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Chapter 13
Communism—An International Criminal Conspiracy

We are at war⁽¹⁾ with the communists and the sooner every red-blooded American realizes this the safer we will be . . . . We must continue to stiffen our national backbone in dealing with the communists and their dupes, sympathizers, and apologists. If we relax our guard for one moment, we court national disaster . . . . The communist threat from without must not blind us to the communist threat from within.

      Early Warning to Church Members.      [1936] With great regret we learn from credible sources, governmental and others, that a few Church members are joining directly or indirectly, the Communists and are taking part in their activities.

      The Church does not interfere, and has no intention of trying to interfere, with the fullest and freest exercise of the political franchise of its members, under and within our Constitution which the Lord declared: “I established . . . by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose,” and which as to the principles thereof, the Prophet, dedicating the Kirtland Temple, prayed should be “established forever.”

      But Communism is not a political party nor a political plan under the Constitution; it is a system of government that is the opposite of our Constitutional government, and it would be necessary to destroy our government before Communism could be set up in the United States.⁽²⁾ [p. 212]

      Since Communism, established, would destroy our American Constitutional government, to support Communism is treasonable to our free institutions, and no patriotic American citizen may become either a Communist or supporter of Communism.

      To our Church members we say: Communism is not the United Order, and bears only the most superficial resemblance thereto; Communism is based upon intolerance and force, the United Order upon love and freedom of conscience and action; Communism involves forceful despoliation and confiscation, the United Order voluntary consecration and sacrifice.

      Communists cannot establish the United Order, nor will Communism bring it about. The United Order will be established by the Lord in His own due time and in accordance with the regular prescribed order of the Church.

      Furthermore, it is charged by universal report, which is not successfully contradicted or disproved, that Communism undertakes to control, if not indeed to proscribe the religious life of the people living within its jurisdiction, and that it even reaches its hand into the sanctity of the family circle itself, disrupting the normal relationship of parent and child, all in a manner unknown and unsanctioned under the Constitutional guarantees under which we in America live. Such interference would be contrary to the fundamental precepts of the Gospel and to the teachings and order of the Church.

      Communism being thus hostile to loyal American citizenship and incompatible with true Church membership, of necessity no loyal American citizen and no faithful Church member can be a Communist.

      We call upon all Church members’ completely to [p. 213] eschew Communism. The safety of our divinely inspired Constitutional government and the welfare of our Church imperatively demand that Communism shall have no place in America.⁽³⁾ (First Presidency, 1936, E-39:488)

      Another Warning Concerning Communism.      [1942] We again warn our people in America of the constantly increasing threat against our inspired Constitution and our free institutions set up under it. The same political tenets and philosophies that have brought war and terror in other parts of the world are at work amongst us in America. The proponents thereof are seeking to undermine our own form of government and to set up instead one of the forms of dictatorships now flourishing in other lands. These revolutionists are using a technique that is as old as the human race,—a fervid but false solicitude for the unfortunate over whom they thus gain mastery, and then enslave them.

      They suit their approaches to the particular group they seek to deceive.⁽⁴⁾ Among the Latter-day Saints they speak of their philosophy and their plans under it, as an ushering in of the United Order. Communism and all other similar isms bear no relationship whatever to the United Order. They are merely the clumsy counterfeits which Satan always devises of the gospel plan. Communism debases the individual and makes him the enslaved tool of the state to whom he must look for sustenance and religion; the United Order exalts the individual, [p. 214] leaves him his property, “according to his family, according to his circumstances and his wants and needs,” (D&C 51:3) and provides a system by which he helps care for his less fortunate brethren; the United Order leaves every man free to choose his own religion as his conscience directs. Communism destroys man’s God-given free agency; the United Order glorifies it. Latter-day Saints cannot be true to their faith and lend aid, encourage ment, or sympathy to any of these false philosophies. They will prove snares to their feet. (First Presidency, CR-4/42:90)

      The World’s Greatest Tyranny. Satan is making war against all the wisdom that has come to men through their ages of existence. He is seeking to overturn and destroy the very foundations upon which society, government, and religion rest. He aims to have men adopt theories and practices which he induced their forefathers, over the ages, to adopt and try, only to be discarded by them when found unsound, impractical, and ruinous. He plans to destroy liberty and freedom—economic, political, and religious, and to set up in place thereof the greatest, most widespread, and most complete tyranny that has ever oppressed men.⁽⁵⁾ He is working under such perfect disguise that many do not recognize either him or his methods.⁽⁶⁾

      There is no crime he would not commit, no debauchery he would not set up, no plague he would not send, no heart he would not break, no life he would not take, no soul he would not destroy.⁽⁷⁾ He comes as a thief in the [p. 215] night; he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Without their knowing it, the people are being urged down paths that lead only to destruction. Satan never before had so firm a grip on this generation as he has now. (First Presidency, CR-10/42:13).

      Two Contending Forces. Today two mighty forces are battling for the supremacy of the world.⁽⁸⁾ The destiny of mankind is in the balance. It is a question of God and liberty, or atheism and slavery. The success of Communism means the destruction of Religion. As stated by a government committee:

Communism cannot dominate family life until it has first fought its way past the influence of religion upon the family. Communism cannot force its own brand of moral code upon a person without first destroying his moral code rooted in religion. Communism cannot make education a weapon in its hands so long as religion is secure in its own right to teach and to educate unless it has the power to remake the life of the people. It cannot ignore religion and do that.

(President David O. McKay, CN-7/18/53)

      I come with another theme this morning—Two Contending Forces. Those forces are known and have been designated by Satan on the one hand, and Christ on the other.

      In Joshua’s time they were called “gods of the Amor-ites,” for one, and “the Lord,” on the other. Paul spoke [p. 216] of “the works of the flesh” on the one hand, “fruits of the spirit” on the other. They are often spoken of as “selfishness” for one, “life of service,” the other. In these days, they are called “’domination by the state,’” on one hand, “’personal liberty,’” on the other; communism on one, free agency on the other.

      As a text I say to you, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” (Joshua 24:15)

      In the beginning a being known as Satan came before the Father saying:

Behold, here am I. Send me . . . I will do it; (saving the human family who were to people this earth) wherefore, give me thine honor.

(Another—) But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me, Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.

      There you have placed before you the two great forces.

Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down:

      And he became Satan, yea, even the Devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice. (Moses 4:3, 4)

      “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.”

      Let us look at the man who disrupted the great consultation of the leaders of the world. In his heart are the teachings of Karl Marx. You students who have heard know about the kind of life he lived, how his wife suffered, how his children starved. Here is what one man said about him:

Marx loved his own person much more than he loved his friends and apostles, and no friendship could hold water against the slightest wound to . . . his vanity. Marx will never forgive a slight to his person. You must worship him, make an idol of him, if he is to love you in return; you must at least fear him if he is to tolerate you. He likes to surround himself with pygmies, with lackeys, and flatterers. All the same, there are some remarkable men among his intimates. In general, however, one may say that in the circuit [p. 217] of Marx’s intimates there is very little brotherly frankness, but a great deal of machination and diplomacy. There is a sort of tacit struggle, and a compromise between the self-loves of the various persons concerned, and where vanity is at work there is no longer place for brotherly feeling. Everyone is on his guard, is afraid of being sacrificed, of being annihilated.

Marx is a chief distributor of honors, but is also the invariably perfidious and malicious, the never frank and open incitor to the persecution of those whom he suspects, or who had the misfortune of failing to show all the veneration he expects. As soon as he has ordered a persecution there is no limit to the baseness of infamy of the methods.

      So wrote Mikhail Bakunin the first Russian to become interested in revolutionary activities, and a party pillar who fell under the purge.

      That same doctrine was advocated by Lenin who succeeded, who was a leader in the revolution in Russia. Note the same spirit:

We must hate. Hatred is the basis of communism. Children must be taught to hate their parents if they are not communists.

      Listen to the amazing declaration of the former Russian commissar of education.

We must hate Christians and Christianity. Even the best of them must be considered our worst enemies. Christian love is an obstacle to the development of the revolution. Down with love of one’s neighbor! What we want is hate. Only then will we conquer the universe. (From The Naked Communist, by W. Cleon Skousen, p. 288)

      That same spirit was manifest by a man by the name of Hitler. I quote from him:

In my great educative work, I am beginning with the young. Weakness has to be knocked out of them . . . . A violently active, dominating, intrepid, brutal youth—that is what I am after. There must be no weakness or tenderness in it. I want to see once more in its eyes the gleam of pride and independence of the beast of prey.

      That is from The Voice of Destruction, pp. 251-252, by Herman Rauschning, confidant of Hitler and a member of the secret conclaves from 1932 to 1935.

      Remember we were talking about two conflicting forces. You know the story of Hitler. Now, Khrushchev [p. 218] who, during his American tour last fall, according to The Salt Lake Tribune, said, “If anyone believes that our smiles involve abandonment of the teaching of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, he deceives himself poorly. Those who wait for that must wait until a shrimp learns to whistle.” That was 1959!

      He spoke about a common goal. According to good authority, Edward Hunter, foreign news correspondent, who has studied Communism for many years, said that Communist goal means something different from what you and I have in mind when we speak about the millennium or a universal peace.

      Unity in the Communist mind is voluntary submission to Communist discipline. This writer says:

To which force? Voluntary submission to Communist discipline. When you speak of peace, the Communists mean the cessation of all opposition to Communism, the acceptance of a Communist world. Then, and only then, can there be peace. This alone is what peace means in Communist language. Once this is understood the utter falsity and hypocrisy of Communist references to peace becomes at once obvious.

