I would like to hear what you all think of the progress (or lack of) made toward reaching these goals in the USA.


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Communist Goals (1963)

Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35

January 10, 1963

Current Communist Goals

EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, January 10, 1963



Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.

At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:

[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]

CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

Hon, I don't know where you got that thing, but there are several errors I would like to point out.

1. I'm an intern for a New York congressman (as everyone on this site probably already knows), and I write extensions of remarks. That's right. An intern. They are considered to be things that are too long, boring, or stupid to actually get said on the floor, but still go on the record. They are usually about things like commending the Cheektowaga Times for years of service, or congradulating a centinarian. It wouldn't be used for talking about The Communist Party.

2. After doing an internet search, I've only found this list in websites that are avowedly Republican, and not on any official websites or records. Extensions of Remarks, as I said, are generally worthless, and are therefore not classified. Why wouldn't it show up on an official site?

3. This was the height of the Cold War, and people were blaming everything from integration to feminism on communists.

4. Cleon Skousken was a Mormon conservative. Therefore, he isn't exactly the best source for information on Communist goals.

I have the following problems with specific points.

1. Actually, the idea of revolution which defines communism and socialism is at odds with this.

2. What purpose would that serve, and capitulate to what?

3. The Communists ended up disarming before we did, so this is a no-go.

4. Why in the world would communists advocate free trade? Free trade is capitalist. Communists like a strictly controlled economy.

5. The Soviet Union wouldn't want loans from America, at least, not at this point in history, and they wouldn't want the sattellite states to get any either. That would make them look weak.

6. Ditto to the above.

7. The Russians HATED the Chinese at this point. On the other hand, the US was already considering this, due to the rift between Russia and China. A few years later, Nixon went to China, etc.

8. Well, that happened. How is that a goal though? East and West Germany were already in place. The Iron Curtain was down, and the Berlin Wall had already been up for three years.

9. The US already had enough nukes to wipe out the world thrice over. This is insignifigant. And the US spent this time developing biological and chemical weapons, secretly.

10. The Russians had veto power, so having their sattelite states as individual powers would have been irrelevant.

11. The Soviets HATED the UN, because it hassled them about their human rights record... Which was terrible. Also, the conflict in the Congo from 1960 to 1965 had very little to do with Communism, let alone conflict between people who believed that Moscow could rule the world, and people who believed that the UN could rule the world.

12. This is not an exclusively Communist goal. Anyone who defends freedom of speech and civil liberties would be against outlawing The Communist Party.

13. Why? Communists were Atheists. I can see it now... "Oh, I wouldn't want to lie to GOD, now would I?"

14. I fail to see how this would benefit the Soviets. They could just ignore US patents and do whatever they wanted to... They were a superpower.

15. The Communists would be opposed to this because the Democrats and the Republicans weren't Communist. Now, becoming a major political party would be a logical goal.

16. This is just silly. How does protecting American civil rights weaken America? Communists didn't give two beets about civil rights.

17. Well, that's a lofty goal. I fail to see how that would ever be implimented, since high school teachers are legally banned from expressing political opinions, and they were back then too. It might be the source of the ban. I don't know the exact HR number, but it might be worth looking into.

18. The Communists in America lacked the numbers for this, and why bother? They had their own student newspapers.

19. Cough cough, referencing the end of segregation, cough cough.

20. Wow, the Communists are even busier than the Illiminati/Space Jews!

21. See above. Hello, Senator McCarthy. Lovely day, innit?

22. This one doesn't even make sense... Obviously whoever wrote this just didn't like modern art, or something. The Communists must be ruining it!

23. See above.

24. Considering that the Soviets and other Communist countries rigidly controlled their press and the speech of their citizens, this one is just silly.

25. How would the Communists benefit from this? Why, hello Mr. Comstock, fancy seeing you here...

26. Actually, until 2003, the Party Line was the homosexuality was a disease of the Bourgeouise. Homosexuals in the USSR were imprisoned and/or killed, and in Cuba, they were fensed off in concentration camps.

27. While this is an aspect of Communism, it is also an aspect of Secular Humanism, which is ardently democratic and capitalist.

28. Well... It does. Man, this list seems like the writer is just taking every liberal thing he dislikes, and is blaming it on the Communists.

29. Communists don't care about the Constitution. They care about The Revolution.

30. Well... They were. Historically, anyway. You have to look at it in perspective. I suppose this was the time when history classes actually started teaching facts about the Revolutionary War, instead of Washington cutting down a cherry tree or whatever. Knowlege is power.

