Swords and Plowshares

by General Maxwell D Taylor

General Maxwell D. Taylor was one of the great military heroes of recent American history. During World War II, Taylor fought in Sicily and Italy before parachuting into France as head of the 101st Airborne Division on Dday, 1944. Later he commanded the Division in the Arnhem drop in Holland and in the defense of Basting in the Bulge. After the war, Taylor served as superintendent of West Point, U.S. Commander in Berlin, Commander of the Eighth Army in Korea, and Army Chief of Staff under President Eisenhower. John F. Kennedy named him chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and sent him to Vietnam in 1961; he returned to that country as Ambassador in 1965, and served as a key advisor to President Johnson until 1969. In Swords and Plowshares, Taylor tells the firsthand story of a life of action, courage, strategy, and dedication. Offering candid and controversial views of such central figures as Dwight Eisenhower, John Dulles, the Kennedyâ s, and General Westmoreland, Taylor contrasts their varying views of the role of air power in modern warfare, and presents his own approach to the problems of winning wars and making peace. These memoirs ably illustrate why General Maxwell Taylor deserves to rank among Marshall, Eisenhower, MacArthur, and Patton as one of the great American military geniuses of our time.

434 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Dale]

One of my bosses saw me carrying this book and suggested I read Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam by H. R. McMaster. I have read it and suggest that anyone interested in that period of American history read this book. It is a biography, but the insights into the Kennedy and Johnson administrations as they relate to the Vietnam War are very interesting. Granted the book is from the eyes of General Taylor but it paints a different picture from Dereliction of Duty. This should have been on the JCS reading list before Iraq.

[Gerald Greene]

I enjoyed this memoir of military during WW2 to Vietnam. He was a gifted person who made a difference.

[Lee]

So far, it's nothing special, which is about what I expected as a memoir. He covers his WW2 service surprisingly quickly, to me, and spends a good half of the book covering his efforts in and around Vietnam.

What did stand out, to me, was the silence about the Pentomic Division. {Enter esoteric military mode}. Taylor mentions that he had the idea for the five-battlegroup division while he was commanding general of the Eighth Army at the end of, and after the Korean War's armistice. Later, when he is the Army's Chief of Staff, he only refers to the name "Pentomic" as an effort to make it seem more gee-whiz for the New look defense policy. Not a word about it again, except to mention a reorganization of divisions after 1961. Gee, do you think it flopped? {Exit trivial mode}

[Devon Capshaw]

Vietnam "on-the-ground" anaylsis by Special military advisor to Kennedy.

[Elijah Ward]

Starts off good and then less revealing after JFK and Vietnam.

[License]

brilliant