      I have mentioned these things simply to emphasize one dominant force which has as its ultimate achievement and victory—the destruction of capitalism, the destruction of the free agency of man which God has given him, and that destruction may be brought about—as advocated by Marx himself—in a brutal way.⁽⁹⁾

      What is the other force? It is just the opposite. Jesus said to the man who. came and asked him which is the greatest law, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

      When Marx was asked one time what was his object, he answered, “To dethrone God.”

      Jesus, the other force, said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, [p. 219] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37–40)

      Perhaps there was never a time in the world when these two forces faced each other as they did last Monday, as they are facing right today. (President David O. McKay, BYU, 5/18/60)

      A Murderous Influence. I am sorry to see this murderous influence prevailing throughout the world, and perhaps this may be a fitting occasion to refer to some of these matters. The manifestations of turbulence and uneasiness which prevail among the nations of the earth are truly lamentable . . . . These feelings which tend to do away with all right, rule, and government, and correct principles are not from God, or many of them are not. This feeling of communism and nihilism, aimed at the overthrow of rulers and men in position and authority, arises from a spirit of diabolism, which is contrary to every principle of the Gospel of the Son of God . . . .

      These things are beginning to spread among and permeate the nations of the earth. Do we expect them? Yes. These secret combinations were spoken of by Joseph Smith, years and years ago. I have heard him time and time again tell about them, and he stated that when these things began to take place the liberties of this nation would begin to be bartered away. (President John Taylor, 1881, JD-22:142-3)

      Secret Combinations. Among the many signs of the times concerning which the prophets have spoken, there are none scarcely that are of a more threatening character than the combinations of various kinds which are being formed in the land. These combinations are ominous of evil. If they go on increasing as they have done for some years past, the consequences to our nation will be of a most serious, not to say dreadful, character.

      In Europe, a condition of feeling has arisen, among socialists, nihilists, anarchists, and people of this type, that is exceedingly threatening to the governments under which people of this description live. They are agitating, and plotting, and spreading dissatisfaction among all [p. 220] classes. They have sufficient ground for complaint to make their appeals to their fellows very convincing . . . .

      Thousands of these dissatisfied people from the various countries of Europe have flocked to the United States. Russia, Germany and Austria have contributed large numbers, and they have come filled with these ideas concerning the rights of man. Many have also come from other lands. They were uneasy in Europe, because of the distinctions which existed between the different classes there. They come over here and they see similar divisions in society in America . . . . they become agitators of a dangerous character even in this country, where there are no monarchs or nobles. The leaven of discontent has gradually spread, until combinations of a most formidible character have been formed in this country . . . .

      This is a fearful picture, and we may know what the results will be, by reading the predictions of the prophets concerning the last days. Not only will these combinations of labor and capital spread, but combinations also of a political character, looking to the overthrow of governments and to the introduction of anarchy. (George Q. Cannon, 1890, JI-25:536)

      The Plan of the Revolutionists. No thinking person doubts that our people, our nation, and the world are now passing through one of the great crises of the world’s history. We are in the midst of a world-wide revolution,⁽¹⁰⁾ which is wholly alien to our free institutions and is foreign in birth, concept, and directing head. No man, of his own power, sees the end. But the end the revolutionists seek is fairly clear; it is the overturning of the whole existing order, political, financial, economic, social, religious, the complete destruction of our Constitution and the government established under it, and then the setting up some sort of despotism that shall destroy, in all these fields, the [p. 221] free agency which the Lord gave to man. The revolutionists plan that this is to be largely done during the war, [World War II] under the plea of war necessity; it is to be continued after the war under the excuse—if we are not then too cowed to require an excuse—that this new political order is necessary that we may rehabilitate the world. They count that then, after a little time, the revolution will be secure. There seems no doubt that this is their conscious, deliberate, planned end. We have gone a long way already down this road. (J. Reuben Clark, CR-4/41:18-19)

      The Communists are said to have hundreds planted in our governmental offices.⁽¹¹⁾ Given a sufficient number of trained men to man the essential departments of gov ernment, and add to that a great proportion of the people dependent upon the government for their sustenance, they figure that at the opportune time the overthrow of constitutional government and the establishment of their kind of despotism will be an easy matter.

      Whether this treasonable dream shall be realized will depend wholly upon how well those who see its coming shall be prepared to meet it. (J. Reuben Clark, 12/15/39)

      Alien Leadership.⁽¹²⁾      Ever since the end of the first World War an ever increasing un- American influence has been exerted amongst us, boring termite-like into our whole national structure,—financial, economic, social, and political. They have already hollowed out large portions of great beams of our structure; they are at work upon others. If they are not stopped they will make the whole edifice a paper-like shell to be demolished by the first whiff of untoward wind that may strike us.

      This influence is in leadership largely alien,⁽¹³⁾—in birth, or in tradition, or in training and experience, or [p. 222] possessing alien concepts and alien philosophies. With them are some American-born rebel conspirators. These all form a vast army, some 3,000 of whom, handpicked, are said to swarm in Government offices, many in key positions, all ready, able, and willing to take over if their opportunity shall come, or be made . . . . (J. Reuben Clark, 10/7/43)

      Plans of Revolutionists. I do know that the Communists and their co-conspirators, our American revolutionists, have planned out what postwar America is to be, and I also know that unless the rest of us are awake, they will have their way. For, as their sort have worked in other countries, they stop at nothing⁽¹⁴⁾—intimidation, lawlessness, plunder, arson, and murder, which they have rechristened with the sweeter name, “liquidation.” In other countries they have used all of these things wholesale wherever they have operated. They will do the same here, if their opportunity shall come . . . . [p. 223]

      There is evidence to support the charge some make that the revolutionists have placed their members in key government positions, getting ready for the take-over when the critical moment shall come. (J. Reuben Clark, 1/24/45)

      Two Systems of Revolutionary Thought. In the last half of the seventeen hundreds, beginning in the 1750's, two systems of revolutionary thought emerged. One system deals with our social, economic, and governmental order, the material things and aspects of life. This system is two-fold, embracing Socialism and Communism, and with these two I shall always hereinafter include, without naming them, those other family members of this foul brood, Nazism, Bolshevism, and Fascism. The other system (also with two important factors) deals with our religious beliefs, through what we call “higher criticism,’” and its twin, “’rationalism.’” Through the nearly two hundred years since their birth, which was practically as the birth of twins with a common sire of Error (save as to Communism and “rationalism,” both of which reach back into antiquity, to Plato’s Republic and dialogues—429-347 B.C.), these revolutionary systems have gained such influence as now to constitute a threat against our whole existing order, material and spiritual. Each of these two systems has gone forward under its own power, yet with such a full complementary relationship and activity, the one to the other, as can be accounted for only by assuming they are directed by one superior malevolent intelligence.

      It may be said here that the great apostles of the material systems have often been men of high ideals and of lofty purpose, but their inspiration has come from the wrong source, and so they have reached wrong conclusions and have advocated wrong principles and methods.

      Socialism, reduced to its lowest terms, aims at a revolution, by force if necessary, against our whole social and industrial order and existence, in matters pertaining to the production of the necessaries and luxuries of life, which production, in the new order, is to be wholly taken over by the State. [p. 224]

      Communism aims at a revolutionary overturning, seemingly also by force if necessary, of our present system of distribution of products, the new system to be a completely equalized consumption and distribution, every man, speaking in general terms, to have the same as every other man, no more, no less, the amount any man gets to be wholly independent of how much he does for it, or whether or not he has done anything at all for it. The State is to take over this distribution. So between the two, we should have State production and State distribution, every man looking, on the one hand to the State, through some bureau or other agency, to tell him how, when, where, and at what to work, and on the other hand, every man likewise looking to the State to tell him when, where, and how much he can have of food, shelter, fuel, clothing, education, amusement, recreation, and religion, all this to be done by some bureau or other State agency. Do not mistake the foregoing for an attempted rhetorical outburst; it is not. It is a short statement of the actual facts.

      Neither Socialism nor Communism has always taught the same principles nor advocated the same measures; these have varied as have the times and as have the people proselyted. These systems have never aimed at consistency in their proselyting, for in this they have always been opportunistic, advancing from time to time the principles that promised converts. But they seem never finally to have surrendered or fully abandoned beyond recall any principle or method once pronounced. Whatever might draw the multitude at any given time and place, that they have used and doubtless will use.

      Some Revolutionary Methods to Take-Over. Before turning to specific statements of the purposes of these isms, we should perhaps, that you youth may be on your guard, say a word or two about the methods the proponents of these isms have said they might use, short of actual force, to bring about this revolution. One method that has been framed is this: they will gradually secure control of the regular State governmental machinery through the exercise of the elective franchise in the prescribed constitutional manner, but by corrupt methods, including wholesale purchasing of votes by money, or through [p. 225] coercion by fear. Then, having so secured control, they will overturn the regular governmental order and set up the revolutionary forms. The Political Activity Committee of one of our great labor unions could be used for this purpose.

      Another method talked about is to bring by general strikes of labor unions and guilds such a chaos in transportation, production, and distribution,⁽¹⁵⁾ and in the normal, lawful processes of government, that the revolutionists could seize control of the governmental machinery and so work out their revolution. We have seen in other countries and to some extent in our own, incidents and operations that readily suggest how this could be done. A variant of this is the sympathetic strike or French syndicalism.

