Rufus Taylor

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

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1933. Taylor became Director of Naval Intelligence, 1963-1966. Then 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.

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