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Special Report
Reagan’s ‘Evil Empire’ Turns 30
The speech sounds even better today.
(Page 2 of 2)
That’s easily the most forgotten line of the entire speech.
And just as American liberals went bonkers, so, of course, did the Soviet leadership, denouncing Reagan with every name in the Marxist book.
But perhaps the best reaction to Reagan’s speech was one not caught by any television camera or reporter. It emanated from the very pit of the Evil Empire, from inside its most enduring symbol: the gulag.
Natan Sharansky, a Jewish dissident, was an inmate of Permanent Labor Camp 35. His Soviet captors informed him of what this saber-rattling, dangerous president had dared to utter. Upon learning what Reagan said, Sharansky (after the guards left) jumped for joy inside his prison cell and tapped in Morse Code to his fellow gulag residents the good news that “someone had finally spoken the truth” about the USSR. “We dissidents were ecstatic,” said Sharansky. “Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth — a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us.”
Imagine the scene inside that prison. As one inmate after another tapped out the words “Evil Empire,” truth was finally piercing the dungeon’s dark silence, as the gulag itself at long last rang out and proclaimed its rightful name: Evil Empire! Evil Empire! Evil Empire! Evil Empire!...
Ronald Reagan had, in essence, enabled the Soviet gulag to finally call itself what it was. It couldn’t tell the world of itself and its malevolent source, but Ronald Reagan could and thus did.
Once the communist collapse came, Russian government officials were eager to freely speak about their erstwhile empire. And once they were free, they sang a different tune from the pages of Pravda in March 1983. Andrei Kozyrev, Boris Yeltsin’s foreign minister, in August 1991 was quick to explain that the USSR really had been an Evil Empire. It was a mistake to call it “the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,” said Kozyrev. “It was, rather, [an] evil empire, as it was put.” Arkady Murashev, Moscow police chief, a leader of Democratic Russia, and another person close to Yeltsin, added: “[Reagan] called us the ‘Evil Empire.’ So why did you in the West laugh at him? It’s true!”
And, yes, it was true. Truth be told. The Soviet Union was indeed an Evil Empire. And one day in March 1983, three decades ago, an American president finally was willing to stand up and say so. With that message, and more, he helped take down that empire, win the Cold War, and change the world.
It was a testimony to the power of words, the power of courage, and the power of truth. Such noble rarity is worth remembering.
About the Author
Paul Kengor is professor of political science and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. He is author of the new book The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor. His other books include The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism and Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (24) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 3.8.13 @ 6:36AM
Thank you for this article, and best of all for not mentioning even once the evil monkey-see-monkey-do at the head of our nation today.
AlanAnti-RoveCheneyBrooks | 3.8.13 @ 9:06PM
Appleby,
every time Reagan is praised it draws attention to his GOP successors and would-be GOP successors. That is, if they were worthies, then why are they not praised more?
The answer need not be written.
AlanAnti-RoveCheneyBrooks | 3.9.13 @ 9:37PM
Here is what is in the works, Appleby:
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/.....en-to-idea
Bob K| 3.8.13 @ 7:16AM
Excellent article!
How long will it be before we get a President who will talk in these terms about China?
TLP| 3.8.13 @ 3:26PM
Contest at yesterday's Homecoming Dance.
AlanAnti-RoveCheneyBrooks | 3.8.13 @ 9:17PM
"Today, Ronald Reagan’s Evil Empire speech turns 30 years old. It stands as one of the most memorable orations of the last three decades."
TLP,
the above isn't saying much- is it? You don't like Bill Clinton, so that's subtracting eight years; another four years you subtract for Obama; so that leaves six years (leaving out the two years before '83) of Reagan; eight years of Dubya. If you still appreciate Bush 43, then there's only fourteen out of 30 years left to write:
"Today, Ronald Reagan’s Evil Empire speech ... stands as one of the most memorable orations of the last three decades."
If you no longer appreciate Dubya, then what do you write?:
'Ronald Reagan’s Evil Empire speech turns 30 years old. It stands as one of the most memorable orations from 1983- '88"?
Not too hulking good.
Intelligent Design| 3.8.13 @ 8:14AM
And today it would be fitting to have another Evil Empire speech about Islam. But despite 1,400 years of evidence, there isn't one political leader in the U.S. who has the courage to say the truth.
Moe Blotz| 3.8.13 @ 8:32AM
No high priced politicians need to craft such a fancy speech, our Secretary of State Jean Effing Kerry is going to buy the Islamists off $250,000,000.00 at a time.
TLP| 3.8.13 @ 2:48PM
Contest at yesterday's Homecoming Dance.
Al Adab| 3.8.13 @ 8:35AM
A few speak out on the floor of the Senate while others have dinner with the president. Isn't it about time for voters to separate the wheat from the chaff; rid us of these tepid Senators and find once again men to lead who have the courage of their convictions and who realize this is the time to stand?
Von Mises Jr| 3.8.13 @ 9:20AM
Perhaps it is time to speak of our "Evil Regime." Just as in the USSR, our Dear Leader strives to take away our liberty, free speech and right to defend our lives and property. They declare that they are Judge, Jury and Executioner.
Like the Soviets, our regime has declared "War on Religion." And the Democrat Congress and even a few statist Republicans such as McLame and Lindsey Grahamnesty think that it is swell to kill Americans with drones if they talk back. If they can't drone us, then they will kill us with socialized medicine "Death Panels."
