The use of federal troops in quelling civil unrest in Washington , D.C., April 1968

Abstract

The focus of this study will be primarily on the role of federal troops--Regular Army and federalized National Guard--during the unrest in Washington, D.C., immediately following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on 4 April 1968. This thesis will address a number of questions. Did federal troops perform their mission in accordance with the policies outlined in Field Manual 19-15: Civil Disturbances and Disasters? Were the lessons learned from the disturbance in Detroit, Michigan, integrated into doctrine? Was the use of federal troops considered as a last resort by the mayor of Washington, D.C., before he asked the President for assistance? Was "Garden Plot"--the operations plan for the rapid buildup of forces in an objective area--a contingency plan that identified specific units and a command and control structure, or was it an ad hoc amalgamation that met the military's needs at the time? In what ways, if any, was the Regular Army better prepared for intervention than the National Guard? Was the Army's doctrine too comprehensive and thus, unrealistic? Currently, the only published work on the 1968 Washington, D.C., riots is journalist Ben Gilbert's, Ten Blocks from the White House. A review of over fifty works on the 1960's revealed either no mention of the D.C. riots or very little discussion about the riot. A review of thirteen undergraduate history textbooks, currently being utilized across the country in college survey history courses reveals the same findings--either no mention or very little discussion. Indeed, the extracts of these thirteen textbooks would not comprise enough material to form a solid paragraph on the events that transpired in the United States of Americas seat of power--Washington, D.C. As there is very little substantive published material on the Washington, D.C., riots of 1968, this thesis will be the first to employ recently declassified primary source data from File 103, Civil Disturbance Operations, of Record Group 319, U.S. Army Staff, located at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. This thesis will incorporate military after-action reports, official correspondence, government documents, congressional reports, Army contingency plans, as well as newspapers, journals, and secondary sources.