Since this article mentions Mr. Skousen's association with the John Birch Society, it should also mention that one of Skousen's sons (Paul Skousen) claims that his father had some sort of major disagreement with JBS founder/leader Robert Welch and, as a result, they parted ways. However, there is no public record of that disagreement. Lastly, many of Cleon Skousen's admirers have resorted to posting absolute falsehoods about his FBI career. It should be noted that Mr. Skousen never worked in the FBI Division which contained their experts on internal security matters (Division 5).
Furthermore, Skousen was never even recommended by his Supervisors for transfer into Division 5. (During World War II it was known as the National Defense Division and then the Security Division and later it became known as the Domestic Intelligence Division). As a result, Cleon never had significant exposure to internal security cases. In fact, most of his FBI career was spent on entirely different subjects such as juvenile delinquency, police training schools, along with administrative posts including supervising clerical employees and overseeing internal FBI employee publications.
This has become an issue particularly with respect to Skousen's list of "45 Communist Goals" which are often referenced online. The "goals" appear in Skousen's 1958 book, The Naked Communist, but it should be noted that Skousen does not provide any footnotes to explain where he supposedly obtained his information. Significantly, FBI investigative files about the CPUSA - and, particularly, about the closed secret meetings of the CPUSA National Executive Committee -- DO NOT contain substantiation for what Skousen claims were "Communist Goals".
In addition, many FBI files describe Skousen's post-FBI activities in highly derogatory terminology because senior FBI officials (including Director Hoover and Associate Director Clyde Tolson) described Skousen as a "professional anti-Communist" who was using his FBI employment to convince people of expertise he never possessed.
Some of Skousen's admirers (including John Birch Society members) have claimed that Skousen worked as an "Administrative Assistant" to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover OR "for many years as a top aide to Hoover". That, too, is a falsehood. There are numerous internal FBI documents which clearly state that Skousen never had any direct association with Hoover.
Lastly, since this article refers to Skousen's publication "The Communist Attack on the JBS" -- it should be pointed out that Skousen's defense contains many falsehoods which make it appear that Skousen just reprinted everything which JBS press releases claimed, instead of engaging in any independent research. Some of Skousen's statements are so absurd or false that they could not possibly have been written by a knowledgeable person. Ernie1241 (talk) 15:43, 13 April 2020 (EDT)ernie1241Ernie1241 (talk) 15:43, 13 April 2020 (EDT)
- Please feel free to improve this entry with your own edits!--Andy Schlafly (talk) 16:08, 13 April 2020 (EDT)
- A detailed analysis of Cleon Skousen's career is available at: https://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/skousen. This analysis is based upon the 1928 pages of FBI files on Skousen as well as other related material appearing in FBI files.
- It is significant to point out that former FBI Agents were usually added to the FBI's mailing list (aka Special Correspondents List). However, Associate Director Clyde Tolson asked subordinates to find out if Skousen was on that list. When the answer came back as "YES", Tolson ordered Skousen removed and Director Hoover approved that action. The reason was because the Bureau was hostile toward anybody who used their FBI employment to facilitate the spread of false information.
- When Skousen associated himself with Fred Schwarz's Christian Anti-Communism Crusade and, especially, the John Birch Society - the Bureau decided to remove Skousen from its mailing lists.
- Furthermore, the FBI asked the National Americanism Commission of the American Legion to help the FBI neutralize the activities of organizations which the FBI considered examples of "right wing extremism" -- such as the John Birch Society. The Legion did agree to help the FBI by promoting authors and publications which the FBI thought accurately educated the American public. One example was Dr. Harry Overstreet's 1958 book, 'What You Must Know About Communism'. It turned out that the Bureau's Chief Inspector (their expert on the communist movement) assisted Overstreet with writing that book. Robert Welch and the John Birch Society described it as "pro-Communist doubletalk" but J. Edgar Hoover praised Overstreet and his book and even recommended that Justice Dept employees read it! Ernie1241 (talk) 13:37, 15 April 2020 (EDT)ernie1241Ernie1241 (talk) 13:37, 15 April 2020 (EDT)