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{{short description|1983 speech by Ronald Reagan}}
{{Short description|1983 anti-Soviet speech by Ronald Reagan}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2019}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox event
[[File:41st Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals.jpg|thumb|Reagan addressing the [[National Association of Evangelicals]], 1983]]
| image = President Ronald Reagan addresses the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida.jpg
{{Ronald Reagan series}}
| image_alt = Reagan, smiling, standing behind a lectern with the presidential seal and a microphone. Behind him is a banner for the convention, with the slogan "Change Your World" and the title "41st. Annual Convention NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS". Behind the banner are curtains. In front of the banner and curtains but behind Reagan are two rows of seated people, about 20 total. Most seem in good spirits with smiles and expressiveness. Most are Caucasian men. Two women are visible, as is a Black man.
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The '''"Evil Empire" speech''' was a speech delivered by U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]] to the [[National Association of Evangelicals]] on March 8, 1983 during the [[Cold War]]. In that speech, Reagan referred to the [[Soviet Union]] as an "evil empire" and as "the focus of evil in the modern world". Reagan explicitly rejected the notion that the [[United States]] and the Soviet Union were equally responsible for the Cold War and the ongoing [[nuclear arms race]] between the two nations; rather, he asserted that the conflict was a battle between [[good and evil]].
| caption = Reagan in the Citrus Crown Ballroom
| date = {{start date|1983|03|08}}
| venue = Sheraton Twin Towers Hotel
| Location = [[Orlando, Florida]], US
| participants = [[Ronald Reagan]]
| notes = {{wikisource-inline|Evil Empire speech|the speech|single=yes}}
}}
⚫
The "'''Evil Empire'''" '''speech''' was a speech delivered by US President [[Ronald Reagan]] to the [[National Association of Evangelicals]] on March 8, 1983, at the height of the [[Cold War]] and the [[Soviet–Afghan War]]. In that speech, Reagan referred to the [[Soviet Union]] as an "evil empire" and as "the focus of evil in the modern world". Reagan explicitly rejected the notion that the [[United States]] and the Soviet Union were equally responsible for the Cold War and the ongoing [[nuclear arms race]] between the two nations; rather, he asserted that the conflict was a battle between [[good and evil]].


==Background==
==Background==
Reagan's chief speechwriter at the time, [[Anthony R. Dolan]], coined the phrase "evil empire" for Reagan's use.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://frankwarner.typepad.com/free_frank_warner/2003/12/story_of_reagan.html |title='The Battle of the Evil Empire', by Frank Warner, ''The Morning Call,'' Allentown, Pa., March 5, 2000 |publisher=Frankwarner.typepad.com |date=December 4, 2003 |access-date=March 8, 2013}}</ref> Dolan included similar language in a draft for Reagan's June 1982 speech before the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|British House of Commons]] in [[London]], but reviewers flagged and struck the phrasing.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Peterson|2010|p=126}}.</ref> Dolan included the phrase "evil empire" in drafts for Reagan's speech at the [[National Association of Evangelicals]]' 41st annual convention.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Schlesinger|2008|pp=327–328}}.</ref> White House staffers who saw drafts of the speech, including [[David Gergen]], repeatedly struck the "evil empire" portion; the speech eventually reached Reagan with the "evil empire" portion included, staffer critics concluding the event would be minor and unlikely to attract attention.<ref name=":0">{{Harvtxt|Schlesinger|2008|p=328}}.</ref>
===British House of Commons speech===

