Will they remember that "evil empire" speech today? It was one of President Reagan’s greatest moments but what we used to call The Cold War is not something anybody talks about anymore.
It happened during a speech in 1983. He spoke at a convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Florida. He drew a sharp contrast between freedom and communism.
President Reagan had done it before in a 1982 speech at the British House of Commons.
This is what he said:
And this brings me to my final point today. During my first press conference as president, in answer to a direct question, I pointed out that, as good Marxist-Leninists, the Soviet leaders have openly and publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is that which will further their cause, which is world revolution. I think I should point out I was only quoting Lenin, their guiding spirit, who said in 1920 that they repudiate all morality that proceeds from supernatural ideas–that’s their name for religion–or ideas that are outside class conceptions. Morality is entirely subordinate to the interests of class war. And everything is moral that is necessary for the annihilation of the old exploiting social order and for uniting the proletariat.
President Reagan was known as “the great communicator”. This is because he spoke from the heart, as he did in 1983! My only concern is that the communists may come back just because nobody remembers that they were really evil.
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