The Red Peril, the Candy Maker, and the Apostle: David O. McKay s Confrontation with Communism Gregory A. Prince THROUGHOUT HIS LONG TENURE as a General Authority, David O. McKay was consistently opposed to Communism, as were his fellow General Au- thorities. Ironically, once he had become president of the Church, opposi- tion to Communism became a seriously divisive issue among the Mormons. On the one hand, McKay gave his special blessing to Ezra Taft Benson as an opponent of Communism, enabling this strong-willed apos- tle to propagate his ultra-right-wing views among Church members—views that included an endorsement of the John Birch Society, founded by candy maker Robert Welch. On the other hand, McKay also responded to Gen- eral Authorities who, despite their own opposition to Communism, took exception to the extremism of Benson and the John Birch Society. These included Apostles Joseph Fielding Smith and Harold B. Lee, as well as Hugh B. Brown and N. Eldon Tanner, McKay's counselors in the First Presidency. Neither the strong-willed Benson nor his protesting colleagues among the apostles ever achieved a clear upper hand with the aging prophet. As a result, Latter-day Saints who endorsed the extreme views of GREGORY A. PRINCE is CEO ofVirion Systems, Inc., a Maryland biotechnol- ogy company. He has published one book, Power from On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995), and has been research- ing the life of David O. McKay for the past decade. This article is a chapter in his forth- coming biography of President McKay from the University of Utah Press. 38 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT the John Birch Society and those who opposed them found reason to be- lieve that the prophet was on their side, and the divisive issue remained un- resolved until the death of McKay in 1970. McKay initially greeted the Russian revolution of 1917 with opti- mism, telling a general conference audience, "It looks as if Russia will have a government 'by the people, of the people, and for the people.'" However, he quickly became convinced that Communism was a threat to democracy and freedom. As he assumed his duties within the First Presi- dency in 1934, he was tutored on this threat by his ecclesiastical superior, First Counselor J. Reuben Clark, Jr., whose many years of service in the State Department gave him a broad exposure to world politics. In 1936 the two counselors joined with President Heber J. Grant to issue the first LDS policy statement regarding Communism, a statement that would be cited repeatedly in coming decades: The Church does not interfere, and has no intention of trying to inter- fere, with the fullest and freest exercise of the political franchise of its mem- bers, under and within our Constitution. . . . But Communism is not a political party nor a political plan under the Constitution; it is a system of government that is the opposite of our Con- stitutional government, and it would be necessary to destroy our govern- ment before communism could be set up in the United States. Since Communism, established, would destroy our American Consti- tutional government, to support communism is treasonable to our free in- stitutions, and no patriotic American citizen may become either a communist or supporter of communism. . . . Communism being thus hostile to loyal American citizenship and in- compatible with true Church membership, of necessity no loyal American citizen and no faithful Church member can be a Communist.2 Throughout the decade, McKay remained convinced that Commu- nism was a greater threat than the rising power of Germany. Writing to a colleague as the 1940s dawned, he made it clear that he saw Communism as a clear and present danger, one that had already begun to infiltrate 1. David O. McKay, Address, Report of the Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 7, 1917 (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, semi-annual), 49; hereafter cited as Conference Re- port. 2. First Presidency, "Warning to Church Members," July 3, 1936, Improve- ment Era 39, no. 8 (August 1936): 488. Prince: David O. McKay and Communism 39 American society: "Communist rats are working here in the United States and are gnawing at the very vitals of our government, and I wish every one of them could be sent to Russia where he belongs." When the attack on Pearl Harbor brought World War II to the United States, Japan and Germany became an immediate threat and McKay's wartime rhetoric focused on them. In the first general confer- ence after the attack, McKay decried war in principle but noted that there is one condition in which a righteous nation is justified in going to war: "To deprive an intelligent human being of his free agency is to com- mit the crime of the ages. ... So