Plan Everready

[Jim Root]

Is anyone familier with the details of this "Plan?"

According to John M. Taylor (son of Maxwell) Taylor's headquartes in Korea was assigned the task of revamping a contingency plan to deal with Korean President Syngman Rhee if he choose to make moves to obstruct the armistice talks being conducted to end the Korean War. The Plan was approved by General Mark Clark. The third "contingency" within this plan would involve getting the President out of the capital and into a situation where "he would be held in protective custody, incommunicado." (this according to Joseph C. Golden, Korea, The Untold Story of the War, 1982, pg 636).

I have been unable to find much additional information other than the two sources cited above. Apparently the "plan" had first been proposed by General McArthur and was revamped several times, the last being the Taylor version.

Of interest is that Taylor was capable of and had experience in putting together a plan to "silence" a "president."

Second point of interest is that the "plan" was dependent upon getting the "President" away from the capital in order to control the events neccessary for success.

Third point is that the ultimate contingency, the "draconian measure," would only be used if the "President" presisted in his attempt to obstruct the ongoing negotiation with the Soviets and Chinese.

Is it to far off to draw a parrallel between a "Plan Everready" scenerio and the change of direction that Kennedy followed (with opposition from Taylor and McCloy) in Arms negotiations with the Soviets.

Jim Root

[John Geraghty]

Not familiar with it Jim, but it does seem like a similar scenario that was used against Kennedy.

This could presumably be a popular way of going about assassination, it doesn't necessarily mean that Taylor was in on JFK's assassination, but he has always been on my list of possible conspirators in the early planning stage.

John

[Jim Root]

John

Thank you for the comment.

I posted the Everready information as a factual example that a person that I believe to be a potential conspirator had the willingness, the resources, the experience and the ability to put together a plan of this type.

If there was some sort of conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, we could assume that it would take a person or persons with experiences similar to General Taylor's to successfully control the event and its aftermath successfully.

As the motorcade began in Dallas, General Maxwell Taylor was engaged in a meeting with some German NATO officers at the Pentagon. As the time of the assassination approached Taylor would take a break from this meeting and retreat into his personal office, alone. It was in this office that Taylor would be informed of the assassination of the President.

Rather than cancel the meeting, that was scheduled to continue after this short break, Taylor returned to the NATO meeting and conducted the business of the day without informing the Germans of the tragedy that had occurred. It was not until later that Taylor would move the nations military resources to a higher, albeit not very high, state of alert.

One could speculate upon how General Taylor would have handled this same event if he had been aware of, or was prepared for, what was about to occur in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Jim Root

[William Kelly]

John

Thank you for the comment.

I posted the Everready information as a factual example that a person that I believe to be a potential conspirator had the willingness, the resources, the experience and the ability to put together a plan of this type.

If there was some sort of conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy, we could assume that it would take a person or persons with experiences similar to General Taylor's to successfully control the event and its aftermath successfully.

As the motorcade began in Dallas, General Maxwell Taylor was engaged in a meeting with some German NATO officers at the Pentagon. As the time of the assassination approached Taylor would take a break from this meeting and retreat into his personal office, alone. It was in this office that Taylor would be informed of the assassination of the President.

Rather than cancel the meeting, that was scheduled to continue after this short break, Taylor returned to the NATO meeting and conducted the business of the day without informing the Germans of the tragedy that had occurred. It was not until later that Taylor would move the nations military resources to a higher, albeit not very high, state of alert.

One could speculate upon how General Taylor would have handled this same event if he had been aware of, or was prepared for, what was about to occur in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Jim Root

Jim, You say: "It was not until later that Taylor would move the nations military resources to a higher, albeit not very high, state of alert."

I'm not so sure that they did go into a higher state of alert. When I was at the NARA a few years ago, John Judge showed me a military report on the alert status on November 22, and it never changed, though I can be convinced I am wrong on this one, if in fact, alert status was upgraded.

Of course if the assassination was an inside job, and a coup, as I suspect, then this contingency would have had to be covered to keep Gen. LeMay's finger from the trigger.

Bill Kelly

[Jim Root]

Bill

My information for the above post comes from John Taylor's book about his father. I do not have it in front of me but the two pages that deal with that particular moment in time are interesting, at least from my perspective.

