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| '''Willard Cleon Skousen''' (January 20, 1913 – January 9, 2006) was an ] author, political commentator, academic, and civil servant. He was a prominent figure among American conservatives and authored several books on conservative thought. |
'''Willard Cleon Skousen''' (January 20, 1913 – January 9, 2006) was an ] author, political commentator, academic, and civil servant. He was a prominent figure among American conservatives and authored several books on conservative thought. | ||
| ==Early life and education== | ==Early life and education== | ||
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| == World view == | == World view == | ||
| Skousen spoke against ],<ref>W. Cleon Skousen, ''The Naked Communist'' (Ensign Publishing Co., 1958).</ref> and against ] |
Skousen spoke against ],<ref>W. Cleon Skousen, ''The Naked Communist'' (Ensign Publishing Co., 1958).</ref> and against ]{{cn}}. He linked super-capitalists to their supposed enemies, the world communist leaders.<ref>See, ''e.g.'', W. Cleon Skousen, ''The Naked Capitalist'' (Ensign Publishing Co., 1970).</ref> | ||
| Skousen claimed that treason had occurred in the ] with respect to what he argued was the betrayal of ] after ]. In the 1970s, he gave a speech to an LDS group aboard a cruise ship returning from ]. In this excerpt,<ref></ref> he speaks of the sham of elections in the United States. He claimed that for ten elections, the United States had not had a legitimate election where there was truly a choice. He also referred to what he argued was ]'s betrayal. | Skousen claimed that treason had occurred in the ] with respect to what he argued was the betrayal of ] after ]. In the 1970s, he gave a speech to an LDS group aboard a cruise ship returning from ]. In this excerpt,<ref></ref> he speaks of the sham of elections in the United States. He claimed that for ten elections, the United States had not had a legitimate election where there was truly a choice. He also referred to what he argued was ]'s betrayal. | ||
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Revision as of 23:42, 2 July 2009
For other people named Skousen (disambiguation), see Skousen (disambiguation) (disambiguation).
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Willard Cleon Skousen (January 20, 1913 – January 9, 2006) was an American conservative author, political commentator, academic, and civil servant. He was a prominent figure among American conservatives and authored several books on conservative thought.
Early life and education
Skousen was born to a Mormon family in Raymond, Alberta, Canada, and moved with his family to both Mexico and then back to California as a youth. At the age of 17 he accepted a religious assignment in Great Britain as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
Skousen graduated from San Bernardino Valley Jr. College in 1935 and married Jewel Pitcher in August 1936. Together they raised eight children, an experience which, along with his later juvenile delinquency work at the FBI, inspired the book So You Want to Raise a Boy. By the time he graduated with an LL.B. from George Washington University Law School in June 1940, he had already passed the Washington, D.C. bar examination. The school upgraded his degree to Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1972 after reviewing the sufficiency of his law school studies.
Professional life
Skousen went to work for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in June 1935. The following year he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), where he worked until 1951.
From 1951 to 1955, he taught at Brigham Young University, after which he served as the police chief of Salt Lake City, Utah until 1965. For the next fifteen years, he edited the police journal, "Law and Order". He returned to Brigham Young University as a professor of religion in 1967, retiring in 1978.
Political life
Skousen was admired by members and leaders of the John Birch Society throughout the 1960s. Although he was never officially a member, he spoke at society events, appeared on its magazine cover, and his son was president of its Utah chapter. He authored a pamphlet titled The Communist Attack on the John Birch Society, observing that those that criticized Birchers tended to promote Communism.
After the American election of 1980, Skousen was appointed to the Council for National Policy, a think tank of influential politicians, scholars and academics that lent support and advice to President Ronald Reagan’s administration. Skousen's proposals included a plan to convert the Social Security system to private retirement accounts, as well as a plan to completely wipe out the national debt.
Skousen was not a tax protester, but he did campaign for several proposals to eliminate the federal income tax. One proposal, the Liberty Amendment, would return federally owned land to the states and preclude the federal government from being involved in any activities that competed with private enterprise.
In 1971, Skousen founded a non-profit educational foundation, "The Freemen Institute," which is now known as the National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS) and became known as a political lecturer.
In 1986, Skousen and William H. Doughty founded the Meadeau View Institute, which took over the Institute for Constitutional Education, formerly a part of the NCCS, and sought to build a Skousen Center of Politics along with a library to house his personal writings. Skousen resigned from the board in 1993, "citing 'irregularities' in management."
World view
Skousen spoke against communism, and against David Rockefeller. He linked super-capitalists to their supposed enemies, the world communist leaders.
Skousen claimed that treason had occurred in the U.S. State Department with respect to what he argued was the betrayal of China after World War II. In the 1970s, he gave a speech to an LDS group aboard a cruise ship returning from Israel. In this excerpt, he speaks of the sham of elections in the United States. He claimed that for ten elections, the United States had not had a legitimate election where there was truly a choice. He also referred to what he argued was Chiang Kai-shek's betrayal.
Skousen spoke of 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 and asked who would write or say such a thing, then responded that it was David Rockefeller.
His nephews include Joel Skousen, a survivalist/political author, Royal Skousen, a linguist, Mark Skousen, a libertarian economist and author, and Neil Skousen, a prominent Utah attorney.
Books
Skousen authored The Naked Communist and was the source of the publication "1963 Communist Goals" list. He later wrote a follow-up, The Naked Capitalist, based on Carroll Quigley's assertions made in the books Tragedy and Hope and The Anglo-American Establishment, which claimed that top Western merchant bankers, industrialists and related institutions were behind the rise of Communism and Fascism around the world.
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.
Skousen's writings generally present a conservative viewpoint of political and religious topics. His works include:
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As of June 2009, the seventh edition of The 5000 Year Leap is the #1 bestseller in Amazon.com's Government category, #10 in the Nonfiction category, and ranks #20 on Amazon.com's overall list of bestselling books. At the same time, the 30th Anniversary edition of The 5000 Year Leap is #11 in the Nonfiction category.
References
- Hemingway, Mark (2007-08-06). "Romney's Radical Roots". National Review Online. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - National Center for Constitutional Studies - NCCS
- Backers Tried In Vain To Recover Losses. Paul Parkinson and Karl Cates. Deseret News. July 26, 1994.
- W. Cleon Skousen, The Naked Communist (Ensign Publishing Co., 1958).
- See, e.g., W. Cleon Skousen, The Naked Capitalist (Ensign Publishing Co., 1970).
- W. Cleon Skousen: US Betrayal of China after WWII, Elections, shams
- Communist Goals - 1963 Congressional Record
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/16022931/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_1_5_last
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/16022931/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_1_5_last
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/ref=pd_ts_b_bcrm_books
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "W. Cleon Skousen" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
External links
| Meadeau View Institute | |
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- 1913 births
- 2006 deaths
- American academics
- American Mormon missionaries
- American political writers
- American religious writers
- American family and parenting writers
- American Latter Day Saints
- Brigham Young University faculty
- George Washington University alumni
- Latter Day Saint writers
- Mormon missionaries in the United Kingdom
- People from Raymond, Alberta
- 20th-century Mormon missionaries