Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire Speech

The beginnings of the Nuclear Age started when Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt warning him of a dangerous weapon the Nazis had begun researching, known as the atomic bomb. (1) Though, when President Roosevelt first read this letter, he was too preoccupied with events in Europe to be bothered with such ideas. He at the time did not take the creation of such weapon to seriously, nor did he believe America had the resources for such a task. (2) Finally, on October 19, 1939 President Roosevelt wrote back to Einstein stating that the United States had begun to research the power of uranium. (2) With the help of the British, whom reluctantly gave the United States leadership on this project, in June of 1942 the Manhattan Project had begun, though most of the world had no idea that this was even happening, not even Vice President Truman. (2)

Even before the outbreak of War, the United States was concerned with a fascist regime in Europe researching in nuclear weapons. In retaliation, the United States began to fund an atomic weapon development program which became known as “The Manhattan Project” led by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Over the next several years, the Manhattan project started obtaining key materials such as Uranium-235 and Plutonium and testing prototypes until they reached a working model (Coroner).

Ronald Reagan created a Strategic Defense Initiative that was intended to defend the United States from any nuclear weapon missile threat from other countries. This was proposed mainly to protect the U.S. from its extent threat, which was the Soviet Union at the time. Reagan wrote down in his diary addressing his Evil Empire Speech, “I did the bulk of the speech on why our arms build up was necessary and then finished with a call to the Science community to join me in research starting now to develop a defensive weapon that

The primary goal of the Ronald Reagan administration’s foreign policy of was winning the Cold War against Communism—which was achieved in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Cold War grew out of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted for much of the second half of the 20th century resulted in mutual suspicions, heightened tensions and a series of international incidents that brought the world’s superpowers to the brink of disaster. The Cold War was won through a strategy of "peace through strength” and a warming of relations with the Soviet Union, 1981-89. These foreign policies became known as the "Reagan Doctrine,” the United States also offered financial and logistics support to the anti-communist opposition in central Europe and took an increasingly hard line against socialist and communist governments in Afghanistan, Angola, and Nicaragua. Reagan also increase the size of the military, spent billions on national defense, to fight Communists throughout the

Throughout Reagan’s eight years of presidency he had some traumatic events unfold. One very big moment for Reagan was the release of the 53 Americans that had been held hostage in Iran. On the issue of Communism and the Cold War Reagan once said, "Our strategy is defensive; our aim is to protect the peace by ensuring that no adversaries ever conclude they could

Ronald Reagan was elected to the presidency as not only the 40th president of the United States, but also as the eighth United States president to preside over the Cold War. That conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union began roughly around 1945, as a direct result of World War II, with fortunes and policies having ebbed and flowed over the thirty-six years prior to Reagan’s taking office. Throughout those nearly four decades, there have been arms races, space races, containment preventing the spread of communism, a congressional “red scare” (also known as “McCarthyism”), and further rising of tensions with the Cuban Missile Crisis which acted as perhaps the Cold War’s absolute zenith. Thus with the missile crisis still in

To deal with the situation, Mr. Reagan’s task for the U.S was to make a massive U.S army with many troops and weapon. Strategic Defense Initiative was announced in 1983. It’s a plan for a development on space-based weapons to protect America from nuclear missiles by the Soviet Union. In October 1983, a little more than one year from when Mr. Reagan sent 800 U.S. Marines to Lebanon on June 1982, they were attacked by suicide bombers, at Beirut Barracks, killing 241 American Marines. During the same month of October, Mr. Reagan ordered the invention of the Caribbean island. On Mr. Reagan’s second term, America and the Soviet Union signed a agreement to eliminate nuclear missile use in 1987. A little later in that same year, Mr. Reagan spoke at the Berlin wall, challenged Soviet Premier Gorbachev to tear down the walls. Two years later, Gorbachev allowed the people to dismantle the remaining walls and that ends the cold

Ronald Reagan served from January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989 as President of the United States he is remembered as one of the best Presidents that the United States has ever had, He is vastly recognized because he served as president at the end of the Cold War, he was known as the president that “ended it”(the cold war). Though, the question remains in how? How was Reagan able to accomplish the ending of something that had lasted so long (the Cold war)? Thus was a task only accomplished by him because; he had a strong perseverance, intellectuality and held a strong desire for the destruction of all nuclear weapons. All of these elements combined took him to the decision and policy’s implemented during his terms as president. Reagan Started by taking a “Defense Policy” and his creation of SDI (The Strategic Defense Initiative) was all a part of a plan to disregard the MDA (Mutual Assured Destruction). Reagan came to these plans in despair to prevent any future nuclear wars with the SU (Soviet Union), “According to Weinberger, the idea that one was safe from nuclear attack only if vulnerable to it ‘repelled’ Reagan. Meese told the author that Reagan felt that MAD was politically and diplomatically, militarily, and morally flawed.’ ”( Steinberg, 39). Whit that being said Weinberger lets us know how Reagan felt about MAD.

