Brief Summary
The Set-Up
With the Soviet Union and the United States at odds over nuclear weapons and politics, the whole word was really, really nervous. But Ronald Reagan believed that by spreading the love and sharing American traditions and morals, we might just make it after all.
The Text
When Ronnie started chatting with the Soviets about a number of different hot-button issues, including nuclear weapons and human rights, it became very clear rather quickly that America's foreign policy (to date) hadn't been targeted enough to make any real headway in solving these problems.
Reagan was growing more and more frustrated with the blatant lack of change, and the stonewalling from the Soviets did nothing to improve his mood. He knew the two countries would continue to disagree, if only because they were so ideologically opposite. He also knew that any real change—including the reduction of nuclear arms—would only really work if the "evil empire" could see the error in their ways.
And that's how Reagan ended up in front of the National Association of Evangelists, giving a speech in which he emphasized the dangers in holding tightly to oppressive and godless ideologies, in the interest of a single person or group maintaining control.
He believed the solution to the argument over nuclear weapons, as well as other militaristic and territorial disagreements, had to start on a deeper level. Until all people could enjoy true freedom and basic human rights, until the Soviet Union could acknowledge the evil they'd committed, Ronnie insisted nothing was going to improve.
And who better to help than the United States, a country who'd had to overcome its own legacy of evil?
TL;DR
In the wise words of Jane Austen, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that an evil empire in possession of terrible manners must be in want of an attitude adjustment."
Or something like that.