fundamental in man's eternal progress is his inherent right to choose, that the Lord would defend it even at the price of war." A common thread connecting wartime Germany and Ja- pan with Soviet Communism was that all three systems deprived hu- mankind of free agency, a gift from God that in McKay's view was sec- ond only to life itself. Time after time over the next three decades, McKay returned to the theme that the primary evil of Communism was its denial to the individual of free agency. Following the war, McKay resumed his anti-Soviet rhetoric. Speak- ing on the "Church-of-the-Air" program in 1947 he said, "Today America is reputedly the only nation in the world capable of sustaining western civ- ilization. Opposed to her is Russia. . . . There can be no question about the outcome of the anticipated ominous clash, which we earnestly hope and pray will never come." Addressing general conference the following year, he said, "The choice today is between dictatorship with the atheistic teachings of communism, and the doctrine of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, obedience to which alone can make us free." McKay's primary responsibility as second counselor in the First Presidency was the supervision of the Church's forty-six worldwide mis- sions; and as the 1940s came to a close, he watched anxiously as the Iron 3. David O. McKay, Letter to Jeremiah Stokes, April 19,1940, quoted in D. Michael Quinn: J. Reuben Clark: TKe Church Years (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1983), 190. 4. Conference Report, April 5, 1942, 71-73. 5. "Faith Triumphant," Church-of-theAir address, July 20, 1947, David O. McKay Scrapbook #12, Archives, Family and Church History Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City; hereafter LDS Church Archives. 6. Conference Report, April 5, 1948, 70. 40 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT Curtain began to choke off Church activity in Czechoslovakia, the only mission headquartered in a Communist bloc country. In a move that forced the Church's hand, Czech police arrested two LDS missionaries early in 1950, alleging that they had entered a restricted area. The mis- sionaries were held incommunicado for three weeks, and it gradually be- came apparent that their release was contingent upon the Church's clos- ing the mission. This quid pro quo was a bitter pill for McKay; and a month after closing the mission, he remarked in a general conference ad- dress, "Every member of the Church should take a lesson from what has occurred in that communistically dominated land." The memory of Czechoslovakia was still fresh when McKay received news that carried even more ominous implications for his missionary port- folio: the invasion of South Korea by Communist North Korea on June 25, 1950. The drafting of young men greatly reduced the supply of missionaries, and the threat of an invasion of Hong Kong obliged McKay to instruct the mission president to abandon the Chinese Mission and move his remaining missionaries to Hawaii. Furthermore, fear of an imminent Russian inva- sion of western Europe clouded McKay's plans for missionaries there. Thus, in the year preceding his becoming president of the Church, McKay had been forced to take three reluctant steps backward because of Communism: the forced abandonment of the Czechoslovak Mission, the preemptive abandonment of the Chinese Mission, and the reduction by over two-thirds of the missionary force. In his first interview after becom- ing president, he warned, "A third World War is inevitable unless Com- munism is soon subdued. Communism yields to nothing but force." During the first year of his presidency, 1951-52, McKay traveled to Europe to select sites in England and Switzerland for the first LDS tem- 7. A mission also operated at this time in the Soviet sector of Germany. 8. Senator Elbert D. Thomas, Letter to David O. McKay, February 14, 1950, in McKay, Diary, typescript, Special Collections, Marriott Library, Univer- sity of Utah, Salt Lake City. These diaries are not paginated nor are there num- bers for the different volumes. They are photocopies, made by Clare Middlemiss, of the originals. 9. Elbert D. Thomas, Letter to David O. McKay, February 23, 1950, in ibid. 10. Conference Report, April 8, 1950, 175. 11. McKay, Diary, January 13, 1951. 