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of power. But because he had this terrible weakness and had found himself at the bottom of the pile so many times, he intuitively knew that he didn't have that authority within himself which springs from a strong character and a sense of divine guidance, we'll say, and which animates many a dictator. He never could quite permit himself the illusion or aspiration for personal power, because it would be checked with this knowledge that he didn't have strength within himself. But he did have a mystical quality and he could certainly dream of himself as being transformed by something, and clothed externally with authority and power.

Of course, when he had too much liquor, he was just gone, but when he had just a little he would be lit up, and then sometimes you would get this feeling that he had dreams of glory. I don't think he ever was any hazard to the country as a man who desired and would move for personal power. Perhaps the traditional dictator is, like he was, a slightly mystical, confused personality. Perhaps Mussolini and Hitler were like that.

We used to speculate about what kind of a person Johnson really was. Mary Rumsey would sometimes say, “Well, you know, it's his military training. It's his military preoccupation with authority and with having everything done according to a thought-out plan, a system of tactics and