TELFORD TAYLOR AND THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700470028-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: July 7, 1961
• Content Type: OPEN

Approved For Release 2004/12/15 : CIA-RDP75-00149Rb00700470028-7,,
BRIDGES. Mr. President, I re-
quest unanimous consent to,have printed
in the body of the RECORD. al .,Article
which appeared in the Newark
.itar-Ledger of June 14, 196r. ,LThi
article appeared on page 1 under` the I
_eading "Protests, ,Mount ,Against T
cord Taylor as CIA Boss." It was wrjt
ten by Edward J, Mowery under a Wa.s
ington dateline.
I think the information contained in
this article may `be of interest to the
Members of the Senate because some
confusion arise Wi.tkl respect to indi--
viduals.nalhed ' Gel eraLTayl?r."
There being no objection, the article
was ordered to be printed in the RECORD,
as follows:
PROJECT$ MOUNT AGAINST TELFORD TAYLOR AS
CIA Boss
(By Edward g
WASHINGTON. active boom for re-
tired Brig. Gen. -Teilord Taylor to ,head the
Central Intelligence Agency used
grave concern, even consternation apl-
tal Hill.
Allen W. Dulles, 68-year-old CIA Director
(since 1953) ha, ...evincgd V,,dgs're to "step
out. But he has been held persdlialjy're-
sponsible for the abortive, Q;A directed
Cuban invasion and is expected M--be re- j
placed
.
Taylor, a product of Harvard Law School, a
native of Schenectady, and a New York City
lawyer, is known as a perennial champion
of leftists, whose professional -talents have
aided such individuals as Harry Bridges,
various Smith Act defendants, and union
moguls with asserted Communist leanings.
Others mentioned for the Dulles post are
Gen. Maxwell.4;~, Taylor (who heads,,,a cony-
mittee probing CIA) Deputy Attorney Gen-
eral Byron it. "Whizzer" White (reputed
choice of his boss, Robert F. Kennedy), and
Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway (favored by Gen.
Douglas MacArthur). .
But the ground swell for Taylor's nomina-
tion, it was learned yesterday, has reached
the cloakroom discussion stage, and Taylor
has reportedly been interviewed extensively
for the CIA
t
pos
.
Taylor supporters claim they have the
sympathy of Walter W. Rostow, deputy spe-
cial assistant to the President for national
security affairs.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle coyly
dodged all direct questions relating to the
Taylor rumors, but they did not mask their
concern.
Congress, they indicated, will take a hard,
solid look at any nominee for the important
CIA directorship which requires Senate con-
firmation via the Senate Armed Services
Committee.
Senator THOMAS J. DODD, Democrat, of
Connecticut, vice chairman of the Senate
Internal Security Subcommittee-who also
refused to comment on Taylor rumors;-
characterized the CIA top post as a vital
rung In safeguarding America's security.
DODD, who has served with. Naval Intel-
ligence, the FBI, and as vice chairman of the
Nurember
g war triali b
revewoard, declared:
"This position (CIA Director) is one of
the most sensitive, 'delicate, and important
in the Federal Government. Both the Pres-
ident and the country must have unques-
tioned confidence in whomever is chosen to
fill it.
"I would place this position on a level with
that of the Secretary of Defense and Direc-
tor of the FBI, requiring the same kind and
degree of confidence ?.e that reposed in J.
Edgar Hoover.
"I personally believe that the individual
(named to the CIA), his qualifications and
background will come under exhaustive
scrutiny by the Congress * * *."
Who is Telford Taylor, an apparent front-
ruliner in the scramble for the top job in
the supersecret Central Intelligence Agency?
HELD MANY POSTS
Newspaper files, CONGRESSIONAL RECORDS,
and other data disclose that Taylor (now 53)
entered Government service as a young New
Deal lawyer In 1933 in the Department of
the Interior.
He served successively in the Agricultural
Adjustment Administration, Attorney Gen-
eral's Office, and Federal Communications
Commission (General Counsel) before enter-
ing the Army in 1942.
After a brief stint in military intelligence
(Europe), Taylor became a staff colonel
(1945) at the Nuremberg war trials and chief
U.S. counsel at proceedings subsequent to
the Four Power trials of principal defend-
ants. He became a brigadier general in 1946.
ATTACKED IN SENATE
The "Nuremberg Trial Scandal"-alleged
procedures under Taylor's direction-erupted
before Presiding Judge Charles F. Wenner-
strum left Germany. The judge bitterly at-
tacked prosecution procedures.
Charges against Taylor exploded in. the
Senate In two stages. On May 1, 1950, Mrs.
