In late 1971, Rev. Moon returned to the United States as part of his third world tour. Accompanied by Mrs. Moon, Mrs. Won Bok Choi, Mr. Young Whi Kim (President, HSA-UWC, Korea since Mr. Eu’s death in 1970), and Mr. Ishii (Director, HSA-UWC Business Enterprises, Japan), the party arrived in Los Angeles, December 11, 1971. Denied United States visas, ironically because of alleged communist affiliations, the group flew to Toronto, Canada, the following day. As a result of efforts of the three missionary groups and their contacts, the situation was clarified, and Rev. Moon was granted visa clearance extending until March 14, 1972. On December 18, 1971, he arrived in Washington, D.C.

Speaking almost every night from December 21st through the 30th, Rev. Moon assembled members for a four-day training program from Friday, December 31 until Monday, January 3. Conducted by Mr. Young Whi Kim, who "taught the Principle as it is taught in Korea," it was out of that weekend that what later became known as "the plan" emerged. As reported in Miss Kim’s New Age Frontiers, the plan was "to hold revival meetings in seven major cities -- New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Berkeley." While Rev. Moon indicated his desire to hold public meetings on his arrival in Los Angeles, it was not until the four-day training program that the plan was activated, and on January 4, 1972, a joint meeting was held with East and West Coast leaders to launch the movement’s first national campaign. Since Rev. Moon had never spoken publicly either in Korea or Japan, the birth of the American movement coincided with the beginning of a new phase in his ministry.

The plan required not only individual commitment but also cooperation among missionaries, existing centers, bus teams, newly appointed state representatives, and itinerary workers. As David Kim put it, "This time, all groups will work together to expand our Principle Movement centering in existing chapels, centers, churches, and their members." Leaving little to chance, Rev. Moon announced that personnel from all three groups would be transferred to other places and a rotation system enforced. In any case, the seven-city tour was the first project ever carried out by the national movement. Although the plan was clear enough, it awaited implementation. Not only did pioneers have to be selected and trained, but a revival meeting itinerary had to be arranged, halls rented, a program set up, posters made, tickets printed and buses purchased. Later, state representatives had to be selected and assigned, bus teams formed and itinerary workers appointed.

The first step of preparation for the tour was the selection of pioneers for the two-week training session scheduled to begin in New York City on January 14, 1972. On January 9, Rev. Moon flew to the San Francisco Bay Area for consultation with Mr. Choi who, in David Kim’s words, "still had many things to readjust to the new development of our Principle Movement in the U.S." While in the Bay Area, Rev. Moon also visited the Berkeley Center. Although Mr. Choi’s Re-Education Foundation contributed fifteen pioneers and the Berkeley Center thirteen, of more significance was the coming together of the two groups on January 11, 1972. As reported in Miss Kim’s New Age Frontiers, "That night, history was made as the San Francisco and Berkeley Families came together at the Re-Education Center to share a meal and to hear our leader speak."

Previously, Rev. Moon journeyed to New York City where he rented the Lincoln Center for three nights (February 3-5, 1972) and charged the local center with making plans for the first of seven revival meetings. By January 8th, the New York center chose its theme, "The Day of Hope: The Day of the True Family," designed what would be the tour’s official poster, and set about finding a church to rent for the pioneer training program. On January 14, 1972, the pioneers arrived. Housed in the three-story, stone and stucco Bronx center, seventy- two pioneers and staff traveled daily to St. Steven’s Methodist Episcopal Church, where they were accommodated more comfortably for meals and lectures in the basement social hall. The training session focused on building solidarity, a difficult task, given the factions which had developed in the American church. One pioneer wrote:

There are about eighty of us. We come from different centers throughout the United States. We didn’t know each other when we first started. Each of us had different songs, different ways of praying, and different ways of applying the Principle. It was hard to unify at first. But we knew it was necessary.

