The Naked Communist-1
The Naked Communist-1
The Naked Communist-1
Cleon Skousen
Willard Cleon Skousen (January 20, 1913 January
9, 2006) was an American conservative author and faithbased political theorist[1] who believed that the United
States Constitution creates a christian theocracy.[2] He
was also a prolic popularizer among Latter-day Saints
(Mormons) of their theology. A notable anti-communist
and supporter of the John Birch Society,[3] Skousens
works involved a wide range of subjects including the
Six-Day War, Mormon eschatology, New World Order
conspiracies, and parenting.[4] His most popular works
are The 5,000 Year Leap and The Naked Communist. A
book by Skousen on end times prophecy, The Cleansing
of America, was published by Valor Publishing Group in
2010, four years after his death.
Skousen was born on a dryland farm in Raymond, Alberta, Canada, the second of nine children of Royal Pratt
Skousen and Margarita Bentley Skousen, who were U.S.
citizens.[5] He lived in Canada until he was ten years old,
then moved with his family to California where his father supervised the paving of some of the original Route
66. In 1926, Skousen went to the Mormon colony,
Colonia Juarez, Mexico for two years to help his seriously
ill grandmother. While there, he attended the Juarez
Academy and was employed for a time as a race horse
jockey. Skousen then returned to California, graduating
from high school in 1930. At the age of 17 he traveled
to Great Britain as a missionary for The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).[6][7]
After completing his missionary service, Skousen attended San Bernardino Valley Jr. College, graduating
in 1935. He married Jewel Pitcher in August 1936, and
they raised eight children together. He graduated with an
LL.B. from George Washington University Law School in
June 1940 (the school updated his degree as Juris Doctor
(J.D.) in 1972 with its degree nomenclature).[8]
Professional life
2
zine described in 1961 as an exemplar of the far-right
ultras.[17] Throughout the 1960s, Skousen was also admired by members and leaders of the John Birch Society, although members of the more mainstream conservative movement and the American Security Council[4]
snubbed him out of fear that his controversial views would
hurt the credibility of the conservative movement. Skousen used Birch Society magazines as source and reference material,[7] and was pictured on the cover of its
magazine, American Interest. Although he was never ofcially a member of the organization, he was a member
of its speakers bureau and lectured at John Birch Society
events throughout the United States for many years. A
1962 FBI memo described Skousen as aliating with an
extreme right-wing" group which was promoting anticommunism for obvious nancial purposes.[4] Skousen
authored a pamphlet titled The Communist Attack on the
John Birch Society, characterizing criticism of the Society
as incipient communism.[12]
In 1981, the rst year of Ronald Reagan's presidency, Skousen was asked to be a charter member of the conservative think tank the Council for National Policy, founded
by Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind series of books.
Other early participants included Paul Weyrich; Phyllis
Schlay; Robert Grant; Howard Phillips, a former Republican aliated with the Constitution Party; Richard
Viguerie, the direct-mail specialist; and Morton Blackwell, a Louisiana and Virginia activist who is considered a
specialist on the rules of the Republican Party.[18][19] Skousens proposals with the group included a plan to convert the Social Security system to private retirement accounts, as well as a plan that he claimed would completely
wipe out the national debt.
VIEWS
4 Views
From The Naked Capitalist, Skousens review
of Carroll Quigleys Tragedy and Hope:
Power from any source tends to create an appetite for additional power... It was almost inevitable that the superrich would one day aspire to control not only their own
wealth, but the wealth of the whole world. As I see it,
the great contribution which Dr. Carroll Quigley unintentionally made[...]was to help the ordinary American
people realize the utter contempt which the network leaders have for ordinary people. Human beings are treated
en masse as helpless puppets on an international chess
board where giants of economic and political power subject them to wars, revolution, civil strife, conscation,
subversion, indoctrination, manipulation and outright deception as it suits their fancy and their concocted schemes
for world domination.[24]
5.1
Questionable sourcing
3
ing struggle. Slavery is not a racial problem. It is a human
problem.[35]
Skousen began his research for his book The Five Thousand Year Leap in the 1930s while attending law school,
combing archives in the Library of Congress for the original writings of such Founding Fathers as John Adams
and Thomas Jeerson and continued to work on the
manuscript for the next 50 years, nally publishing it in
1981.[36]
7 Legacy
By Skousens 2006 death, he remained fairly obscure except among furthest-right Mormons.[17] U.S. Senator
Orrin Hatch, himself Mormon, who had Skousen and Skousens Freemen Institute as patrons when Hatch ran for
the Senate as an unknown in 1976,[37] eulogized Skousen
on the oor of the U.S. Senate,[38] saying:
Shortly before I announced that I would be
running for the U.S. Senate in 1976 as a polit-
8
ical novice and virtually unknown candidate
Cleon was one of the rst people of political signicance and substance who agreed to
meet with me and discuss my candidacy. A
few short years before this time, Cleon had
organized a nonprot educational foundation
named The Freemen Institute, to foster constitutionalist principles including a drastic reduction in the size and scope of the Federal
Government, and a reverence for the true, unchanging nature of our Constitution. I knew
that he had strongly held beliefs and I was very
interested in what he had to say. We found in
each other at that rst meeting many areas of
common ground and a shared love for the principles that make America the strongest bastion
of freedom on Earth. Cleon quickly agreed to
help, and throughout the coming months he became a true champion of my candidacy. [...]