12. "LDS President Concerned over Red Attitude toward Christianity," Prince: David O. McKay and Communism 41 pies outside of North America. Upon his return he reported that the trip "was a glorious one and that everything is promising and hopeful except for the threat of Communism." Speaking to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, he used strong rhetoric. According to the min- utes, "President McKay said we are facing Satan himself. They are anti-Christ. They want to destroy Christianity... [and] it looked to him as though there is only one way to meet them and that is by force, the only thing they understand." The year 1952 had dual significance for McKay's confrontation with Communism. During that year, his trip to Europe made him an eyewit- ness to the ills of Communism and socialism and strengthened his resolve to battle both systems. Also during that year, the apostle destined to be- come McKay's staunchest ally in the battle, Ezra Taft Benson, began his political ascendancy. Benson had entered the national spotlight in 1939 when he ac- cepted a position in Washington, D.C., as executive secretary of the Na- tional Council of Farmer Cooperatives. He rose in prominence over the next four years, at one point being featured on the cover of Business Week's October 30, 1943, issue; but his political career was temporarily curtailed by a call, in July 1943, to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Benson's desire to combine political activities with his Church call- ing was not unprecedented, for Apostle Reed Smoot had earlier been elected to five terms in the United States Senate (1903-33) after being called to the Quorum of the Twelve. In August 1952, Benson requested permission from the First Presidency to serve as chairman of the Ameri- can Institute of Cooperation. His request was approved, on the condition Salt Lake Telegram, April 26, 1951. All newspaper articles cited are photocopied and inserted in the McKay diaries under the date of publication. 13. "Church Leader Tells Rotary Club of Trip to European Missions," Deseret News, August 6, 1952. 14. First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Meeting, Minutes, August 28, 1952, in McKay, Diary. 15. For an account of Benson's life, see Sheri L Dew, Ezra Taft Benson: A Bi- ography (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 1987). Although otherwise detailed (565 pages in length), the biography skirts the issue of Benson and Communism to the point where the terms "Communism," "John Birch Society" and "Robert Welch" do not appear in its index. 42 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT that "he does not devote so much of his time to other interests that the Twelve would be deprived of his help." It would not be long, however, before Benson received permission without restriction for an even more prestigious position in the cabinet of the newly elected U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The latitude McKay allowed Benson in this position is explained by his fervor for Eisenhower. That McKay was a Republican was not widely known. Only a week prior to the 1952 presidential election, a Church mem- ber called McKay's secretary, Clare Middlemiss, and said, "A group of us have had an argument regarding whether President McKay is a Republican or a Democrat, and we wonder if you will tell us." She referred to McKay's nonpartisan statement at the conclusion of the October general conference and added, "Therefore he is not proclaiming himself publicly." Nonethe- less, McKay was a Republican and privately rejoiced when Dwight Eisen- hower won the election. The morning after the election he noted, "We were all thrilled with the News. In my opinion, it is the greatest thing that has 1 ft happened in a hundred years for our country." It was not surprising, then, that McKay reacted favorably to Eisenhower's request two weeks later, transmitted through newly reelected Senator Arthur V. Watkins (R-Utah), who "told me that Elder Ezra Taft Benson is being considered by General Eisenhower for the position of Secretary of Agriculture, and wondered if he would be permitted to accept the position should it be offered to him. I said yes that I thought he would be permitted to accept." The following morning McKay and Benson arrived in the parking lot of the Church Administration Building at the same time. According to Benson's son, "President McKay spotted my father and said to him, 'Elder Benson, I received a very important phone call last night, and my mind is clear on this matter. If this job is offered to you in the proper spirit, you are to take it.'" Three days later, President-elect Eisenhower announced his selection of Benson; and in January 1953, Benson began an eight-year term as Secretary of Agriculture. Upon hearing the news, a reporter called 16. McKay, Diary, August 1, 5, 1952. 17. McKay, Diary, October 27, 1952. 18. McKay, Diary, November 5, 1952. 19. McKay, Diary, November 20, 1952. 