By September, 1944, before Roosevelt’s death, the threat of a nuclear arms race and possible retaliation for the use of this weapon is already a point of concern. The Office of Scientific Research and Development’s memorandum to Secretary of War Henry Stimson outlines some of the dangers the United States and Great Britain face in continuing the secret development of this “art”. Realizing this technology in the hands of the Soviet Union or other countries, especially defeated enemies, would make highly populated cities especially vulnerable. They also concluded that there was a high possibility of a “major power, or former major power undertaking this development.” The threat of the Soviet Union or Germany developing this weapon was a

The United States and Soviet relations worsened. A campaign for a multinational freeze on the manufacturing and deployment of nuclear weapons was sparked. A nuclear war was feared. In March of 1983, Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to counter the freeze campaign. Critics believed this program could cause more of a problem than good. Regan on the other hand, believed that this defense would make nuclear war

In the early spring of 1983, Americans are threatened by the looming uncertainty of a nuclear war, courtesy of the Soviet Union. The ultimate goal of the Soviet Union is to suffocate the ideology of capitalism, which of course is the support on which America is built, and replace it with their own ideology- communism. This pronounced menace also threatens all those who worship God, as communism does not support belief in a higher power. After achieving an understanding of this fact, our President at the time, Ronald Reagan, who is heavily devoted to the Christian faith, sets about exposing the dark overtones communism submits upon its subjects. Through his speech “The Evil Empire”, the Republican President inspires the American people to stand firm against the communist ideals of the Soviet Union by depicting them as a sinful, unethical country, desiring to snuff out the illuminating flame of freedom.

On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan addressed, for the first time during his presidency, the Pentagon’s position on the beam weapon’s development and its set back. President Ronald Reagan’s speech put the beam weapon idea into the spotlight of the media for the first time in history for the United States of America, urging the development of the system could “intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before reaching” American soil and/or allied forces’ soil. The Pentagon’s opinion on this immediate spotlight, to present day, is unknown. The Pentagon, although, did create the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency to hide their official opinion of beam weaponry. D.A.R.P.A. has two sections, the practical section and the sharp

For more than 30 years before Reagan took office, the United States and its allies had tried unsuccessfully to rein in communism.  Reagan believed that communism in the Soviet Union was eroding and ready to crumble, expecting its collapse if competitively challenged by America.  An arms race had been ongoing between the U.S. and Russia for some time.  Reagan, however, was determined to put an end to it.  Reagan began the competition with a very costly project known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, aimed at neutralizing incoming Soviet missiles.  This shocked the Soviet Union, which was economically unable to match this rapid escalation of the arms race (CITE).

. President Reagan had an agenda regarding the USSR and the Cold War; he developed a strategy that the Soviet Union could not keep up with. (Shultz, 2104). He used the media to spread his view of the Soviet Union; furthermore, he reinstated the production of the military’s arsenals and expanded missile productions. Financially, the Soviet Union did not the resources to keep pace with America’s developing defense. In conclusion, the Cold War ended with rather high costs for all parties involved. America’s economic struggles continued, the Soviet Union pulling out of Afghanistan allowed the immergence of the Taliban, and the discovery of American weapons being sold to our enemy became the main

The first use of nuclear weaponry in warfare occurred on the morning of August 6, 1945 when the United States dropped the atomic bomb known as “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan. The result was devastating, demonstrating the true power of nuclear warfare. Since the incident, the world has been left fearing the possible calamity of another nuclear war. Joseph Siracusa’s Nuclear Weapons: A Very Short Introduction explains aspects of nuclear weaponry from simply what a nuclear weapon is, to the growing fear from nuclear warfare advancements in an age of terrorism. The book furthered my education on nuclear weapons and the effect they place on society, physically and mentally.