Introduction
The 45 goals outlined in W. Cleon Skousen’s 1958 book The Naked Communist were presented as strategies allegedly devised by communists to undermine and eventually overthrow the United States from within. On January 10, 1963, Florida Congressman A.S. Herlong Jr. entered the list into the Congressional Record as “Current Communist Goals” to highlight perceived threats to American institutions. These goals focus on areas such as foreign policy, education, media, culture, religion, and government. Conservative analyses often claim that 20–30 of these goals have been substantially fulfilled or advanced since 1963, attributing this to progressive policies, cultural shifts, and institutional infiltration. Critics, however, argue the list is unsubstantiated Cold War-era advocacy, not an authentic communist manifesto, and that correlations do not prove causation or organized communist direction. This report examines each goal based on available analyses up to 2025, focusing on claimed fulfillments with evidence from sources. Fulfillment is assessed as “achieved,” “partial,” or “not evident” where data allows, using bullet points for key developments.
Goal 1: U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
- Partial fulfillment: U.S. foreign policy since the 1970s has emphasized détente and arms control treaties (e.g., SALT I in 1972) with the Soviet Union, framing nuclear coexistence as a pragmatic necessity rather than ideological victory.
- Ongoing: Modern diplomacy with adversaries like Russia and China prioritizes de-escalation over confrontation, seen by some as capitulation to communist spheres of influence.
Goal 2: U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
- Not evident: While no direct capitulation has occurred, analyses point to U.S. restraint in proxy conflicts (e.g., avoiding escalation in Ukraine since 2022) as indirect alignment with avoidance of nuclear risk. (0% complete per 2012 assessment).
Goal 3: Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
- Partial fulfillment: Advocacy for nuclear non-proliferation (e.g., Obama’s 2009 Prague speech) and U.S. reductions in nuclear stockpiles (from 31,000 warheads in 1967 to ~3,700 in 2025) have been portrayed as ethical leadership. (0% complete, but symbolic gestures persist).
Goal 4: Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not arms could be used for war.
- Achieved: U.S. engagement in global trade bodies like the WTO (joined 1995) allows commerce with communist states like China and Vietnam, including dual-use technologies, despite sanctions debates.
Goal 5: Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
- Partial fulfillment: Post-Cold War loans via IMF/World Bank to former Soviet states (e.g., $4B to Russia in 1996) and ongoing aid to allies like Ukraine (~$175B since 2022) extend U.S. financial ties. (0% complete historically, but evolved forms exist).
Goal 6: Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
- Achieved: U.S. foreign aid (~$50B annually in 2025) includes support to nations with communist histories or influences (e.g., Vietnam, Laos), often bypassing strict ideological vetting for humanitarian reasons.
Goal 7: Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
- Achieved: U.S. recognized PRC in 1979 under Carter; China admitted to UN in 1971, gaining Security Council veto power.
Goal 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.
- Achieved: Post-WWII division persisted until 1990 reunification, but initial separation fulfilled the goal; no UN-supervised elections occurred as promised. (0% complete, context-specific to Cold War).
Goal 9: Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
- Partial fulfillment: Test Ban Treaty negotiations (1963) and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (1996, unsigned by U.S.) delayed U.S. testing; moratoriums extended into 2025. (0% complete).
Goal 10: Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
- Achieved: Former Soviet bloc nations (e.g., Poland, Hungary) gained independent UN seats post-1991 dissolution. (0% complete historically, but outcome aligns).
Goal 11: Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind if its Charter is rewritten, demanding it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.
- Partial fulfillment: UN reform calls (e.g., 2024 Security Council expansion debates) and peacekeeping forces promote global governance ideals, though no full rewrite. (2% complete).
Goal 12: Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
- Partial fulfillment: U.S. Supreme Court rulings (e.g., Yates v. U.S., 1957) protected communist speech; no nationwide ban enacted. (1% complete).
Goal 13: Do away with all loyalty oaths.
- Partial fulfillment: Challenges to oaths (e.g., 1960s academic cases) reduced their enforcement; many public sector oaths persist but are symbolic. (8% complete).
Goal 14: Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
- Partial fulfillment: IP sharing via treaties (e.g., Patent Cooperation Treaty, 1978); concerns over Chinese theft highlight ongoing access issues. (1% complete).
Goal 15: Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
- Partial fulfillment: Alleged leftist shifts in Democratic Party (e.g., 2024 platform on socialism) seen as infiltration; conservative critiques cite socialist caucuses. (24% complete).
Goal 16: Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
- Achieved: Rulings like Roe v. Wade (1973, overturned 2022) and affirmative action cases expanded civil rights interpretations, weakening traditional structures per analyses. (22% complete).
Goal 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.
- Achieved: Teachers’ unions (e.g., NEA) influence curricula; 2020s DEI and CRT debates seen as socialist indoctrination; critical history teaching downplays American exceptionalism. (15% complete, but widely cited as advanced).
