Secret Combinations in the Book of Mormon, Part 4: Modern Scholarship and First-hand Sources on the Workings of Secret Combinations

“And it [the Book of Mormon] shall come in a day when the blood of saints shall cry unto the Lord, because of secret combinations and the works of darkness.” (Mormon 8:27)

The Book of Mormon repeatedly warns of the dangers of groups, large or small, that pursue corrupt means for gain and power (see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series). They are described by a variety of terms such as secret combinations, secret works of darkness, and Gadianton’s robbers. Their influence leads to the destruction of both the Jaredites and the Nephites. The Book of Mormon urges us to beware these dangerous groups. Given that they are secret and controversial, and that conspiracies are often the subject of questionable rumors, how can we know anything reliable about secret combinations in our day? There are reliable sources we can turn to, including admissions from members or allies of secret combinations, as well as some works of careful scholarship. In comparing reliable sources and scholarship to the secret combinations of the Book of Mormon, we find interesting parallels and support for Book of Mormon claims.

Scholarship on the Mafias of Japan and Italy: Insights into a Book of Mormon Puzzle

One thing that has puzzled me is the Book of Mormon’s notion that once-righteous nations not only could be infiltrated by secret combinations, but could actively support them. Whether just taking bribes or seeking to control a government, what they do is harmful. The gangsters view themselves as the elite and everyone else as potential prey to be robbed or subjugated. Why would any outsiders tolerate them, much less support them?

A couple of decades or so before the birth of Christ, as the growing influence of the Gadianton robbers was becoming common knowledge, the righteous Lamanites did all they could to stop them and succeeded (Helaman 6:37), while “on the other hand, that the Nephites did build them up and support them . . . until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites, and had seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils, and to join with them in their secret murders and combinations” (v. 38). As a result, the secret combinations (a plural suggesting a federation of multiple organizations) “did obtain the sole management of the government” (v. 39).

After Moroni saw the destruction of his people due to secret combinations and noted that they also caused the destruction of the Jaredites, he warned future readers that we must not “uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation” (Ether 8:22)—as if that would be a genuine temptation for us.

How could any civilized people “uphold,” “build up,” or “support” such secret combinations? For years, I assumed the cause was simply stupidity and sin, but I found another perspective while reading the definitive scholarly work on an important criminal gang of Japan, the yakuza: Peter Hill, The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State (Oxford Univ. Press, 2003). While Dr. Hill was a student in Japan in the 1990s, he wondered how the yakuza, a criminal secret society known for drug trafficking, prostitution, gambling, and protection rackets, could operate openly in a society widely respected for low crime? The gang even had public offices with its name and logo proudly displayed (Hill, 6, but that was up until 1992—with tougher laws, the gangs are less brazen now). Hill chose to explore the role of the yakuza in Japan for his Ph.D. work with Oxford University, resulting in The Japanese Mafia.

The yakuza have long enjoyed revenue of tens of billions of dollars (93). They project a flamboyant lifestyle, while cultivating the image of modern Robin Hoods supporting the common man. They have often been treated like celebrities and there are even “trade magazines” devoted to them, read by both police and the yakuza (3–4). If the government were intent on eradication, this kind of popularity for a violent gang could not be sustained. Why have they been tolerated so long?

Hill explores several reasons for a long-standing and sometimes symbiotic relationship with local government in Japan. He observes that there are many cases where a gang provides services deemed “useful” for many in society (19-30). This can include protection from other gangs, protection from unions or other disruptions for companies. Other factors include loans, effective dispute resolution, effective recovery of stolen goods, and access to a variety of products and services that the law restricts such as drugs, prostitution, gambling, etc. Some of these “benefits” are only benefits when a society is not able to provide adequate police protection or when a society is enmeshed in vice. But the yakuza have also provided more acceptable services, such as assistance in finding labor, helping the police solve crimes (from competitors), disaster relief, etc. With some similarities to the flashy “gangsta rap” stars in the U.S., the yakuza are sometimes viewed as folk heroes heroes admired for their exorbitant appearance, especially whole-body tattoos. Further, the public may have little anxiety about gang violence if the casualties are few and the victims mostly among marginalized parts of society. Further, the yakuza can use its community influence to obtain votes for politicians, gaining political support. Effective delivery of vice, murders that don’t affect your neighborhood, plus “fortifying” democracy—what’s not to like?

Similar public “benefits” of secret societies are discussed in Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection (Harvard Univ. Press, 1993). Like the Japanese mafia, the Sicilian mafia has a key product they market. In spite of being called the “industry of violence,” Gambetta explains that violence is not the intended product: “The commodity that is really at stake is protection” (Gambetta, 2). This service takes many forms and is marketed in a variety of ways that can even resemble the way government exaggerates the dangers of foreign war to stir up support for “defense,” even when aggressive. Here Gambetta draws upon the work of Professor Charles Tilly, who considered ways in which modern government can resemble the mafia. (See his 1985 chapter, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” parts of which can be food for thought in considering the evolution of government in the Book of Mormon.) However, Gambetta argues that a better model is to view the mafia as a business (7). Much of his book examines the various forms of protection that the Sicilian mafia offer and how their effective delivery of protection has led to respect and toleration.

