Lyndon Johnson and the Cult of Sentimentality ARMAVIRUMQUE: THE NEW CRITERION'S WEBLOG:
"The ad ends (with the nuclear cloud in the background) with a voice over from Lyndon Johnson, who declares ominously: 'These are the stakes: to make a world in which all God's children can live, or go into the darkness. We must all love one another, or we must die.'
Wait a second! Did he really say, 'We must all love one another, or we must die?' That does not sound like the kind of thing that would come from the lips of such a rough and tumble politician. DId he really mean to say that there was no middle ground between love and death, that it was necessary to love the communists and for them to love us, or else we were bound to annhiliate one another? Does the doctrine of deterrence require that we love our adversaries? Can it be true that universal love is a requirment for peace? Goldwater was belittled for holding to the far more conventional view of 'peace through strength' as opposed to Johnson's idea of 'peace through love.' Indeed, Johnson's statement sounds suspiciously like the sentimental baloney that the peace and love crowd peddled during the 1960s. 'All you need is love,' said John Lennon and the Beatles. And so, apparently, said Lyndon Johnson. "
