"The Evil Empire" refers, first and most obviously, to the Soviet Union. The government killed millions of people in the twentieth century—not to mention how few citizens enjoyed basic human rights, and how many spent time in state-sponsored prisons.

So, yeah, if it walks like an evil duck and quacks like an evil duck, it's probably an evil duck.

But, just in case you've forgotten, the U.S. has quite a tangled history on its own, with the good guys doing bad things for selfish reasons. Which means the title referred to us a little bit, too.

Reagan could've stood in front of the world and said the U.S. was perfect and pretty, and the Soviet Union was not. Instead, he chose to be really honest, to reveal he knew that (*gasp*) U.S. history was actually really messy, and we have a little bit of evil in there, too. The difference is we had learned from our mistakes, and it was high time the USSR did the same.

P.S. This speech is the first time Reagan actually refers to the Soviet Union as "the evil empire," which is how the speech gets it nickname. It would also technically be the address to the National Association of Evangelists, but that just doesn't have the same ring to it.