In Keeping With The Spirit Of That...

In keeping with the spirit of that masterful opening address by President McKay, I desire to discuss a matter that has concerned me deeply for several months. ¶

Trusting the Lord will approve, I take as my text these sober words of warning from an ancient American prophet: ¶

"And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well — and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. ¶

"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion I "Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well!" (2 Nephi 28:21, 24-25.) We must not be deceived — all is not well. ¶

We live today in an age of peril. It is an age in which we are threatened with the loss not only of wealth and material prosperity, but also of something far more precious — our freedom itself. The very thing that distinguishes man from the beasts — man's freedom to act: freedom to choose — is threatened as never before by a total and atheistic philosophy of life known as communism. ¶

In April, I called your attention briefly to the nature of communism. Let us remember these basic facts. ¶

Those who subscribe to this philosophy stop at nothing to achieve their ends. ¶

They do not hesitate to destroy — if they are strong enough — whatever stands in their way. Our own generation has witnessed the Russian communists liquidate millions of their fellow countrymen. ¶

Even more recently we have seen the Chinese communists wipe out millions of their fellow countrymen — no one knows the exact number. ¶

To the true communist, nothing is evil if it is expedient. Being without conscience or honor, he feels completely justified in using whatever means are necessary to achieve his goal: force, trickery, lies, broken promises, mayhem, and individual and mass murder. ¶

By these ruthless means communism has, in a little over forty years, brought more people under its domination than the total number of Christians now living in the entire world — and Christianity, as the world thinks of it, has been in existence for nearly two thousand years. ¶

And what has been the result? ¶

First, in the economic area, men and women have been stripped of their property, their savings confiscated, their farms taken from them, their businesses seized by the state. They work where they are commanded to work and for such wages as the state chooses to provide. They cannot quit, take another job, or rebel in any tangible way. They are the puppets of the all-powerful state. ¶

Second, in the intellectual area, they are forbidden to listen to radio broadcasts not approved by the state. They have little or no access to free world books, magazines, and newspapers. They have no voice in the education of their children in the schools. They and their children are cast in a communist mold. ¶

To write or speak against the state is to ask for exile, imprisonment, or possibly even death. ¶

Third, in the area of morals, faith in moral principle is ruthlessly ridiculed and stripped of dignity. The belief that man has certain inalienable rights, so endowed by his Creator, is categorically denied. Atheistic communist leaders, scoffers at God himself, are striving to blot the Almighty out of the minds of one-third of the world's people. ¶

To do all this, they rule with iron fists. They seek to hammer into oblivion all who would oppose them. Indeed it is true as the poet said: ¶

"Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn." ¶

(Robert Burns, Man Was Made to Mourn, Stanza 7.) Let us have no illusions about them. ¶

Their leader has told us bluntly — their purpose is not alone to enslave us — they want to bury us. ¶

And while it is apparently true that Chairman Khrushchev is content for the time being at least to avoid war as a means of communist expansion, there is little doubt that the leaders of Red China view war as inevitable and await only the propitious moment in which to strike. ¶

What we face today is not just a cold war, not just a struggle for the control of land, sea, air, and even outer space, but total competition for the control of men's minds. Unless we meet it and defeat it, we shall almost inevitably one day face the loss of all that we hold dear. ¶

In less than half a century, I repeat, 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. "Wo be unto him that is at ease. Wo be unto him that crieth 'all is well.' " (2 Nephi 28:24-25.) Latin America does not believe that suppression is the road to freedom. ¶

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 with, it is openly allied with a government located on an island only about ninety 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. ¶

Cuba is being used as a funnel through which communists are infiltrating other American republics. ¶

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. ¶

And last August, even as the Organization of American States met in San Jose, Costa Rica, Fidel Castro was shouting defiantly: "We shall be friends of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China." ¶

How did this situation come about? ¶

How has it been possible for this completely warped philosophy in such a short time to reach its present position of influence in the world? 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. ¶

Some nations have failed to provide for the advancement and desperate physical needs of their people. Others have failed to recognize the worth of the individual. ¶

But is it not perhaps true that the biggest reason of all is the failure of western civilization to live up to its Christian ideals? ¶