Protection: A Key “Service” of the Yakuza and Other Gangs

The benefit of protection is a key aspect of Hill’s work. His introductory chapter, “Mafias and the State” (7–34), explores basic aspects of the yakuza and gives compelling reasons for “mafia” as the most fitting descriptor, defined as “a set of firms that provide extra-state protection to consumers in primarily, but not exclusively, the illegal market sector” (10). Likewise, Gambetta’s study of the Sicilian mafia is focused on protection as their key commodity. Protection rackets may seem much narrower than the criminal collusions in the Book of Mormon. However, when the broad scope of “protection” (plus violence) is considered, it aligns well with Book of Mormon teachings.

The protection business is much more than just extortion (protection from the threat of violence by the gang) or protection from other gangs, but can include protection from competitors (like modern union activity, or licensing regulations that make it difficult for new competitors to enter a market), protection for politicians from other politicians through influence on elections, protection from law enforcement to make criminal activity less risky, protection from exposure or scrutiny, etc. Some of these benefits can lead to mutually beneficial cooperation of government with the mafia business and help explain support for illicit gangs. (But as we’ll see later, when a secret society also controls state propaganda and private media outlets, the ability to manipulate society into actively supporting an agenda can verge on “terrifying,” as one scholar and ally of a secret society put it.)

In the Book of Mormon, protection was actually a key element in the history of the various incarnations of the Gadianton robbers, including protection from other gang members and protection from the law:

But behold, Satan did stir up the hearts of the more part of the Nephites, insomuch that they did unite with those bands of robbers, and did enter into their covenants and their oaths, that they would protect and preserve one another in whatsoever difficult circumstances they should be placed, that they should not suffer for their murders, and their plunderings, and their stealings. (Helaman 6:21)

In a later incarnation of the Gadiantons as a guerrilla army in the mountains, their elite leader Giddhianhi displays the characteristic hypocrisy and sales pitch of a protection racket thug who feigns concern for his target before offering protection at an exorbitant price. After claiming that his people have been wronged by the Nephites and seek justice, Giddhianhi warns of the “utter destruction” the Nephites face (3 Nephi 3:3–4). Then comes the bogus sympathy before the protection pitch:

Therefore I have written this epistle, sealing it with mine own hand, feeling for your welfare, because of your firmness in that which ye believe to be right, and your noble spirit in the field of battle.

Therefore I write unto you, desiring that ye would yield up unto this my people, your cities, your lands, and your possessions, rather than that they should visit you with the sword and that destruction should come upon you.

Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us—not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance. (3 Nephi 3:5–7)

In other words, “Nice civilization you folks have there. I’m so worried that something awful might happen to you sweet people. Let me tell you about our Platinum Plus Protection Plan. Complete protection, guaranteed. You’ll even be brothers with us. Yes, you’ll own nothing, but you’ll be happy—and protected.”

The Nephites bravely rejected the protection offered by the Gadiantons: “The Nephites did not fear them; but they did fear their God and did supplicate him for protection” (3 Nephi 4:10). When the Nephites and Lamanites finally defeated those violent protection racketeers, “they did rejoice and cry again with one voice, saying: May the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, protect this people in righteousness, so long as they shall call on the name of their God for protection” (3 Nephi 4:30). Those closing words in the account of the Gadianton siege contrast well with Giddianhi’s fearful offer of protection at the beginning.

More Insights from Mafia Groups

The Lack of Unity. The yakuza are not a unitary force but have many groups. Three large syndicates control many smaller yakuza groups, while many other small groups or federations exist outside the main three (Hill, 65–70). The same is true of the Sicilian mafia, which has “many individual ‘firms’ united by a brand name and, intermittently, a cartel” (Gambetta, 7). While there are agreements between these organizations, violent conflicts still break out, just as they do among drug cartels and gangs in the New World. For example, in Tokyo in 1990, after two executives of a large syndicate were murdered by a local group, large syndicate sent 150 men to seek vengeance. After two days of limited violence, the violence was called off and an agreement reached. This was driven by an unexpectedly strong response of the police, who brought in 1,200 officers to quelch the violence. The media reaction was also decidedly negative, another painful surprise to the foolishly confident secret combinations. This was one of several adverse P.R. factors leading to a decline in yakuza influence and to the 1992 anti-gang legislation known as the bōtaihō, which has forced the gang to be much more covert (Hill, 140–42).

Like Book of Mormon secret combinations, plural mafia combinations can collaborate, compete, or even battle one another, and their violent lust for vengeance can lead to their undoing (see Parts 2 and 3 of this series).

