Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire Speech?

Reagan challenged the rules that governed the behaviour and relations between the superpowers. The rules were well established and one of them was not to use rhetoric that could lead to direct war. Prior to winning office the US and USSR were in a period of detente where cordial relations were the norm.

Reagan challenged the status quo and changed US policy from containment--a defensive perspective, to overthrowing the Communist Party of the USSR. The Evil Empire and Star Wars speeches informed the world of Reagan's new strategy. There two speeches are considered the finest of Reagan's political career.

There was an explicit threat to the existence of Russia by Reagan's pronouncements. One would have thought ended in 1991 but has had a resurgence because the U.S. does not want Russia competing for the same markets and influences.

At the end of the Vietnam War the Soviet’s had “won” the Cold War. The left-wing “progressives” were hiding behind Nixon’s policy of Détente and allowing the USSR to pursue an aggressive policy of expansion in SEA, the Middle East, Central Asia, North and sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, and Western Europe. It had not worked under Nixon because Nixon held them accountable. Ford couldn’t because Congress would not back him, and Carter didn’t because he had sold out to the old antiwar establishment to get elected. Reagan went BACK to the old policy of Containment, and warned the Soviets he would hold them responsible for further aggression.