Rufus Taylor

Rufus Lackland Taylor Jr. (January 6, 1910 – September 14, 1978) was an officer in the United States Navy.

Eventually he became Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence and held the rank of Vice Admiral.

In August 1929 he enrolled in the United States Naval Academy, graduating in the Class of June 1933.

While studying there he was active in baseball and association football.

After graduating, he served on USS Arizona (1934–36) and USS Preston (1936–38).

During World War II, he served in the Pacific.

Stationed in Japan from 1938 to 1941, he had been sent there by Naval Intelligence to study Japanese.

In 1942 he was with an intelligence unit in Corregidor, when the Japanese invaded the Philippines.

He was evacuated by motor boat and submarine to Australia.

There he joined the staff of the Commander, Allied Naval Forces, Southwest Pacific.

In 1943 he was sent to Washington, D.C., to the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).

Then in Hawaii, he was with Fleet Radio Unit Pacific (FRUPAC), working to decipher enemy naval codes, until the Japanese surrender.

He returned to Japan with occupation forces.

He then served at sea until 1953.

Back in Washington, he was sent to the National Security Agency (NSA).

He was then given various assignments in intelligence.

In Washington in 1959, he became chief of Pacific Intelligence.

For the years 1963 to 1966 he was Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).

In 1963 he was promoted to Director, ONI.

Among other things, in 1965 he initiated the set up of a secret HUMINT capacity for the Navy.

"Despite some concern by senior Navy officers about the 'flap potential', the proposal was approved" by Paul Nitze, the Secretary of the Navy.

In 1966 he was appointed as Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), then shortly thereafter as Deputy Director of the CIA, where he served from 1966 to 1969.

Taylor was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and attended the Holderness School in Plymouth, New Hampshire, and

Hall’s School in Columbia, Missouri.

In June 1966, he was made Vice Admiral and Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

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 directed Naval Intelligence until 1966.

Established in 1966, the covert unit was designated the Naval Field Operations Support Group (NFOSG) – more commonly known as 'Task Force 157'.

The Deputy Director (DDCI) was second in command to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), then the top intelligence officer.

In the absence of the DCI the DDCI assumes the Director's responsibilities.

Below are several rulings made by Taylor which addressed high-level disputes within the Agency.

In late 1967, DCI Richard Helms asked Taylor to oversee a difficult, intra-CIA dispute involving Yuri Nosenko, who had defected from Soviet intelligence in 1964.

CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton had almost immediately 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 conducted his "independent review" of the "immense files" and began to interview the CIA officers involved.

Finally Taylor concluded that Nosenko was not a double agent and that Helms should set him free.

In his exhaustive review Taylor also had relied on an internal CIA report by Bruce Solie of October 1968.

Taylor later resigned as DDCI effective February 1969.

Despite strong objections from CIA counterintelligence, in March 1969 Nosenko was released and put on the CIA payroll as a consultant.