To Establish Justice, To Insure Domestic Tranquility

December 10, 1969

Dear Mr. President:

I transmit herewith the Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.

This Commission was created by President Johnson in an Executive Order dated June 6, 1968. Nearly a year later you asked us to continue our work and so extended the Commission's life for an additional six months. We are grateful for the support and encouragement that two Presidents and their staffs have given us.

Our Report is based on penetrating research by two hundred leading scholars and on eighteen months of hearings, conferences and some sixty days of arduous working sessions by members of the Commission.

The Commission's findings and recommendations are presented to you in a single volume. The detailed data and findings of the scholars who helped us are set forth in more than fifteen volumes of printed reports. These reports provide a solid base for further study and research.

We believe our Report will be of value to you, to the Congress, and to the American people. It sheds much light on the complex forces that tend to increase the level of violence in our rapidly changing society.

It suggests what the federal government, the state governments, and private associations and individuals can do to reduce the incidence of violence.

With one or two notable exceptions, our findings and recommendations have been unanimously agreed to by the thirteen members of this Commission. This is remarkable, for we are a diverse group of citizens; black and white, male and female, young and old, and Republican and Democratic -- from the fields of education, law religion, politics, psychology, history, labor and philosophy and from every region of the United States.

I wish to emphasize that the solution to the problem of violence in our society will require manifold actions by individuals, by families, by many private organizations, as well as by every level of government. Hence, the public educational value of our report is surely as important as its use in formulating legislation.

Respectfully yours,

Milton S. Eisenhower

Chairman

President Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University; former President, Pennsylvania State University and Kansas State University; former Special Ambassador and Presidential Representative for Latin American Affairs.

U.S. District Court Judge, Eastern District of Pennsylvania; former Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission; former Member, President's Committee to Fulfill These Rights (White House Conference on Civil Rights); Member, Commission on Reform of U.S. Criminal Law.

Majority Whip, House of Representatives; U.S. Representative from 2^nd Congressional District, Louisiana; former Member, Warren Commission.

Archbishop of New York; Military Vicar to the Armed Forces of the United States; Member, Presidential Task Force on International Development.

U.S. Senator from Michigan; Member, Judiciary and Commerce Committees; Chairman, Judiciary Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee; Chairman, Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources and Environment; Member, Democratic Policy Committee.

Longshoreman; migratory worker; author; philosopher.

U.S. Senator from Nebraska; former U.S. Representative from Nebraska; former Member, Board of Regents, University of Omaha.

Attorney at Law; former Dean and Professor, School of Law, Howard University; former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg.

Attorney at Law; former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney General; former Special Assistant Attorney General of Texas; author; Member, President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice; Army Chief of War Crimes Trials, World War II.

Attorney at Law; former Special Assistant Attorney General of Illinois; Senior Counsel. Warren Commission; author; President, National Conference Commission on Uniform State Laws; Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers.

U.S. Representative from 4^th Congressional District, Ohio; former Speaker, Ohio House of Representatives; former Member, National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.

Justice, Arizona Supreme Court; former Governor of Arizona; former U.S. Senator from Arizona and Senate Majority Leader.

Staff Psychiatrist, Menninger Foundation; Member, National Advisory Health Council; Consultant, Federal Bureau of Prisons; Senior Psychiatric Consultant, Peace Corps.

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