Oaths and Rituals. Mafia organizations and other gangs, as illustrated by the yakuza and the Sicilian mafia, not only have strict rules implemented with oaths that require them to be loyal, to protect the organization, not injure a brother, etc., but have their own internal legal systems to execute their rules or laws (Hill, 72–74). This accords well with the Book of Mormon’s description of the Gadianton robbers having their own “laws of wickedness” that were applied when members were tried for revealing information (Helaman 6:24). These laws were related to “secret oaths and covenants” (v. 25) that played an important role in the combinations of most concern in the Book of Mormon.

Of course, fearsome oaths are involved in mafia groups and other but not all secret combinations. Witnesses play an important role in the oaths made in initiatory ceremonies, in part to let the group know who is a brother and to spread of information about the covenants being made and the associated rules. Gambetta, for example, discusses oaths of the Sicilian mafia in initiation ceremonies and rituals involving blood (just a little) and curses of death for violating the rules or leaving the group (146–49). The power of wicked oaths to bind and unify a group is a feature of secret combinations, Satan’s perversion of sacred oaths and covenants. On the power of oaths and their connection to the concept of protection and the role of witnesses, also see Giorgio Agamben, The Sacrament of Language: An Archeology of an Oath, trans. Adam Kotsko (Stanford Univ. Press, 2011), esp. pp. 25–32.

Part of what makes the oaths so powerful are the rituals that are often present. The use of initiation rituals can be important in secret combination culture. They are likely part of the characteristics of the oaths and covenants made by some secret combinations in the Book of Mormon that were deliberately withheld from the text lest it aid others in pursuing those ancient works of darkness (Alma 37:27–29). A useful treatment of such rituals is found in David Skarbek and Peng Wang, “Criminal Rituals,” Global Crime (2015). They consider the use of rituals in a large Asian gang and propose that “rituals play an important organizational role. Criminal rituals facilitate internal governance and promote group activity through three mechanisms: creating common knowledge, mitigating the costs of asymmetric information, and shaping identity among group members.”

Filling a Gap in the Scholarship: Why Do Secret Combinations Make Such Terrible Decisions?

The repeated lesson of the Book of Mormon is that secret combinations, in spite of being formed to gain wealth and power, tend to bring chaos, often because they make terrible decisions. They pursue war or vengeance recklessly, often leading to great loss and even their own total destruction. Twice Jaredite society was nearly entirely wiped out from the chaos they caused. Such a thirst for vengeance or bloodshed makes no sense economically. The early Gadianton robbers were essentially wiped out twice in part due to their inability to prepare for future trouble. The first time they were unprepared for famine and were essentially wiped out, and the second time as predatory guerrilla warriors living in the mountains, they again failed to prepare for an easy-to-see future. They had no reliable food supply except by hunting and soon overhunted and faced famine, forcing them to risk everything by attacking the gathered Nephite and Lamanite forces who were prepared with years of food storage. They lost that battle and were decimated. Lack of foresight and a willingness to take dangerous risks characterize the foolishness of their leadership. They seem to maximize risks and escalate bloodshed. Why would they make such disastrous choices?

This sometimes irrational behavior of criminal groups is a question that has been raised by scholars. For example, the high costs and risks for an apparently successful drug-selling gang in the U.S. were considered in a paper by Steven D. Levitt and Sudhir Venkatesh, “An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang’s Finances,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (2000). They found that activities such as gang wars lead to high loss of life (about 7% a year for the gang in question) and greatly decreased returns, yet they engage in this destructive and irrational behavior anyway, often spending about 25% of their time in wars. Other high-risk and low-return behaviors are also considered. “Our results suggest that economic factors alone are unlikely to adequately explain individual participation in the gang or gang behavior.” Exactly. The authors offer some suggestions about those non-economic factors, but given the Book of Mormon’s insights into secret combinations, we can expect irrational rage and bloodlust to outweigh logic. The rash actions of such societies make no sense for the business model of the gang itself, which should naturally seek to maximize profits and power while avoiding excess risk. But their behavior is 100% compliant with the business model of the real leader of the gang, the one who has inspired their oaths and guides critical decisions, the Adversary, Satan.

Even those combinations whose members tend to wear suits and seem mostly peaceful can fall into costly, self-destructive patterns fueled by megalomania or selfishness that can put the organization at unnecessary risk. We need not assume they are brilliant foes that cannot be vanquished. They are fools with power, money, and weapons who nevertheless are often vulnerable.

A key insight of the Book of Mormon is identifying Satan, the great destroyer, as the real leader and inspiration for secret combinations. In a warning specifically to the proud Gentiles of our day, Nephi₁ wrote:

And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever. (2 Nephi 26:22)

Jacob also explains that it is Satan who “stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness” (2 Nephi 9:9). Mormon in Helaman 6 further explains that the source of the plans, oaths, and wickedness in secret combinations is revelation from Satan:

Now behold, those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth unto Gadianton from the records which were delivered unto Helaman; but behold, they were put into the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit. . . .

