The phrase evil empire was applied to the Soviet Union especially by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who took an aggressive, hard-line stance that favored matching and exceeding the Soviet Union's strategic and global military capabilities, in calling for a rollback strategy that would, in his words, write the final pages of the history of the Soviet Union. The characterization demeaned the Soviet Union and angered Soviet leaders; it represented the rhetorical side of the escalation of the Cold War.
Read more about Evil Empire: British House of Commons Speech, First Recorded Use, Global Reaction
Famous quotes containing the words evil and/or empire:
“You must be a poet,
a lady of evil luck
desiring to be what you are not,
longing to be
what you can only visit.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Keep our Empire undismembered
Guide our Forces by Thy Hand,
Gallant blacks from far Jamaica,
Honduras and Togoland;
Protect them Lord in all their fights,
And, even more, protect the whites.”
—Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)