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William B. Taylor Jr.

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William B. Taylor Jr.
U.S. chargé d'affaires for Ukraine
Assumed office
June 18, 2019
Chargé d'affaires ad interim
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byKristina Kvien
6th United States Ambassador to Ukraine
In office
June 21, 2006 – May 23, 2009
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Barack Obama
Preceded byJohn E. Herbst
Succeeded byJohn F. Tefft
Personal details
Born
William Brockenbrough Taylor Jr.

1947 (age 76–77)
Children2
EducationUnited States Military Academy (BS)
Harvard University (MPA)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of service1969–1975
Battles/warsVietnam War
Awards Bronze Star Medal
Air Medal

William Brockenbrough Taylor Jr. (born 1947)[1] is an American diplomat, former government official and former soldier.

Taylor formerly served as a commander in the United States Army; participating in the Vietnam War and earning a Bronze Star. He proceeded to work in the United States Department of Energy and then the Department of Defense. From 1992 to 2002, Taylor carried out diplomatic work for the United States with firstly Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, secondly Afghanistan, thirdly Iraq, and fourthly the Quartet on the Middle East. From 2006 to 2009, Taylor served as the United States ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009 under the George W. Bush administration and the Barack Obama administration. He continued diplomatic work in the Middle East from 2011 to 2013.

In 2019, Taylor served as chargé d'affaires for Ukraine under the Donald Trump administration, leading to his involvement in the Trump–Ukraine scandal about which he testified to the House of Representatives.

Early life

Taylor is the son of Nancy Dare (Aitcheson) and William Brockenbrough Newton Taylor,[2][3] who had been a director of research and development for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).[4]

Taylor graduated from Mount Vernon High School (Virginia) in 1965 after serving as president of his junior and senior class.[5] Like his father, he attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, attaining the rank of cadet battalion commander and graduating in the top 1% of his class in 1969. The 1969 Howitzer yearbook notes his modesty about his many academic and athletic accomplishments, describing him as "a man who is held in the highest esteem and admiration by[6] all of us."[7] In 1977 he completed graduate studies at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, receiving a Master of Public Policy degree.

Career

After Taylor graduated from West Point, he served in the infantry for six years, including tours of duty in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, and 18 months with the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War. Taylor was a rifle company commander in the 506th Infantry Regiment (United States) of the 101st Airborne, widely heralded from the World War II book and TV miniseries Band of Brothers with their motto "Currahee," meaning "We stand alone."[8] He earned a Bronze Star Medal, and Air Medal with 'V' for VALOR for heroism.

Later, he was an aero-rifle commander in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (United States) in Germany.[9][10]

In 1980 Taylor was serving in the relatively new Department of Energy as Director of Emergency Preparedness Policy. While the DOE had received creditable marks for its response to the coal strike during 1977-1978, the crisis in Iran pointed to the need for better federal level contingency planning and preparedness going forward. In taking on this new assignment, Taylor had a long term, rather than short term, focus on potential crises (e.g. price controls and gasoline rationing), efforts that often required coordination with other federal agencies, including the United States Department of the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisers and the United States Department of Health and Human Services.[11]

Thereafter Taylor served for five years as Legislative Assistant on the staff of U.S. Senator Bill Bradley (D-N.J.). He then directed a Defense Department think tank at Fort Lesley J. McNair.

Following that assignment, he transferred to Brussels for a five year assignment as the Special Deputy Defense Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, William Howard Taft IV. From 1992 until 2002 Taylor served with the rank of ambassador coordinating assistance to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He then accepted an assignment as Special Representative for Donor Assistance in Kabul coordinating U.S. and international assistance to Afghanistan. Engaging with the Afghan government and international donors, Taylor facilitated the flow of assistance to Afghanistan and promoted additional donations. The undertaking facilitated the repatriation of 2 million Afghan refugees and the restoration of critical services such education and health care. The aid helped restore agriculture, and provided support grants for over 80 infrastructure projects. In 2003 Secretary of State Colin L. Powell appointed Taylor as the Afghanistan Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State, overseeing all aspects of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan, noting that it was a critical time in Afghanistan’s political development and economic reconstruction.[12]

Ambassador William B. Taylor met with the interim Fallujah city council April 2005

In 2004 Taylor was transferred to Baghdad as Director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office.[13]

Until 2006 he then was the U.S. Government's representative to the Quartet's effort to facilitate the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, led by Special Envoy James Wolfensohn in Jerusalem. The Quartet Special Envoy was responsible for the economic aspects of this disengagement.

