TAYLOR, MAXWELL DAVENPORT

born Aug. 26, 1901, Keytesville, Mo., U.S. died April 19, 1987, Washington, D.C. U.S. Army officer who became a pioneer in airborne warfare in Europe during World War II. A 1922 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Taylor assisted in the organization of the U.S. Army's first airborne division, the 82nd, early in World War II. At great personal risk, he passed through enemy lines 24 hours before the Allied invasion of Italy (1943) to confer with Italian leaders in Rome. Later he led the 101st Airborne Division in its parachute assaults during the Normandy Invasion and the invasion of The Netherlands, and his division gained wide fame for its defense of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. As commanding general of the 8th Army in 1953, Taylor directed United Nations forces in Korea during the closing phases of the Korean War. He then served as Army chief of staff (195559), in which post he was an early (and rather isolated) advocate of the strategic doctrine of flexible response, which emphasized the maintenance of conventional infantry forces as a prudent wartime alternative to the all-out use of nuclear weapons. He was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy, to whom he was a trusted adviser. Two years later he became U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, which at that time was being given increasing military support by the United States. He resigned that post in July 1965 but served as a special consultant (196569) to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Taylor published two volumes on national security: The Uncertain Trumpet (1960) and Precarious Security (1976).