On March 8, 1983, American President Ronald Reagan declared the USSR an “Evil Empire” and declared the fight against it his main task. This was done in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida. The definition became a political cliché, then used to denounce the USSR.
Reagan's famous speech was written by Anthony R. Dolan. The draft of Reagan's speech to the British Parliament in 1982 contained the similar expression center of evil, which was, however, crossed out by officials of the US State Department. This gives reason to assume that Reagan himself added it to the speech of March 8 and that it belongs to him.
In fact, the expression
“Evil Empire” was first used in May 1977.
in the USA in the famous italic subtitles at the beginning of the film “Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope” by George Lucas.
The speech of March 8 was on the topic of “Religious Freedom and the Cold War”. Its first part was devoted to the moral and religious problems of American society. In it, Reagan advocated for traditional foundations - he supported the introduction of prayers in schools, spoke out against abortion. Continuing with the problem of evil and sin, he noted that the United States is not without them either.
Then Reagan moved on to
the topic of communism as the embodiment of evil.
He characterized the USSR as a totalitarian state and accused the communist leaders of fundamental immorality. At the same time, Reagan expressed his intention to negotiate with Moscow to reduce nuclear weapons in the name of peace.
But the expression was not used for long in its original version. After his first meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986, Reagan publicly stated that he no longer considered the USSR an “Evil Empire”.