Yea, it is that same being who put it into the heart of Gadianton to still carry on the work of darkness, and of secret murder; and he has brought it forth from the beginning of man even down to this time. (Helaman 6:26, 29)

A great threat of our day is the bloodshed and destruction inspired by Satan by means of a secret combination, threatening to bring “the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning” (Ether 8:25). That verse may make allusion to the account of Satan’s work and secret combinations in the book of Moses, where Moses 4:6 reminds us that Satan wasn’t out to just have Cain his brother, but that his goal was “to destroy the world.”

The Book of Mormon helps us understand that secret combinations are not just vain schemes of foolish men but a key tool in Satan’s work of vengeance against God and all of us. Through it, we can see that the destructive and often self-destructive aspects of secret combination are not a flaw but perhaps the most important feature of all for their ultimate stakeholder. Our misery, sorrow, and destruction are the goal.

Presidential Regrets

Harry Truman and the CIA

One month after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, former President Harry Truman wrote an editorial for The Washington Post expressing misgivings over the secretive agency that he had created, the CIA. See Harry S. Truman, “Limit CIA Role to Intelligence,” Dec. 22, 1963. After acknowledging the need for intelligence, he observed that the CIA had evolved in a disturbing direction:

For some time I have been disturbed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas….

I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations. Some of the complications and embarrassment I think we have experienced are in part attributable to the fact that this quiet intelligence arm of the President has been so removed from its intended role that it is being interpreted as a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue—and a subject for cold war enemy propaganda.

The timing of this letter could imply that Truman suspected a role of the CIA in Kennedy’s assassination, but we may never know what our government knew about the assassination since some records from the Warren Commission still remain sealed over 60 years later. No person who might have had something to hide in 1963 is still alive today, so why the need for ongoing secrecy? Some suggest this must mean a powerful institution, not an individual, is at risk. We don’t know what institution, if any, had something to hide, but we do know that the CIA has been involved in many “cloak and dagger operations,” such as the overthrow of foreign governments or politicians, assassination plots aimed at political leaders, seeking even to destroy Julius Assange (per Yahoo! News, 2021), and in covert operations involving vast amounts of money and even illicit drugs in very questionable ways.

How is it that our own government is engaged in the very kind of “cloak and dagger” activities that we see in Book of Mormon secret combinations and in classic organized crime syndicates? A variety of scholarly works explore this issue. One of the most impressive might be the daring work of a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, Alfred W. McCoy, who put his life on the line to explore the global drug trade originating from southeast Asia. His monumental work is The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (rev. ed.) (Lawrence Hill Books, 2003, first ed. 1972). McCoy provides extensive documentation that the CIA has been operating outside the realm of law (McCoy, 530), forming alliances and working closely with criminal syndicates that market illegal drugs, frequently “employing the services of criminal assets skilled in . . . ‘the clandestine arts’” (531). The CIA groomed and protected small criminal operations, providing protection and support that helped them become major drug lords (16). Their assistance has resulted in a massive increase in the global drug trade and hindered efforts to stop the ravages of illegal drugs in our own country (xxii, 15–17). This assistance came in large part through an important commodity that the CIA marketed: protection, such as protection from investigations and law enforcement and outright military protection (15–16). A secretive organization that called itself “the Company” operating outside the law and marketing protection for those involved in illegal activities—sound familiar? Could this be one of the dangers that Moroni warned us about?

Dwight Eisenhower and the “Military-Industrial Complex”

To even mention the “military-industrial complex” as named by President Dwight Eisenhower is to invoke suspicion in a society trained to believed that the threat of “conspiracy theorists” is far worse than possible corruption in government. However, after his long service in the military and as Commander in Chief, few people have been more qualified to witness and understand the workings of business-government partnerships. Eisenhower understood well the potential for corruption when great profits and power can be gained through the combination of government and business. Why do we neglect his warning in his farewell address of Jan. 17, 1961?

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. . . . American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. . . .

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Eisenhower’s cautious words point to looming danger from the “total influence” he had seen. Today this combination has produced massive profits and a bloated Pentagon that cannot account for many trillions of dollars it has spent. There is obvious obfuscation going on rather than transparency. This inevitably means corruption, which is now at an unimaginable scale. It is the kind of corruption that can motivate many in both major parties to unite in handing many billions of dollars to corrupt foreign nations in the name of “democracy,” even if the recipient has cancelled elections, arrested many journalists, imposed heavy censorship, and suppressed religions it does not like. But profiteers aren’t bothered by such trifles.

The dangers of government-business combinations ought to be apparent from the military space, but we also see similar combinations now involving pharmaceuticals, with governments acting like a P.R. machines and marketers for select pharmaceutical companies, who not only gain great profits but also protection from accountability.

