Remarks to the Press After a Meeting With Cyrus Vance and General Throckmorton on the Situation in Detroit

Ladies and gentlemen:

For the last hour, or almost hour and a half, I have met with Secretary Vance and General Throckmorton, two of our most outstanding Americans who have just completed a mission which involved outstanding service to fills Nation.

Ten days ago, after a request from the Governor of the State of Michigan, the mission of these two men, and the soldiers they led, was begun. It culminates with their oral report to me today.

Their evaluations will be prepared carefully in the days ahead and given to Secretary McNamara, whom Mr. Vance serves as Special Assistant in this instance.

Under the Constitution and the laws of this country and the uniform practices of all past Presidents, before troops can be used in any civil disorder, the following elements must be present when a State seeks assistance:

First, a request for troops by the legislature, if the legislature can be convened, or if the legislature cannot be convened, by the Governor.

Two, certification of insurrection or domestic violence.

Three, the demonstration of a clear inability of State and all local authorities to control the situation despite the use of all law enforcement resources which can be brought to bear.

There are a good many reasons for this, which go back to the Constitution itself in 1789, and the great debate that took place in Congress in 1792, so that Presidents would not be throwing Federal troops around States.

There were actually none of any consequence that were called into States until the Reconstruction period, which was a period that is vivid in our memories--and not always pleasant memories, either. At that time troops were called out to occupy 60 or 70 places around election time by Governors and by Presidents.

So we tried to be very careful.

The Presidency is involved in two instances here, or really three.

The first was in the middle of the morning at 2:30 or 3 o'clock when we were notified that there was a problem in Detroit which might necessitate troops. They were momentarily alerted, as was the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army, and the appropriate commanders.

So much for the 3 a.m. meeting.

The next time a request was presented to the President was a telegram filed at 10:46 that reached here at 10:56, requesting troops. The President approved that telegram and replied by saying troops would be sent. They were ordered loaded at 11 02.

Now the third requirement, either insurrection or domestic violence, was certified to the President about 11 o'clock that evening by Mr. Vance and by General Throckmorton. They had declined to do that at 8:30 that evening. They can go into that with you if they want to. When they made that certification, the President, in the same conversation, ordered the deployment.

From dozens of places throughout the country--from Kansas, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina--planes moved 4,800 men many miles, stationed them in the middle of the night in a riot torn area. They have now returned them to their posts.

The best tribute to their commander is that not one person was injured or wounded of those 4,800. Although there were hundreds of thousands of people involved in the riot-torn city, only one person lost his life at the hands of Federal troops.

So to General Throckmorton, who has had two sons wounded in Vietnam, and who has another son now in the Academy; to Secretary Vance, who has had a long record of 7 1/2 years of service in the Federal Government, and 7 1/2 riots, almost one a year, which he has had to deal with, I can think of no more appropriate way to present them to you than to say to you and to the country, "Well done."