Taconic was laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1710) at Wilmington, N.C., on 19 December 1944 by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company; launched on 10 February 1945; sponsored by Mrs. O. W. Turner; acquired by the Navy on 6 March 1945; converted to an amphibious force flagship at the Atlantic Basin Iron Works in Brooklyn, New York; and commissioned there on 17 January 1946.

Between June 1946 and June 1949, she participated in CAMID I, II, and III, amphibious warfare exercises conducted in the Chesapeake Bay area and encompassing joint training for United States Military Academy cadets and United States Naval Academy midshipmen.

In November 1959, she served as communication and support ship to President Dwight D. Eisenhower during the Pakistan-Afghanistan-India leg of his visit to a number of European and Asian countries.

The bulk of those operations consisted of exercises; but, on one occasion in March 1957, she carried President Eisenhower's limousines to Bermuda for his meeting with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

[2] After 12 months of operations and preparations for decommissioning, the amphibious force flagship was placed out of commission, in reserve, on 17 December 1969 at Norfolk, Virginia.