Government-business combinations may be found in almost any area where large amounts of money flow such as energy, especially “green” energy, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, education, the information arena (with private companies and other institutions being influenced to carry out the government’s agenda), and other business domains. Government-business partnerships are the watchword of an especially prominent voice for global governance, the popular (among elites) World Economic Forum, the entity that launched a backlash-inducing video to warm us up to their desired future in which we would all “own nothing and be happy.” (Can you guess who would own everything if not us?)

One of many problems with government-business combinations, which was at the heart of real fascism in Germany and elsewhere, is that the money, power, and protection available can lead to combinations that are increasingly secretive. I suggest that we should learn from the corruption and bloodshed of the military-industrial complex and not just renounce unnecessary war and endless no-win war, but renounce corruption as well.

The Constitution has a key part of the answer we need: limited government with strict accountability to the people and many checks and balances. Such checks and balances offend may offend rulers who complain, for example, that the First Amendment is a painful barrier to “governing” effectively, especially with free-speech-embracing social media outlets such as Twitter making it too hard for the government to create “consensus.” Constitutional constraints that make it “hard to govern” are essential features for a free society, but fatal flaws for those yearning for unlimited power.

Two Works from an Influential Professor, Dr. Carroll Quigley

A Jaw-Dropping Experience: A Speech from President Clinton in 1992

In 1992 while on a business trip, I listened to a popular candidate for the U.S. presidency give his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. William Jefferson Clinton gave one of his best speeches that night. He spoke about his proposed “New Covenant” that would help people be more involved in supporting their government and their communities. A very impressive speaker.

I had been thinking about government a lot, especially since acquiring a massive book on 20^th century history by a scholar at Georgetown University, Professor Carroll Quigley. I found his Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (MacMillan, 1966) at the BYU bookstore while on campus. That book gave me the impression that the way things really get done in politics is by collusion and collaboration between various powerful groups having common agendas and deep connections. It included some discussion of a “wholesome” (my term) secret society that shaped several aspects of the 20^th century.

Near the end of Tragedy and Hope is a passage that I share with some trepidation, not wanting readers to recoil at the words of a “conspiracy theorist.” I share it to provide context for my experience of listening to William Clinton, the candidate. Quigley was no right-wing fanatic. In fact, he rejects the “far-right myth” that there have been pro-Communist plots to undermine freedom in the U.S. (949).

This myth, like all fables, does in fact have a modicum of truth. There does exist, and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates, to some extent, in the way the Radical right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other group, and frequently does so. I know of the operation of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960s, to examine its papers and secret records. I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have, for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its instruments. I have objected, both in the past and recently, to a few of its policies…, but in general my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown, and I believe its role in history is significant enough to be known. (950)

Toward the end of Clinton’s talk, he mentioned the vision of John F. Kennedy, and then observed how that vision was clarified by a professor of his whom he obviously respected, Professor Carroll Quigley. My ears perked up.

As a teenager, I heard John Kennedy’s summons to citizenship [“think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”]. And then, as a student at Georgetown, I head that call clarified by a professor named Carol Quigley, who said to us that America was the greatest Nation in history because our people had always believed in two things—that tomorrow can be better than today and that every one of us has a personal moral responsibility to make it so.

The last great influencer in his life that Clinton mentioned was a name unknown to most Americans, but surely known to the powerbrokers Clinton might have been speaking to. Perhaps I over-reacted to a few innocuous words, but a chill went up my spine. I heard that message as, “Dear Power Brokers: I want you to know that I’m totally on board with the great Carroll Quigley’s vision. I share his views. You can trust me.” But that’s not what he said, and I hope it’s not what he meant.

Clinton would mention and praise Quigley many times over the years, something that was noted by Scott McLamee in “The Quigley Cult,” George Magazine (Dec. 1996). McLamee found it odd that Clinton would accept the “weird” notions of Quigley.

The chills are still there today, especially now that I’ve recently acquired Quigley’s posthumously published work, The Anglo-American Establishment (GSG & Associates, 1981), that gets into the details of the dazzling secret society that is more briefly treated in Tragedy and Hope. Both Tragedy and Hope and The Anglo-American Establishment can be downloaded for free in the books section of Carrollquigley.net, which can be reached directly at https://tinyurl.com/quigleybooks, but I recommend the paper editions, too.

For further context, Quigley’s intriguing statement above follows his discussion of the Institute for Pacific Relations (IPR), an NGO formed in 1925 to advance cooperation among nations around the Pacific Ocean. It would become controversial after it appeared to have been infiltrated by Communist agents, as Wikipedia reports (for primary evidence, see the FBI document on the IPR of Jan. 15, 1951 at pp. 20–21 and other locations).