Reagan's chief speechwriter at the time, [[Anthony R. Dolan]], reportedly coined the phrase for Reagan's use.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://frankwarner.typepad.com/free_frank_warner/2003/12/story_of_reagan.html |title='The Battle of the Evil Empire', by Frank Warner, ''The Morning Call,'' Allentown, Pa., March 5, 2000 |publisher=Frankwarner.typepad.com |date=December 4, 2003 |access-date=March 8, 2013}}</ref> Some sources refer to the June 1982 speech before the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|British House of Commons]] in [[London]] as the "Evil Empire" speech,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1982reagan1.html |title=''Modern History Sourcebook'', Ronald Reagan: Evil Empire Speech, June 8, 1982. |publisher=Fordham.edu |access-date=March 8, 2013}}</ref> but while Reagan referred twice to [[totalitarianism]] in his London speech, the exact phrase "evil empire" was not included. Rather, the London speech included the phrase "[[ash heap of history]]", used by Reagan to predict what he saw as the inevitable failure and collapse of global [[communism]].<ref>{{cite web | last = Pipes | first = Richard|title=Ash Heap of History: President Reagan's Westminster Address 20 Years Later|date=3 June 2002|url=http://www.reagansheritage.org/reagan/html/reagan_panel_pipes.shtml|publisher=Heritage Foundation|access-date = 13 February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130917063505/http://www.reagansheritage.org/reagan/html/reagan_panel_pipes.shtml|archive-date=17 September 2013}}</ref> [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] revolutionary [[Leon Trotsky]] used a similar phrase in November 1917, asserting that the [[Mensheviks]] belonged in the "dustbin of history".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/16/magazine/on-language-dust-heaps-of-history.html|title=On Language; Dust Heaps of History|first=William|last=Safire|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 16, 1983}}</ref>
When Reagan reviewed and edited the draft himself, he extended the material on domestic matters.<ref name=":0" /> Dolan had included a reference to "abortion on demand" as a "great moral evil"; Reagan cut the line and added a remark asserting that "until it can be proven that the unborn child is not a living entity" its "right to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness must be protected".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Schlesinger|2008|pp=328–329}}.</ref> Reagan left the "evil empire" phrase and did not substantially alter the draft's strongly anti-communist tone.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Schlesinger|2008|p=329}}.</ref>


==Speech==
==Speech==
Reagan's March 8, 1983 speech to the [[National Association of Evangelicals]] in [[Orlando, Florida]], is his first recorded use of the phrase "evil empire." The speech has become known as the "Evil Empire" speech. In that speech, Reagan said:<ref>{{cite web| url= http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/reagan-evil-empire-speech-text/ | title= Ronald Reagan, Address to the National Association of Evangelicals ("Evil Empire Speech") |date= March 8, 1983 | work= Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project | publisher= [[University of Maryland, College Park]]| access-date= April 19, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.presidentreagan.info/speeches/empire.cfm |title=President Reagan's Speech Before the National Association of Evangelicals |publisher=The Reagan Information Page |date=March 8, 1983 |access-date=July 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040609055415/http://www.presidentreagan.info/speeches/empire.cfm |archive-date=June 9, 2004 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Reagan spoke at the 41st annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals on March 8, 1983, in the Citrus Crown Ballroom of the Sheraton Twin Towers Hotel in [[Orlando, Florida]].<ref>{{Harvtxt|Jones|2018|p=161}}.</ref> The speech, marking his first recorded use of the phrase "evil empire" to refer to the Soviet Union, has become known as the "Evil Empire" speech. In that speech, Reagan said:<ref>{{cite web| url= http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/reagan-evil-empire-speech-text/ | title= Ronald Reagan, Address to the National Association of Evangelicals ("Evil Empire Speech") |date= March 8, 1983 | work= Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project | publisher= [[University of Maryland, College Park]]| access-date= April 19, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.presidentreagan.info/speeches/empire.cfm |title=President Reagan's Speech Before the National Association of Evangelicals |publisher=The Reagan Information Page |date=March 8, 1983 |access-date=July 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040609055415/http://www.presidentreagan.info/speeches/empire.cfm |archive-date=June 9, 2004 |url-status=dead }}</ref>


<blockquote>Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world&nbsp;....
<blockquote>Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world&nbsp;....
So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an ''evil empire'', to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.</blockquote>
So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an ''evil empire'', to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.</blockquote>