Your information seems to confirm what I consider an interesting fact, when Kennedy was shot the military was not put on a high state of alert. Not being an expert in the field of military alert status protical, it would seem prudent to at least raise the alert status to some level above the normal status of the day.

Why this was not done intrigues me as does the actual actions of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the hours and minutes that surrounded the assassination. The fact that Taylor broke from a meeting and was alone when the information about Kennedy's assassination came to him may just be a coincidence on the hand while on the other hand it may demonstrate a pre-knowledge of the timing of "the mission" on the other.

We continue to speculate.

Jim Root

[Greg Wagner]

Bill

My information for the above post comes from John Taylor's book about his father. I do not have it in front of me but the two pages that deal with that particular moment in time are interesting, at least from my perspective.

Your information seems to confirm what I consider an interesting fact, when Kennedy was shot the military was not put on a high state of alert. Not being an expert in the field of military alert status protical, it would seem prudent to at least raise the alert status to some level above the normal status of the day.

Why this was not done intrigues me as does the actual actions of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the hours and minutes that surrounded the assassination. The fact that Taylor broke from a meeting and was alone when the information about Kennedy's assassination came to him may just be a coincidence on the hand while on the other hand it may demonstrate a pre-knowledge of the timing of "the mission" on the other.

We continue to speculate.

Jim Root

Hi Jim,

For those who believe that the assassination was carried out by elements of the CIA and Cuban exiles with support from the Mafia (the alliance that was formed through efforts to kill Castro and take back Cuba), the question then becomes: "Is that where it began and ended? Or was some other group sponsoring the assassination from the shadows?" Focusing the hostility and talents of this group on killing Kennedy after he began to re-think his Cuba policy would have been easy.

IF the assassination was a coup and there was sponsorship from within the U.S. government, history has shown that the support of the subject country's military leaders is critical to the successful transfer of power that results from such a coup. That's where Max Taylor would be key.

You are correct to call it speculation, as no hard evidence is present to support such a claim. Still, one wonders why the government, still to this day, goes to such great lengths to conceal the truth from the American public. And they don't stop at concealing the facts, they tried to sell the LHO/Lone Nut scenario for years. Then came Blakey's directing the HSCA investigation away from anything pointing to the government and trying to peddle the theory that the Mafia did it. And with no one really buying that either, you have the Waldrons of the world (along with some German movie) trying to sell Castro. Again, no one buys it. Yet these attempts at misdirection, attempts that point anywhere and everywhere EXCEPT the government, continue. Curious. The longer all this secrecy and misdirection goes on, the more I'm convinced that these efforts must be engaged in protecting a very large secret. The success of the cover-up betrays them- the level of power (past and present) wielded by the conspirators in perpetrating the cover-up does not exist in the Mafia or Castro.

The book to which you refer is:

Taylor, John M. General Maxwell Taylor: The Sword And The Pen. Doubleday, 1989, pgs. 289-91.

Of course, this was written by Taylor's son. I would suspect that if Max had any knowledge of or involvement in the assasination, he would not have burdened his family with it.

I've always enjoyed reading your intriguing posts Jim and I'm sure the answer is in them, but what do you believe to be the most compelling element that points to the possibility of Taylor's involvement (speculation, of course)?

Edited February 4, 2006 by Greg Wagner

[Ron Ecker]

Assuming that this JCS/West German meeting actually took place that day and was not a cover story for Taylor’s whereabouts (we know that JCS member LeMay was in no such meeting that day), the meeting apparently adjourned for lunch around 11:30 EST, giving time for Taylor to be napping on the couch in his office as claimed when word came of the assassination.

According to Manchester (p. 192), Taylor and defense secretary McNamara received word simultaneously, Taylor by a buzzer from the Pentagon’s command center, and McNamara by being handed a UPI dispatch.

Why would the Pentagon command center not buzz its own boss McNamara, but only Taylor, with the defense secretary having to learn what happened from a news service?

According to the book by Taylor’s son, after Taylor was buzzed by the command center, Taylor buzzed McNamara, “calling him out of a conference on the budget” (p. 289). Again, shouldn’t it have been the other way around, with the Pentagon letting its boss know first, who would then let Taylor know?