      Still another method that has been proposed is thoroughly to beuraucratize the regular governmental machinery; then to make government so intricate and complex that the normal machinery cannot manage it; following this to usurp and lodge all governmental operations in the executive department; then through and by the administrative bureaucrats that shall have been trained in the functions of the regular governmental legislative and judicial agencies, they will, finally, when the critical moment comes, openly take over, by a planned peaceful revolution, the whole government, abolish the Constitution, and rob us of our free institutions and liberties. Our own alphabetical bureaus and their practices show how easily this could be worked out.

      Lastly, these revolutionists propose the outright use of force.⁽¹⁶⁾ [p. 226]

      Each of these methods leads to the utter destruction of our present social, economic, and governmental system, and the setting up instead of some system that shall make of the State, collectively or in separate units, the despotic head of all human activities, including religion, and again I say, only because it all threatens Christianity am I speaking about it to you today.

      Unfortunately, as I have said, this multi-headed system has made it wholly clear that in order to reach and to maintain their revolutionary objectives they must do certain things which intimately and vitally affect every Christian, not only to his own destruction but to the destruction of Christianity itself, which today is our concern. Otherwise I should have left this whole matter to the politicians and would not have mentioned it here. Yet in order that you young people may be properly on guard to preserve your liberties and your religion, I must, if I am to be honest with you (and I am sure you would wish that) name some of them.

      Destruction of Liberty Planned. We have already said that for the effective worship of Christians, there must be a free people. Yet this multi-headed revolutionary system, with their illicit offspring, plan a destruction of our personal liberties and the establishment of complete absolutism. One writer says” “. . . the revolution which is to replace capitalistic society by a new order must rest on the realization of the fact that they are being robbed of their freedom as persons.’” Or as another writer puts it” “Any communistic success is conceivable only at the price of the absolute surrender of liberty.” It “would have to control everything absolutely—the family life, even in its most intimate aspects, as well as the commercial undertakings . . . . Unless some are to do more than their share of production, a watch has to be kept over the labors of all. The hours of rising are fixed for everyone, the clothes they must wear, the food they must eat—all these things have to be ordered in the interests of the diligent as well as of the lazy, and the result is a perpetuation through a man’s lifetime, of the condition of a child at school.”

      Thus men are to be completely regimented in their [p. 227] whole living. They lose their initiative and their God-given free agency, had from the very beginning. Their only freedom is the freedom to be the slave of the State. Liberty, as we have always known it, is dead. We cannot live that life and live Christians at the same time. That is my reason for mentioning it today.

      Again, this multifold, yet broadly co-operating system, affirms the necessity, in order to secure success, of regulating the most intimate of our family relationships. Analysts declare that it was at one time proposed that in order to control a too rapid increase in population (which it was considered would be fatal to the system) there must be a birth control by an “insistence on celibacy—an unnatural and unhappy state of things; by the attempt to regulate the sex relationship within the home—an interference that independent spirits will not tolerate; and, lastly, by a variety of experiments in free love, in which the fact that the community carries the burden has been made the excuse for practices that would mean the death of society.” The Communistic Manifesto of Carl Marx declared for free women.

      Here we of the Church become vitally concerned. The union of the sexes in lawful wedlock was ordained of God. It is the only sexual relationship between man and woman that God does not condemn. “They twain shall be one flesh . . . What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Adultery, fornication, free love, are abominations in the sight of God.

      We Christians cannot support any system which would put such unholy practices into effect. The family unit is the most sacred of all earthly relationships; its safeguarding and perpetuation is the common duty of every righteous man. That is the reason I call this to your attention today.

      Anti-Christian Isms. Now as to Christianity itself: One writer not unfriendly to Socialism affirms that modern Socialism “’is almost uniformly hostile to organized Christianity’” and in certain “secularist labor circles” the view is actively held that Christ is a pure myth. It is common knowledge that when some of the fundamentals of these revolutionary systems flowered best in France, [p. 228]

God was cast out, dethroned, and a Goddess of Reason set up instead thereof, and actually worshipped in Notre Dame. Thus these isms would destroy the worship of God, obliterate Christianity, and make of Christ a myth. Every Christian is thus vitally concerned and so I mention it to you . . . .

      While, as I have already said, certain elements of this Socialist-Communist system had their beginning in antiquity and have appeared at various times since, yet they had their real beginning in the modern world in the last half of the seventeen hundreds. The writings and doctrines of such men as Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Rosseau really started it on its way. Rosseau published his Control Social in 1762.

      In strict coincidence with this beginning another and equally destructive ferment was working in the religious field, and to the same end, namely, a destruction of a belief in God, and, by a later extension, in his Son, Jesus Christ. (J. Reuben Clark, CN-6/16/45)

      East Minus West Equals Zero. Communism did not originate with Marx. Over the centuries since Plato, various philosophers have put forth principles embodying the fundamentals of communism. Several countries of the Western world, including the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany, have had small organizations formed that experimented with the principles. In the relatively recent past, Karl Marx gave impetus to the concepts governing a great country.

      To this point practically all efforts to establish the system either in small communities or on a broader base, have failed . . . . The history of the world to this date, is a capitalistic history, and the achievements in science, art, literature, economics, governmental and social, are a product of that system. Until the recent past, communism has furnished practically nothing to develop the world in any of these fields,⁽¹⁷⁾ and now it advances on the basis of discoveries and inventions that originated in the capitalistic [p. 229] world and its system. Communistic principles have always failed This must be so because men are more than animals, biological entities. (J. Reuben Clark, CN-4/9/60)

      The Enemy Within. There are present in our own United States influences, the avowed object of which is to sow discord and contention among men with the view of undermining, weakening, if not entirely destroying our constitutional form of government. Timely references and appropriate warnings have been given on the danger and evils of war. There is another danger even more menacing than the threat of invasion of a foreign foe. It is the unpatriotic activities and underhanded scheming of disloyal groups and organizations within our own borders. The government knowing who and where the enemy is can make ample preparation to meet his attacks. But the secret, seditious scheming of an enemy within our own ranks, hypocritically professing loyalty to the government, and at the same time plotting against it, is more difficult to deal with . . . .⁽¹⁸⁾

      So it is in government. It is the enemy from within that is most menacing,⁽¹⁹⁾ especially when it threatens to disintegrate our established form of government. (President David O. McKay, 1956, 1-91:33)

      Lincoln’s Prediction.       I remind you at this point that Lincoln, speaking before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield in 1837 (he was then not yet 28 years old), with far-flung vision and prophecy, declared that our country need not fear all the armies of the world, with a Bonaparte at their head, for such could not, he said, “by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.” He affirmed [p. 230] our real danger would come from the hands of some ambitious man who would rise up from amongst ourselves and burning and thirsting for distinction, would gratify his ambition, whether by emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen Events of the past few years have abundantly shown how this tragic fate of enslaving freemen might be brought to us. (J. Reuben Clark, CN-11/29/52)

      Communist Strategy. Today there are in this country enemies in the form of “isms.” I call them Anti-Americanisms. Only a few of the leaders fight openly—most of the army carry on as termites, secretly sowing discord and undermining stable government. Of the truth of this statement recent investigations made by a committee of the United States Senate bear ample evidence. Of the menace of one of these, Dr. William F. Russell, Dean of Teachers’ College, Columbia University, in an address “How to Tell a Communist, and How to Beat Him,” is one of the many authorities whom we might quote as to the pernicious activity of these groups.

      He says:

Communist leaders have steadily insisted that Communism cannot live in just one country. Just as we fought to make “the world safe for democracy,” so they are fighting to make the world safe for Communism. They are fighting this fight today. Every country must become Communistic, according to their idea. So they have sent out missionaries. They have supplied them with funds. They have won converts. These converts have been organized into little groups called “cells,” each acting as a unit under the orders of a superior. It is almost a military organization. They attack where there is unemployment. They stir up discontent among those oppressed . . . . They work their way into the unions, where they form compact blocks. They publish and distribute little papers and pamphlets. At the New York Times they pass out one called “Better Times.” At the Presbyterian Hospital it is called “The Medical Worker.” At the College of the City of New York, it is called “Professor, Worker, Student.” At Teachers College it is called “The Educational Vanguard.” These are scurrilous sheets. In one issue I noted twenty-nine errors of fact with a deliberate error of fact in each paragraph. These pamphlets cost money—more than $100 an issue. The idea is to try to entice into their web those generous and public-spirited teachers, preachers, social workers and reformers who know distress and want to do something about it. These Communists [p. 231] know what they are doing. They follow their orders. Particularly they would like to dominate our newspapers, our colleges and our schools. The campaign is much alike all over the world. I have seen the same articles, almost the same pamphlets, in France and England as in the United States.

You see, when it comes to fighting Communists I am a battle-scarred veteran. But after twenty years I cannot tell one by looking at him. However, only the leaders proclaim their membership. The clever are silent, hidden, anonymous, boring from within. You can only tell a Communist by his ideas.

      Their method of working their way to the seizure of power he describes as follows:

Talk about peace, talk about social equality, especially among those most oppressed. Talk about organization of labor, and penetrate into every labor union. Talk on soap boxes. Publish pamphlets and papers. Orate and harangue. Play on envy. Arouse jealousy. Separate class from class. Try to break down the democratic processes from within. Accustom the people to picketing, strikes, mass meetings. Constantly attack the leaders in every way possible, so that the people will lose confidence. Then in time of national peril, during a war, on the occasion of a great disaster, or on a general strike, walk into the capital and seize the power. A well-organized minority can work wonders.

