Skousen authored The Naked Communist and was the source of the publication "1963 Communist Goals" list. He later wrote a follow-up, The Naked Capitalist, based on Carroll Quigley's assertions made in the books Tragedy and Hope and The Anglo-American Establishment, which claimed that top Western merchant bankers, industrialists and related institutions were behind the rise of Communism and Fascism around the world.

In June 1935, immediately after graduating from San Bernardino Valley Jr. College, where he served as Student Body President, Skousen began working for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. This led into a career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) the following year, which lasted until 1951.

Skousen attended George Washington University Law School, graduating with an LL.B. in June 1940. He had already passed the Washington, D.C., Bar Exam. In 1972, recognizing the sufficiency of his law school studies more than 30 years earlier, his law degree was upgraded to Juris Doctor (J.D.).

After the American election of 1980, Skousen was appointed to the Council for National Policy, a think tank of influential politicians, scholars and academics that lent support and advice to President Ronald Reagan-s administration. Among the many solutions Skousen proposed included suggested programs to convert the Social Security system to private retirement accounts and a plan to completely wipe out the national debt. Skousen was never a tax protestor but campaigned for several proposals to eliminate the federal income tax, including the famous Liberty Amendment, which among other things, would return federally owned land to the states and preclude the federal government from being involved in any activities that competed with private enterprise.