31. Wait... The last bit just said teach more American history. That's a contradiction! And once again, it seems like the author is just tossing his xenophobia in as some sort of proof of Americanism.

32. A stab at the New Deal Liberals... Yeah, this was definitely written by a Conservative.

33. Well, this one makes sense. But then again, any civil libertarian would support this, and we aren't all Communists.

34. See above.

35. Well, the FBI was doing a lot of discrediting-worthy things... Like attempting to blackmail Martin Luther King Jr., for example.

36. This one is true. DeLeonist socialists, and others, believe that socializing of unions is the first step to revolution. The idea never really caught on with union members though. The most votes the Socialist Party ever got was in the early 1900's, when they had a good 900,000 votes. That wasn't even enough to earn them one Electoral College. In contrast, about seven million Americans were in Unions at that time.

37. This one is silly. Communists hate big business. Communists hate all business. They were anti-cap.

38. How would Communists benefit from this, and what would be considered a behavioral problem? This one is really weird and vague. Some historical context might be helpful.

39. Huh? This one doesn't even make sense. Granted, in the USSR, opposition to the party was considered a mental disorder, but the US had a different attitude towards mental illness, and that wouldn've never flown here. This one is silly.

40. The USSR didn't have these things, so I fail to see why they would pursue them here. This is just an example of blaming feminism on Communism.

41. See above.

42. Well, this one would be in line with Revolutionary Marxism.

43. Ethnocentric imperialism! Oh yeah, the guy that wrote this is definitely a conservative.

44. This wouldn't help Communists at all. It would help the government of Panama, and slightly economically disadvantage the United States. Yeah, this guy is totally just sticking in things that he doesn't like.

45. The Connally reservation stated that the US could basically make itself totally exempt of World Court jurisdiction. Not only would Communists have no reason to pursue it, but it's flagrantly hypocritical.

It's a McCarthyism tactic. Plain and simple.
The purpose of this article IS NOT to analyze Communism at all. In fact, in looking at the individually listed items, I would say that it has virtually nothing to do with communism.
(Kudos to Dylan for actually responding to them individually...
I'm skipping the whole "This list makes NO sense." phase because Dylan already covered it...)

The purpose of this article is to lay the foundation for somebody to think, "I'm against communism, therefore I must be blindly against these other ideals as well. Anybody who supports one of these listed ideals must be a communist!"

What would REALLY have made a better, well-rounded approach would be for the author TO ALSO create a list of "CURRENT CAPITALIST GOALS", or "CURRENT American GOALS", or "CURRENT GOALS of Cleon Skousen".

After all, if Americans ARE ALSO in favor of these issues, then what's the big deal?

If Communists DO NOT jump off a cliff and they oppose jumping off a cliff, does that mean that we HAVE TO jump off the cliff to thwart them?

Thank you Dylan and Foundit66 for your comments.
Dylan, your comments were the most thorough and polite at debunking the list that I've ever seen.

We've had company for 4 days as well as a weekend of tornadic weather with the cable being off several hours; I apologize for not responding sooner. Soon as the dust settles here at home I will give your replies a proper response.

I'm an intern for a New York congressman, does your name start with an M? My bad couldn't let it go.

No, my name does not begin with an 'M.'

Ew. Seriously.

Thanks dylan for taking the trouble to respond to each point individually. If you hadn't, i would have had to and that would have taken forever..

The point i would like to make is that there is no governmental institution in the world that doesn't employ morally suspect means to achieve certain goals. Therefore any person attacking another system on moral grounds is on thin ice. Which is exactly what this report does.

Morally there is no difference in the actions of the US and the Soviet states during the cold war. Both sides exploited client states and both sides were actively spreading misinformation and propoganda the world over and both sides committed human rights abuses within their own borders ( Stalinist purges Vs Mcarthyism.. Granted Stalin was whacko, but can any one of you tell me that Mcarthy wouldn't have done much the same given a chance?). The fact that the Soviet states had a less viable state structure does not speak of their moral weakness but weakness of their system. Case point proven by history.

The basic goal of both parties was the same. Ensure world power and ensure a properly functioning system for the populace. Now accusations often fly that the party elite of the Soviets exploited the common man. That would be perfectly true. However my eyes tell me that the party elites of the two major parties exploit the common man of the U.S. Income disparities continue to increase and poverty, hunger and homelessness are major problems because the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

No matter what the system, the problem does not lie within the political viewpoint, but rather in the fact that much power gets concentrated in unscrupulous hands. Fix that and communism would be as viable as capitalism. It doesn't matter what you call it. What matters is how well average joe is being taken care of.