(David O. McKay, CR-10/39:103-4)

      Organized Paganism.      I think this is the first time in all history when God’s people have been faced with an organized paganism more or less guided and directed by one who denies God and says he is unconvertible from his atheism.⁽²⁰⁾

      We get the impression that he has in mind that his Marxian ideology, and his atheism, shall gain control somehow and make of all of us the followers of his doctrines. He preaches peace, I may say, and then he [p. 232] preaches the abandonment of certain weapons of war, then he preaches that we go back to traditional warfare, where numbers count, he preaches that we shall destroy our military installations, and if he gets rid of these, I see no end to what he may try to do . . . .

      Now, let us have no illusions about this, brethren and sisters. The plan is really one of exterminating God and Christianity. Into our hands has been placed through divine ordinations, the Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God. In our hands is the responsibility of carrying forward.

      We do not have now a united front to this united paganism. We are still torn and divided among many sects. But the problem we face, if the plans of the Marxian paganism are carried out, is our extermination.⁽²¹⁾

      God has declared that the Lord will never take away or give another people the authority and the gospel plan which we have. I want to bring home to every one of you brethren and sisters of the Church, and to others so far as I may speak, the seriousness of this situation. You cannot mollify an unconvertible, you may not hope that after his ends are gained, for any but the treatment he has administered upon others . . . .

      I have a feeling, brothers and sisters, that any man or woman who voluntarily subjects himself to this pagan ideology, who voluntarily lives within its jurisdiction, who voluntarily under this theory gives up his free agency, has lost his testimony and is on the road to apostasy.

      I cannot bring too strongly that here in the last days, paganism is under one head, and that head is guided by Satan himself.⁽²²⁾ Please, brethren and sisters of the [p. 233]

Church, keep the home fires of testimony and knowledge of the gospel and of God and of Jesus Christ, keep the home fires burning in your homes, in your priesthood quorums, and all the rest, for I am sure, one way or another we shall have to face dire persecution. (J. Reuben Clark, CR-10/59:46)

      Brethren, I do not suppose that any of you have had communistic leanings. I suppose that all of you love your country, love the Constitution, love the free institutions under which we live, love our freedoms. But if there be any, may I ask you, prayerfully and humbly, think this thing over, because if it comes here it will probably come in its full vigor and there will be a lot of vacant places among those who guide and direct, not only this government, but also this Church of ours.⁽²³⁾ (J. Reuben Clark, CR-4/52:80)

      Church’s Greatest Threat.      Recently a feature writer for one of the western newspapers of the United States called at my office and during a brief visit inquired about the “greatest threat to the Church today.”⁽²⁴⁾ I immediately replied, “Communism, with its godless ideology, its complete subjection of the individual to the [p. 234] state and its complete materialism.”

      The entire concept and philosophy of communism is diametrically opposed to everything for which the Church stands, belief in deity, in the dignity and eternal nature of man and the application of the gospel to the hopes for peace of the world. (President David O. McKay, statement to London press, 2/24/61)

      A Distortion of Truth.      On June 12, 1955, Sir Percy Spender, Australian ambassador to the United States, delivered a speech at the Union University of Schenec tady, New York, at the time they conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Laws upon him. I agree with what he said in that speech, relating to present-day efforts, and I quote part of it as follows:

Today, freedom—political, economic and individual free-dom-lies destroyed or is in the course of being destroyed over great areas of the globe. And it has been destroyed in the name of freedom. A vast struggle for the mind of man is now being waged—a struggle in which I hope each of you with all your heart will take part. In this struggle truth is distorted by those who have not the slightest regard for truth. All the words which mean so much to us—like Liberty, Freedom, Democracy—are being despoiled and prostituted by the enemies of Liberty, Freedom, and Democracy.

A ruthless dialectical battle is being waged against the Christian way of life, against political liberty, against individual freedom, and it is being waged in the name of Freedom. Black becomes White, Tyranny becomes Freedom; The Forced Labor Camp stands for Liberty; the Slave State is represented as Democracy. This is the deadly challenge of Communism. And in this challenge those who put their emphasis upon man as an economic being—and there are plenty in every so-called free country in the world today who do just that—those who explain man in terms of scientific and chemical facts and the accident of circumstance, those who treat human beings as so many “bodies,” those who deny man’s spiritual and individual existence—each of them aids and hastens the destruction of the political institutions on which our free society rests, and whether he knows it or [p. 235] not, supports the dialectics and the aims of International Communism.

(President David O. McKay, CR-10/62:6)

      We Shouldn’t Deal with Russia.      I cannot see that we are gaining anything under present conditions, but the Russians are gaining everything they want . . . .

      It seems incomprehensible how civilized people can put up with such autocracy, such dictatorship. I may be unchristianlike in my feeling, but I would not deal with a nation which treats another as Russia has treated America. It is a condition which cannot be permitted to exist. Russia is determined to kill capitalism and to spread communism throughout the world. (President David O. McKay, CN-8/6/52)

      Communists Yield to Force.      The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints looks with deep concern upon the attitude of communism toward the Christian religion.

      A third World War is inevitable unless communism is soon subdued. Communism yields to nothing but force.⁽²⁵⁾

      Communism looks upon the individual as a mere cog in the wheel of the state. That is a false doctrine. The state exists for the welfare of the individual. Another thing, government by dictatorship must be supported by force—the only power it recognizes . . . .

      During the present world crisis the greatest need in the world now is spirituality. (President David O. McKay, Salt Lake Telegram, 4/26/51)

      Lack of Patriotism or Stupidity?      Liberty loving people can no more expect to secure cooperation from communism in the establishment of peace than Christ could secure such cooperation from Satan. Communism being what it is, will never voluntarily yield in its evil purposes. Every time it negotiates, it advances its own cause or it does not deal. The inadequacy of our own statesmen to deal with it is pointed up by the fact that [p. 236] since World War II, fifteen countries containing more than six million square miles of territory and six hundred fifty-three million people,—a third of the world’s population—have been drawn behind the iron curtain. And to our everlasting shame, much of this has been done with our acquiescence. Whether this is a debit to the patriotism or a credit to the stupidity of the responsible persons, I do not profess to know. But this much we all know, it never could have been acquiesced in by men understanding communism and understanding the price of peace as defined in these remarks. (Marion G. Romney, BYU, 3/1/55)

      A Lukewarm America. Our civilization and our people are seemingly afraid to be revolutionary. We are too “broadminded” to challenge what we do not believe in. We are afraid of being thought intolerant—uncouth—ungentlemanly. We have become lukewarm in our beliefs. And for that we perhaps merit the bitter condemnation stated in the book of Revelation 3:16: “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

      This is a sad commentary on a civilization which has given to mankind the greatest achievements and progress ever known. But it is even a sadder commentary on those of us who call ourselves Christians, who thus betray the ideals given to us by the Son of God Himself. Again, I ask, are we going to permit the atheistic Communist masters, fellow travelers and dupes to deceive us any longer? (Ezra Taft Benson, 9/22/62)

      Socialism is Communist Strategy. While we might effectively bridle or destroy every so-called” Communist within our own borders, we shall not vanquish this political virus, and its common forerunner, state socialism, so long as people are determined to achieve security through state-imposed materialistic schemes rather than through righteous living and wholesome activity as free men.

      The road we’re traveling in much of the free world today is, “the road to Socialism, insolvency and surrender” . . . .

      Never in recorded history has any movement spread [p. 237] its power so far and so fast as has socialism-communism in the last two decades. The facts are not pleasant to review. Communist leaders are jubilant with their success. They are driving freedom back on almost every front.

      Yet in spite of this shocking achievement of God-less communism our citizens here in the U.S. seem lulled away into a false security.

      Let us not be lulled away into a false security. Let us not become misguided dupes of which there are many throughout the free world. It is estimated that in the U. S. for every actual Communist who is maneuvering and pulling the strings behind the scenes, there are 100 to 1,000 completely misguided Americans who are not Communists, but who are being used to help the Communist cause.⁽²⁶⁾ Some will support co-existence with Communism as something we will have to learn to live with . . . . Others will say there is no danger in socialism—in policies that would weaken and destroy our private enterprise system. Socialism, they say, has no relationship to Communism.

      It is my conviction that the paramount issue today is liberty against creeping socialism. Collectivized socialism is part of the Communist strategy. Communist dupes and left-wingers use every strategism to make socialism sound appealing and seem inevitable. Their aims for the U.S. include greatly expanded wasteful spending, higher and higher taxes, increasingly unbalanced budgets, wild inflation followed by government controls over our economy and lives, greater centralization of power in Washington and so on ad infinitum.

      We will never win our fight against Communism by making concessions to socialism. (Ezra Taft Benson, CN-9/2/61)

      The Pattern in Cuba. Just a short time ago Fidel Castro broadcast to the world his boastful confession that he had been a hard-core communist all of his adult life. He gloried in the fact that he had been able to confuse [p. 238] and deceive many people simply by saying he was not a communist. And because there were gullible people in this and other countries who believed his false assertions, he was able to establish a Soviet beachhead—“A communist satellite under active Russian control.”

      Americans must face the cold hard fact that Fidel Castro was encouraged and supported [by Americans] in his seizure of Cuba. Why? Simply because many Americans were led to believe the falsehood that he would resist Soviet influence and restore the full basic liberty of the Cuban people. A few of us issued early warnings based on unimpeachable evidence. Two United States ambassadors repeatedly warned that Castro was part of the communist conspiracy and that he was working for the communist conquest of Cuba. These voices went unheeded.