20. Reed Benson, Interview, Provo, Utah, September 15,1999. Unless oth- erwise noted, I conducted all interviews; typescripts in my possession. Prince: David O. McKay and Communism 43 McKay. "He desired to know if the report were true that Brother Benson would be given a leave of absence from his Church duties. I told him this was correct." At Benson's request, McKay gave him a blessing that Benson would thereafter consider a mandate to fight Communism by whatever means he chose: "We seal upon you the blessings of... sound judgment, clear vi- sion, that you might see afar the needs of this country; vision that you might see, too, the enemies who would thwart the freedoms of the indi- vidual as vouchsafed by the Constitution, . . . and may you be fearless in the condemnation of these subversive influences, and strong in your de- 7 7 fense of the rights and privileges of the Constitution." During the years he served in Eisenhower's cabinet, Benson avoided controversy regarding Communism, although he quickly became a light- ning rod over agricultural policy. Often under fire from others, he none- theless had McKay's unwavering support and admiration. Indeed, McKay wrote in his diary, "I suppose it is not overstating the fact when I say that only the present responsibilities of the President himself exceed those which Brother Benson is carrying." During the eight years that Benson worked in Washington on agri- cultural matters, McKay's focus on Communism remained sharp. At a 1953 meeting of national executives of the Boy Scouts of America, he spoke of a death struggle between religion and Communism: "Today two mighty forces are battling for the supremacy for the world. The des- tiny of mankind is in the balance. It is a question of God and liberty, or atheism and slavery. The success of Communism means the destruction of Religion." The following year, at a time when the anti-Communist crusade reached a fever pitch, McKay gained national attention with a statement 21. Notes on telephone conversation between David O. McKay and Ned Redding, publisher of the California Intermountain Nevus, McKay Diary, Novem- ber 25, 1952. 22. Dew, Ezra Taft Benson, 259. 23. Benson's autobiographical account of his cabinet years is Crossfire: The Eight Years with Eisenhower (New York: Doubleday, 1962). 24. McKay, Diary, August 19, 1954- 25. David O. McKay, "Forward in Spiritual Ideas," address delivered to the Executives of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Statler Hotel, 44 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT that ultimately proved prophetic. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, he told Church members gathered in Wisconsin for a chapel dedication: "People under Communist domination will some day rise against their rulers, the world leader of the Mormon church predicted today. White-haired Elder David O. McKay, Salt Lake City, said free will—the freedom to choose between right and wrong—is the people's most valu- able possession. 'No power on earth,' he said, 'can take this freedom >»26 away. At the same time McKay made this statement, Senator Joseph Mc- Carthy (R-Wisconsin), came under attack for going too far in his crusade against Communism. McKay initially had been in favor of McCarthy's ex- tremism. Referring to what he termed "the farce that is going on now in Washington between McCarthy and the Army," he told his counselors and the Quorum of the Twelve that "the Communistic influence is being exerted there to lessen the influence of men who would ferret out the ene- 77 mies in the high places of our government." As the summer of 1954 wore on, however, and the extent of McCarthy's improprieties became evident, McKay switched sides on the issue. Perhaps McKay's switch was facilitated by the fact that one of his Mormon friends, Senator Arthur V. Watkins (R-Utah), reluctantly ac- cepted from Vice President Richard M. Nixon the assignment to chair the bipartisan committee investigating the censure charges against Mc- Carthy. "In my more than 80 years with daily encounters and exchanges with people of diverse opinions," Watkins wrote in his memoirs, "I have "7 ft never suffered such intense and continuing distress." Nonetheless, Watkins's fairness in chairing the committee engendered respect in many quarters. None of his supporters was more sincere than McKay who, shortly after the censure vote in early December, wrote to Watkins: Los Angeles, July 17, 1953, David O. McKay, Discourses, LDS Church Archives. These discourses are, like the diaries, filed chronologically in binders 8.5" x 14". 26. "Head of Mormons Predicts Revolt in Red Countries," Los Angeles Times, April 26, 1954. 27. McKay, Diary, June 3, 1954. 