The “Evil Empire” Speech

On  March 8, 1983, Ronald Reagan delivered what is now known as the “Evil Empire” speech(0:45-3:15) at the National Association of Evangelicals. During this speech, Reagan tried to explain the necessity to continue the Cold War. To accomplish this goal, Reagan effectively structured his argument, effectively used pathos, and effectively invoked strong imagery to convey his message.

Structure

In this segment of the speech, Reagan organizes his argument to maximize it’s impact. He begins the speech with a pathos appeal. The significance of this uses of pathos is that it serves to establish an emotional connection with the crowd. By beginning with this, Reagan makes himself more likable to the crowd and so increases the likelihood that they will enjoy his speech. Reagan then goes on to deliver the substance of his message, that the Soviet Union is a totalitarian regime, that tyrannically oppresses it’s people. Choosing to include his central message right after he got the attention of the audience demonstrates why this is a great speech. Because it shows that Reagan is aware that the attention of the audience is limited and so he must deliver his message before their attention wanders. Reagan ends this section of the speech, by painting an image of the men who are in charge of the Soviet Union to the audience. By doing so he is establishing a physical image of the enemy rather than the abstract concept of a nation state.

Pathos

Reagan begins his speech with a pathos appeal. In this appeal he mentions a story from when he was back in Hollywood. It is about a man who says that he would rather that his daughters die believing in a god rather than live under communism and not believe in a god. Now this appeal has several great things going for it. The first and most obvious is that he is mentioning religion in front of a crowd of highly religious people. This serves to establish trust between Reagan and the audience and to get the crowd to like Reagan  because it is meant to show that the two have the same values. The next interesting thing at work here is that Reagan is reminding the audience of his time in Hollywood, in which he is known to have aided in the Second Red Scare by helping the Committee of Un-American activities. This in turn lends authority to Reagan because he has crusaded against communism before. Also, it serves to establish trust between the crowd and Reagan because, it shows that Reagan has always been hard on communism and that he is not merely changing his stance with the political winds.

Imagery

The section of analysis ends with Reagan painting a picture of the bureaucrats who run the Soviet Union. He paints them as white-collar office employees who have others commit evil in their name. This appeal works for several reasons, the first of which is that by mentioning them after calling the Soviet Union evil, he is able to give the audience a physical enemy. This is very helpful for a second reason, which is that the enemy is established to be the elite of the Soviet Union, not the common man. So rather than the struggle being nation vs nation, it becomes a matter of the moral US vs the Oppressive elite of Soviet Union. Finally, it paints an image of unseen evil, for many people at the time did not know about the many evil policies of the Soviet Union. By having the bureaucrats order evil out of sight, it lead the audience to distrust the Soviet Union, regardless of what they say because what ever they are doing wrong has already been established as being secret.

Conclusion

Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech is a highly effective speech that takes into consideration the most effective origination of the messages, the emotions of the crowd through paths, and the crowds aversion to abstract concepts through imagery.