      This is merely a repetition of the same deceitful pattern which was used after World War II to have us tolerate revolutionary communists in China—to accept them as “agrarian reformers” and allow them to seize and enslave some 450,000,000 people on the Chinese mainland.

      This is the same deceitful pattern which we have been asked to accept in the Congo, in Laos, in British Guiana, etc. In fact, everywhere the communist conspiratorial machinery is preparing for a seizure of power, we are assured there is no immediate danger from communism.

      In less than half a century this evil system has gained control over one-third of mankind, and it is steadily pursuing its vicious goal of control over all the rest of the world. It is time, and past time, for us to be alarmed.

      I raised a voice of warning two years ago following my return from South America. And now, today, Cuba is being used as a base to spread subversion and armed revolution throughout Latin America. Cuba is being used as a funnel through which communists are infiltrating other American Republics. There can be no stability in Latin America so long as “the shadow of the hammer and sickle is darkening the Western Hemisphere.” The communist objective is to isolate North America. [p. 239]

      Less than fifteen years ago communism was not a powerful force in Latin America. Today it is not only strongly present there as an enemy to be reckoned within it is openly allied with a government located on an island only about 90 miles south of Key West, Florida.

      The only political party now functioning in Cuba is the popular Socialist Party—the Communist Party under another name.

      It is authoritatively reported that by the end of 1958 there were 316 known communist or pro-communist publications in Latin America, the largest number being 55 in Mexico. About one half are newspapers and other periodicals. There were more than 150 communist publishing houses and bookstores. These activities have increased sharply since 1958. (South Wind Red, by Ray, p. 17.)

      True to communist and dictator tradition, the Cuban government has deprived its people of the rights of a free press, free elections, and the protection of other fundamental human rights.

      How did this situation come about? How is it possible for communism to be here and now moving into Africa, pressing upon all of Asia, threatening the Middle East and increasingly becoming a danger in the Western Hemisphere?

      There are, of course, many reasons. Our apathy—our complacent indifference is a major cause. We have permitted ourselves to be pacified and lulled away into carnal security as Book of Mormon prophets predicted. (See 2 Nephi 28:21.) (Ezra Taft Benson, CR-10/62:15)

      Many Asleep in Zion. Who then is to blame? What then can be done?

      To some extent we Latter-day Saints and Americans everywhere must share some blame for we have not been awake to the warnings of the prophets. We have not exerted our righteous influence as citizens to stop this disastrous course. Our skirts are not entirely clean. Many of us have been asleep in zion—the Western Hemisphere.⁽²⁷⁾

      “But,” say some, “why should we be so concerned. [p. 240] After all if the Lord wants them to get the gospel message, they’ll get it.”

      Of course, if the Lord desired, he could this instant preach the gospel to every soul and do all our genealogical work. He could also right every wrong, feed the famished, plant our crops, train our children, etc. But his doctrine requires us to do our best ourselves in these areas and ask the Lord’s help in our endeavors. After we’ve done all we can, then the Lord will cover for us.

      Now what can be done? We have missionaries and Saints in South America. Those countries fall within the scope of the Monroe Doctrine. These countries are now being pushed in the direction of bondage—the loss of liberty.

      What can we do to help meet this grave challenge from a godless, atheistic, cruelly materialistic system—to preserve our God-given Liberty?

      We can encourage our government wherever we live, to stand firm at all costs against any further expansion of despotic communism.

      We can support our government in keeping the flame of liberty burning in the souls of the oppressed—wherever they may be throughout the world.

      We can heed the words of men like Edward Hunter who for twenty years has been reporting communist conspiracy and brain-washing from abroad and who recently wrote this:

Escalation was the reason Americans had to stand by and watch with folded hands as a young man bled to death a hundred feet from them at the Berlin wall of shame, although we had every right to go in and stem his bleeding under wartime agreement.

Imagine anyone telling an American, only a few years back, that we would stand by idly, witnessing a man die needlessly because he wanted to be free! . . . [p. 241]

Escalation is why we stood by wringing our hands when the East Germans started building the wall, whereas is now known, their orders were to stop if we showed any serious resistance.

Escalation, if continued, will complete our softening-up, until we “bury ourselves,” as Khrushchev predicts . . . .

This soft escalation policy in Cuba starting in 1958, permitted “a small band of hoodlums, under the leadership of Fidel Castro” to conduct “open warfare against the established government of Cuba, which was friendly towards the United States . . . .” We have, thus passed the time for soft and easy action to protect ourselves, we have only one course of action left: to destroy Communist power in Cuba by force of arms.

      As I visited among the good people of Cuba in 1955, I had a secret hope we would soon be able to bring to them the truths of the restored gospel. What are our prospects now? People said in Cuba in 1955: “It cannot happen here. We love liberty.”

      The insidious but rapid take-over of Latin America is drawing ever closer to the final showdown.

      Unless godless communism is stamped out of Cuba, it is only a matter of time until like Czechoslovakia, other missions will likely close and more of our Father’s children will be deprived of their liberty and the fulness of the everlasting gospel.

      The message of salvation must move forward. God grant that every effort to stay its growth will be frustrated.

      Courage and statesmanship are imperatively needed today. We must take chances for liberty. May God bless our national leaders in this time of crisis.

      Yes, the effective preaching of the gospel can only thrive in an atmosphere of liberty. Yes, we all say, we love liberty. But that is not enough. We must protect and safeguard that which we love. We must save liberty. (Ezra Taft Benson, CR-10/62:18-19)

      Communist Victory in Cuba. We are dealing with a cunning opponent in Premier Khruschev. He is a master of deceit. It is he who won in Cuba recently. Premier Khruschev had taken a tactical “one step backward” by promising to remove Cuban missiles but this had been [p. 242] followed by the prescribed “two steps forward” when he obtained the claimed promise of the President of the United States that the blockade would be removed and, most important, that no one would invade the Cuban islands provided Russian missile bases were withdrawn.

      And now, in our latest move, we pay $53 million in goods—plus $2.9 million in dishonorable tribute and ransom blackmail to a lying, godless communist dictator . . . .

      Why do we, the greatest power in all the world, pay tribute to an unprincipled tyrant on an island 90 miles away ? Why do we bow and scrape to a blustering godless murderer who heads up a freedom-destroying world slave system that is in deep trouble everywhere? Why? . . .

      The President said to the Cuban Freedom Fighters: “It is the strongest wish of the people of this country, as well as the people of this hemisphere, that Cuba shall one day be free again, . . .”

      All true Americans share the President’s wish—but it will take much more than wishes to achieve this freedom.

      It appears that legally and diplomatically, Cuba has been abandoned to communism—and all of Latin America threatened with this insidious evil.

      And now we imprison patriotic exiled Cubans who would fight to deliver their own people from human bondage. This action “has sent a chill of dismay through the hearts of freedom-loving people everywhere.”

      With our national prestige at or near an all-time low, when will we act like men of courage? Why this continuing policy of softness toward communism? When will we begin to take positions based on what is right and then stand firm? The language and action of firmness will be respected and is the only safe course for our great nation to pursue. When will our national leaders mention, at least, the Monroe Doctrine? (Ezra Taft Benson, 1963, The Threat To Our Freedom, pp. 27-31)

      It Can Happen Here. It is almost unthinkable that any people would knowingly and willfully take on themselves the yoke of communist oppression. No nation has ever done so yet. If large masses of the Cuban people have done so, it is because they have been duped or [p. 243] coerced.

      As a people who have known only liberty, we are inclined to feel, it cannot happen here. We have become lulled away into a false security.

      A most brilliant discussion of the Latin American problem, which appeared in the May, 1961, issue of American Opinion, concluded with these words:

. . . history gives us one last chance. If the American people are too blind or too cowardly to take that chance, then, whether or not we as individuals deserve it, you and I and all that we hold dear . . . must suffer the doom that history mercilessly imposes on fools.

      Why are we so timid in standing up to a Godless communist police state which can’t even feed its own people, and whose economy, they know, will not support a major war. They “lead from weakness and we retreat from strength.”

      I say to you it can happen here. It is happening here. We have retreated from the Monroe Doctrine. Our liberty is in danger. But we go blithely and gullibly on our way. Some of us fall for the Kremlin line⁽²⁸⁾ as planned by the mass murderer Khruschev and call patriots “extremists”⁽²⁹⁾ and accuse courageous liberty-loving citizens of “dividing our people.” . . .

      We must be vigilant. Let us unite. Let us join in our fight against the forces of anti- Christ. (Ezra Taft Benson, CR-10/62:17) [p. 244]

      A Deception in America. There is a deception going on in our country this very moment which is just as dangerous to the United States as the false pretensions of Fidel Castro were to Cuba. It is amazing to me that some of our citizens seem to take special delight in ridiculing the warnings of government investigators and the cry of alarm which comes from Iron Curtain refugees when they see how the United States is being led carefully down the trail of disaster.⁽³⁰⁾

      Clear back in 1953 the Jenner Committee published a report on June 30 of that year which should have sobered the entire country. This report stated:

1. The Soviet international organization has carried on a successful and important penetration of the United States Government and this penetration has not been fully exposed.

2. This penetration has extended from the lower ranks to top-level policy and operating positions in our government.

3. The agents of this penetration have operated in accordance with a distinct design fashioned by their Soviet superiors.

4. Members of the conspiracy helped to get each other into government, helped each other to rise in government and protected each other from exposure. (The first communist cell in Government was organized in the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture in the 1930's) . . .