Taylor was nominated by President George W. Bush to be United States ambassador to Ukraine while he was serving as Senior Consultant to the Coordinator of Reconstruction and Stabilization at the Department of State.[14][15] He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 26, 2006, and was sworn in on June 5, 2006. At the time Taylor assumed responsibilities at the embassy it was, with over 650 employees from nine U.S. government departments and agencies, the fifth-largest bilateral mission in Europe. A report by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of State from 2007 notes that the new ambassador had "taken charge of the embassy in a remarkably effective and positive way," creating, together with Deputy Chief of Mission Sheila Gwaltney, a "formidable team at a mission that has a complex set of goals." It further noted that "Embassy Kyiv has a keen understanding of the complicated and rapidly evolving political and economic situation in the Ukraine and has good working relations across the political spectrum. The embassy’s commentary on such issues as the evolving state of Ukraine’s relations with the European Union, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Russia is extensive, timely, and well appreciated by Washington end-users."[16] Taylor held the post till May 2009.[17]

On September 30, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama nominated John Tefft as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.[18] Taylor was appointed Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions in September 2011.[19] From then through 2013, Taylor's mission was to ensure effective U.S. support for the countries of the Arab revolutions, coordinating assistance to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria.[20]

In 2015, Taylor was appointed executive vice president of the United States Institute of Peace after serving a year in the same role in an acting capacity.[21][22] In this role he supported continued or increasing U.S. sanctions against Russia for its aggressions toward Ukraine.[23]

Taylor became chargé d'affaires ad interim for Ukraine in June 2019, taking over the role from the deputy chief of mission, Kristina Kvien, after Marie Yovanovitch departed Ukraine.[24]

Trump–Ukraine scandal

Taylor–Sondland texts

Taylor arrived in Ukraine a month after the abrupt ousting of Ambassador Yovanovitch and the inauguration of the country's new president Volodymyr Zelensky. But following President Donald Trump's phone call with the new Ukranian president, Taylor questioned Trump's motivation in a text to Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union: "Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?" Sondland told him to phone.[25]

On October 3, 2019, it was revealed that Taylor had expressed, in text messages, concern that President Trump may have withheld aid to Ukraine unless they investigated. One, about alleged corruption in Ukraine involving former Vice President Joe Biden. The other, an attempt to deflect from the US intelligence communities' consensus determination that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and interfered with the 2016 United States presidential election, by suggesting that the DNC is hiding the hacked server in the Ukraine. This one suggests that former DNC employee Seth Rich actually leaked the DNC emails and that Hillary Clinton had him murdered for it (see Murder of Seth Rich).

Explicit throughout Taylor's testimony was that Trump's goal in withholding the congressionally mandated military aid to Ukraine was to extort newly inaugurated president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, into announcing an investigation into the theory related to Biden in a primetime American television interview. At the time, and through much of the preceding nascent Democratic Party Presidential Primary Election season, Biden was the leading candidate, and seemed likely to be the Democratic Party challenger to Trump in the 2020 United States Presidential Election. Additional incentive was provided for Ukraine to do as Trump, Sondland, and Guliani suggested, by implying that Zelensky would get a state visit to the White House if he complied.

According to transcripts released by the house impeachment probe, Taylor on September 9, 2019, at 12:47:11 AM texted, "I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign." Over four hours later, at 5:19:35 AM,[26] in his response to Taylor, Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union, responded that the charge is "incorrect." "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear: no quid pro quo’s of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign."[26] He then suggested Taylor call the Executive Secretary of the United States Department of State about any concerns[27]: "I suggest we stop the back and forth by text If you still have concerns I recommend you give Lisa Kenna or S a call to discuss them directly. Thanks."[28] In his testimony during the impeachment inquiry Sondland noted that it was only out of his deep respect for Taylor that he tried to address Taylor's concerns.[29] On October 22, 2019 Taylor's opening statement also explained that Sondland required that Zelensky make public statements announcing an investigation, forcing him to conduct one, before the US released the allocated military aid. Taylor said he feared that Trump would withhold the military aid anyway, handing Moscow everything it wanted from the betrayal, texting Sondland that his "nightmare is that they [the Ukrainians] give the interview and don't get the security assistance. The Russians love it. (And I quit.)."[30]


Taylor gave a deposition before a closed-door session of the House Intelligence Committee on October 22, 2019.[31]

Testimony in House impeachment inquiry

Opening statement of Ambassador William B. Taylor

On October 22, 2019, Taylor testified before the US Congressional House regarding the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump and the Trump–Ukraine scandal in a closed session. Taylor's opening statement was made public and directly implicated President Trump in a proactive and coordinated effort to solicit a political quid pro quo whereby "everything" – from a one on one meeting with President Trump to $400 million in military aid to Ukraine – would be held up unless Ukrainian President Zelenskyy agreed to announce publicly that "investigations" would be launched including into former VP Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Ukraine's alleged involvement in the 2016 election. Taylor's opening statement and testimony was widely viewed as an inflection point in the impeachment inquiry.[32][33][34][35][36]

Personal life

Taylor is married to Dr. Deborah Furlan Taylor,[37] a religion scholar.[38][39] They have two children. His nephew (sister's son) is actor and comedian Zach Cregger.

