W. Cleon Skousen, we should add, was an FBI agent, the police chief of Salt Lake City and a full professor at Brigham Young University. Skousen was also the head of the National Center for Constitutional Studies and the author of a number of other books and publications. Interestingly enough, the Skousen family is also directly related to Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.

The first time around, this text was generally greeted with snickers and yawns. Much of the text accurately identified things to come. It’s just that few in the United States believed it back around 1960. But, Rep. A.S. Herlong, Jr. of Florida believed. And he read part of it into the Congressional Record in 1963, where future Americans would be able to find it.

And find it people have. Because of the good works of Forest Glen Durland, a semi-retired California teacher who realized the historical significance of the piece and posted it on his uhuh.com web site, the text has recently been extensively discussed in a wide variety of forums, from the Dr. Laura national radio program to the FreeRepublic.com web site.

Back in the 1960s, few Americans realized exactly how active the communist operation was in the United States. Now that some of the old KGB records are becoming public, we see that there were massive communist disinformation operations designed to divide the American people and stir the forces of social and political discontent. As we published previously, a handful of communist agitators were actually responsible for instigating many of the riots and anti-Vietnam demonstrations back then.

In fact, the 1958 text’s item #19 actually mentions "use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack." And so they did. Quite successfully, too.

"Down with the establishment" is but one memorable chant that had its origin with communist trained agitators. The useful idiots of the drug culture were but one of their tools of disruption back then.

The "Current Communist Goals" text identifies many orchestrated mutations of American society. Most of these changes are so entrenched today that younger Americans actually think that is how our culture was intended to be. That is, some Americans do not fully understand the concept of freedom and liberty. They have been, what was called back then, "fully indoctrinated."

For instance, one communist goal currently under debate in presidential campaign news is item #4 in the "Current Communist Goals" text: "Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war."

Numbers 5, 6 and 7, respectively, call for: "Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites." "Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination." And, "grant recognition of Red China -- admission of Red China to the U.N."

Another item continually in the news is #9: "Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress."

Item #11 has received great discussion on the Internet, even before the text was again discovered: "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."

Due to the Clinton administration, #14 catches the eye of most people: "Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office."

Not only did Russia have access to our patent office back then, the Clinton administration recently gave a computerized copy of all American patents to communist China.

Item #15 suggests that the communists "capture one or both of the political parties in the United States." They didn’t get both parties. But, as we look at the ever expanding federal bureaucracy, we see that the communist model has captured nearly one and a half of the two major political parties.

The 16th says to "use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights." We see that in many court actions, from civil rights to school desegregation.

Item #17 is where it’s at, though. This item was accomplished so well that today’s students are completely confused about what the Founding Fathers intended as our rights of life, liberty and property: "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."

And so they did.

By the time a careful reader gets down to #20 and #21 they may realize that a very workable plan was described: #20 states: "Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions." #21 rounds it off with: "Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures."

There’s more, of course. There are forty-five articles in the plan. Most have been implemented, and that is exactly why there have been so many ominous changes in society these past thirty years. That is also why so many of our freedoms have evaporated.