As we all know, Cleon was a prolic author
and writer. His books, The First 2000 Years,
The Making of America, and The Five Thousand Year Leap have been used by foundations, and in forums across America for many
years. [...] I loved an account I recently read in
the Deseret News from the Rev. Donald Sills,
a Baptist minister who became close friends
over many years with Cleon. He spoke of his
knowledge and study and recalled a time when
he found Cleon sitting on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC. When
he asked Cleon what he was doing just sitting
there, Cleons tting response was, Im talking
to Tom Jeerson.[39]
In September 2007, a year prior to the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Jan Mickelson of Iowa radio station
WHO and Republican Iowa caucus presidential candidate Mitt Romney discussed Skousen in an o-theair conversation during a break in Mickelsons broadcast, which Mickelson recorded. In the conversation,
Mickelson touted Skousens American Constitutionalism
and Romney cited Skousen as an expert on Mormon
theology.[40] In commentary about this exchange, the
National Review's Mark Hemingway termed Skousen an
"...all-around nutjob, and described The Naked Communist as so irrational in its paranoia that it would have
made Whittaker Chambers blush, adding, to be fair,
Skousen wrote on numerous topics with wildly varying degrees of intellectual sobriety. In fact, as the radio host in the YouTube video notes, Skousens writings on original intent and the U.S. Constitution in The
Making of America are compellingly argued, and to this
day are often cited by conservatives unaware of Skousens more checkered writings. Further, Skousens
scriptural commentaries are still very popular and wellregarded within the relatively unradical world of mainstream Mormonism.[12]
NOTABLE RELATIVES
In fall of 2007, political commentator Glenn Beck began promoting The 5,000 Year Leap on his show, describing it as divinely inspired and written by someone much more intelligent than myself.[41] Leap argues
that the U.S. Constitution is infused with Judeo-Christian
virtues as well as Enlightenment philosophy.[4] Skousens
son Paul Skousen asked Beck to write the foreword for a
new edition of the book. Texas Governor Rick Perry has
also promoted the book.[42][43]
In a November 2010 article in Canada's National Post,
Alexander Zaitchik, author of Common Nonsense (a book
critical of Glenn Beck), described Skousen as a whack
job with decidedly dubious theories.[44]
After Beck began promoting Skousens The 5,000 Year
Leap in March 2009, it went to number one in sales on the
Amazon.com charts and stayed in the top 15 throughout
the following summer. In September 2009, the book was
being sold at meetings of Becks 9-12 Project and was
often used as source material for 9-12 Project speakers.[4]
Skousens book on LDS end times prophecy, The Cleansing of America, was published by Valor Publishing Group
in 2010.[45]
Former Republican Party candidate for U.S. president
Ben Carson's frequent claims that Democratic Party or
liberal politicians have Communist or Fascist beliefs have
led commentators to investigate his sources. Carson has
endorsed the work of W. Cleon Skousen, a conspiracyminded author and supporter of the John Birch Society. Mr. Carson views Mr. Skousens work, especially
The Naked Communist, as an interpretive key to America today.[46] He [Carson] recommends W. Cleon Skousens The Naked Communist, a 1958 book by the former FBI special agent and favorite of the right who lays
out the strategy communists would use to take control
of the U.S.[47] Theres also a book called The Naked
Communist. It was written in 1958 by Cleon Skousen,
the same guy who wrote The 5000 Year Leap. It lays
out the whole progressive plan for fundamentally changing America. The only thing thats truly amazing is how
quickly its being done.[48] Carson plagiarized the The
5,000 Year Leap in his own book America the Beautiful.[2]
In an op-ed, Chris Zinda of The Independent [lower-alpha 1]
points out a book co-published by Cliven Bundy, the central gure of a 2014 stando with the Bureau of Land
Management. According to Zinda, it lays out Bundys
motivations behind the stando, which he describes as a
combination of LDS theology and Skousen constitutional
theory.[49]
8 Notable relatives
Skousens son, Paul Skousen, is a noted author, and his
nephews include Joel Skousen, a survivalist and political author; Royal Skousen, a linguist and Mormon studies
scholar; and Mark Skousen, a libertarian economist and
5
authorcommentator.