See also

References

  1. ^ "William B. Taylor Jr. - People - Department History - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov.
  2. ^ "Congress.gov - Library of Congress". thomas.loc.gov.
  3. ^ Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 65 (Tuesday, May 23, 2006), "EXECUTIVE REPORTS OF COMMITTEES" Page S4965
  4. ^ "Obituary "William B. Taylor Sr"". The Washington Post. April 14, 2011. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  5. ^ "Key figure in impeachment inquiry is Mount Vernon graduate". Covering the Corridor. October 23, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  6. ^ Zurcher, Anthony (October 23, 2019). "Trump impeachment: Five takeways from 'explosive' testimony". BBC News. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  7. ^ "William Brockenbrough Taylor, Jr". The Howitzer. West Point: United States Military Academy. p. 574. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  8. ^ "Bill Taylor defended as a 'man of honor' and 'public servant' by three veterans who served with him". MSN. October 27, 2019.
  9. ^ "Biography: William Taylor Jr". U.S. Department of State. July 1, 2003. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  10. ^ "Biography: William B. Taylor, Jr, Special Coordinatorfor Middle East Transitions". State.gov. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  11. ^ "Oversight of the Structure and Management of the Department of Energy," U.S. 96th Congress, 2nd Session,Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1980, p. 262 and p. 275
  12. ^ "Coordinator for Afghanistan William B. Taylor, Jr". U.S. Department of State. July 10, 2003. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  13. ^ "William Taylor". The American Academy of Diplomacy. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  14. ^ "Bush nominates new Ambassador to Ukraine" (PDF). The Ukrainian Weekly. May 7, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  15. ^ "Presidential Nomination: William Brockenbrough Taylor: Ambassador to Ukraine". Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  16. ^ "Report of Inspection: Inspection of Embassy, Kyiv Ukraine; Report Number ISP-I-07-17A" (PDF). The U.S. Department of State. March 2007. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  17. ^ "New U.S. ambassador Tefft arrives in Kyiv". Interfax-Ukraine. December 2, 2009. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
  18. ^ "Ex-US ambassador to Georgia John Tefft to lead diplomatic mission in Ukraine". Interfax-Ukraine. September 30, 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
  19. ^ "U.S. Institute of Peace Expert Named State Department Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions" (Press release). United States Institute of Peace. September 15, 2011. Archived from the original on October 11, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2019. The U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) has detailed Senior Vice President William Taylor to the Department of State to oversee the newly created Middle East Transitions Office. The transfer was effective September 6, 2011.
  20. ^ "Speakers' Bios: US-Ukraine Working Group Yearly Summit IV". Center for U.S. - Ukrainian Relations. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  21. ^ "Ambassador William B. Taylor Named Executive Vice President at USIP". United States Institute of Peace (Press release). July 20, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  22. ^ Hohmann, James (October 4, 2019). "The Daily 202: Smoking texts spotlight diplomat Bill Taylor's discomfort with Trump's Ukraine pressure campaign". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  23. ^ Greene, David (November 29, 2018). "Trump Should Not Sit Down with Putin at G-20 Summit, Taylor Says". NPR. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  24. ^ Bonner, Brian (June 18, 2019). "Ambassador William B. Taylor returns to Ukraine to lead US mission". Kyiv Post. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
  25. ^ "Unsung Diplomat Is Unlikely Hero in Impeachment Inquiry". U.S. News and World Report. October 21, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  26. ^ a b "Chairmen Letter On State Department Texts". United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs Committees. October 3, 2019. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
  27. ^ Fandos, Nicholas; Barnes, Julian E.; Baker, Peter (October 3, 2019). "Texts from Top Diplomat Described 'Crazy' Plan to Keep Aid from Ukraine". The New York Times. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
  28. ^ "READ: Text messages between US diplomats and Ukrainians released by House Democrats". CNN. October 4, 2019. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
  29. ^ "Gordon Sondland, E.U. Envoy, Testifies Trump Delegated Ukraine Policy to Giuliani". The New York Times. October 17, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  30. ^ "Top diplomat tells lawmakers Ukraine aid was directly tied to investigations". CBSNews.com. October 23, 2019.
  31. ^ Gearan, Anne; Bade, Rachael; Wagner, John. "U.S. envoy says he was told release of Ukraine aid was contingent on public declaration to investigate Bidens, 2016 election". Washington Post. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  32. ^ "Opening Statement of Ambassador William B. Taylor". The Washington Post. October 22, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  33. ^ CNN, Manu Raju, Jeremy Herb, Lauren Fox, Kylie Atwood and Gloria Borger. "US diplomat directly ties Trump to Ukraine quid pro quo". CNN. Retrieved October 23, 2019. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  34. ^ "'Ultimately Alarming Circumstances': Read Acting Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor's Full Opening Statement to Congressional Investigators". Time. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  35. ^ Herridge, Catherine (October 22, 2019). "Diplomat Bill Taylor testifies two channels were created for Ukraine policy, 'one regular, one irregular'". Fox News. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  36. ^ Mariotti, Renato (October 23, 2019). "he President Has No Defense". Politico. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  37. ^ Virginia Department of Health; Richmond, Virginia; Virginia Marriages, 1936-2014; Roll: 101173250
  38. ^ Dissertation Abstracts International: The Humanities and Social Sciences, microfilm 1991
  39. ^ "An Interview with Interview with U.S. Ambassador & Mrs. William Taylor". Unian. January 23, 2007. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Ukraine
2006–2009
Succeeded by
Preceded by U.S. chargé d'affaires for Ukraine
2019–present
Incumbent