The audience applauded Reagan's speech.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Goodnight|1986|p=401}}.</ref> A band played him off with the song "[[Onward, Christian Soldiers]]".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Davis|1983|loc=paragraph 9}}.</ref>
In the "Evil Empire" speech, which also dealt with domestic issues, Reagan made the case for deploying [[NATO]] nuclear-armed [[Intermediate-range ballistic missile|intermediate-range ballistic missiles]] in [[Western Europe]] as a response to the Soviets installing new nuclear-armed missiles in [[Eastern Europe]]. Eventually, the NATO missiles were set up and used as bargaining chips in arms talks with Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], who [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|took office]] two years and three days after Reagan's speech, on 11 March 1985. In 1987, Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to go further than a [[Nuclear Freeze campaign|nuclear freeze]]. In an [[Atomic Age]] first, they agreed to reduce nuclear arsenals. Intermediate- and shorter-range nuclear missiles were eliminated.{{cn|date=March 2022}}

==Global reaction and aftermath==
In 1987, American [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] [[Michael Johns (policy analyst)|Michael Johns]] compiled a list of Soviet crimes, echoing Reagan by saying "what we face today in Soviet Communism is, indeed, an evil empire".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Johns|first1=Michael|title=Seventy Years of Evil|url= https://cornellsun.com/2019/10/02/johns-seventy-years-of-evil/|publisher=Policy Review}}</ref>

⚫
The Soviet Union, for its part, alleged that the United States was an [[American Imperialism|imperialist]] [[superpower]] seeking to dominate the entire world, and that the Soviet Union was fighting against it in the name of humanity. In [[Moscow]], the Soviet press agency [[Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union|TASS]] said the "evil empire" words demonstrated that the Reagan administration "can think only in terms of confrontation and bellicose, lunatic [[anti-communism]]".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-214232 |title=President Ronald Reagan |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |date=June 12, 1987 |access-date=March 8, 2013}}</ref>


==Reception==
⚫
During his second term in office, in May–June 1988, more than five years after using the term "evil empire", Reagan visited the new reformist [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary of the Soviet Union]], [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], in Moscow. When asked by a reporter whether he still thought the Soviet Union was an "evil empire", Reagan responded that he no longer did, and that when he used the term it was "another time, another era".<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://articles.latimes.com/1988-06-01/news/mn-3667_1_evil-empire|title=Reagan Recants 'Evil Empire' Description|last=Meisler|first=Stanley|date=June 1, 1988|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=December 23, 2016}}</ref>
Contemporaneous press criticized the speech as inflammatory, and critics worried the speech portended negatively for arms negotiations with the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Rowland|Jones|2016|p=430}}.</ref> ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'' argued that Reagan's rhetoric would encourage an [[arms race]] and "would some day, in logic, point toward war".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Harsch|1983|loc=paragraph 10}}.</ref> During a [[1984 United States presidential debates|1984 presidential debate]], Reagan reiterated his assessment of the Soviet Union, saying he "believe[d] that many of the things that they have done are evil in any concept of morality that we have", while also emphasizing pragmatism, adding, "I also recognize that as the two great superpowers in the world, we have to live with each other".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Cooper|Richardson|Schwab|2024|p=70}}.</ref>


⚫
The Soviet Union, for its part, alleged that the United States was an [[American Imperialism|imperialist]] [[superpower]] seeking to dominate the entire world, and that the Soviet Union was fighting against it "in the name of humanity". In [[Moscow]], the Soviet state-run press agency [[Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union|TASS]] said the "evil empire" words demonstrated that the Reagan administration "can think only in terms of confrontation and bellicose, lunatic [[anti-communism]]".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-214232 |title=President Ronald Reagan |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |date=June 12, 1987 |access-date=March 8, 2013}}</ref>
Historians such as [[Yale University]]'s [[John Lewis Gaddis]] have grown more favorable towards the use and influence of the phrase "evil empire" in describing the Soviet Union. In ''The Cold War'' Gaddis argues that, in their use of the phrase "evil empire", Reagan and his [[Anti-communism|anti-Communist]] political allies were effective in breaking the [[détente]] tradition, thus laying the groundwork for the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book | title = The Cold War: A New History | author = John Lewis Gaddis | date = 2006 | publisher = Penguin Books | isbn = 978-0-14-303827-6}}</ref>