Interestingly, none of this fits with the story told in the surreal writing of McNamara himself. In his book In Retrospect, McNamara says that the plan that day was for him and Taylor to fly to Hyannisport after the budget meeting he was in, to present proposals to JFK “over the Thanksgiving weekend” (p. 90). The first problem with that is that JFK planned to spend that night at LBJ’s ranch, which makes one wonder if JFK really wanted to have McNamara and Taylor waiting on his doorstep in Hyannisport the next day, a Saturday, to talk about the budget. The second problem is that November 22 was not “the Thanksgiving weekend,” which was still a week away.

But that strange writing is only prelude to what comes next. McNamara says that in the middle of his budget meeting, “at about 2:00 P.M.,” his secretary told him of an urgent personal call. It was from Robert Kennedy, who told him that JFK had been shot. In other words, there had been no UPI dispatch, no buzzer from Taylor, there had been nothing at all informing McNamara of the shooting, till a call from Robert at 2 pm EST, saying only that JFK had been shot.

But that’s only half of it. McNamara says that he went on with his meeting, not knowing what else to do, till Robert called again “about forty-five minutes later,” to tell him that the president was dead. In other words, the defense secretary did not know that JFK had been shot till about half an hour after the fact, and was not informed that he was dead until about 45 minutes after the declaration of death.

But that’s not all. McNamara then says “I met immediately with the Joint Chiefs.” By “immediately” he means sometime after 2:45 pm EST. This cannot be true according to the Manchester and Taylor accounts, which say that Taylor and the Chiefs met with McNamara before the meeting with the West Germans resumed after lunch, with Taylor not informing the West Germans of the assassination that afternoon until the resumed meeting was over.

Why would McNamara make no effort to reconcile his own account with the accounts of the JCS/West German meeting (which we know, from independent sources, that at least one JCS member, Curtis LeMay, did not attend)? It should be noted that McNamara does not even mention any JCS meeting with West Germans. He says only that he met with “the Joint Chiefs” after 2:45 pm. He says nothing about having to call them out of a meeting, nor does he say how many of the Joint Chiefs were even on the premises that afternoon.

If we take McNamara's story at face value, it would appear that he was kept in the dark about the shooting and its outcome for as long as possible. Recall that almost all of the other Cabinet members were at the time on an airplane over the Pacific Ocean. At least until JFK was pronounced dead around 2 pm EST, McNamara might as well have been on that airplane too.

Edited February 4, 2006 by Ron Ecker

[John Dolva]

.....

an interesting fact, when Kennedy was shot the military was not put on a high state of alert.

.....

Jim Root

Jim, could you deal with this please:

Warm Memories

of the Cold War

by Robert Rowen

PFC, retired

24th Infantry Division Public Information Section

1963-1964

"The Kennedy matter initially prompted a full blown alert, but quickly cooled down."

http://libraryautomation.com/24th/

[William Kelly]

.....

an interesting fact, when Kennedy was shot the military was not put on a high state of alert.

.....

Jim Root

Jim, could you deal with this please:

Warm Memories

of the Cold War

by Robert Rowen

PFC, retired

24th Infantry Division Public Information Section

1963-1964

"The Kennedy matter initially prompted a full blown alert, but quickly cooled down."

http://libraryautomation.com/24th/

John,

excuse me for budding in here, and I too would like to get Jim's response to that, but from where I'm sitting, it appears that some individual military bases were put on alert after news of the assassination, but the Strategic Air Command SAC - fleet - in the air 24/7 - Fail Safe - nuke bombers and missle commands, were not on hightened alert.

The NARA records on line refer to the Cubans in certain provences being placed on alert for a possible US invasion, and John Judge located a military document that reflected the SAC did not highten alert status.

BK

[John Dolva]

That's cool William. Butt in anytime. I think I understand from your input that it is a matter of degrees of alerts in a divisional sense. So while a frontline ground base might readily be put on full alert for a while, it's a different matter putting SAC on full alert. Could be perhaps a tactical move for the soviets to take note? I don't know.

If there was a 'fullblown' alert that was quickly rescinded it could perhaps indicate that the later talk of soviet - cuba involvement was opportunistic, with no basis in fact.