28. Arthur V. Watkins, Enough Rope: The Inside Story of the Censure of Sena- tor ]oe McCarthy b;y His Colleagues-The Controversial Hearings That Signaled the End of a Turbulent Career and a Fearsome Era in American Public Life (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969), ix. Prince: David O. McKay and Communism 45 "Now that your victory is won, permit me to extend to you many hearty congratulations and high commendation for your clarity, sound judg- ment, and true dignity manifested throughout the entire hearing and the final disposition of this most difficult case. You have won merited honor to yourself, retained the prestige of the Senate, and brought credit to your State and to the Nation." Watkins, in return, paid McKay the highest tribute: "In all sincerity I want you to know that I ap- preciate that expression from you more than anyone in the country, not even excluding President Eisenhower." While McKay backed away from the extremism of McCarthy, he was no less fervent in his own opposition to Communism. When the Soviets forcefully put down the Hungarian revolt of 1956, McKay sided with the Hungarians, who "should be called 'patriots' rather than 'rebels.'" In 1957 McKay was visited by Senator John F. Kennedy, who had already made known his intention to run for President in 1960. McKay asked Kennedy about the future of the Soviet Union. "Would the system break up first, or would it have to come to a clash of arms?" Kennedy re- plied that he expected to see continuing Soviet expansionism and that he did not expect to see Communism break up, since there was no alter- native system to replace it. McKay responded that he could not see how the system could continue indefinitely. "They are fundamentally wrong. Free agency is inherent in every individual. Rule by force has been fought against by men throughout history." Kennedy responded by not- ing "they have the power to continue. Their prospects for the immediate future are bright." McKay's philosophical objections to Communism were two-fold: It was atheistic, and it robbed humankind of free agency, a principle that for McKay was of fundamental importance. Even free agency, however, was subject to some restrictions if necessitated by the fight against Commu- nism. Meeting with Stanley Tracy, a former assistant to FBI Director J. Ed- gar Hoover, McKay lamented Chief Justice Earl Warren's recent condem- 29. McKay, Letter to Arthur V. Watkins, December 11,1954, quoted in ibid., 195. 30. Arthur V. Watkins, Letter to McKay, December 31,1954, in McKay, Di- ary, December 13, 1954. 31. McKay, Diary, November 15, 1956. 32. McKay, Diary, November 12, 1957. 46 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT nation of Hoover for engaging in wiretapping: "I stated that I am in sympa- thy with Hoover in this regard, and think that sometimes it is necessary. I told Mr. Tracy that I look upon Communism as an enemy, whose sole pur- pose is destruction of Capitalism and our form of government, and the use of wiretapping is justifiable in the preservation of our government." McKay's opposition to Communism was soon to become more complicated because of the activities of Ezra Taft Benson. Benson re- turned to full-time activity as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1961 but did not abandon his political activities. Ernest L. Wilkinson, president of Brigham Young University, commented after Benson spoke at the university in May of that year: "Presided at devotional, at which I in- troduced Elder Ezra Taft Benson. He gave a fine talk. It is apparent, how- ever, it is very difficult for him to divorce himself from the active politics in which he has been engaged, and get into his work again as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. While I agreed with every word that he said, I suspect there were some Democrats who did not, and he took one-third of his time talking on current political problems." The following month, McKay had to rein in Benson's political activ- ities. "Brother Benson has received an invitation from the senators and congressmen to go back to Washington as an adviser. I feel that if this mat- ter comes up again that Brother Benson should remain here; that we need him at home." Benson did remain "at home," but a few months later he entered an arena of political activity that would occupy much of McKay's attention for the remaining decade of his life and that would cause acrimony and division among the Church's highest leaders. In December 1958, a Massachusetts candy maker, Robert Welch, founded a right-wing extremist organization that took up where Joseph McCarthy left off in attacking Communism but went beyond McCarthyism to target civil rights and government in general, proclaiming that "the greatest enemy of man is, and always has been, government; and the larger, the more extensive that government, the greater the en- 33. McKay, Diary, June 6, 1958. 34. Ernest L Wilkinson, Diary, May 24,1961, L Tom Perry Special Collec- tions, Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Wilkinson dictated this diary to his secretary, who typed it. I made a word-for-word typescript copy. 35. McKay, Diary, June 29, 1961.