When, early in his first term, President Reagan called the Soviet Union "the evil empire," right-thinking persons joined in an angry chorus of protest against such provocative rhetoric. At other times, Mr. Reagan has said that the United States and the Soviet Union "have different values" (italics added), an assertion that the same people greet at worst with silence and frequently with approval.
I believe Mr. Reagan thought he was saying the same thing in both instances. The...