6. In general, the communists who infiltrated our government worked behind the scenes—guiding research and preparing memoranda on which basic American policies were set, writing speeches for Cabinet officers, influencing Congressional investigations, drafting, manipulating administrative reorganization—always serving the interests of [p. 245] their Soviet superiors.

12. Policies and programs laid down by members of this Soviet conspiracy are still in effect within our government, and constitute a continuing hazard in our national security.

      Nine years have passed since that warning was given, but the American people have not yet insisted upon the house-cleaning which is so long overdue. Last year, 1961, that fearless and distinguished American, J. Edgar Hoover, testified before the House Appropriations committee and said:

The Soviet intelligence services have reorganized, multiplied their contacts with the American people, and have become aggressively bolder in spearheading their espionage offensive against the United States.

      Speaking of Communist front organizations,⁽³¹⁾ he said:

They represent transmission belts through which the Communist Party furthers its conspiratorial designs. They have infiltrated every conceivable sphere of activity: youth groups; radio, television, and motion picture industries, church, school, education and cultural groups; the press, nationality minority groups, and civil and political units.

      Of course, such groups can have only one purpose and that is deception. The only way to avoid being deceived is to get the facts.⁽³²⁾ Here are people who would try to hide the facts from us and replace the truth with a [p. 246] falsehood. They want us to believe that America is a failure, that her system of capitalistic free-enterprise is doomed, that she must remedy her failures by adopting Marxist theories of collectivized control. I recognize these voices. I heard them in 43 nations which I have visited in the past few years. I heard them often during my eight years in Washington. None of them came to me in the name of Communism or even Socialism, but they came. And while many of us fought them and resisted them on every front, nevertheless, it was alarming to discover how many others were willing to believe and follow. Why do otherwise loyal Americans believe and follow? Because these voices come from masters of deception . . . .⁽³³⁾

      Now supposing a person came along and said, “I am in favor of doing away with competitive markets and private property, of setting up communes in each locality, of taking all the land away from the farmers, of taking over all the steel mills, all the electric power plants, all the automotive industry, the banks, the railroads, the newspapers, the television and radio stations, all the mines and so forth.” I am sure such a proposal would meet with immediate and united resistance by the vast majority of the American people. But supposing this same person came and said: “It is in the public interest and to the benefit of each citizen if we make industry, the farms, and all means of production and distribution operate for the benefit of all the people and not just for the private profit of a few stockholders.” Immediately this line of deception receives a wave of support. It is occurring today here in the United States. It occurred in England, France and Eastern Europe as well as the Scandinavian countries. It occurred in Russia.

      If you ask the individual who made this last statement whether or not he is a Communist or Socialist he will undoubtedly reply with great indignation that he is a loyal American—that he is very anti-Communist. He will generally say he merely wants to see our nation achieve marvelous new goals which will make our present standard [p. 247] of living appear meager indeed. When you ask this individual where his plan has been tried and proven successful, he will tell you it is a plan of the future and its virtues are yet to be demonstrated. And if you press him even further by pointing out that his program sounds exactly like the Marxist-Socialism of Europe he may become extremely indignant and call you a “reactionary”⁽³⁴⁾ who doesn’t want to see the country progress.

      All Patriots are Anti-Communist. I believe J. Edgar Hoover and the Investigating committees of Congress know whereof they speak when they warn us of a serious internal threat to the American way of life. I hear that some people, and more particularly the Communists and the Social Democrats, don’t want us to examine this internal threat, but I believe we should. I think we should study Communism and study Socialism so that we can recognize the influence of each. We can leave the spies to the FBI,⁽³⁵⁾ but learning how our enemies are trying to subvert us is everybody’s job. I also recognize that it is not popular in some circles to be called an anti-communist but I consider Communism a God- less political and economic disease. I do not believe an American citizen can be patriotic and loyal to his own country, and its God-inspired Constitution of freedom, without being anti-Communist.

      Now I know that Moscow has ordered that all anti-Communists are to be attacked and discredited in every way possible.⁽³⁶⁾ I know the Communist Party of the United States has issued a similar mandate. This does [p. 248] not disturb me at all. It should be expected. Meanwhile we should pursue a calm and steady course. We should expose to the light of public inquiry those forces which would destroy our country and our way of life. We should pay no attention to the recommendations of men who call the Constitution an 18th Century Agrarian docu- ment⁽³⁷⁾—who apologize for capitalism and free enterprise. We should refuse to follow their siren song of concentrating, increasingly, the powers of government in the Chief Executive, of delegating American sovereign authority to non-American institutions in the United Nations, and pretending that it will bring peace to the world by turning our armed forces over to a U. N. world-wide police force. (Ezra Taft Benson, 9/22/62)

      Anti-Communist Under Attack. There is yet another threat to American freedom⁽³⁸⁾ we should consider before closing this chapter. [p. 249]

      It is the current anti-anti-communism drive and the branding as “super-patriots”, “fanatics” and “right-wing extremists”,⁽³⁹⁾ those who defend the freedom, traditions and principles on which this great nation was founded. The implication is to make of them something that is evil.

      We should not make the mistake of calling people “communists” just because they happen to be helping the communist cause. Thousands of patriotic Americans have helped the communists without realizing it.⁽⁴⁰⁾ Others have knowingly helped without joining the party. The remedy is to avoid name calling, but point out clearly and per suasively how they are helping communists.

      No more should we condone name calling and castigating those who would defend American freedoms.⁽⁴¹⁾ This is what the communists want. I said previously that Moscow has ordered that all anti-communists are to be attacked and discredited in every way possible and that the Communist Party of the United States has issued a similar mandate . . . . .

      The avowed socialists and the liberals both call the current anti-communist uprising an “extremist” movement.

      One national news commentator, after pointing out [p. 250] that American patriots are becoming well informed and know the only threat to American survival is from within, and declaring that “actually the liberals are anti-super-patriots” said:

The best evidence, which I have seen, that the current patriotic movement is wide, deep, and determined, is not in my correspondence files—but in the spectacle of the frenzied attack which the whole liberal-left-wing is currently making on American patriots.

The liberals are scared: that’s why they use lies, distortion, mis-quotations, guilt-by-association, nasty labels, and ugly innuendoes in their all-out campaign to discredit the ‘super-patriots’ and ‘extremists’. (Dan Smoot)

      The present anti-anti-communist line is: criticism of socialism is criticism of countries like Sweden with its socialistic government and that efforts against communism create disunity. The claim is that it divides our people and therefore should be discouraged. Many of our people—some in high places whose influence is far-reaching—fall for this anti-anti-communist line of reasoning.

      That we might face up properly to such a campaign of lies and name-calling, we should accept the advice of Thomas Jefferson who warns us as follows:

If we suffer ourselves to be frightened from our posts by mere lying, surely the enemy will use that weapon . . . . The patriot like the Christian, must learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty; and in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it becomes more requisite and praiseworthy.⁽⁴²⁾

      Certainly a true American cannot have too much patriotism. Surely Americans who have respect for our traditions, who support our freedoms and are willing to fight to preserve them have been called patriots from the very beginning of our nation. (Ezra Taft Benson, 1962, The Red Carpet, p. 197-9)

      Anti-Communists Smeared. The Communist Party and its fellow travelers and sympathizers are “manifestly frightened by the possibility of the people of the U. S. becoming [p. 251] awakened. Communist success has always been achieved in an atmosphere of secrecy, deceit and confusion.” Therefore, courageous organizations and individuals that are successful in awakening the American people are marked for annihilation.⁽⁴³⁾

      The smear seems to be the most widely used and effective tool of the Conspiracy to discredit and weaken any effective anti-communist effort.⁽⁴⁴⁾ The smear of any individual or organization by the Communists, their dupes and fellow-travelers is certain evidence of effectiveness. If any of you are affiliated with patriotic organizations reportedly opposed to the Communist Conspiracy, which are not extensively smeared, you can rest assured your opposition is largely ineffective. You had best look for a more fruitful affiliation. (Ezra Taft Benson, 12/13/63)

      A Challenge to the Priesthood. I direct my remarks particularly to the men of America and more especially to those in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who hold the Holy Priesthood of God.

