Cleon Skousen

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W. Cleon Skousen
Born	Willard Cleon Skousen January 20, 1913(1913-01-20) Raymond, Alberta, Canada
Died	January 9, 2006 (aged 92) Salt Lake City, Utah
Occupation	Law enforcement University professor Political speaker
Citizenship	United States
Education	Lawyer
Alma mater	San Bernardino Valley College George Washington University Law School
Genres	Politics Religion
Subjects	Anti-communism Conspiracy theories American history Latter Day Saints religion
Notable work(s)	Five Thousand Year Leap The Naked Communist
Spouse(s)	Jewel Pitcher (m. 1936)
Children	Eight
Relative(s)	Nephews: Joel Skousen, Royal Skousen, Mark Skousen
Influences Ezra Taft Benson Carroll Quigley
Influenced Glenn Beck
Official website

Willard (W.) Cleon Skousen (January 20, 1913 – January 9, 2006) was a Mormon American conservative author and political commentator. A prominent figure in some strains of American conservatism (associated with the John Birch Society), Skousen authored books on politics and Mormon religion. In 2008, political commentator and media personality Glenn Beck began recommending Skousen's works, sparking new interest in his ideas and publications.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Professional life 3 Political life 4 Views 5 Books 5.1 Political 5.2 Religious 6 Notable relatives 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Early life and education

Skousen was born on a dryland farm in Raymond, Alberta, Canada, the second of nine children of Royal Pratt and Margarita Bentley Skousen, who were U.S. citizens.^[1]. He lived in Canada until he was ten years old, then moved with his family to California. 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. 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.^{[2] [3]}

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 upgraded his degree to Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1972 after reviewing the sufficiency of his law school studies.^[4]

[edit] Professional life

In June, 1935, Skousen went to work for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, a New Deal program to subsidize farmers.^[5] Soon thereafter, he found employment with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), working as a messenger while attending law school at night. In 1940, after getting his law degree and passing the Washington D.C. bar exam, he became an FBI Special Agent.^[3] FBI memos have described his work at the Bureau as mainly clerical and administrative.^[6] Skousen left the FBI in 1951.

From 1951 to 1955, he taught at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1956, Salt Lake mayor Adiel Stewart hired Skousen to serve as Police Chief in the wake of a police department scandal.^[3]Skousen was a well-respected police chief for nearly four years.^[7] In 1960, newly-elected mayor J. Bracken Lee dismissed Skousen shortly after Skousen raided an illegal poker club, where J. Bracken Lee was in attendance.^[8][9] Skousen supporters protested the abrupt firing by disrupting a city counsel meeting^[10] and planting burning crosses on Lee's lawn.^[11] Lee characterized Skousen's strict enforcement of anti-gambling laws as Gestapo-like^[7][12]. Lee said that although Skousen was an anti-communist, he "ran the police department in exactly the same manner as the Communists in Russia operate their government."^[13] Time magazine reported in 1960 that Skousen's "real offense seemed to be that he had failed to show enough enthusiasm for Lee's determination to slash the police-department budget." ^[7] Lee told a friend that Skousen was "one of the greatest spenders of public funds of anyone who ever served in any capacity in Salt Lake City government", and a "master of half truths".^[13] According to the NCCS, (an organization founded by Skousen), Skousen had eliminated the sources of illegal activity in the city by 1959.^[14] After Skousen's firing, his model police programs were dismantled, and crime increased, on the average, by 22%, according to the NCCS. ^[14]

Skousen continued his involvement in law enforcement issues by working as the editor of the police journal, "Law and Order," for fifteen years. He also served as Field Director for the American Security Council He returned to Brigham Young University as a Professor in the Religion Department in 1967, retiring in 1978.

[edit] Political life

Throughout the 1960s, Skousen was admired by members and leaders of the John Birch Society. Skousen used Birch Society magazines as source and reference material,^[3] and was pictured on the cover of its magazine, American Interest. Although he was never officially 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 affiliating with an "extreme right-wing" group which was promoting "anticommunisum for obvious financial purposes"^[6] Skousen authored a pamphlet titled The Communist Attack on the John Birch Society, characterizing criticism of the Society as incipient communism.^[15]

Following the U.S. presidential election of 1980, Skousen was appointed to the Council for National Policy, a think tank composed of politicians, scholars and academics who supported the political views of President Ronald Reagan and offered advice and policy proposals to his administration. Skousen's proposals 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.

Although Skousen was not a tax protester, he did campaign for several proposals to eliminate the federal income tax. One proposal, the Liberty Amendment, precluded the federal government from involvement in any activities that competed with private enterprise and returned federally-owned land to the states.

