Proclamation 3840—Law and Order in the Washington Metropolitan Area

Whereas I have been informed that conditions of domestic violence and disorder exist in the District of Columbia and threaten the Washington metropolitan area, endangering life and property and obstructing execution of the laws, and that local police forces are unable to bring about the prompt cessation of such acts of violence and restoration of law and order; and

Whereas I have been requested to use such units of the National Guard and of the Armed Forces of the United States as may be necessary for those purposes; and

Whereas in such circumstances it is also my duty as Chief Executive to take care that the property, personnel and functions of the Federal Government, of embassies of foreign governments, and of international organizations in the Washington metropolitan area are protected against violence or other interference:

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do command all persons engaged in such acts of violence to cease and desist therefrom and to disperse and retire peaceably forthwith.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-second.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

4:02 p.m.

Friday April 5, 1968 The White House