Is it perhaps true that, as Dr. Charles Malik, the great Lebanese leader and former President of the United Nations General Assembly, has said, "The deepest crisis of the West is the crisis of faith. . . . Western civilization is doomed until, jolted out of its complacency, self-satisfaction and sense of apartness, it rediscovers and reaffirms what is genuinely human and universal in its own soul"? ¶

Let us examine our own lives and the life of our own beloved land. ¶

How richly we the people of the United States have been blessed! ¶

Truly ours is a choice land — a land of great favors and opportunities. Yet is it not true that these very blessings could prove to be our undoing unless our perspective is right and our idealism more concerned with eternal standards and values than with material gain and worldly honors? ¶

How does our nation stand? ¶

Are not many of us materialistic? Do we not find it well-nigh impossible to raise our sights above the dollar sign? ¶

Are not many of us pragmatists — living not by principle but by what we can get away with? ¶

Are not many of us status-seekers — measuring the worth of a man by the size of his bank account, his house, his automobile? ¶

Are we not complacent, given to selfsatisfaction and self-congratulation — willing to co-exist with evil ... so long as it does not touch us personally? ¶

If the answer to these questions is, "yes" — and who can honestly give a different answer? — then surely these are among the many reasons why this is truly an era of peril. ¶

Many of us have a tendency to forget the Gracious Hand which has preserved our nation, enriched it, strengthened it. ¶

Many of us imagine in the foolishness of pride, that our manifold blessings are due not to God's goodness, but to our own wisdom and virtue. Too many of us have been so drunk with self-sufficiency as no longer to feel the need of prayer. Too many have forgotten the necessity of courage, of sacrifice, of vigilance, of devotion to the cause of freedom. ¶

We must revivify Western ideals and in particular the ideals of our own great nation. We must call back the spirit of the dauntless leaders of the past. We must meet our present-day challenge not with softness and complacency, but with the depth, wisdom, and daring that characterized America in the days of old. ¶

We have a rich history to guide us. ¶

Think back with me a moment to the year 1823. In that year James Monroe of Virginia was President. John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts was Secretary of State. These two men formed and announced a policy which has profoundly influenced the development of our entire hemisphere. ¶

Here was the situation that called forth this policy — known as the Monroe Doctrine — in 1823. ¶

Several of what are now the Latin American Republics had by force of arms newly won their independence from Spain and Portugal. Among them were Colombia, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil. ¶

Meantime, a number of the sovereigns of Europe were seeking to enforce the "divine right of kings" with the express purpose of putting "an end to the system of representative government." ¶

France, accordingly, had proceeded to restore the rule of Ferdinand VII in Spain. Now these countries proposed to overthrow the new and independent governments in Latin America. ¶

This our government refused to permit. It said so plainly in the celebrated Monroe Doctrine. The heart of the Monroe Doctrine consisted of these words: ". . . the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power." ¶

And the doctrine went on to spell out clearly just what was meant. ¶

"The political system of the allied powers is essentially different . . . from that of America. . . . We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." ¶

Now there is a statement which might well be engraved in all the capitals of all the countries in this hemisphere today. Every word in it is as applicable today as it was one hundred thirty-seven years ago. ¶

Surely if it were true a century and a half ago that European monarchy was essentially different from our American system of representative government, it is even more true today that the communist system is totally different, totally incompatible, totally inimical to our free way of life. ¶

The ancient American Prophet Moroni saw our day. Who can doubt that he had in mind the evils of godless communism when he gave this solemn warning: ¶

"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, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be. ¶

"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; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up. ¶

"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." ¶

(Ether 8:23-25.) We are eminently justified in declaring that we should consider any attempt on the part of the communists to extend their system to any part of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. ¶

President Eisenhower said as much in his reply to the tirade of Chairman Khrushchev last summer. But it is not enough to say this once, nor is it enough for the President alone to say it. It should be repeated again and again and again, and it should be supported by all true Americans speaking as with one voice. ¶

Moreover, the Monroe Doctrine went on: "Nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren if left to themselves, would adopt it [this system] of their own accord." Here again the words of the Monroe Doctrine ring true. ¶