Selected writings
9.1
Political
10 See also
Originalism
Red-baiting
Sovereign Citizen Movement
Bundy stando
9.2
Religious
11 Notes
[1] The source cited is separate from the British online newspaper of the same name and based in St. George, Utah.
12 References
[1] Israelsen-Hartley, Sara (December 5, 2009). BYU professors: Glenn Beck doesn't speak for all Mormons.
Deseret News.
[2] Gettys, Travis (January 22, 2016). This Mormon
pseudo-historian is why the Oregon militants are so confused about the Constitution. Raw Story.
[3] Skousen, W. Cleon (1963), The Communist Attack on the
John Birch Society. Belmont, MA: American Opinion. 8
page pamphlet. Online reprint by Micah Burnett at ourrepubliconline.com
[4] Zaitchik, Alexander (September 16, 2009). Meet the
man who changed Glenn Becks life. Salon. Retrieved
12 January 2011.
[5] Death: Rita Skousen Miller. Deseret News. 1998-0508. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
12
REFERENCES
[8] W. Cleon Skousen 1913-2006 Biography. Ocial website of W. Cleon Skousen. skousen2000.com. Retrieved
2009-11-19.
[9] Sta writer (1960-04-04). Utah: Nettled NickelNipper. Time. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
[11] Political Feud in Salt Lake City: J. Bracken Lee and the
Firing of W. Cleon Skousen, Utah Historical Quarterly,
Volume 42, No. 4, 1974, p. 316, article by Dennis L.
Lythgoe
[12] Hemingway, Mark (2007-08-06). Romneys Radical
Roots. National Review Online. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
[13] Himstreet, Ted (1960-03-22). S.L. Tables Reconsideration Of Chief Skousen Dismissal. Deseret News and
Telegram. pp. A1, A6. Online reprint of scanned newspaper by Google News Archive, retrieved 2009-11-23
[14] Lythgoe, Dennis (1994-09-13). "`Brack' Has Been A
Fiery Presence In Utah. Deseret News. Retrieved 200911-23.
[15] Drum, Kevin (2005-02-24). Review of Before the
Storm. Political Animal. The Washington Monthly. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
[16] In Memoriam of W. Cleon Skousen. Newsletter. National Center for Constitutional Studies. February 2006.
Retrieved 2009-11-19.
[17] Confounding Fathers: The Tea Partys Cold War Roots
by historian Sean Wilentz, The New Yorker, October 18,
2010
[18] Jeremy Leaming and Rob Boston (October 2004). Behind
Closed Doors: Who Is The Council For National Policy
And What Are They Up To? And Why Dont They Want
You To Know?, Church & State, Americans United for
Separation of Church and State
[19] Council for National Policy, NNDB, Soylent Communications
[20] Home Page. NCCS.net. National Center for Constitutional Studies. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
Speech.
[30] Representative Wally Herger (R-CA 2nd) (2009-1028). Communist Goals as read into the Congressional
Record. Congress.org. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
[31] Round Table Review: The Naked Capitalist. J. Willard
Marriott Library, University of Utah. 1970. Retrieved
2009-11-19.).
[32] Vol. 1 (1971). The Capitalist Conspiracy: An Inside View
of International Banking (credit at 1m:39s) (Documentary). American Media. OCLC 5558340.
[33] Ingram, Carl (1987-02-07). Probe Ordered in State
Panels Sale of 'Racist' Book. The Los Angeles Times.
Retrieved August 12, 2009.
[34] Bishop, Katherine (February 16, 1987). Bicentennial
Panel In California Assailed Over 'Racist' Textbook. The
New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2009.
[35] Skousen, W. Cleon. The Making of America. p. 728.
[36] Benson, Lee (March 21, 2010). Glenn Beck gives Skousen books sales a 'Leap'". Deseret News.
[37] Rolly, Paul (July 1, 2009). GenRolly Speaking: How Far
Right Can We Go?". Salt Lake Tribune.
[38] Posner, Sarah (September 21, 2009). The Skousen Admiration Club. The American Prospect.
[39] Remarks, Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah)". 109th United States
Congress, United States Senate. Congressional Record.
January 2006. p. S114.
[40] Barabak, Mark Z. (September 7, 2007). Last Word On
Politics In Iowa. Los Angeles Times.
[41] The 5000 Year Leap. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
[22] Master of Arts, Political Economy Graduation Requirements. George Wythe University. 2009. Retrieved
2009-08-09.
13
External links
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14.1
14.2
Images
14.3
Content license