Johnson’s profound personal insecurity and his egomania led him not only to personalize the goals he aspired to but also to personalize all forms of dissent. Hence his vow not to be the president who lost Vietnam; hence his conviction that critics of the war were critics of him personally. In late 1964, Johnson’s dislike of conflict, his need to create consensus and to avoid confrontation, remained unshaken, as did his insistence that Americans must support a president in foreign policy and unite behind a policy of anticommunism.