Quigley noted that “the influence of Communists in IPR is well established, but the patronage of Wall Street is less well known” (Tragedy and Hope, 946). He then observes that wealthy U.S. foundations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Foundation, and major Wall Street banks provided significant financial support (looks like more “government-business partnerships”). In turn, “consultant jobs on Far Eastern matters in the State Department or other government agencies were largely restricted to IPR-approved people” and those who moved forward, got funding, got good jobs, etc., “were those who were tolerant of the IPR line” (947). “It is, furthermore, fairly clear that this IPR line had many points in common with the Kremlin’s party line on the Far East and with the State Department’s policy line in the same area.” He suggested that does not mean disloyalty to the U.S. and no explicit plot that he is aware of to favor the Soviet Union contrary to U.S. interests, though there was certainly intrigue and everything was “too complicated to elucidate here” (948). Quigley criticized the “radical right” who felt that pro-Communist influence was applied to help Mao achieve control over China, and dismissed their theory that the Left had been pursuing plots to destroy the American way of life and to support Communism (948). After this backdrop comes the alarm I felt during a Clinton’s speech in 1992.

That statement on p. 950 and many others from Tragedy and Hope have been used to raise concerns about the secret society Quigley admired. On such author was a Latter-day Saint, W. Clean Skousen, whose The Naked Capitalist: A Review and Commentary on Dr. Carroll Quigley’s Book: Tragedy and Hope (Verity Publishing, 1970) argued that secret combinations are a threat in our day. While many have criticized his work as promoting “conspiracy theories,” I believe I am one of the few who actually read his book and compared it to Tragedy and Hope. As a result, I think it ought to at least be considered as a tool for understanding modern works of darkness. Skousen was not an academic, but did have practical knowledge on crime and conspiracy based on his work as an FBI special agent and later as police chief of Salt Lake City. Largely relying on passages directly from Tragedy and Hope, Skousen raises many reasonable concerns about what that secret society has been doing. Readers can readily verify the quotations and their significance using the links given above.

However, a flaw in Skousen’s work is that he says Quigley was not just an ally but an actual member of the secret society. That’s not what Quigley says. I also think he may have been too focused on Communism per se as the key threat, when Quigley points out that the society he describes is not really about promoting Communism, but can work with it. Perhaps it is something more akin to “globalism” or the government-business partnerships promoted by the World Economic Forum with the help of their Young Global Leader graduates and allies, as described in Klaus Schwab’s influential declarations on global cooperation and governance in The Great Narrative (Geneva: Forum Publishing, 2022) and COVID-19: The Great Reset (Geneva: Forum Publishing, 2020).

Quigley’s Final Words on the Secret Society

For details on what Quigley learned and dared to share about the secret society he respected, The Anglo-American Establishment is a rich source. Published fifteen years after Tragedy and Hope and four years after Quigley’s death, it reveals the many interlocking rings of relationships and alliances that served for decades to advance a powerful secret society. Though there are no assassinations acknowledged, nor any reports of oaths or dark rituals in that “proper” secret society, it was remarkably effective in its quest for power and influence. And its impact on the world is presented as positive, with the occasional exception of a little blood and horror, but always with good intentions:

It is said that the road to perdition is paved with good intentions. The road to the Indian tragedy of 1947-1948 was also paved with good intentions, and those paving blocks were manufactured and laid down by the Milner Group [a name for the secret society discussed by Quigley]. The same good intentions contributed largely to the dissolution of the British Empire, the race wars of South Africa, and the unleashing of the horrors of 1939-1945 on the world. (224-25)

Quigley suggests that the Milner Group with its strong influence over foreign policy could have prevented great tragedies such as World War II, but was too utopian, too optimistic, too blind to human reality, though a more skeptical reader might see the core leadership of the Milner Group acting as if war was often the ultimate objective. While Quigley might have seen the blood and horror as a bug in a generally brilliant system, from a Book of Mormon perspective, one might argue that destruction is an intended feature of secret combinations seeking for power and gain, regardless of how surprised its mortal participants are when disaster attends their work.

The “disastrously good intentions” began not just with Cecil Rhodes but with the Professor who inspired Rhodes, Oxford’s new Professor John Ruskin (1819–1900). Starting in 1870, Ruskin told the upper-class students that their way of life was at risk unless the world’s downtrodden masses could be lifted to adopt their English ways, and that England should establish colonies all over the world toward that end. Rhodes then developed the “desire to federate the English-speaking peoples and to bring all the habitable portions of the world under their control. For this purpose Rhodes left part of his great fortune to found the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford in order to spread the English ruling class tradition throughout the English-speaking world as Ruskin had wanted” (Tragedy and Hope, 130-31). Another disciple of Ruskin, Alfred Milner, would soon gain Cecil Rhodes’s complete trust and later manage the secret society.

