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“[T]he great brilliant moment when we learned that Ronald Reagan had proclaimed the Soviet Union as an Evil Empire before the entire world…It was the brightest, most glorious day…the beginning of a new revolution, a freedom revolution – Reagan’s Revolution.”–Natan Sharansky, 2004

On March 8, 1983, Natan Sharansky, a Soviet Jewish Refusnik and champion of human freedom, was a prisoner in a Siberian gulag when President Ronald Reagan uttered the words that marked the beginning of a new era for Sharansky and other dissidents fighting for basic human rights. On that day, in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, President Reagan delivered what was to become known as the “Evil Empire Speech” and in so doing changed the course of history. President Reagan said:

… I urge you to beware the temptation of pride – the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.

Not since Sir Winston Churchill declared that an Iron Curtain had descended over the Soviet Union and its spheres of influence had a world leader described with such stark, moral clarity the stranglehold Soviet communism had on human freedom.  While Churchill exposed the veil descending over the atrocities of the communist regime, President Reagan peeled back that veil to expose the dark truth behind it.  In many ways, Churchill’s marked the rhetorical beginning of the Cold War, while President Reagan’s anticipated the beginning of its end.   As Frank Warner would write, “The speech alarmed moderates of the West, delighted millions living under Soviet oppression and set off a global chain reaction that many believe led inexorably to the fall of the Berlin Wall and to freedom for most of Eastern Europe.”  Further linking these two speeches and these two men together, President Reagan dedicated Breakthrough, the Cold War Memorial monument designed by Churchill granddaughter Edwina Sandys, on the grounds of Westminister College in 1990.

The Evil Empire Speech Memorial Foundation was launched in 2009 to properly commemorate the Evil Empire Speech and its importance to human freedom. It will serve as a testament to victims of communism throughout the world. In the years that followed the speech, the Soviets came to the negotiating table, the Berlin Wall came down, the Iron Curtain fell, and the Soviet Empire crumbled.  Today, millions of people who once lived under the tyranny of the Soviet Evil Empire live in freedom.  But there are millions more who still suffer at the hands of tyranny and who are denied the basic human freedoms of speech, religion, self-determination.  This project is therefore designed not just to remember the past but to also bring attention to the injustices of today.

An appropriate and necessary memorial to Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech has been erected at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.  Yet no acknowledgment exists to date to recognize President Reagan’s Evil Empire Speech in Orlando. It is time to mark the historical significance of President Reagan’s speech, so future generations can understand the need to face down tyranny with liberty and to face down moral relativism with moral clarity.

The Evil Empire Speech Memorial Foundation has a clearly defined objective:  to commemorate the address and its legacy with a statue of the former President with accompanying explanatory material at or near where the address was delivered in Orlando.

The Evil Empire Speech Memorial Foundation is organized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and contributions made to it are deductible for federal income tax purposes. The Evil Empire Speech Memorial Foundation is not sponsored by, endorsed, or affiliated with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

If you are interested in supporting this important effort, please donate here or contact Elliot S. Berke, the President of the Evil Empire Speech Memorial Foundation, at the following address:

Evil Empire Speech Memorial Foundation
c/o Elliot S. Berke
McGuireWoods LLP
2001 K Street N.W.
Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20006-1040
(202) 828.2814
info@evilempirespeech.com

How You Can Help

Please consider donating to this cause. An appropriate and necessary memorial to Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech stands at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. Yet to date, no acknowledgment exists to pay tribute to President Ronald Reagan’s Evil Empire Speech – the most important Cold War address he delivered on U.S. soil. It is time to mark the historical significance of President Reagan’s speech so future generations can understand the need to face down tyranny with liberty and to face down moral relativism with moral clarity.

To build this memorial, the Foundation needs to raise the necessary funds. The Foundation was structured to keep all internal expenses low as possible. The Foundation has no employees – only volunteers who recognize the importance of this mission. The Evil Empire Speech Memorial Foundation is a private foundation recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization under the tax code. All contributions to the Foundation are deductible to the donor.

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