Maxwell D. Taylor
Former United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of StaffWikipedia
23
MENTIONS
11
EPISODES
11
PODCASTS
Search complete. 23 mentions across 11 episodes found for "Maxwell D. Taylor".
Oct 29, 2026
Nicolas BocconiHOST
In the cabinet room, intelligence specialists explained the photographic evidence.
Nicolas BocconiHOST
Around Kennedy were officials responsible for diplomacy, defense, intelligence, including Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and General Maxwell Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Nicolas BocconiHOST
These discussions would develop into the group later formally established as the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, known as EXCOMM.
Nicolas BocconiHOST
The surviving recording lets us hear the uncertainty within that discussion.
Nicolas BocconiHOST
McNamara raised the danger of allowing the sites to become operational before an attack.
Nicolas BocconiHOST
He also explained that a military operation could extend beyond the missile installations to airfields and other targets with substantial Cuban casualties.
Nicolas BocconiHOST
Taylor emphasized surprise and the difficulty of choosing the ideal moment.
Nicolas BocconiHOST
More photographs might improve the understanding of the targets, while preparations on the ground continued.
Andrew MuellerHOST
As is very usually the case in positions of national leadership at times of crisis, President Kennedy found himself like a hungry man at a service station, presented with a menu of deeply unappealing options and obliged to choose something.
Andrew MuellerHOST
Some around the Cabinet room table, including CIA Director John McCone, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor, and, initially at least, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, favoured swift military action against Cuba, airstrikes and or invasion.
speaker_13SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
The argument, if you're going to get into it at all, whether we should just get into it and get it over with and say that, take our losses, and if we're going to, he wants to get to a war over this, and then we Hell, it's always going to come on this thing, you know, these six of them.
speaker_13SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Had the missiles in it just after the warning.
Mark PainterHOST
Allied commanders scrambled to respond to the surprise German offensive on the Western Front.
Mark PainterHOST
They frantically sought ways first to stop it and second to push the Germans back.
Mark PainterHOST
Welcome to the history of the 20th century.
Mark PainterHOST
He ordered the British 30th Corps to turn south and take up positions along the Meuse, which was in line with Eisenhower's defensive plan.
Mark PainterHOST
Eisenhower also ordered the two U.S. armies closest to the British, the 1st and 9th Armies, be transferred to Montgomery's command.
Mark PainterHOST
Montgomery had wanted exactly this for weeks, while Eisenhower and the other U.S. commanders were strongly opposed.
Mark PainterHOST
But the situation was different now.
Mark PainterHOST
The 1st Army was getting the brunt of the German attack, the 9th Army was between the 1st and the British forces farther north, The German advance had cut communications between these two American armies and Omar Bradley, the American Army Group commander, so temporarily assigning them to Montgomery, who had a clearer communication line with them, made sense.
Thomas777GUEST
the jfk special warfare center is so named not just because he was a murdered president and you know the military wanted to honor a fallen commander-in-chief it's because pretty much um upon taking the oath of office and especially after the disaster the big pigs you know kennedy declared look you know not just flexible response but you know a counterinsurgency doctrine That's become the order of the day.
Thomas777GUEST
And Maxwell Taylor, General Maxwell Taylor, could kind of be viewed as Kennedy's military mentor in a sense.
Thomas777GUEST
And he was sort of the father of flexible response.
Thomas777GUEST
But Taylor had minted the term.
MartyGUEST
McAuliffe.
JasonHOST
Maxwell Taylor.
DaveHOST
Oh.
DaveHOST
Yeah, okay.
ThomasGUEST
the JFK special warfare center is so named, not just because he was a murdered president and, you know, the military wanted to honor a fallen commander in chief.
ThomasGUEST
It's because pretty much, um, upon taking the oath of office and especially after the disaster, the big pigs, uh, know kennedy declared look you know not just flexible response but you know a counterinsurgency doctrine has become the order of the day um and uh maxwell taylor general maxwell taylor could kind of be viewed as uh kennedy's military mentor in a sense you know he and he was sort of the father of flexible response but um taylor had minted the term but The big emphasis was a strategic concept of limited war.
ThomasGUEST
And Kennedy became very much sold on this.
ThomasGUEST
And in no small measure because Khrushchev...
Charlie RoseHOST
Stay with us.
Charlie RoseHOST
Douglas MacArthur William Westmoreland Maxwell Taylor Their portraits hang in the office of the superintendent, the president of the university.
Charlie RoseHOST
All were graduates of West Point and served as superintendent.
Charlie RoseHOST
In recent years, it is the last position an individual holds in the Army.
James HollandHOST
Alan Millett.
James HollandHOST
Basically, in this thing, he says, you know, the whole deployment for D-Day was completely ridiculous, and one of the big problems was that, that, that Maxwell Taylor and Ridgway hated each other's guts, and so didn't cooperate properly and didn't come up with a plan.
James HollandHOST
And I have researched this everywhere I can possibly think of, and I've never found any reference anywhere apart from this one essay that says this.
John McManusGUEST
Yeah, I agree.
James HollandHOST
They got on fine, didn't they?
John McManusGUEST
I didn't find anything of the kind.
John McManusGUEST
And actually, Taylor was kind of Ridgway's protege.
Al MurrayHOST
Right.
Jocko WillinkHOST
I learned a great deal from them.
Jocko WillinkHOST
Mostly I had the good fortune to serve under close, serve under and closely observe the conduct of such men as Matthew B. Ridgeway," who actually I think we're gonna get into on the next podcast, "Maxwell D. Taylor, James M. Gavin, Creighton W. Abrams, and many others.
Jocko WillinkHOST
I watched these men very closely.
Jocko WillinkHOST
My wife is continually astonished at how much I remember about my former commanders and colleagues.
Don MastersonHOST
He had experience in counterinsurgency and psychological operations and served as chief of operations for the Cuba Project.
Don MastersonHOST
Above him sat the Special Group, augmented for Mongoose with senior figures including Attorney General Robert Kennedy and General Maxwell Taylor.
Don MastersonHOST
Agency heads and defense officials fed plans into this structure.
Don MastersonHOST
Policy decisions still had to travel through civilian authority.
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