The Anglo-American Establishment explains that after almost two decades of planning, the society was launched in 1891 when Rhodes teamed up with William Stead, the most famous journalist of the day (control of media would be a crucial tool), and Reginald Baliol Brett (Lord Esher), a confidant of Queen Victoria and later an adviser of King Edward VII and then George V. The vast funds Rhodes acquired from exploiting the gold and diamonds of South Africa, would be available to aid the society. It would have an inner circle with Milner who soon largely ran the society, such that it was commonly called the “Milner Group.” Many forms of influence would be used to gain influence over industry (a form of the government-industry partnerships touted by today’s World Economic Forum), including finance and the media, the military, the academy (where scholarships played an important role in influencing students and finding recruits), and diplomatic functions (foreign policy) in England first and then other nations, including the U.S.

The Frightening Power of the Milner Group

The secret society founded by Cecil Rhodes to pursue a federation of English-speaking nations has been known by several names, but once it was taken over by Milner, Quigley calls it the Milner Group. It has a cousin group called the Cecil Block, which had its own networks and was often but not always was aligned with the Milner Group. The Milner group had great wealth at its disposal as well as expertise in propaganda orchestrated by Milner. It is remarkable how important family ties, friendships, and close personal networks are. In The Anglo-American Establishment, page after page describes who was related or connected to whom in endless seats of power in the Commonwealth, as if the world consisted of two sectors, the ruling class and the peons, with the influence of Cecil Rhodes’s people dominating much of the former. A telling passage describes how successful the combination became as it gained power over multiple institutions. After describing the success of an arm or “front” of the Milner Group, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), the foreign-policy think tank that would spawn the powerful Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) in the United States, Quigley writes:

This brief sketch of the Royal Institute of International Affairs does not by any means indicate the very considerable influence which the organization exerts in English-speaking countries in the sphere to which it is devoted. The extent of that influence must be obvious. The purpose of this chapter has been something else: to show that the Milner Group controls the Institute. Once that is established, the picture changes. The influence of Chatham House [another name for the RIIA] appears in its true perspective, not as the influence of an autonomous body but as merely one of many instruments in the arsenal of another power. When the influence which the Institute wields is combined with that controlled by the Milner Group in other fields—in education, in administration, in newspapers and periodicals—a really terrifying picture begins to emerge. This picture is called terrifying not because the power of the Milner Group was used for evil ends. It was not. On the contrary, it was generally used with the best intentions in the world—even if those intentions were so idealistic as to be almost academic. The picture is terrifying because such power, whatever the goals at which it may be directed, is too much to be entrusted safely to any group. That it was too much to be safely entrusted to the Milner Group will appear quite clearly in Chapter 12. No country that values its safety should allow what the Milner Group accomplished in Britain—that is, that a small number of men should be able to wield such power in administration and politics, should be given almost complete control over the publication of the documents relating to their actions, should be able to exercise such influence over the avenues of information that create public opinion, and should be able to monopolize so completely the writing and the teaching of the history of their own period. (197)

In other words, a secret society, telling its members and allies that what it does is all for the good of the world, has essentially taken over many institutions and seats of power in the United Kingdom and beyond. But how naïve must one be to think that something that is purely for the good of humanity needs to be done behind the dark curtains of a secret society?

So what causes were sought by this society, the secretive group with strong influence in the U.S. and many other nations? Why, global good, of course, such as the good that can come through global governance. They played a significant role in the League of Nations and in the formation of the United Nations.

Regarding the League of Nations, the Milner Group showed genuine savvy. They were afraid that if the League looked too much like a world government, there would be pushback, so they wanted restraint until the world was ready. Their concerns were proven correct, thanks to the courage of a small handful of patriots in the United States who saw the danger that the League of Nations posed and stood up for the Constitution instead. But Quigley was impressed with the work of the Milner group in this delicate project:

The ability of the Milner Group to mobilize public opinion in regard to the League of Nations is almost beyond belief. It was not a simple task, since they were simultaneously trying to do two things: on the one hand, seeking to build up popular opinion in favor of the League so that its work could be done more effectively; and, at the same time, seeking to prevent influential people from using the League as an instrument of world government before popular opinion was ready for a world government. In general, The Round Table and The Times were used for the latter purpose, while the League of Nations Union and a strange assortment of outlets, such as Chatham House, Toynbee Hall, extension courses at Oxford, adult-education courses in London, International Conciliation in the United States, the Institute of Politics at Williamstown, the Institute of Intellectual Cooperation at Paris, the Geneva School of International Studies and the Graduate Institute of International Studies at Geneva, and the various branches of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, were used for the former purpose. The Milner Group did not control all of these. Their influence was strong in all of them, and, since the influence of J. P. Morgan and Company was also strong in most of them and since Morgan and the Group were pursuing a parallel policy on this issue, the Group were usually able to utilize the resources of these various organizations when they wished. (Anglo-American Establishment, 259)

Quigley frames his discussion as if the Milner group has just basically passed away quietly and sort of faded away after the Labour Party in the UK won some elections. I think he is being disingenuous here. The old leaders may be gone, but the wealth and institutions or their progeny remain more powerful than ever, and new aspirants have surely continued the work of global federation “for the good of humanity,” of course, the kind of good that requires deep darkness and propaganda lest dreaded populists spoil it all again.