      Every member of the priesthood should understand the divine plan designed by the Lord to raise up the first free people in modern times. Here is how scripture says it was achieved: [p. 252]

      First: Prophecy is abundant that God deliberately kept the American continent hidden until after the Holy Roman Empire had been broken up and the various nations had established themselves as independent kingdoms. Keeping America hidden until this time was no accident. (2 Nephi 1:6, 8)

      Second: At the proper time, God inspired Columbus to overcome almost insurmountable odds to discover America and bring this rich new land to the attention of the gentiles in Europe. (1 Nephi 12:12; Admiral of the Ocean Sea, by Dr. Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 46-47)

      Third: God revealed to his ancient American prophets that shortly after the discovery of America there would be peoples in Europe who would desire to escape the persecution and tyranny of the Old World and flee to America. (I Nephi 13:13–16)

      Fourth: God told his prophets that the kingdoms in Europe would try to exercise dominion over the people who had fled to America, but that in the wars for independence the American settlers would win. (This is a remarkable prophecy in that 2,300 years before the Revolutionary War was fought, God through his prophets predicted who would win it.) (Ibid, 13:16-19)

      Fifth: The prophets were told that in the latter days when the gentiles came to America they would establish it as a land of liberty on which there would be no kings. The Lord declared that he would protect the land and whosoever would try to establish kings either from within or without would perish. (2 Nephi 10:8–14)

      Sixth: Having declared America to be a land of liberty, God undertook to raise up a band of inspired and intelligent leaders who could write a constitution of liberty and establish the first free people in modern times. The hand of God in this undertaking is clearly indicated by the Lord himself in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith in these words:

. . . I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose . . . . D&C 101:80)

      Seventh: God declared that the United States Constitution [p. 253] was divinely inspired for the specific purpose of eliminating bondage and the violation of the rights and protection which belongs to “all flesh.” (Ibid., 101:77-80)

      Eighth: God placed a mandate upon his people to befriend and defend the constitutional laws of the land and see that the rights and privileges of all mankind are protected. He verified the declaration of the founding fathers, that God created all men free. He also warned against those who would enact laws encroaching upon the sacred rights and privileges of free men. He urged the election of honest and wise leaders and said that evil men and laws are of Satan. (Ibid, 98:5-10)

      Ninth: God predicted through his prophets that this great gentile nation, raised up on the American continent in the last days, would become the richest and most powerful nation on the face of the earth; even “above all other nations.” (See I Nephi 13:15, 30; Ether 2:12)

      Tenth: Concerning the United States, the Lord revealed to his prophets that its greatest threat would be a vast, world-wide “secret combination” which would not only threaten the United States but also seek to “overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries.” (Ether 8:25)

      Eleventh: In connection with the attack on the United States, the Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith there would be an attempt to overthrow the country by destroying the Constitution. Joseph Smith predicted that the time would come when the Constitution would hang, as it were, by a thread, and at that time “this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.” (Journal History, Brigham Young’s Speech, July 4, 1854)

      It is my conviction that the elders of Israel, widely spread over the nation, will at that crucial time successfully rally the righteous of our country and provide the necessary balance of strength to save the institutions of constitutional government.

      Twelfth: The Lord revealed to the Prophet Nephi that he established the gentiles on this land to be a free people forever, that if they were a righteous nation and overcame the wickedness and secret abominations which would arise in their midst, they would inherit the land [p. 254] forever. (I Nephi 14:1–2)

      Thirteenth: But on the other hand, if the gentiles on this land reject the word of God and conspire to overthrow liberty and the Constitution, then their doom is fixed, and they “. . . shall be cut off from among my people who are of the covenant.” (I Nephi 14:6; 3 Nephi 21:11, 14, 21; D&C 84:114–115, 117)

      Fourteenth: The great destructive force which was to be turned loose on the earth and which the prophets for centuries have been calling the “abomination of desolation” is vividly described by those who saw it in vision. Ours is the first generation to realize how literally these prophecies can be fulfilled now that God, through science, has unlocked the secret to thermonuclear reaction.

      In the light of these prophecies there should be no doubt in the mind of any priesthood holder that the human family is headed for trouble. There are rugged days ahead It is time for every man who wishes to do his duty to get himself prepared—physically, spiritually, and psychologically—for the task which may come at any time, as suddenly as the whirlwind . . .

      It is time, therefore, that every American and especially every member of the priesthood, become informed about the aims, tactics, and schemes of socialistic- communism. This becomes particularly important when it is realized that communism is turning out to be the earthly image of the plan which Satan presented in the preexistence. The whole program of socialistic-communism is essentially a war against God and the plan of salvation—the very plan which we fought to uphold during “the war in heaven.”

      Up to now some members of the Church have stood aloof, feeling that the fight against socialistic-communism is “controversial” and unrelated to the mission of the Church or the work of the Lord. But the President of the Church in our day has made it clear that the fight against atheistic communism is a major challenge to the Church and every member in it.

      During the general conference of the Church in October, 1959, President David O. McKay, in discussing [p. 255] the threat of communism, referred to W. Cleon Skousen’s book, The Naked Communist, and said, “I admonish everybody to read that excellent book.” He then quoted the following from the flyleaf: “The conflict between communism and freedom is the problem of our time. It overshadows all other problems.”

      The fight against godless communism is a very real part of every man’s duty who holds the priesthood.⁽⁴⁵⁾ It is the fight against slavery, immorality, atheism, terrorism, cruelty, barbarism, deceit, and the destruction of human life through a kind of tyranny unsurpassed by anything in human history. Here is a struggle against the evil, satanical priestcraft of Lucifer. Truly it can be called, “a continuation of the war in heaven.”

      In the war in heaven the devil advocated absolute eternal security at the sacrifice of our freedom. Although there is nothing more desirable to a Latter-day Saint than eternal security in God’s presence, and although God knew, as did we, that some of us would not achieve this security if we were allowed our freedom—yet the very God of heaven, who has more mercy than us all, still decreed no guaranteed security except by a man’s own freedom of choice and individual initiative.

      Today the devil as a wolf in a supposedly new suit of sheep’s clothing is enticing some men, both in and out of the Church, to parrot his line by advocating planned government guaranteed security programs at the expense of our liberties. Latter-day Saints should be reminded how and why they voted as they did in heaven. If some have decided to change their vote they should repent—throw their support on the side of freedom—and cease promoting this subversion.

      When all of the trappings of propaganda and pretense have been pulled aside, the exposed hard-core structure of modern communism is amazingly similar to the ancient Book of Mormon record of secret societies such as the Gadiantons. In the ancient American civilization there was no word which struck greater terror to the hearts of [p. 256] the people than the name of the Gadiantons. It was a secret political party which operated as a murder cult. Its object was to infiltrate legitimate government, plant its officers in high places, and then seize power and live off the spoils appropriated from the people. (It would start out as a small group of “dissenters” and by using secret oaths with the threat of death for defectors it would gradually gain a choke hold on the political and economic life of whole civilizations.)

      The object of the Gadiantons, like modern communists, was to destroy the existing government and set up a ruthless criminal dictatorship over the whole land.

      One of the most urgent, heart-stirring appeals made by Moroni as he closed the Book of Mormon was addressed to the gentile nations of the last days. He foresaw the rise of a great world-wide secret combination among the gentiles which “. . . seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries . . .” (Ether 8:25. Italics added.) He warned each gentile nation of the last days to purge itself of this gigantic criminal conspiracy which would seek to rule the world.

      The prophets, in our day, have continually warned us of these internal threats in our midst—that our greatest threat from socialistic-communism lies within our country. Brethren and sisters, we don’t need a prophet-we have one—we need a listening ear. And if we do not listen and heed, then, as the Doctrine and Covenants states, “. . . the day cometh that they who wilt not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people.” (D&C 1:14)

      The prophets have said that these threats are among us. The Prophet Moroni, viewing our day, said, “Wherefore the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation.” (Ether 8:24)

      Unfortunately our nation has not treated the socialistic-communist conspiracy as “treasonable to our free institutions,” as the First Presidency pointed out in a signed 1936 statement. If we continue to uphold communism [p. 257] by not making it treasonable, our land shall be destroyed, for the Lord has said that “. . . . whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold they shall be destroyed: . . .” (Ibid, 8:22)

      The Prophet Moroni described how the secret combination would take over a country and then fight the work of God, persecute the righteous, and murder those who resisted. Moroni therefore proceeded to describe the workings of the ancient “secret combinations” so that modern man could recognize this great political conspiracy in the last days:

Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you . . . .

Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; . . . .

For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; (Ibid, 8:23- 25)

      The Prophet Moroni seemed greatly exercised lest in our day we might not be able to recognize the startling fact that the same secret societies which destroyed the Jaredites and decimated numerous kingdoms of both Nephites and Lamanites would be precisely the same form of criminal conspiracy which would rise up among the gentile nations in this day.

      The strategems of the leaders of these societies are amazingly familiar to anyone who has studied the tactics of modern communist leaders.

      The Lord has declared that before the second coming of Christ it will be necessary to “. . . destroy the secret works of darkness . . . .” in order to preserve the land of Zion—the Americas. (2 Nephi 10:11–16)

      The world-wide secret conspiracy which has risen up [p. 258] in our day to fulfil these prophecies is easily identified. President McKay has left no room for doubt as to what attitude Latter-day Saints should take toward the modern “secret combinations” of conspiratorial communism. In a lengthy statement on communism, he said:

. . . Latter-day Saints should have nothing to do with the secret combinations and groups antagonistic to the constitutional law of the land, which the Lord “Suffered to be established,” and which “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh according to just and holy principles . . . .” (Gospel Ideals, p. 306)

      Some timid,⁽⁴⁶⁾ vacillating political leaders proclaim that communism is something we will have to learn to live with . . . whether it is Khrushchev, or some other leader. The present communist system, they declare, will continue because there is no alternate system to replace communism. The policy of increasing power, of pushing their system outward and using the communist party, they say, will go on.⁽⁴⁷⁾

      Such a negative attitude writes off the hundreds of millions behind the iron curtain as a lost cause. Surely no courageous, liberty-loving citizen will treat the communist secret combination as “something we will have to learn to live with.” [p. 259]

      There is a more courageous and sounder point of view. President McKay expressed it in these words:

Men will be free. I have hoped for twenty years that the Russian system would break up. There is no freedom under it, and sooner or later the people will rise against it. They cannot oppose those fundamentals of civilization and of God. They can’t crush their people always. Men will be free. (Church Section, Deseret News, November 6, 1957)

      What is the official position of the Church on communism? In 1936 the First Presidency made an official declaration on communism which has never been abrogated. I quote the concluding paragraph:

We call upon all Church members completely to eschew communism. The safety of our divinely inspired constitutional government and the welfare of our Church imperatively demand that communism shall have no place in America.

