Ronald Reagan: “Evil Empire” Speech

Context

Ronald Reagan was a popular president, with his approval ratings in the polls usually registering above 60 percent. In early 1983, however, Reagan's popularity was at a low point, with only 37 percent of Americans approving of his performance as president. The severe recession of 1981 and 1982, from which the economy had only begun to recover, accounted for much of the discontent. Critics also complained about the big increases in defense spending during Reagan's first two years in office, especially since the president had simultaneously cut the budgets for some social programs for the poor and needy. Reagan maintained that the sharp increases in defense appropriations were essential because the Soviets had carried out an enormous buildup of their military forces during the past decade. Still, many people worried about the arms race and maintained that both the Americans and Soviets had far more nuclear weapons than they needed to protect national security. A proposal to freeze the nuclear arsenals of both sides as a first step in controlling the arms race gained the support of two-thirds of the American people, according to polls. The Reagan administration nonetheless opposed a nuclear freeze, which in the president's view would have locked in Soviet advantages in some categories of weapons. The president also worried that the popularity of such a freeze might prevent Congress from approving the administration's defense budget.

Reagan also endured criticism for his blunt condemnations of Communism and of Soviet policy. Soviet-American relations sharply deteriorated during the last year of Jimmy Carter's presidency and the first two years in which Reagan occupied the White House. Gone were the days of détente, which began in the early 1970s during the presidency of Richard Nixon, when U.S. officials hoped that negotiations on arms control and trade would lead to the relaxation of tensions with the Soviet Union. Although he himself was a staunch anti-Communist, Nixon refrained from the public condemnations of Communism that had been common in the cold war rhetoric of earlier presidents. Détente, however, had many opponents, and the policy ended when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan on December 25, 1979. When Reagan became president, he was determined to pursue tough policies against Soviet expansion. His harsh denunciations of Soviet actions and Communist principles seemed an abrupt return to the language of the early cold war. Reagan's hard-line policies won considerable praise, but they also produced anxiety and even alarm, especially as arms-control negotiations stalled, the U.S. military buildup continued, and international tensions rose. By the beginning of 1983, polls showed that the American people were almost evenly divided over whether Reagan was effectively handling relations with the Soviets.

Some of Reagan's advisers thought the president needed to energize supporters to counter the growing support for a nuclear freeze as well as the mounting discontent with his Soviet policies. The speechwriter Anthony Dolan encouraged the president to accept an invitation to speak at the annual meeting of the NAE. Dolan argued that Reagan could mobilize an important constituency—conservative Christians, who had backed him in the election of 1980 and supported his social policies. Some of these Christian conservatives were members of the NAE, and Reagan could reassure them that he would continue to work for the causes they endorsed, such as restricting abortion and allowing prayer in public schools, and also urge them to make a similar commitment to the success of the administration's national security policies. The NAE, which had more than three million members, could be a formidable ally in the battle over a nuclear freeze; the organization's support could offset the endorsement of a nuclear freeze by other church groups.

Dolan wrote drafts of the president's NAE speech, but Reagan put his own stamp on the final version. The president was extremely adept at using his skills as an actor to establish rapport with his audience. He was also responsible for many of the actual lines he delivered, as he wrote or revised substantial portions of his own speeches. Reagan eliminated references in Dolan's draft to liberal antagonists, instead characterizing the principal opponents of administration policies as those who wanted to remove religious values from public affairs. He reworded an opening joke and added a story about a father who imagined what life would be like if his daughters lived under Communist rule. The most memorable part of the speech was about Communism and the Soviet Union, but most of the text revolved around hot-button social issues of the early 1980s. The goal was to enlist social conservatives in what would be one of the last battles of the cold war.