IT WAS worth coming all the way to Hawaii just to hear this service. I have heard many services in my life, but I have never heard a sermon that was more eloquent, more appropriate, and timely for not only this event, this day, but for this period in the history of this world.
I wish it could be heard all over the world. I wish he could bring this message the way that he speaks it, and its content, the delivery, and particularly the spirit of it, not only here, but other places. I told him that I don't know whether we can arrange this, but I invited him to speak at the White House and to bring the choir with him. We are going to try to find some angel, I mean an angel on earth, who will take care of that, because I think it would be a very fine service at the White House.
It was really one of the most moving and meaningful religious services I have attended, and I have attended a great number of very fine services.
The briefing was on the whole Pacific area.
I am going to put some of the finishing touches on my Vietnam speech this afternoon on the plane, and tomorrow.
The briefing this morning was very helpful. It was about an hour and a half, from 7: 30 to 9:00.
Note: The President spoke at approximately 10:45 a.m. at Hickam Air Force Base.
The sermon to which the President referred, delivered by Reverend Dr. Abraham K. Akaka at the Kawaiahao Church in Honolulu, is printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 6, p. 551 ).
Earlier the same day, the President met with Adm. John D. McCain, Jr., Commander in Chief, U.S. Forces in the Pacific, and other top military advisers for a briefing on the military situation in Southeast Asia.
Richard Nixon, Remarks on Departure from Honolulu. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241126