      We must ever keep in mind that collectivized socialism is part of the communist strategy. Communism is fundamentally socialism.⁽⁴⁸⁾ We will never win our fight against communism by making concessions to socialism. Communism and socialism, closely related, must be defeated on principle. The close relationship between socialism and communism is clearly pointed out by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina in a letter to the editor of the Washington Post of August 6, 1961, in these words:

. . . Both socialism and communism derive from the teachings of Marx and Engels. In fact, the movements were one until the split over methods of approach, which resulted after the Russian revolution in 1905 . . . . The aim and purpose of both was then and is now world socialism, which communism seeks to achieve through revolution and which socialists seek through evolution.

The industrial achievements of the U. S. are the result of an economic system which is the antithesis of socialism. Our economic system is called “capitalism” or “private enterprise” [p. 260] and is based on private property rights, the profit motive and competition . . . .

Both communism and socialism seek to destroy our economic system and replace it with socialism; and their success, whether through evolution by socialism or through revolution by communism, or a combination, will destroy not only our economic system, but our liberty, including the ‘civil’ aspects as well . . .

. . . The ‘commonground’ of socialism and communism is a factor to which the American people should be alerted. Without a clear understanding that communism is socialism, the total threat and menace of the cold war can never be comprehended and fought to victory.

      When socialism is understood, we will realize that many of the programs advocated, and some of those already adopted in the United States, fall clearly within the category of socialism. What is socialism? It is simply governmental ownership and management of the essential means for the production and distribution of goods . . . .

      The socialistic-communist conspiracy to weaken the United States involves attacks on many fronts.⁽⁴⁹⁾ To weaken the American free-enterprise economy which out-produced both its enemies and allies during World War II is a high priority target of the communist leaders. Their press and other propaganda media are therefore constantly selling the principles of centralized or federal control of farms, railroads, electric power, schools, steel, maritime shipping, and many other aspects of the economy—but always in the name of public welfare.

      This carries out the strategy laid down by the communist masters. John Strachey, a top official in the Labor Socialist party of Great Britain, in his book entitled The Theory and Practice of Socialism said:

It is impossible to establish communism as the immediate successor to capitalism. It is accordingly proposed to establish socialism as something which we can put in the place of our present decaying capitalism. Hence, communists work for the establishment of socialism as a necessary transition [p. 261] stage on the road to communism.

      The paramount issue today is liberty against creeping socialism . . . .

      It is significant that 118 years ago this month the Prophet Joseph Smith, after attending lectures on socialism, made this official entry in church history: “I said I did not believe the doctrine.” (History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 33)

      No true Latter-day Saint and no true American can be a socialist or a communist or support programs leading in that direction. These evil philosophies are incompatible with Mormonism, the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

      What can priesthood holders do? There are many things we can do to meet the challenge of the adversary in our day.

      First, we should become informed about communism,⁽⁵⁰⁾ about socialism, and about Americanism. What better way can one become informed than by first studying the inspired words of the prophets and using that as a foundation against which to test all other material. This is in keeping with the Prophet Joseph Smith’s motto, “When the Lord commands, do it.” . . . (Ibid, Vol. 2, p. 170)

      We should know why paternalism, collectivism, or unnecessary federal supervision will hold our standard of living down and reduce productivity just as it has in every country where it has been tried. We should also know why the communist leaders consider socialism the highroad to communism.

      Second, we should accept the command of the Lord and treat socialistic communism as the tool of Satan. We should follow the counsel of the President of the Church and resist the influence and policies of the social-ist-communist conspiracy wherever they are found—in the schools,⁽⁵¹⁾ in the churches,⁽⁵²⁾ in governments, in unions, in businesses, in agriculture. [p. 262]

      Third, we should help those who have been deceived or who are misinformed to find the truth. Unless, each person who knows the truth will “stand up and speak up” it is difficult for the deceived or confused citizen to find his way back.

      Fourth, we should not make the mistake of calling people “communist” just because they happen to be helping the communist cause.⁽⁵³⁾ Thousands of patriotic Americans, including a few Latter-day Saints, have helped the communists without realizing it.⁽⁵⁴⁾ Others have knowingly helped without joining the party. The remedy is to avoid name- calling, but point out clearly and persuasively how they are helping the communists.

      Fifth, each priesthood holder should use his influence in the community to resist the erosion process which is taking place in our political and economic life. He should use the political party of his choice to express his evaluation of important issues. He should see that his party is working to preserve freedom, not destroy it. He should join responsible local groups interested in promoting freedom [p. 263] and free competitive enterprise, in studying political issues, appraising the voting records and proposed programs, and writing to members of Congress, promoting good men in public office and scrutinizing local, state, and federal agencies to see that the will of the people is being carried out. He should not wait for the Lord’s servants to give instruction for every detail once they have announced the direction in which the priesthood should go. Each member should exercise prayerful judgment and then act.

      Sixth, and most important of all, each member of the priesthood should set his own house in order. This should include:

1.       Regular family prayer, remembering especially our government leaders.

2.       Getting out of debt.

3.       Seeing that each member of the family understands the importance of keeping the commandments.

4.       Seeing that the truth is shared with members of the family, with neighbors, and with associates.

5.       Seeing that each member is performing his duties in the priesthood, in the auxiliary organizations, in the temple, and in the civic life of the community.

6.       Seeing that every wage earner in the home is a full tithe-payer and fulfilling other obligations in financial support of the kingdom.

7.       Providing a one-year supply of essentials.

      In doing these things a member of the Church is not only making himself an opponent of the adversary, but a proponent of the Lord.

      In the prophecies there is no promise except to the obedient. To a modern prophet the Lord said:

Therefore, what I say unto one, I say unto all: Watch, for the adversary spreadeth his dominions, and darkness reigneth;

And the anger of God kindleth against the inhabitants of the earth;

. . . . I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation.

I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say ye have no promise. (D&C 82:5–6, 9–10)

      May God give us the wisdom to recognize the threat [p. 264] to our freedom and strength to meet this danger courageously.

      Yes, perilous times are ahead, but if we do our duty in all things, God will give us inner peace and overrule all things for our good. (Ezra Taft Benson, CR-10/61:69-75)

      We Must Become Alerted and Informed.      The sad and shocking story of what has happened in America in recent years must be told. Our people must have the facts. There is safety in an informed public. There is real danger in a complacent, uninformed citizenry. This is our real danger today. Yes, the truth must be told even at the risk of destroying, in large measure, the influence of men who are widely respected and loved by the American people. The stakes are high. Freedom and survival is the issue . . . .

      . . . Yet in the face of all this, we gullibly sign treaties and accept promises of these Godless murderers. When will we as a people awake to the awful threat which faces us? It must be soon or it will be too late. Already it is the eleventh hour.

      The socialist-communist pattern and objective is being followed and achieved. The record is clear, especially the fantastic and terrifying communist advance and conquest of the past 10 years. What will the world look like in another decade?

      Lenin died in 1924. But before he died he had laid down for his followers the strategy for this conquest. It was, we should readily admit, brilliant, farseeing, realistic and majestically simple. It has been paraphrased and summarized as follows:

First, we will take Eastern Europe. Next, the masses of Asia. Then we shall encircle that last bastion of capitalism, the United States of America. We shall not have to attack; it will fall like overripe fruit into our hands.

      As recent as ten years ago most Americans, even some who were fairly well informed, did not know and would not believe that there was any such thing as a socialist- communist conspiracy. Today some of these same people will solemnly argue as to whether we have five years or maybe ten years before we too are living as slaves in a Communist police state. They now realize it can happen here . . . . [p. 265]

      The first real great break for the Communist Conspiracy came in 1933. The United States formally recognized Stalin’s Godless, murderous regime. We extended diplomatic relations to atheistic Russia. I believed it to be a mistake then and I am more convinced of it than ever today. Our recognition of Russia in 1933 tremendously increased their standing, prestige and credit, at home and with other nations. It saved them from financial collapse; and it enabled them greatly to increase their nests of spies and propaganda agents in this country and elsewhere in the world.

      And we’ve been bailing them out of their difficulties and bolstering their slave economy ever since.⁽⁵⁵⁾ They have repudiated the hundreds of millions owed to the U. S. before World War II and have deceptively withheld, even an expression of gratitude for more than eleven billion dollars worth of food, supplies, war materials, etc., under lend- lease. And we’re still at it. Now it’s wheat. Soft on communism did someone say? No free nation has ever been more gullibly soft on this Godless Conspiracy than our own beloved but foolhardy nation.

      Their second great break came with the beginning of World War II, which was largely brought on through the world-wide diplomatic conniving of Stalin’s agents, making Russia a wartime ally of the Western nations, thereby providing the resulting opportunities for Communism through the chaos of war.

      During the war and post-war period Communist agents kept the eyes and anger of the world focused on the crimes of Hitler. At the same time, Stalin, with his aim on Lenin’s objectives, carried out conquest and crime, [p. 266] continuously and successfully, that far outdid even Hitler’s dreams. The record now began to be plain to see . . . .

      Step two was Asia. The record clearly indicates that while achieving step one in Eastern Europe, the Communist masters were planning and working on step two to enslave Asia. The infiltration of China was already well advanced. Mao and Chinese communists were already crushing their opposition. A prominent actor in this heart- rending drama was the great patriot, Chiang-Kai-Sheck. General George Marshall also played a major but tragic role. His contribution was to help the communists. By 1950 the whole mainland of China was enslaved . . . .

      It is frightening to note the extent to which the goals announced by the Communist masters have been achieved and with American aid . . . .⁽⁵⁶⁾

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