A Forgotten Gesture

Samantha Smith, Samantha’s Letter (November, 1982), http://www.samanthasmith.info/index.php/history/letter

Unease about North Korea’s nuclear capability has been growing steadily for the past few months, but that unease escalated when Kim Jong Un recently said he would attack the US territory of Guam.[1] A recent survey shows 94% of Americans fear nuclear war with North Korea.[2] National fear of an aerial attack of this magnitude draws parallels to the Cold War and the fear of that time. Yet, it also brings to mind a story about a young girl from Maine, whose innocent, but impactful gesture made both sides of the Cold War mourn her death.[3] In 1982, Samantha Smith taught us that a profoundly human act has the power to influence international diplomacy.

Ten-year-old Samantha Smith from Manchester, Maine wrote to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov seeking to understand the interminable tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. Samantha’s letter read as follows:[4]

 

          Dear Mr. Andropov,

          My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren’t, please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country. God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight.

         Sincerely,

        Samantha Smith

 

The likelihood that Samantha’s letter would garner a response or even reach the margins of political influence was particularly low. After all, she was ten years old, and an American. Despite this, Soviet President Andropov took notice. He not only read Samantha’s letter, but published it in a national newspaper called the Pravda – it was a gesture that left a lasting impression on the Soviet people.[5] In his response to Samantha’s letter, President Andropov wrote[6]:
“…. In America and in our country there are nuclear weapons—terrible weapons that can kill millions of people in an instant. But we do not want them to be ever used…. ”

Samantha Smith went on to be known as “America’s Youngest Ambassador”.[7] President Andropov invited Samantha to visit the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1983, Samantha flew to the Soviet Union to visit Moscow and Leningrad.[8] She also spent time in Artek, a Soviet pioneer camp, with children her own age. Samantha’s visit was broadcasted on two Soviet TV channels, which gave the United States a human face for the Soviet people.[9] While in Artek, Samantha shared a dormitory with nine other Soviet girls.[10] Her time at this Soviet pioneer camp was spent swimming in the Black Sea, studying the Russian language, and learning native songs and dances.[11] In Moscow, Samantha was greeted with a Press Conference where she declared that the Soviet people were “just like us” and that they didn’t want war either.[12] In America, Samantha Smith was featured on the Tonight Show and the Disney Channel as a young spokesperson for peace.

At the age of thirteen, Samantha Smith passed away in a plane crash; both the US and the Soviet Union mourned. The Soviet government responded to her death by issuing a postage stamp in her honor and naming a mountain in her memory.[13] President Mikhail Gorbachev also sent a letter to Samantha’s mother, Jane Smith; he wrote:[14]

 

“Everyone in the Soviet Union who has known Samantha Smith will forever remember the image of the American girl who, like millions of Soviet young men and women, dreamt about peace, and about friendship between the peoples of the United States and the Soviet Union.”

 

Before her death, Samantha addressed the Children’s Symposium held in Kobe, Japan.[15] In her last speech as a young ambassador, she recommended that U.S. and Soviet leaders exchange granddaughters for two weeks once a year – it was Samantha’s strong belief that a leader would not attack a country “his granddaughter was visiting.”[16]

Many people in the United States viewed Samantha Smith’s trip as an elaborate PR stunt.[17] To others, however, it was a symbolic gesture. Regardless of its origins, Samantha’s story disrupted the narrative that the Soviet Union, as a nation, was single-mindedly committed to perpetuating nuclear warfare. Samantha shows us that while distance, mistrust, and fear are realities of the modern world, it is also necessary to humanize the people on the other side of that divide. Samantha’s journey demonstrates that sometimes alternative modes of diplomacy can alter the dialogue of international affairs.

 

President Reagan meeting with President Gorbachev three months after the plane crash. Geneva Summit, November, 1985.
http://samanthasmith.info/index.php/history

 

About the Author: Patrick Opran is a 2L at Penn State Law.

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[1] Euan McKirdy, Zachary Cohen and Ivan Watson, North Korea says Guam strike plan ready within days (August 10, 2017), http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/09/politics/north-korea-considering-near-guam-strike/index.html

[2] CNN via telephone by SSRS, REL7B – NORTH KOREA (August 8, 2017) http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2017/images/08/08/rel7b.-.north.korea.pdf

[3] Arthur Frederick, Samantha Smith, the schoolgirl whose desire for peace made…, ( August 28, 1985), http://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/08/28/Samantha-Smith-the-schoolgirl-whose-desire-for-peace-made/7407494049600/

[4] Samantha Smith, Samantha’s Letter (November, 1982), http://www.samanthasmith.info/index.php/history/letter

[5] Gale Warner and Michael Shuman, Citizen diplomats: pathfinders in Soviet-American relations and how you can join them (1987), http://www.samanthasmith.info/books/Citizen%20Diplomats.pdf

[6] Yuri Andopov, Yuri Andropov’s Response to Samantha’s Letter (1983), http://www.samanthasmith.info/index.php/history/letter

[7] Gale Warner and Michael Shuman, Citizen diplomats: pathfinders in Soviet-American relations and how you can join them (1987), http://www.samanthasmith.info/books/Citizen%20Diplomats.pdf

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] History.com Staff, Samantha Smith dies in plane crash, (2009), http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/samantha-smith-dies-in-plane-crash

[14] Mikhail Gorbachev, Letter to Jane Smith, (August, 1985) http://samanthasmith.info/index.php/history

[15] http://www.samanthasmith.info/index.php/history/kobe-japan

[16] Samantha Smith, Look Around and See Only Friends (December 26, 1983), http://www.samanthasmith.info/index.php/history/kobe-japan

[17] Alice-Leone Moates, Yes, Samantha, there’s a Soviet bear, The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. A11., (July 12, 1983).