Ronald Reagan's Speeches
Speaking To The World
Foreign Policy Speeches
1980-1988
Ronald Reagan was perhaps best known for his effect on America's relations with the
Soviet Union and on other foreign policy issues. President
Reagan's antagonistic relationship with what he called the "evil empire" underwrote attempts at significant arms-control, another focal point of the
Reagan administration.
This section highlights some of President Reagan's most important foreign policy statements. These include his declaration of the Soviet Union as an "evil empire," his speech announcing the invasion of Grenada,
The ancestor of his 1983 speech to the
evangelicals, some consider this June 18,1982 speech to the British House
of Commons to be the first Evil Empire speech.
This March 8, 1983 speech is famous for
bringing the phrase "the Evil Empire" into the American vernacular.
This speech sets out the budgetary implications and the strategy behind the largest peace-time military buildup in Ameria's history.
In this anniversary speech for the Strategic Defense Initiative, President Reagan reiterates the foreign policy issues which make SDI important.
The President reports on a terrorist bombing of the American compound in Beirut, Lebanon which kills over 200 Marines while they slept.
The President addresses the nation on an international tragedy involving the downing by Soviet Military aircraft of a civilian Korean Air jetliner which had strayed into Soviet airspace.
1983 was a turbulent year for American
foreign policy. On October 27, 1983, Reagan reassured the nation
regarding the military presence in Grenada and Lebanon.
Select here for information on the
Reagan's remarks honoring World War II
veterans on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1984.
On a trip to Berlin, Reagan offered words of
hope to the Berliners in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate on June 12,
1987.
Reagan emphasized his dislike for the Soviet
system of government and not the Soviet people themselves in this May
31, 1988 Q&A session with students and faculty at Moscow State University.
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