The Milner Group wanted to slow down and not rush for global government until “popular opinion was ready for a world government.” Are we ready now? Those in the shadows of power seem to feel that the time for major global “progress” is now. Consider recent developments such as: (1) the WHO’s bold pandemic treaty that threatens to usurp national sovereignty if unelected foreign bureaucrats smell an emergency; (2) the Pact for the Future being promoted by the United Nations; (3) increasingly vocal calls for global governance from their allies in the World Economic Forum; (4) the weaponization of government against political enemies; (5) expanding powers to spy on citizens; and (6) increasing efforts to push for censorship and control over “misinformation” and “hate speech” – apparently defined as any communication that the powerful do not like. Many once-free nations are embracing censorship. In Germany, criticizing a government officer can result in a government raid of your home, seizure of devices, and arrest. In Britain, a man was sentenced to two years in jail for passing out stickers critical of the nation’s immigration policy. In France, a woman was arrested for insulting President Macron. In the U.S., as we learn in the details of the “Twitter Files,” the White House and Federal agencies directly pressured social media platforms to censor information, including stories that would have affected the 2020 election. Such loss of free speech rights is a sign of government corruption and an assault on liberty.

I don’t know the reasons and force behind so much of what is happening, but there seems to be coalitions or dare I say combinations moving in lockstep. But whoever they are, whether related to the offspring of the Milner Group or any other society, secret combinations and those practicing corruption remain vulnerable. A few courageous people can make a difference, especially if we diligently seek to understand the message of the Book of Mormon, including the warning of Moroni:

And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed. . . .

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. . . .

Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away. . . . (Ether 8:22, 24–26)

Summary: The Role of the Increasingly Useful Book of Mormon in a World of Corruption and Danger

As we compare the Book of Mormon to what scholarship and reliable witnesses and allies tell us of secret combinations, we find compelling evidence that its ancient authors bring centuries of wisdom that we need today. In light of secret combination insights in the Book of Mormon discussed in Parts 1–3, the many areas where the Book of Mormon shines in light of reliable modern insights on secret combinations include:

the existential danger of amoral power seekers and the devious schemes they can pursue to gain power;
the bad decisions that they often make, defying economic logic (but explained by the Book of Mormon);
the importance of protection in various forms as a service to be marketed;
the patient tactics that they can pursue to steadily gain power over decades, sometimes with the ultimate goal of gaining total power;
the great vulnerability that secret combinations face, yet also their ability to persist for many decades if not vigorously opposed;
the persistent and often violent threats faced from competitors of any gang, as well as dangerous internal rivalries that may exist;
the widespread use of oaths and extra-legal justice systems;
the role of treasonous dissidents who can team up with external enemies to help overthrow a government;
the emphasis on information control, especially censorship to eliminate or prevent harmful information and propaganda to induce anger and manipulate a population;
the hatred of religion that they may show;
the use of state surveillance under false pretenses to identify and persecute threats (see part 3);
the steady corruption of law that secret combinations bring;
the symptomatic rise of a two-tiered justice system and the weaponization of systems of justice;
the use of political assassinations and other forms of secret murder to gain power or wealth, or eliminate threats;
the tendency to stir up populations to anger to pursue war or to eliminate threats;
the abuse of office for personal gain;
the use of bribes to gain power, support, or to seduce a threat into a dangerous compromise;
the ability to induce a government or population to support them;
the use of broad networks of trusted friends, relatives, and aligned partners to form a secret combination or a syndicate of allied or interlocking organizations to gain power;
elites in a society (e.g., lawyers, merchants, judges, etc.) commonly serving as founders;
the corrupt workings of mafia-like groups both inside and outside the state;
the risk of rampant government corruption and corrupt laws through their influence;
the corrupting effect that secret combinations have on society; and
the misery, chaos, and bloodshed that secret combinations tend to bring, with a willingness to slaughter children, women, and any person or group in the way of their power.

The Book of Mormon’s teachings on secret combinations may be among its most compelling evidences of authenticity and prophetic power

The Book of Mormon’s dire warning on secret combinations was intended for our day. It is a day with signs of great corruption and bloodshed from groups seeking power. It is an era of world wars and of tens of millions who have starved or otherwise perished at the hands of totalitarian governments where power-hungry groups sought total control over a people. The dangers are terrifying, but the Book of Mormon gives us practical help and hope, giving us guidance “that evil might be done away” (Mormon 8:26).

Let us not fear to take its teachings seriously. May we not fall into the trap of self-censorship on one of the most vital but least discussed themes in the Book of Mormon: secret combinations.

Arise from the Dust

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