Telegram in Reply to Governor Romney's Request for Federal Troop Assistance in Detroit.
IN RESPONSE to your official request, joined by Mayor Cavanagh, that federal troops be sent to assist local and state police and the 8000 Michigan National Guardsmen under your command, and on the basis of your representation that there is reasonable doubt that you can maintain law and order in Detroit, I have directed the troops. you requested to proceed at once to Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan. There they will be available for immediate deployment as required to support and assist police and the Michigan National Guard forces. These federal troops will arrive at Selfridge this afternoon. Immediately, I have instructed Cyrus Vance, Special Assistant to Secretary of Defense McNamara, to proceed to Detroit for conferences with you and to make specific plans for providing you with such support and assistance as may be necessary.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
[ The Honorable George Romney, Governor of Michigan, Lansing, Michigan]
Note: The text of Governor Romney's telegram, dated July 24, is as follows:
With further reference to present Detroit problem covered in my earlier telegram to the Attorney General.
As Governor of the State of Michigan, I do hereby officially request the immediate employment of federal troops into Michigan to assist State and local authorities in reestablishing law and order in the city of Detroit. I am joined in this request by Jerome P. Cavanagh, Mayor of the city of Detroit. There is reasonable doubt that we can suppress the existing looting, arson and sniping without the assistance of federal troops. Time could be of the essence.
GEORGE ROMNEY
Governor of Michigan
See also Items 322,325, 331.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Telegram in Reply to Governor Romney's Request for Federal Troop Assistance in Detroit. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238092