In 1971, Skousen founded a non-profit educational foundation, "The Freeman Institute" which sought to provide students a place to read both sides of any political issue from original sources. In 1982, the institute became the National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS), a national organization headquartered in Malta, Idaho.^[16]

Skousen was a member of the Meadeau View Institute, but resigned citing "irregularities" in management.^[17] While at the Institute, he mentored Oliver DeMille, and his influence helped shape George Wythe University,^{[citation needed]} a private, unaccredited university in Cedar City, Utah, which grew out of the Meadeau View. Skousen's books are still used as texts at the school.^[18][19]

[edit] Views

Skousen spoke against communism,^[20] throughout his career. He did not believe the U.S. should establish diplomatic relations with Communist China, claiming that the U.S. State Department was engaging in treason with respect to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's visit to "his old friend Mao Tse-tung." ^[21] In the 1970s, he spoke to a Latter-day Saint group aboard a cruise ship returning from Israel, stating that the previous ten U.S. national elections had been illegitimate because voters had not truly had a choice. He also referred to what he argued was the betrayal of Chiang Kai-shek. ^[22]

Skousen spoke of billionare banker David Rockefeller as being one of the most powerful men in the world. Rockefeller had praised Mao Zedong in a New York Times article in 1973, stating that the communist leader was one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century. Skousen blasted this notion.^[23]

Skousen was also known as a strong supporter of law and order and believed that local police departments were being undermined in order to promote a national police state.^[3]

[edit] Books

Skousen authored The Naked Communist and was the source of the publication "1963 Communist Goals" list.^[24] In 1970, he wrote The Naked Capitalist, which claimed that top Western merchant bankers, industrialists and related institutions were behind the rise of Communism and Fascism around the world.^[25] The Naked Capitalist has been cited by many, including Cleon Skousen's nephew Joel Skousen, as proof of a "New World Order" strategy to create a One World Government.

In 1987, controversy erupted in California when the state briefly considered using Skousen's book, The Making of America, as a textbook for California schools. Statements in the book regarding slavery, and its use of the term "pickaninny" as a label for slave children engendered a heated debate as to whether the book was appropriate. The state commission's Executive Director, a former colleague of Skousen at the National Center for Constitutional Studies, asserted that these statements were "largely taken out of context" from a 1934 essay on slavery by the historian Fred Albert Shannon that Skousen had included in his book. ^[26][27] Shannon's essays have described slaves as well-fed and well-treated, and stated that the slave owners were actually the worst victims of the system of slavery.^[28] Skousen highlights the global history of slavery as independent of color or race in The Making Of America claiming that "... the emancipation of human beings from slavery is an ongoing struggle. Slavery is not a racial problem. It is a human problem."^[29]

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".^[30] Skousen's 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.^[31][32]

After Glenn Beck began promoting Skousen's 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 9-12 Project meetings and was often used as source material for 9-12 Project speakers.^[6]

Skousen's writings generally present a conservative viewpoint of political and religious topics. His works include:

[edit] Political

• Skousen, W. Cleon (2009-03-19). James Michael Pratt and Carlos L Packard. ed. The Five Thousand Year Leap with Foreword by Glenn Beck. Franklin, Tennessee: American Documents Publishing, LLC. pp. 356. ISBN 0981559662. 
• The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution (2nd ed.). Malta, Idaho: National Center for Constitutional Studies. 1985. pp. 888. ISBN 0880800178. 
• The Miracle of America (Paperback ed.). National Center for Constitutional Studies. 1977.  ASIN: B000J5A9XY
• The Naked Communist (11th ed.). Salt Lake City, Utah: Ensign. 1962. pp. 408.  ASIN: B000NKE3M
• The Naked Capitalist. self-published. 1962.  ASIN: B000GDX9D6

[edit] Religious

• Brother Joseph: Seer of New Dispensation (Volume 1). Pleasant Grove, Utah: Verity Publishing. 2007. ISBN 978-0934364270. 
• Treasures from The Book of Mormon Volume 1 (First Nephi-jacob 7) (Paperback ed.). Salt Lake City, Utah: Ensign Publishing. 1998. pp. 329.  ASIN: B000Q8120S
• A Personal Search for the Meaning of the Atonement (Audio cassette ed.).  ASIN: B000QXLQYA
• So You Want To Raise A Boy? (1994 ed.). Salt Lake City, Utah: Ensign. pp. 346. ISBN 978-0934364157. 
• Isaiah Speaks to Modern Times. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ensign. 1984. 
• The Third Thousand Years. Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft. 1964. ISBN 0884941221. 
• The Fourth Thousand Years: From David to Christ. Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft. 1966. ISBN 0884941477. 
• The Real Story of Christmas; and Authoritative Historical Sources Compiled from The Scriptures. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Co. 1958.  ASIN: B000WLY4UY
• The First Two Thousand Years. Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft. 1953. ISBN 0884940292. 
• Prophecy and Modern Times. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Books. 1948. pp. 150.  ASIN: B0007EXO02

[edit] Notable relatives

Skousen has several notable nephews including Joel Skousen, a survivalist and political author, Royal Skousen, a linguist, Mark Skousen, a libertarian economist and author, and Neil Skousen, a Utah attorney.

[edit] See also

• LDS colonization of Alberta
• Colonia Juárez, Chihuahua
• Robert Welch
• Red-baiting
• Originalism

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Success Rate of the Communist Goals in America.
• "A Practical Application and Book Review of 'The 5,000 Year Leap.'"

v • d • e Meadeau View Institute Directors William H. Doughty · Cleon Skousen · Donald N. Sills · Glenn Kimber Subsidiaries Institute for Constitutional Education · George Wythe College · Youth for America · Mammoth Valley Partners National Center for Constitutional Studies