La…
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But Lansdale's forte had always been propaganda, back to advertising before World War II. McNamara's shot proved insufficient to move him to dismiss Lansdale. Probably because he wasn't allowed because he's actually CIA. Because any other g…
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complex nevertheless furnished Maxwell Taylor's committee a full readout on Cuba. According to the CIA, the anti-Castro political groups were becoming more realistic, though Miro Codona being subsidized to the tune of $90,000 a month, $90,0…
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Robert McNamara and Bobby Kennedy sat in on the meeting. A Goodwin note on November 22nd indicates that the secret warrior had already put his thoughts on paper. When Maxwell Taylor convened the special group the same day, he said that Edwa…
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That Taylor, who had struggled to exclude Lansdale from his own recent Vietnam inspection trip and then to minimize Lansdale's role on it, should want him to be ambassador is striking. Several days, maybe he was just trying to get rid of hi…
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Bundy's doodles and notes reveal that the special group talked over a number of the Cuban exiles ready to fight teams necessary for various operations, their transportation needs, hardware, and then the point when the U.S. might intervene. …
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Just before the president entered, Lansdale told the group that Taylor's guidelines would preclude success. Taylor emphasized the need to gather intelligence. President Kennedy, as he had done in the Bay of Pigs, shut off discussion of U.S.…
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CIA under a leash, at least they thought they did. Where Max Taylor told them to proceed on a low key, Bobby Kennedy insisted no time, money, or effort should be spared. He met with the managers of his Justice Department office to drive the…
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Acting on specific instructions from Maxwell Taylor, the executive secretary of the special group asked Taylor's assistant to develop a contingency plan. What was wanted was a plan against the contingency that Castro would in some way or an…
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And Chase wrote a paper for the special group on the continued need for secrecy using the August raids as an example. Ted Shackley's unit made only three more raids on Cuba. By now, McGeorge Bundy wore many hats. Among them was chairman of …
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Moving on to Chapter 15, where we get into Southeast Asia. Although not cut from the same cloth as Maxwell Taylor, Ed Lansdale also considered himself something of a theorist. Managing Operation Mongoose and backstopping covert actions at t…
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Kennedy faced a recommendation for a commitment of regular U.S. troops, this time from Maxwell Taylor, you know, the guy that was supposed to be the conservative, and Walt Ristow. He had just returned from a survey trip. General Taylor trie…
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Helping the Bissell study of resources for unconventional warfare, the Taylor-Rustow report included options for a radical increase in the number of Green Berets and increased covert offensive operations in the North, as well as Laos and So…
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almost like they ignored him. The same day he sent Taylor and Rostow to Saigon, JFK ordered a training squadron to be operational on November 16th, 1961. It flew missions under code name Farmgate. The deployment figured in a wider expansion…
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sensitivity to Vietnam developments, the president took up this question directly. Both DeSoto and 34A operations were put on a pause temporarily. The Joint Chiefs argued for action bombing North Vietnam and relaxing restrictions on America…
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The president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which Nixon reconstituted by executive order on March 20th, 1969, remained the sole alternative. Maxwell Taylor, its first chairman, was in declining health and left after about a year. H…
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focused on political issues. Board Executive Secretary Jared Burke accompanied the group on this trip. The National Security Agency officer with long service as chief of staff to General Marshall Carter and a good friend of Max Taylor's. Bu…
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but he failed to halt the White House momentum that was building for Dulles' termination. The battle over Dulles' future as CIA director came to a head during a presidential investigation of the Bay of Pigs, a few days after the failed inva…
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far-flung Washington Network, later called Taylor another key CIA man in the White House. Dulles, who was appointed to the Taylor Commission along with his ally, Admiral Burke, sounds like the Warren Commission, must have thought he had the…
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also felt a sense of loyalty to Kennedy, who had championed the general when Taylor broke with Eisenhower's dullest policy over massive retaliation in favor of a nuanced strategy of flexible response. JFK, who was influenced by Taylor's 195…
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The attorney general proved to be a tougher advocate for White House than Dulles and Arleigh Burke were for their institutions. RFK deftly blocked the two Kennedy antagonists from focusing blame on the president. As the committee completed …
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Schlesinger was not enthusiastic about Kennedy's choice of General Taylor to oversee the Bay of Pigs post-mortem, regarding the general as very pleasant, a man of limited interest and imagination. Nor was Taylor the sort of crusading offici…
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toward drastic reorganization of the intelligence services. But it was Schlesinger whom Kennedy tapped to develop an ambitious CIA reorganization plan, while Taylor was limited to the Bay of Pigs inquest. The historian was able to convince …
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when the Dulles forces, including Taylor himself and the CIA congressional allies, immediately mounted a stubborn resistance to the new plan. Kennedy realized that overhauling the U.S. intelligence complex was going to be much trickier than…
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RFK browbeat Harvey so severely one day at a White House meeting on Cuba that Max Taylor later told the Attorney General, you can sack a town and enjoy it. Harvey took to calling RFK the fucker and began suggesting that some of the Attorney…