Editing Evil Empire speech (section)

==Reception==
Contemporaneous press criticized the speech as inflammatory, and critics worried the speech portended negatively for arms negotiations with the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Rowland|Jones|2016|p=430}}.</ref> ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'' argued that Reagan's rhetoric would encourage an [[arms race]] and "would some day, in logic, point toward war".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Harsch|1983|loc=paragraph 10}}.</ref> During a [[1984 United States presidential debates|1984 presidential debate]], Reagan reiterated his assessment of the Soviet Union, saying he "believe[d] that many of the things that they have done are evil in any concept of morality that we have", while also emphasizing pragmatism, adding, "I also recognize that as the two great superpowers in the world, we have to live with each other".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Cooper|Richardson|Schwab|2024|p=70}}.</ref>

The Soviet Union, for its part, alleged that the United States was an [[American Imperialism|imperialist]] [[superpower]] seeking to dominate the entire world, and that the Soviet Union was fighting against it "in the name of humanity". In [[Moscow]], the Soviet state-run press agency [[Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union|TASS]] said the "evil empire" words demonstrated that the Reagan administration "can think only in terms of confrontation and bellicose, lunatic [[anti-communism]]".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-214232 |title=President Ronald Reagan |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |date=June 12, 1987 |access-date=March 8, 2013}}</ref>

During his second term in office, in May–June 1988, more than five years after using the term "evil empire", Reagan visited [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], at the time [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary of the Soviet Union]] and a reformist, in Moscow. When asked by a reporter whether he still thought the Soviet Union was an evil empire, Reagan responded that he no longer did, and that when he used the term it was "another time, another era".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-01-mn-3667-story.html|title=Reagan Recants 'Evil Empire' Description|last=Meisler|first=Stanley|date=June 1, 1988|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=December 23, 2016}}</ref> In a speech, Gorbachev said of Reagan's statement that the Soviet Union "t[ook] note of that"; journalist [[Lou Cannon]] concluded that Gorbachev "listened carefully to the message of peace that Reagan had brought with him to Moscow".<ref>{{Harvtxt|Cannon|2000|p=707}}.</ref>