¶ … Neo-Aristotelian Analysis of Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire" Speech
When President Ronald Reagan delivered his historic "evil empire" speech in 1982, America's enemies were well-known as consisted most especially of the former Soviet Union. Children born since the turn of the 21st century have never known as world that had a Berlin Wall or an East and West Germany, and even observers at the time of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 could not believe what they were seeing. Despite their incredulity at the time, many analysts in the aftermath credited President Reagan with ending the Cold War due in large part to his "evil empire" speech. To determine the facts, this paper provides a Neo-Aristotelian analysis of Reagan's "Evil Empire" speech followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning this analysis in the conclusion.
Review and Analysis
Generally, a Neo-Aristotelian analysis of a historic speech such as Reagan's "evil empire" speech focuses on three basic principles: (a) the situation, (b) the speaker, and the (c) speech using the steps outlined in Table 1 below.
Table 1
Steps to conducting a Neo-Aristotelian analysis
Step
Description
Reconstruction of the artifact's original situation by examining the exigency (the event or issue that provoked the speaker to speak -- a problem that can be addressed through rhetorical communication), the context in which the exigency occurred, and the audience the speaker chooses to address in order to respond to this exigency.
The context includes historical and cultural events that gave rise to this speech (the broader conversation it joins) and the socio-cultural attitudes toward the topic of the speech. The speaker assumes the audience addressed is in a position to resolve the exigency, so the critic needs to understand who they are or were, what they knew and felt about the speaker and the exigency, and what their role in resolving the exigency might be.
Investigation of the speaker's background, motivations, and intentions. There is some reason that this particular speaker stepped up to respond to this rhetorical exigency.
Who is this person? What is his or her reputation prior to the speech? What does the audience think of her? What are his qualifications, training, and experience relevant to this exigency? The critic wants to...
The critic wants to determine this speaker's intentions: what does she hope her speech will accomplish?
Application of rhetoric's five canons to the artifact:
Invention, organization, style, memory, and delivery
Evaluation
Evaluation of the artifact's effects and effectiveness
Source: Adapted from Neo-Aristotelian Criticism-Steps in the Process 3
The steps outlined in Table 1 below are applied to Reagan's 1983 "evil empire" speech below.
Reconstruction of the artifact's original situation
In 1983, the outcome of the Cold War was still uncertain and the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies still appeared as a monolithic threat arrayed against the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies. Moreover, Soviet efforts to expand their hegemony beyond their existing sphere of influence were apparent to American policymakers. It was against this backdrop that Reagan presented his "evil empire" speech in 1983.
Investigation of the speaker's background, motivations, and intentions
With a background in show business and politics, Reagan was well prepared to deliver a speech that would make history. Moreover, he was highly motivated to restore America to what he perceived as its rightful place as the world's only superpower by winning the Cold War. For instance, according to Ritter and Henry, "Reagan always retained hope that Americans would wake up and rescue freedom from the evil empire of communism. The conflict still might be won instead of lost. If Americans rallied immediately, the conflict might even be avoided altogether through a show of determined strength" (26). It was the intention of this speech to communicate that message to the American people and ultimately the Soviet leadership. In this regard, the 50th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representative emphasizes that, "By calling the Soviet Union an 'evil empire,' Reagan sent a clear signal that America was going to challenge the Soviet Union morally, win the psychological information war, and de-legitimize it. If the government was evil, he argued, how could it have authority?" (Gingrich 19).
Application of rhetoric's five canons to the artifact: Invention, organization, style, memory, and delivery
Invention. President…