It is almost unthinkable that any people would knowingly and wilfully take on themselves the yoke of communist oppression. No people, 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 coerced. ¶

This Monroe Doctrine has been the continuing policy of our nation for almost a century and a half. ¶

It has been reaffirmed by many American Presidents. ¶

We are on solid, traditional American ground in demanding that the communists should not attempt to extend their political system to this side of the Atlantic Ocean. ¶

In recent years the principles of the Monroe Doctrine have been strengthened by various joint agreements among the American nations. ¶

In 1947, nineteen American nations met in conference in Rio de Janeiro, and on September 2 of that year signed the treaty of Rio de Janeiro in which they promised to help one another in case of aggression. ¶

On March 1, 1954, the tenth InterAmerican Conference opened in Caracas, Venezuela. When we read now, six years later, the running account of that conference, it is almost as though we were scanning a preview of history. On March 4, for example, our late great Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, urged the American states to stop the communists now. ¶

On March 6, the United States presented a draft resolution condemning communism as foreign intervention and calling for joint action against it when needed. ¶

On March 13, 1954, the conference adopted by a vote of 17 to 1 the anticommunist resolution that had been presented by the United States. Guatemala dissented, and Mexico and Argentina abstained. ¶

Referring to the Caracas conference, President Eisenhower said, "In this hemisphere we have stressed our solid understanding with our American neighbors. . . . The American republics agreed that if international communism were to gain control of the political institution of any American state, this control would endanger them all and therefore would demand collective action." ¶

Very shortly after the close of the Caracas conference such a communist threat arose in Guatemala. The pro-communist government of Guatemala, aided by shipments of arms from behind the Iron Curtain, had moved very rapidly to the left. The Organization of American States had already convoked a meeting of foreign ministers under the Rio Treaty to consider the serious situation which had developed, when the Guatemalans themselves rose up and removed the threat. The meeting never convened. ¶

Fighting broke out in Guatemala, and the communist government was overthrown. ¶

All this was before the coming to power of the present leadership in Cuba. ¶

Now the Western Hemisphere faces a new danger — a new threat. ¶

Our government is alert to the situation. The Organization of American States has condemned Russian-Chinese interference in American affairs. These are first steps. ¶

But we must do more. As a nation we must cease to take Latin American security for granted. We must lead this hemisphere in stimulating and co-operating in a program of Latin American economic development. ¶

But even this is not enough. You and I and all true Americans must play our part, too. ¶

What can you and I do? What can we do to help meet this grave challenge from a godless, atheistic, cruelly materialistic system — to preserve our Godgiven free way of life? ¶

We can encourage our government to stand firm at all costs against any further expansion of communism into the free world. ¶

We can tell our government that we are willing to sacrifice our luxuries in exchange for an impregnable defense. ¶

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

But, above all, we can face up to the decay in our own civilization. ¶

The communists bring to the nations they infiltrate a message and a philosophy that affects human life in its entirety. Communism seeks to provide, what in too many instances a lukewarm Christianity has not provided, a total interpretation of life. Communists are willing to be revolutionary; to take a stand for this and against that. They challenge what they do not believe in — customs, practices, ideas, traditions. They believe heatedly in their philosophy. ¶

But 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 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 an even sadder commentary on those of us who call ourselves Christians, who thus betray the ideals given to us by the Son of God himself. ¶

Let us awaken to our responsibilities and to our opportunities. Again I quote Dr. Malik: ¶

"The civilization which has been blessed and transformed by Christ, needs only a mighty hand to shake it out of its slumber. And, once shaken, once really awakened to the world responsibilities which it and it alone can shoulder, there is nothing it cannot dare and do." ¶

Do we believe that? Then let us live up to that faith! For in that faith — and through that faith — we can rise triumphant over the menace of atheistic communism. We can and we must! ¶

In this dark hour, the fate of the world seems to rest largely in our hands. We who live in this choice land, in fact all of the land of Zion, have the opportunity, the responsibility, and the solemn obligation to stand firm for freedom and justice and morality — the dignity and brotherhood of man as a child of God. ¶

". . . wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion! ¶

'Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well!" (2 Nephi 28:24-25.) God bless the land of Zion, North and South America, and all the world, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