General Maxwell Taylor

This is a biography of an American soldier, not one of the first rank in prominence, but still an important figure and an interesting man. Maxwell D. Taylor was assistant division commander of the 82nd Airborne Division through the Mediterranean campaign, visiting Rome incognito to scope out the prospects for the proposed airdrop on the Italian capitol in 1943. When the commander of the 101st Airborne fell ill early in '44, Taylor was the obvious successor, and he led that division through Normandy, Holland, the Ardennes, right up to the end of the war. There was more to Maxwell Taylor than soldiering, though. He spoke half a dozen languages fluently (oddly, given where he served in the War, one of the languages was Japanese) and spent some time as director of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. After the war, he rose to prominent rank in the army, commanding the forces in Korea in the last days of the conflict there, then serving as the Chief of Staff of the Army. He broke with the Eisenhower administration over policy issues, entered the private sector, and only returned when President Kennedy asked him to head up an inquiry into the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs under Kennedy, and as Ambassador to Viet Nam, before finally retiring. The author of this book is John M. Taylor, who happens to be the General's son. The book is therefor an interesting study in how analytical an author can be when writing about his own father. Frankly I think Taylor does a good job with Taylor, being relatively objective when he needs to be, and stating what the General thought about a particular issue intelligently. This is a relatively good biography of a relatively obscure figure. I don't imagine there will be another bio for a good long time, and that's fine, because this book will suffice.