"Evil Empire" : I can't think of anything else said about the Communists by the West that created such a stir among them.
They had answers for all standard accusations- of human rights violations, of being militaristic, closed, and repressive
("What about your Negroes?" they would smugly retort). But "Evil Empire" was a qualitatively new charge,
one they could not simply turn around and it came from an American president they thought they could understand.
The commisars in the Kremlin always preferred Republicans; Democrats like JF Kennedy and J. Carter were ideologues
in the Soviets' eyes, stucks on the human rights and grand gestures, while Republicans were like themselves
conservative, businesslike, pragmatic. the last Republican in the white house before Reagan,
Richard Nixon, had initiated détente and their American-Watcher, Georgy Arbatov, assured them
that Reagan would follow suit. I'm convinced that the "evil empire" tag followed in 1983 by the "Star Wars"
initiatives, was critical in undermining the old guard and helping to clear the way for Gorbatchev.
Note perso : Le terme empire du mal (evil empire) est typique du language de bois utilise par Moscou ce qui sans doute les a surpris.
Le language de bois conciste a associer un adjectif par exemple a un nom sans lien.
exemple la revilution proletarienne et non pas la revolution menee par le peuple
dans le premier cas on n'a pas de prise sur le terme revolution proletarienne
dans le deuxieme cas on peut argumenter que le peuple n'a rien eut a voir dans la revolution
