Speech · 1983

“Evil Empire” Speech

Addressing the annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, Reagan spoke about faith and public life before turning to the Cold War, calling the Soviet regime “the focus of evil in the modern world.” He urged his audience to reject a proposed nuclear freeze, which he argued would reward the Soviet military buildup and undercut negotiations for real arms reductions, and not to label both sides equally at fault.

“…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…”

Ronald Reagan, March 8, 1983

Why it matters

Critics called the rhetoric dangerously provocative, while supporters saw it as necessary moral clarity; the phrase “evil empire” came to define Reagan’s challenge to the Soviet Union.

Read the full text at reaganlibrary.gov

Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

cold war foreign policy faith anti-communism

From the library

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