⚫
During his second term in office, in May–June 1988, more than five years after using the term "evil empire", Reagan visited [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], at the time [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary of the Soviet Union]] and a reformist, in Moscow. When asked by a reporter whether he still thought the Soviet Union was an evil empire, Reagan responded that he no longer did, and that when he used the term it was "another time, another era".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-01-mn-3667-story.html|title=Reagan Recants 'Evil Empire' Description|last=Meisler|first=Stanley|date=June 1, 1988|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=December 23, 2016}}</ref> In a speech, Gorbachev said of Reagan's statement that the Soviet Union "t[ook] note of that"; journalist [[Lou Cannon]] concluded that Gorbachev "listened carefully to the message of peace that Reagan had brought with him to Moscow".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Cannon|2000|p=707}}.</ref>
The term has also been alluded to in reference to the domestic politics of the United States itself. American paleoconservative journalist [[Pat Buchanan]] argued that Russia's President [[Vladimir Putin]] implied that the United States under the [[Presidency of Barack Obama|Obama administration]] deserved the title in the 21st century, and furthermore argued that Putin had a good case for doing so because of [[Abortion in the United States|American views on abortion]] and [[Same-sex marriage in the United States|same-sex marriage]], [[Pornography in the United States|pornography]], [[promiscuity]] and the general panoply of [[Hollywood vs. America|Hollywood values]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/2013/12/17/is-putin-one-of-us-n1764094/page/full |title=Is Putin One of Us? |author= Pat Buchanan |publisher=Townhall.com |date=December 17, 2013 |access-date=July 28, 2014}}</ref> Buchanan served as [[White House Communications Director]] for President Reagan from 1985 to 1987.


== Interpretation ==
According to [[G. Thomas Goodnight]], the "Evil Empire" speech, along with the "[[Zero Option]]" and "[[Strategic Defense Initiative|Star Wars]]" speeches, represented the rhetorical side of the United States' escalation of the [[Cold War]]. In the former, Reagan depicted [[nuclear warfare]] as an extension of the "age old struggle between good and evil",<ref name="reag">{{cite journal|last=Goodnight|first=G. Thomas|title=Ronald Reagan's Re-formulation of the Rhetoric of War: Analysis of the "Zero Option", "Evil Empire", and "Star Wars" Addresses|journal=Quarterly Journal of Speech|date=November 1, 1986|volume=72|issue=4|page=390|doi=10.1080/00335638609383784}}<!--|access-date=October 22, 2013--></ref> while arguing that an increased nuclear inventory as well as progress in science and technology were necessary to prevent global conflict. According to [[G. Thomas Goodnight|Thomas Goodnight]], the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]] used these speeches to reshape public knowledge about and attitudes toward nuclear warfare.<ref name="reag" />
[[G. Thomas Goodnight]] characterized the "evil empire" speech, along with the "[[Zero Option]]" and "[[Strategic Defense Initiative|Star Wars]]" speeches, as part of the rhetorical side of the [[Cold War]] and reshaped public perceptions of nuclear warfare.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Goodnight|1986|pp=390–3891, 408–409}}.</ref> In the former, Reagan depicted [[nuclear warfare]] as an extension of an "age old struggle between good and evil".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Goodnight|1986|p=391}}.</ref> By characterizing the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" and therefore irrational and untrustworthy, the speech justified demurrals on peace proposals.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Goodnight|1986|p=403}}.</ref> Historian [[John Lewis Gaddis]] called the speech the "complet[ion of] a rhetorical offensive designed to expose what Reagan saw as the central error of détente: the idea that the Soviet Union had earned geopolitical, ideological, economic, and moral legitimacy" and argued that it "could not have been better calculated to feed the anxieties" afflicting Soviet leadership at the time.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Gaddis|2005|pp=224–225}}.</ref> According to literature professor Leerom Medovoi, on top of opposing the Soviet Union, the "Evil Empire" speech directed the [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]] audience's attention to [[domestic policy]] and characterized [[Liberalism in the United States|American liberals]] as being additional enemies in a [[culture war]] that Reagan called "a test of moral will and faith".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Medovoi|2012|p=182}}.</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
Line 35: Line 41:
* [[Speeches and debates of Ronald Reagan]]
* [[Speeches and debates of Ronald Reagan]]
* [[Chicken Kiev speech]]
* [[Chicken Kiev speech]]
*[[Axis of evil]]
* [[Axis of evil]]


