sentences:  As a result, repeated assurances from Lodge and Johnson's laudatory comments in private and public convinced them that they remained on firm ground.Johnson had told Lodge to assure Minh in a meeting on January 1, 1964, that he had "the complete support of the United States as "the" leader of Vietnam [emphasis in the original]".Aside from non-military problems facing the junta, it also came into conflict with the Americans over political strategy, most notably as to whether armed force or politics should be the focus of efforts to end the communist threat to South Vietnam.