Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,868

This is the grave of Maxwell Taylor.

Born in 1901 in Keytesville, Missouri, a tiny town in the north central part of the state, Taylor was lucky enough to grow up in Kansas City, a far less horrible place for a talented young boy. He was an excellent student and wanted to go West Point. That worked out thanks to his congressman William Borland and his test scores. Taylor graduated fourth in the class of 1922 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers. His first assignment was in Hawaii, where he spent the years from 1923-26. Not bad for a young man. He entered the field artillery in 1926 and rose to first lieutenant shortly after that. He then went to Paris to learn French (another tough gig in the late 20s) and returned to West Point to teach cadets French and German, which he already knew pretty well. He became a captain in 1935. He was ambitious and kept taking different courses and programs within the military. It was hard for an officer to rise very far in the interwar military, but he kept at it. Finally, he was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Tokyo in 1935 and he spent the rest of the 30s in Asia, following the rise of the Japanese military and the increased tensions between his own nation and Japan. In 1939, he returned to the U.S. to attend the Army War College, graduating in 1940 and receiving a promotion to major.

So Taylor was well placed to play a major role in the Army as the nation entered World War II. He became chief of staff to the 82nd Infantry in July 1942, which in the next few months became the 82nd Airborne. He was promoted to brigadier general that year, though in a temporary fashion. Taylor became something of a legend. He would do anything, at very real risk to his life. He was deeply involved in the Sicily and Italy invasions, including parachuting into Rome in a secret mission to coordinate with free Italian forces. He wore his military uniform while on spy missions, so that if he was caught, he wouldn’t be shot. Taylor shot up the ranks of the military during the war due to his bravery and quality reporting on the ground that made a big difference in strategy. He then was assigned to command the 101st Airborne to prepare for Normandy, after its previous commander had a heart attack. He parachuted into France himself, the first general on the ground for the Allies. He continued to play an important role in the European theater for the rest of the war.

After the war, Taylor was named superintendent of West Point. He drafted the Cadet Honor Code in 1947, then was named to command Allied troops in West Berlin in 1949, staying in that role until 1951. He was promoted to lieutenant general in that latter year. He was only in Korea very briefly, at the end of the war in 1953. He was military governor of Japan shortly before the occupation ended in 1955. He then became Chief of Staff for the Army. Eisenhower sent him to Little Rock with the 101st to end segregation in those schools and put Orval Faubus in his place. But Taylor and Eisenhower did not like each other. Taylor was openly critical of Eisenhower’s foreign policy, which he felt was too reliant on nuclear weapons. So he retired from the military in 1959 and wrote a book and went public ripping Eisenhower.

Not surprisingly, this made Taylor close to John F. Kennedy, who as you may remember, ran to the right of Nixon on issues of national defense. Kennedy and Nixon both loved McCarthyism equally so I guess they had to separate from each other somehow and Nixon was hamstrung by Eisenhower’s policies that he could not really separate himself from. When the Bay of Pigs failed, Kennedy asked Taylor to lead a task force to analyze what happened. Kennedy then asked Taylor to come back to active service. In truth, he was already the most important military advisor in the administration.

This put Taylor at the top of the heap at the same time as the U.S. decided to go all in on Vietnam. And no one loved escalating the war more than Taylor, except possibly Robert McNamara and Walt Rostow. Taylor pushed for constant increases in troops sent to Vietnam. Taylor was a huge Diem supporter and opposed the coup that killed him. Of course, things were already falling apart in South Vietnam in 1963. Even after this, Taylor believed that stabilizing the government in Saigon was critical, but couldn’t get his around that these corrupt repressive clowns were the problem. His one frustration is that they were not more aggressive with killing communists. Taylor also became such a true believer that he took on Trumpist ideas about government. He came to believe that the Joint Chiefs should exist strictly to implement with full vigor the foreign policy of the president, not to provide advice or question the president. So basically, he thought the rest of the Joint Chiefs were disloyal to Kennedy and then Johnson, unlike him.

Historians have not treated Taylor kindly, nor should they. Tom Hicks, in his 2012 book The Generals, wrote:

Maxwell Taylor arguably was the most destructive general in American history. As Army chief of staff in the 1950s, he steered the US military toward engaging in ‘brushfire wars.’ As White House military adviser during the early 1960s, he encouraged President John F. Kennedy to deepen American involvement in Vietnam. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he poisoned relations between the military and civilian leadership. He was also key in picking Gen. William Westmoreland to command the war there.

Ouch.

Taylor resigned in 1964 and was basically discredited after that. He would never be that close to power again. He was a senior figure on endless lobbying operations and think tanks and the like. LBJ had him named to the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in 1965 but that was much more strictly advisory than Taylor was used to.

Taylor died in 1987, at the age of 85. It was ALS. I lost a friend to ALS in 2023, it was so horrible. Terrible disease.

Maxwell Taylor is buried on the confiscated lands of the traitor Lee, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.

If you would like this series to visit other Kennedy advisors, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Myer Feldman is in Adelphi, Maryland and Larry O’Brien, far more known for work with the NBA than as a Kennedy advisor, is in Springfield, Massachusetts. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.