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:
“Good and evil are repaid in kind, just as shadows follow bodies, and echoes follow sounds.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Passivity can be a provoking modus operandi;
Consider the Empire and Gandhi.”
—Ogden Nash (1902–1971)