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
{{Reflist|30em}}


==Further reading==
==Sources==
* {{Cite book |last=Cannon |first=Lou |author-link=Lou Cannon |title=President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |year=2000 |isbn=1-891620-91-6 |edition=First PublicAffairs}}
⚫
* {{cite journal | first = G. Thomas | last = Goodnight | title = Ronald Reagan's re‐formulation of the rhetoric of war: Analysis of the 'zero option,' 'evil empire,' and 'star wars' addresses | journal = Quarterly Journal of Speech | volume = 72 | issue = 4 | year = 1986 | pages = 390–414 | doi = 10.1080/00335638609383784 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=James |title=Ronald Reagan's 1984: Politics, Policy, and Culture |last2=Richardson |first2=R.&nbsp;J. |last3=Schwab |first3=Bailey |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2024 |isbn=978-3-031-53676-2 |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-53677-9}}
* {{Cite news |last=Davis |first=Donald A. |date=March 8, 1983 |title=President Reagan Warned Tuesday Against 'Simple-minded Appeasement' |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/03/08/President-Reagan-warned-Tuesday-against-simple-minded-appeasement/1542415947600/ |publisher=[[United Press International]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gaddis |first=John Lewis |title=The Cold War: A New History |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2005 |isbn=1-59420-062-9}}
⚫
* {{cite journal | first = G. Thomas | last = Goodnight | title = Ronald Reagan's re-formulation of the rhetoric of war: Analysis of the 'zero option,' 'evil empire,' and 'star wars' addresses | journal = Quarterly Journal of Speech | volume = 72 | issue = 4 | year = 1986 | pages = 390–414 | doi = 10.1080/00335638609383784 }}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Harsch |first=Joseph C. |author-link=Joseph C. Harsch |date=April 26, 1983 |title=Are Russians Human? |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1983/0426/042623.html |magazine=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Seth G. |title=A Covert Action: Reagan, the CIA, and the Cold War Struggle in Poland |publisher=W.&nbsp;W. Norton |year=2018 |isbn=978-0393247008 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Medovoi |first=Leerom |title=American Literature and Culture in an Age of Cold War: A Critical Reassessment |publisher=[[University of Iowa Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-60938-113-4 |editor-last=Belletto |editor-first=Steven |pages=163–186 |chapter=The Race War Within: The Biopolitics of the Long Cold War |editor-last2=Grausam |editor-first2=Daniel}}
* {{Cite thesis |last=Peterson |first=Jon Richard |title="An Evil Empire": The Rhetorical Rearmament of Ronald Reagan |date=June 2010 |degree=PhD |publisher=Ohio University |url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=ohiou1273107940&disposition=inline}}
* {{cite journal | first1 = Robert C. | last1 = Rowland | first2 = John M. | last2 = Jones | title = Reagan's Strategy for the Cold War and the Evil Empire Address | journal = Rhetoric & Public Affairs | volume = 19 | issue = 3 | date = October 2016 | pages = 427–463 | doi = 10.14321/rhetpublaffa.19.3.0427 | s2cid = 151775200 }}
* {{cite journal | first1 = Robert C. | last1 = Rowland | first2 = John M. | last2 = Jones | title = Reagan's Strategy for the Cold War and the Evil Empire Address | journal = Rhetoric & Public Affairs | volume = 19 | issue = 3 | date = October 2016 | pages = 427–463 | doi = 10.14321/rhetpublaffa.19.3.0427 | s2cid = 151775200 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Schlesinger |first=Robert |title=White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2008 |isbn=978-0743291699}}


