In almost every meeting on the war in January, in virtually every cable that went out over his signature, he hammered away with the same message: get dependents out right away, before any reprisal strikes. It has been suggested that Johnson viewed the dependents issue as a stalling device, as a way to delay having to make a decision on escalation (i.e., no wider action without removal), but the better argument is that he had made up his mind and was merely laying the groundwork for the new military moves.
