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:
“If one does not do evil things in the daytime, one need not fear knocks on the door in the middle of the night.”
—Chinese proverb.
“On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)