Mr. Kengor speaks of the "Pride" of the USSR leadership. I posit that our Dear Leaders including the Czars and socialist in Congress and the Bureaucracy have unjustified and unhealthy "Pride." In fact, they exhibit immense Greek-style "Hubris and Arrogance" along with the deadly sins of "Greed" and "Wrath."
In the sixties, I remember these so-called liberals proud to "Speak Truth to Power." But today it is the conservatives and libertarians that are the true defenders of liberty.
Al Adab| 3.8.13 @ 11:10AM
We tend to forget in the oath of office, that part about all enemies foreign... and domestic. the issue is how we react when our own government becomes "destructive of those ends".
PolishKnight| 3.8.13 @ 1:00PM
I hate to rain on the parade, but if Reagan was going to hold the USA accountable while criticizing the USSR, he should have mentioned that the left had merely reversed racism rather than eliminating it. No doubt he was opposed to affirmative action, but it clearly wasn't a priority in his administration and his failure to address the issue is the reason why the USA stands now to fall to leftists who have built a solid base of voters and corporate interests on racist entitlements.
Say what you like about the left, but they don't just look to win one battle or storm one gate. They fight to win on EVERY front imaginable. They truly are "progressive" in the sense that they play to win.
Al Adab| 3.8.13 @ 1:15PM
Your historical perspective is good PK. It would have taken 20 years of conservative governance to rid ourselves of the damage leftists did and all we had were 8 years and that mostly without a conservative congress. this is to distinguish between republicans and Conservatives. The GOP is only slightly less to blame for our current state.
TLP| 3.8.13 @ 2:49PM
Contest at yesterday's Homecoming Dance.
PolishKnight| 3.8.13 @ 10:03PM
Thanks Al Adab, but I don't believe in cutting Republicans too much slack and that goes even for the gipper.
Let's compare and contrast Obama's administration to Reagan's: Say what you like about Obama (and there's a lot to say) but he's not driving with the brakes on. He's got his foot down on the gas pedal all the way. Not just on one issue, but on everything. As chief executive, he exercises his ability to enforce which laws he likes or deems "constitutional" to the maximum extent. 5% cut in new spending? Release all the illegals in detention!
When the left whined about spending cuts, RR should have led the way with unnecessary base closures and going after fatcat military spending which often benefits the left as much as anyone. How much military spending was there in Boston during Dukakkis's tenure?
Michele San Pietro| 3.8.13 @ 6:47PM
That's one of the countless reasons why President Reagan should be made a saint. The Soviet Union was really an evil empire, and thank God it doesn't exist anymore.
PolishKnight| 3.8.13 @ 10:07PM
Sadly, the third world socialist-fascist oligarchy we're making here in the states makes the USSR at it's prime seem desirable by comparison. Tons of cheap labor for oligarchs to make a quick buck on (and then dump them on the welfare state for the taxpayer to pick up the tab) means we'll be indistinguishable from India and Mexico in 40 years. That's "free market" economics as the CATO institute and libertarianism has declared. Or at least a start. Make the USA into a third world nation filled with racist welfare recipients and then they'll embrace capitalism. Works almost as well as the left's plan to transform the USA into the same thing and then making it into Sweden.
Insanity on both sides.
Michele San Pietro| 3.10.13 @ 8:40AM
I certainly dislike Obama. However, I doubt he or something like him will ever be able to achieve such a senseless goal. Also, I think the present United States, for all its faults and Democrats' nonsense, is stil infinitely better than the former Soviet Union. Where freedom was zero and even critical comments like ours were not permitted.
Robert| 3.10.13 @ 7:18PM
In time, Michael...in time. Give our Dear Leader more time!
Michele San Pietro| 3.11.13 @ 1:45PM
He has less than four years left and no force on the earth can prevent him from leaving the White House in 2017. This is still America, thank God!
Gartenmayer| 3.9.13 @ 1:33AM
He urged those assembled 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 http://www.toneweras.com/new-e.....n-c-3.html and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.”
What Reagan said was exactly right, and sorely needed. But that’s not how liberals saw it. The left, naturally, went bonkers, accusing Reagan of all sorts of evil and pride and temptation — worst of all, of America-centrism. But it’s funny what the left doesn’t remember: Before Reagan pointed the finger at the USSR, he paused in the speech to point it inward at the faults and “moral evils” of his own country: “Our nation, too, has a legacy of evil with which it must deal,” said Reagan. “For example, the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights…. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country.”
Mr. O'Ciernan| 3.10.13 @ 7:10PM
There's no question Reagan was correct in his unequivocal defiance of political correctness by calling the Soviet Union an evil empire, but I wish the author would have specifically explained his subtitle, "The speech sounds even better today."
Gartenmayer | 3.11.13 @ 5:46AM
What Reagan said was exactly right, and sorely needed. But that’s not how liberals saw it. The left, naturally, went bonkers, accusing Reagan of all sorts of evil and http://www.toneweras.com/new-e.....-c-12.html pride and temptation — worst of all, of America-centrism. But it’s funny what the left doesn’t remember: Before Reagan pointed the finger at the USSR, he paused in the speech to point it inward at the faults and “moral evils” of his own country: “Our nation, too, has a legacy of evil with which it must deal,” said Reagan. “For example, the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights…. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country.”