Rufus Taylor

For the drummer, see Rufus Tiger Taylor.
Rufus Taylor
Birth name Rufus Lackland Taylor
Born 1910
St. Louis, Missouri
Died 1978 (aged 67–68)
Allegiance  United States
Service/branch  United States Navy
Rank Vice Admiral

Rufus Lackland Taylor (1910-1978) was a Vice Admiral in the United States Navy and Deputy Director of the CIA.

Career

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Taylor graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1933. He became Director of Naval Intelligence for the years 1963 to 1966. In June 1966, he was made Vice Admiral and Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. That September President Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed him Deputy Director of Central Intelligence at CIA; he was quickly confirmed by the United States Senate. He served at CIA under DCI Richard Helms. Taylor later resigned as DDCI effective February 1969.[1]

At CIA

In April 1967, Helms asked Taylor to oversee a difficult, intra-CIA dispute involving Yuri Nosenko, a Soviet defector. CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton had accused Nosenko of being a double agent and provocateur sent by the Soviets to penetrate American intelligence. As a result of this dilemma Nosenko was held for several years by CIA pending resolution. Taylor reported that Nosenko was no double agent and that Helms should set him free.[2] Despite strong objections from CIA counterintelligence, eventually Nosenko was released and put on the CIA payroll as a consultant, in March 1969.[3][4]

In May 1968, Helms had appointed a three-man review board regarding the case of Sam Adams, a mid-level analyst at CIA. The board was chaired by Taylor and included CIA general counsel, Lawrence Houston, and John Bross, assitant to the DCI. Adams had challenged the prevailing view of the number of Viet Cong guerrilas. MACV had lower numbers and stuck by them. The conflict between the military in the field and analysts in Washington became a serious concern in the Johnson Administration. Helms tried to finesse it. Adams cried foul at the compromise and filed a formal complaint against Helms. By August 1 the board found that although Adams' numbers were probably more accurate, his methodology could not provide certainty. While Adams himself had followed correct CIA procedure, he also had been given a fair opportunity to present his case. The board recommended another opportunity for Adams, a presentation to General Maxwell Taylor chairman of PFIAB. In November Adams discussed the situation with Helms. Eventually Adams resigned.[5][6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ John Ranelagh, The Agency. The rise and decline of the CIA (New York: Simon and Schuster 1978) at 736.
  2. ↑ Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes. The History of the CIA (New York: Doubleday 2007) at 276.
  3. ↑ Richard J. Heuer, Jr., "Nosenko: Five Paths to Judgment" in Studies in Intelligence (1987) at 31/3: 71-101; reprinted in H. Bradford Westerfield, editor, Inside CIA's Private World (Yale Univ. 1995) 379-414, at 383, 385.
  4. ↑ Edward Jay Epstein, Deception. The invisible war between the KGB and the CIA (New York: Simon and Schuster 1989), Nosenko as seen by Angleton & counterintelligence: pp. 11-16, 18-21, 30, 43-64, 74-75, 93-95.
  5. ↑ Ranelagh, The Agency (1986), pp. 469-471.
  6. ↑ Thomas Powers, The Man who kept the Secrets. Richard Helms and the CIA (New York: Alfred A. Knopt 1979), pp. 221-223. Powers tells a slightly different story.

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