Goal 18: Gain control of all student newspapers.
- Partial fulfillment: Campus media often aligns with progressive views; conservative outlets face bias claims in 2020s surveys. (13% complete).
Goal 19: Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
- Achieved: 1960s campus unrest and 2020 BLM/Antifa protests viewed as tools to target institutions like police. (15% complete).
Goal 20: Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
- Achieved: Media bias studies (e.g., 2024 MRC reports) show 90%+ left-leaning coverage; editorial boards dominate progressive narratives. (24% complete).
Goal 21: Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
- Achieved: Hollywood and network TV (e.g., Disney, CNN) promote progressive themes; 2025 content analyses show dominance in entertainment. (24% complete).
Goal 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.”
- Achieved: Modern art trends and public monuments removals (e.g., 2020 statue topplings) align with degrading traditional aesthetics. (16% complete).
Goal 23: Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
- Partial fulfillment: Museum curators and critics favor abstract/modern works; traditional art marginalized in exhibits. (9% complete).
Goal 24: Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
- Achieved: Miller v. California (1973) redefined obscenity, but 1980s–2020s expansions of free speech led to minimal restrictions on explicit content. (17% complete).
Goal 25: Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
- Achieved: Rise of online porn (e.g., Pornhub traffic) and explicit media (e.g., Netflix series); societal normalization post-1960s. (19% complete).
Goal 26: Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
- Achieved: LGBTQ+ rights mainstreamed (e.g., Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015; 70% public support in 2025 polls); media portrays as normative. (14% complete, but culturally dominant).
Goal 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.”
- Partial fulfillment: Progressive theology in mainline denominations (e.g., UCC, Episcopal); declining Bible literalism (25% in 2025 surveys). (20% complete).
Goal 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.”
- Achieved: Engel v. Vitale (1962) banned school prayer; reinforced in subsequent cases; no official school prayer in 2025. (17% complete).
Goal 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.
- Achieved: Calls for amendments or replacement (e.g., 2024 progressive manifestos); viewed as “living document” justifying expansions. (23% complete).
Goal 30: Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
- Achieved: 1619 Project and CRT curricula portray founders as slaveholders/racists; statues removed in 2020s. (23% complete).
Goal 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.
- Achieved: AP U.S. History revisions emphasize global/multicultural views; American exceptionalism critiqued in schools. (24% complete).
Goal 32: Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture—education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
- Achieved: Expansion of federal programs (e.g., Dept. of Education 1979, ACA 2010); centralized welfare via HHS. (15% complete).
Goal 33: Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
- Partial fulfillment: Reduced anti-subversion laws post-McCarthy; FISA reforms (2008) balance surveillance. (13% complete).
Goal 34: Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
- Achieved: Committee abolished in 1975, renamed to focus on civil rights rather than communism. (0% complete, but structurally fulfilled).
Goal 35: Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
- Partial fulfillment: Scandals (e.g., 2016 election probes, 2024 whistleblower claims) erode trust; calls for defunding in 2020s. (12% complete).
Goal 36: Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
- Achieved: Union leadership leans left (e.g., AFL-CIO endorsements); public sector unions dominate. (20% complete).
Goal 37: Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
- Partial fulfillment: ESG investing and corporate wokeness (e.g., BlackRock influence); tech giants align with progressive policies. (23% complete).
Goal 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 or treat.
- Partial fulfillment: Diversion programs and mental health interventions (e.g., CA’s CARE Act 2024) shift from policing. (16% complete).
Goal 39: Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
- Partial fulfillment: DSM expansions label dissent as disorders; Soviet-style “sluggish schizophrenia” echoes in modern critiques of therapy politicization. (13% complete).
Goal 40: Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
- Achieved: No-fault divorce laws (all states by 1985); family decline (50%+ divorce rate peak, cohabitation rise). (10% complete, but culturally shifted).
Goal 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.
- Partial fulfillment: Public education emphasis and foster care expansions; CRT training views parental values as biases. (7% complete).
Goal 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.
- Achieved: 2020 riots justified as “mostly peaceful”; campus protests (e.g., 2024 Gaza encampments) frame violence as activism. (17% complete).
Goal 43: Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
- Partial fulfillment: U.S. support for decolonization (e.g., post-WWII UN resolutions) led to unstable states; applies less directly today. (0% complete).
Goal 44: Internationalize the Panama Canal.
- Achieved: U.S. transferred control to Panama in 1999 per Torrijos-Carter Treaties (1977). (0% complete, but transferred).
Goal 45: Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals.
- Not evident: Connally Reservation (1946) limits ICJ jurisdiction; no repeal, though U.S. withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986. (0% complete).
Conclusion
Conservative sources estimate 20+ goals partially or fully achieved, crediting gradual cultural and institutional changes since 1963. Skeptics counter that these reflect broader societal evolution, not communist conspiracy. Further research into primary documents is recommended for verification.
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