==External links==
==External links==
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* [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganevilempire.htm Audio of Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire speech]
* [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganevilempire.htm Audio of Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire speech]
* [http://www.nationalcenter.org/ReaganEvilEmpire1983.html Text of Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire speech]
* [http://www.nationalcenter.org/ReaganEvilEmpire1983.html Text of Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire speech]
* [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/evilemp.htm Text of Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire speech (British House of Commons speech)]
* [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/evilemp.htm Text of Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire speech (British House of Commons speech)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806060209/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/evilemp.htm |date=August 6, 2020 }}


{{Ronald Reagan}}
{{Presidency of Ronald Reagan}}
{{authority control}}
{{authority control}}


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[[Category:American political neologisms]]
[[Category:American political neologisms]]
[[Category:Anti-communist terminology]]
[[Category:Anti-communist terminology]]
[[Category:Anti-Russian sentiment]]
[[Category:Cold War speeches]]
[[Category:Cold War speeches]]
[[Category:English phrases]]
[[Category:English phrases]]
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[[Category:History of the foreign relations of the United States]]
[[Category:History of the foreign relations of the United States]]
[[Category:March 1983 events in the United States]]
[[Category:March 1983 events in the United States]]
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[[Category:Political slurs]]
[[Category:Political quotes]]
[[Category:Political quotes]]
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[[Category:1983 quotations]]
[[Category:Soviet Union–United States relations]]
[[Category:Soviet Union–United States relations]]
[[Category:Speeches by Ronald Reagan]]
[[Category:Speeches by Ronald Reagan]]

Revision as of 09:03, 7 November 2024

Evil Empire speech
Reagan, smiling, standing behind a lectern with the presidential seal and a microphone. Behind him is a banner for the convention, with the slogan "Change Your World" and the title "41st. Annual Convention NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS". Behind the banner are curtains. In front of the banner and curtains but behind Reagan are two rows of seated people, about 20 total. Most seem in good spirits with smiles and expressiveness. Most are Caucasian men. Two women are visible, as is a Black man.
Reagan in the Citrus Crown Ballroom
DateMarch 8, 1983 (1983-03-08)
VenueSheraton Twin Towers Hotel
LocationOrlando, Florida, US
ParticipantsRonald Reagan
The full text of the speech at Wikisource

The "Evil Empire" speech was a speech delivered by US President Ronald Reagan to the National Association of Evangelicals on March 8, 1983, at the height of the Cold War and the Soviet–Afghan War. In that speech, Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" and as "the focus of evil in the modern world". Reagan explicitly rejected the notion that the United States and the Soviet Union were equally responsible for the Cold War and the ongoing nuclear arms race between the two nations; rather, he asserted that the conflict was a battle between good and evil.

Background

Reagan's chief speechwriter at the time, Anthony R. Dolan, coined the phrase "evil empire" for Reagan's use.[1] Dolan included similar language in a draft for Reagan's June 1982 speech before the British House of Commons in London, but reviewers flagged and struck the phrasing.[2] Dolan included the phrase "evil empire" in drafts for Reagan's speech at the National Association of Evangelicals' 41st annual convention.[3] White House staffers who saw drafts of the speech, including David Gergen, repeatedly struck the "evil empire" portion; the speech eventually reached Reagan with the "evil empire" portion included, staffer critics concluding the event would be minor and unlikely to attract attention.[4]

When Reagan reviewed and edited the draft himself, he extended the material on domestic matters.[4] Dolan had included a reference to "abortion on demand" as a "great moral evil"; Reagan cut the line and added a remark asserting that "until it can be proven that the unborn child is not a living entity" its "right to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness must be protected".[5] Reagan left the "evil empire" phrase and did not substantially alter the draft's strongly anti-communist tone.[6]

Speech

Reagan spoke at the 41st annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals on March 8, 1983, in the Citrus Crown Ballroom of the Sheraton Twin Towers Hotel in Orlando, Florida.[7] The speech, marking his first recorded use of the phrase "evil empire" to refer to the Soviet Union, has become known as the "Evil Empire" speech. In that speech, Reagan said:[8][9]

Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world .... So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.