Freda Utley, a self-described former member
of the British Communist Party who lived 6
years in the U.S.S.R., described Taylor as
being "sympathetic" to the Soviet Union,
"one of a number * * * with leftish sym-
pathies."
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Subcommittee (p. 777 of the record),
Mrs. Utley (an author) said she considered
America to be the hope of the free world,
"and people like [Owen] Lattimore a menace
to our freedom."
MADE CHARGE IN BOOK
"Question. Did you write 'The High Cost
of Vengeance' (a book about Germany) and
did you refer to Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor as.
being sympathetic to Soviet Russia?
"Answer. In a chapter I referred to a num-
ber of people with those kind of leftish sym'
pathles * * * who has been placed In high
position * * * and I referred to Telford Tay-
lor. That was the general opinion of Mr.
Taylor * * *."
(Representative GEORGE A. DONDERO, Re-
publican, of Michigan, had previously de-
manded an investigation of Nuremberg trial
procedures and the "Communist clique"
which had assertedly penetrated the Taylor
staff.)
TRUMAN APPOINTEE
On December 18, 1950, the late Senator
William Langer, Republican, of North Da-
kota, startled members of the Senate Ju-
diciary Committee with this assertion:
"If the payrolls are subpenaed * * * it will
be seen that practically the entire (Nurem-
berg) staff was composed of leftists and
men * * * since exposed as Communists and
members of Communist-front organiza-
tions."
Taylor next appeared on the Washington
scene (1951) as head of the Small Defense
Plants Administration (a Truman ap-
pointee), and in November 1953, the Harvard
lawyer touched off a real hassle with the late
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy with a speech
before the Cadet Corps at West Point,
BLASTED M'CARTHY
Taylor called the Senate Government Op-
erations Committee probe of espionage at
the Ft. Monmouth, N.J., radar center "a
shameful abuse of congressional Investigat-
ing power." And McCarthy, Taylor said,
was a dangerous adventurer.
The Wisconsin Senator's quick rebut
took the form of a bombshell.
McCarthy- announced that Taylor's civil
ecrvice record was "flagged" with the nota-
tion, "unresolved question of loyalty."
Civil Service Commission Chairman Philip
Young told newsmen that the "flagging"
meant either that a loyalty investigation
was underway when Taylor left the Small
Defense Plants Administration (September
18, 1952) * ' * or one had been made with-
out a decision.
He assumed the "flag" would stay on Tay-
lor's record. Young explained, unless the
"Commission takes action to remove it * * *
the matter has never come up."
Three weeks later, McCarthy reported re-
ceiving a list of "about" 125 Reds who al-
legedly had infiltrated the staff of John
McCloy, High [U.S.] Commissioner for Ger-
many * * * "who were brought in by Mc-
Cloy, Telford Taylor, and others."
McCarthy charged that the persons were
identified Communists who fled Germany,
became U.S. citizens and returned to work
in McCloy's office.
DEFENDED BRIDGES
Newspaper files (including those of the
Daily Worker and Peopl`e's Daily World)
picture Telford Taylor as frequently defend-
ing accused Communists.
He has appeared as defense counsel twice
to stymie government efforts to deport
Harry Bridges, and is quoted as having de-
scribed Bridges' long pro-Red record as the
record "of successful trade union leadership."
,'Taylor also has appeared for seven Smith
Act defendants in Hawaii, for 14 officers of
the Communist-controlled International
Mihe, Mill & Smelters Union, for Junius
Scales, described by the Daily Worker as a
victim of the Smith Act, and for six U.N.
workers whose dismissal stemmed from their
alleged leftist views.
BOOMED AS CANDIDATE
Scales' conviction under the act's Com-
munist Party membership clause (with a
6-year prison, term) was upheld June 5 in a
startling Supfeme Court decision.
Taylor's rising star as the professional
champion of leftists triggered one unique
proposal that he be boomed for Attorney
General.
Testimony before the House Un-American
Activities Committee concerning Communist
political subversion-page 7341 of the official
record-unfolds a speech by Corliss Lamont
at a party sponsored by the American Com-
mittee for the Protection of Foreign Born.
Lamont told his enthusiastic audience that
Telford Taylor should be appointed Attorney
General of the United States.
This may have been a protective measure
by Lamont and the notorious committee.
Lamont is vice chairman of the Emergency
Civil Liberties Committee, a cited Com-
munist-front.
The ACPFB, according to the Attorney
General, is "subversive and Communist."
As one lawmaker commented concerning
the CIA:
"Whoever pops up as the suggested nomi-
nee for Director * * * will get a bar
thorough appraisal"
"or
Approved For Release 2004/12/15 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000700470028-7