Memorandum for Honorable Joseph C. Swidler, Chairman, Federal Power Commission
Today's failure is a dramatic reminder of the importance of the uninterrupted flow of power to the health, safety, and well being of our citizens and the defense of our country.
This failure should be immediately and carefully investigated in order to prevent a recurrence.
You are therefore directed to launch a thorough study of the cause of this failure. I am putting at your disposal full resources of the Federal Government and directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Defense and other agencies to support you in any way possible. You are to call upon the top experts in our Nation in conducting the investigation.
A report is expected at the earliest possible moment as to the causes of the failure and the steps you recommend to be taken to prevent a recurrence.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Note: The text of the memorandum was read by Bill D. Moyers, Special Assistant to the President, at his news conference at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 9, 1965, at Austin, Tex.
At 10:35 p.m. Mr. Moyers announced that Mr. Swidler had communicated to the President the following steps to implement the foregoing memorandum:
"1. A telegram has been sent to all of the major companies involved, requesting that they assemble the relevant facts as to the impact of the interruption on their systems and the steps taken to restore service.
"2. A group of electric power system operation experts from various private and public power systems throughout the country will meet tomorrow in Washington to help plan the details of the investigation.
"3. Mr. Swidler has been in communication directly with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense to assure continuing liaison.
"4. A Federal Power Commission staff team has been dispatched to the operating offices of the Niagara-Mohawk system so that the Commission can be fully informed on the steps taken to locate faults which precipitated the breakdown of service.
"5. Another Federal Power Commission staff team has been dispatched to the operating offices of Con-Edison in New York to cooperate and coordinate with the efforts of that company to restore service."
Mr. Moyers also announced that Mr. Swidler had informed the President that the Commission staff would work through the night on these, as well as other steps now being planned, to carry out the President's directive.
For the President's statement in response to the Federal Power Commission report on the electric power blackout in the northeastern States, see Item 640.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Memorandum Concerning the Power Failure in the Northeastern United States Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241087