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The term evil empire was applied to the former Soviet Union by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the latter stages of the Cold War.

Reagan first used the term in his speech to the United Kingdom House of Commons on June 8, 1982. Reagan again used the term in a 1983 speech in Orlando, Florida.

Reagan critics argued that, by attempting to assume moral superiority in the Cold War, the U.S. was further inflaming East-West tensions and enhancing the risk of nuclear conflict. Some of those critics also argue that such moral superiority did not exist, since the U.S. and the USSR acted in very similar ways during the Cold War.

Reagan's description of the former Soviet Union as totalitarian and " evil", however, was staunchly supported by many U.S. conservatives. A global controversy grew around Reagan's use of the phrase; for instance, The Heritage Foundation's Michael Johns wrote a lengthy defense in the conservative magazine, Policy Review. In "Seventy Years of Evil: Soviet Crimes from Lenin to Gorbachev", Johns cited 208 acts by the former Soviet Union that, he argued, supported Reagan's allegation that the former Soviet Union had acted repeatedly in ways that were fundamentally evil.

Strengthened by this support, Reagan never retracted his description of the former Soviet Union as an "evil empire", despite repeated requests to do so.

Some have turned this term against the United States. For example, the rock group Rage Against the MachineThich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who burnt himself to death as a protest against Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem's administration's practices against the Buddhist religion, features on the cover of the first Rage Against the Machine album. Rage Ag released an album with this name (see Evil Empire (album)Evil Empire is the second album by Rage Against the Machine. It was released on April 15, 1996, almost four years after the band's first, self-titled album. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top 200. Track listing #"People of the Sun" 2:30 #"Bulls on). The Fourmilab website features a bumper stickerA bumper sticker is a message attached to the bumper of a vehicle to get attention of others. They can be political or humorous, and may promote or attack a particular stand on any issue. Examples: (USA) Clinton Gore 96 [democratic party bumper sticker] ( with a Stars and StripesFor other meanings, see Stars & Stripes. Stars and Stripes is the name of the United States Armed Forces newspaper that is published for American forces in Europe and the Pacific. It was published for the first time on February 8, 1918. In World War I, th next to a crossed-out Soviet flag, under the caption "Evil Empires: One down, one to go...".

Some consider the term a reference to the Star WarsAlternate meaning: Strategic Defense Initiative Star Wars is the name of a series of science fantasy movies, a literary franchise, and a series of video games based on the ideas of filmmaker and writer George Lucas, which consist of numerous prequels, seq series of movies, which pitted the Rebel Alliance against the EmpireFear will keep the local systems in line. Grand Moff Tarkin Galactic Empire Form of Government Empire Official language Basic Capital Coruscant (Imperial Center) Head of State Emperor Palpatine The Emperor's Assignee Darth Vader Grand Vizier Sath Pestage of the evil Darth VaderDarth Vader is a fictional character and villain from Star Wars''. In film, he is portrayed in voice by James Earl Jones, in costume by David Prowse (for a majority of the scenes) and Peter Diamond (in stunt sequences), and his face (as his redeemed self), especially since Reagan was reportedly a big fan of the movies.

Within hacker culture, the term is sometimes used referring to the software company Microsoft.

In 2002, American president George W. Bush used a similar term in his claim that countries like Iraq, North Korea and Iran form an axis of evil. Some accuse him of trying to bring back Cold War paranoia, but here terrorists take the place of Communists as agents of evil .

See: nuclear deterrent, Gorbachev, Evil Overlord