Unity became increasingly necessary as the opening revival date drew nearer. With less than three weeks to go, training moved from St. Steven’s Church to the streets of New York City. It became increasingly clear that Rev. Moon’s training program and style of unification were decidedly experiential. Under his direction, the attainment of solidarity within the ranks would come as a result of shared experience. In January 1972, that meant hitting the streets of New York City in mid-winter to sell revival tickets at $6.00 each ($18.00 for three nights) to hear an unknown evangelist. That training was emphasized as much as visible results was evident both in that pioneers were not allowed to sell in pairs and in the rule that tickets be sold only for all three nights. One pioneer well expressed the existential burden borne by the ticket sellers:

New York City! Your streets are filled with emptiness. How much of our blood is going to be claimed by Satan? Were we really equal to the task? Then we began to try. And it didn’t work. And we would pray for strength and courage.... Then we would be faced with ourselves again. Sell a ticket....we had to sell a ticket....we had to go out on the streets by ourselves....we couldn’t go in pairs. People were in a hurry or would stop and tell us it was great, but they never come in the city at night. Or that we were good salesmen but they had another commitment. And nothing worked. Weren’t we giving everything? Something deep inside reminded us that there was something we were holding back, something that we were yet embarrassed about or afraid to do. Then we did this thing -- honestly, totally -- it still didn’t work. We couldn’t even pray then. It was as if we were entirely deserted.... We were struggling our absolute best and losing before we had even started. It was agony... hell. We weren’t "we" any longer, but lost and rejected individuals, each person in his private desperation.

While pioneers hit the streets, local center members in each of the seven cities set up speaking dates, rented halls, did mailings, printed programs, bought ads, put up posters and sold tickets wherever possible. In this sense, the tour required movement-wide coordination as well as increased individual commitment. Each revival stop featured opening remarks by local directors, music by the Unification Chorale, introductions by W. Farley Jones, President, Unification Church, U.S.A., and three nights of talks by Rev. Moon. Translated from the Korean first by Young Whi Kim and later in the tour by Bo Hi Pak, Rev. Moon’s topics were: "One God, One World Religion," "Ideal World for God and Man," and "The New Messiah, and the Formula of God in History."

Despite the efforts of pioneers and existing centers, the tour was a constant battle against anonymity and, in the Eastern cities, against the elements. In New York City bitter weather limited attendance to between 350-450 people for the three nights even though many more tickets had been sold. In Washington, a blizzard not only hindered the turnout but stranded pioneers in Frederick, Maryland, when the bus carrying them to California broke down in heavy snow. On the West Coast, the weather was not a problem. Still, it was not until Berkeley that the tour had its first full house. There were a number of reasons for the Berkeley success. Perhaps most important, it was the last stop on the tour, and the center there had the longest amount of time to prepare.

Following Rev. Moon’s visit to the Bay Area in early January 1972, the Berkeley Center rented a large room (capacity: 700) at the Claremont Hotel and mobilized five committees -- Tickets, Literature, Publicity, Physical Arrangements, and Follow-up -- to prepare for the March 9-11, 1972, revival. Berkeley traditionally was fertile ground for new movements of various types, and prior to the tour’s arrival, neutral to positive articles appeared in both the Berkeley Gazette and Oakland Tribune. In addition, the tour had become more polished, and ticket prices were reduced to $6.00 for the three nights. Finally, Rev. Moon, who had suffered with the flu during the first six cities, was in good health for Berkeley. For these reasons, the pioneers finished the seven-city tour with a "feeling of having triumphed."

Although the Berkeley stopover was gratifying, that particular success was less an end than a beginning of the movement’s active evangelizing. Far more ambitious crusades were to follow. At the same time, the first priority of the movement continued to be the attainment of internal solidarity. This was especially clear at a meeting of Bay Area members and pioneers in San Francisco following the Berkeley revival. In response to a question on how the San Francisco group and the Berkeley group would relate in the future, one pioneer recounted Rev. Moon’s "hurricane-like fury at Satan and the division of the American family": "They are one!" he thundered. "There is no Miss Kim’s group and Mr. Kim’s group and Mr. Choi’s group. There are no groups. They are all Mr. Moon’s group. Missionaries will be recalled to Korea. Members will be interchanged, and all members will go through my training, even your president, Farley Jones."

What Rev. Moon’s training called for was a three-year period (1972-74) of total mobilization. The first step in this training involved the selection and assignment of "state representatives" (SRs), "itinerary workers" (IWs), and evangelical bus team members. To coordinate these groups, an entirely new organization was born.

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