The audience applauded Reagan's speech.[10] A band played him off with the song "Onward, Christian Soldiers".[11]

Reception

Contemporaneous press criticized the speech as inflammatory, and critics worried the speech portended negatively for arms negotiations with the Soviet Union.[12] The Christian Science Monitor argued that Reagan's rhetoric would encourage an arms race and "would some day, in logic, point toward war".[13] During a 1984 presidential debate, Reagan reiterated his assessment of the Soviet Union, saying he "believe[d] that many of the things that they have done are evil in any concept of morality that we have", while also emphasizing pragmatism, adding, "I also recognize that as the two great superpowers in the world, we have to live with each other".[14]

The Soviet Union, for its part, alleged that the United States was an imperialist superpower seeking to dominate the entire world, and that the Soviet Union was fighting against it "in the name of humanity". In Moscow, the Soviet state-run press agency TASS said the "evil empire" words demonstrated that the Reagan administration "can think only in terms of confrontation and bellicose, lunatic anti-communism".[15]

During his second term in office, in May–June 1988, more than five years after using the term "evil empire", Reagan visited Mikhail Gorbachev, at the time General Secretary of the Soviet Union and a reformist, in Moscow. When asked by a reporter whether he still thought the Soviet Union was an evil empire, Reagan responded that he no longer did, and that when he used the term it was "another time, another era".[16] In a speech, Gorbachev said of Reagan's statement that the Soviet Union "t[ook] note of that"; journalist Lou Cannon concluded that Gorbachev "listened carefully to the message of peace that Reagan had brought with him to Moscow".[17]

Interpretation

G. Thomas Goodnight characterized the "evil empire" speech, along with the "Zero Option" and "Star Wars" speeches, as part of the rhetorical side of the Cold War and reshaped public perceptions of nuclear warfare.[18] In the former, Reagan depicted nuclear warfare as an extension of an "age old struggle between good and evil".[19] By characterizing the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" and therefore irrational and untrustworthy, the speech justified demurrals on peace proposals.[20] Historian John Lewis Gaddis called the speech the "complet[ion of] a rhetorical offensive designed to expose what Reagan saw as the central error of détente: the idea that the Soviet Union had earned geopolitical, ideological, economic, and moral legitimacy" and argued that it "could not have been better calculated to feed the anxieties" afflicting Soviet leadership at the time.[21] According to literature professor Leerom Medovoi, on top of opposing the Soviet Union, the "Evil Empire" speech directed the Evangelical audience's attention to domestic policy and characterized American liberals as being additional enemies in a culture war that Reagan called "a test of moral will and faith".[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ "'The Battle of the Evil Empire', by Frank Warner, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa., March 5, 2000". Frankwarner.typepad.com. December 4, 2003. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  2. ^ Peterson (2010, p. 126).
  3. ^ Schlesinger (2008, pp. 327–328).
  4. ^ a b Schlesinger (2008, p. 328).
  5. ^ Schlesinger (2008, pp. 328–329).
  6. ^ Schlesinger (2008, p. 329).
  7. ^ Jones (2018, p. 161).
  8. ^ "Ronald Reagan, Address to the National Association of Evangelicals ("Evil Empire Speech")". Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project. University of Maryland, College Park. March 8, 1983. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  9. ^ "President Reagan's Speech Before the National Association of Evangelicals". The Reagan Information Page. March 8, 1983. Archived from the original on June 9, 2004. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  10. ^ Goodnight (1986, p. 401).
  11. ^ Davis (1983, paragraph 9).
  12. ^ Rowland & Jones (2016, p. 430).
  13. ^ Harsch (1983, paragraph 10).
  14. ^ Cooper, Richardson & Schwab (2024, p. 70).
  15. ^ "President Ronald Reagan". Britannica.com. June 12, 1987. Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  16. ^ Meisler, Stanley (June 1, 1988). "Reagan Recants 'Evil Empire' Description". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  17. ^ Cannon (2000, p. 707).
  18. ^ Goodnight (1986, pp. 390–3891, 408–409).
  19. ^ Goodnight (1986, p. 391).
  20. ^ Goodnight (1986, p. 403).
  21. ^ Gaddis (2005, pp. 224–225).
  22. ^ Medovoi (2012, p. 182).

Sources

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