Remembering Samantha Smith

Samantha Smith. Source: The Peace Abbey

Before there was Malala Yousafzai, Rachel Corrie, Greta Thunberg or Autumn Peltier, Samantha Smith claimed our full attention during the waning days of the Cold War. Her youthful optimism, honesty and a gentle willfulness made her an endearing figure. Smith was a young activist (13 years of age) when, sadly, she perished in a plane crash on August 25, 1985. But she has left a legacy that we should honor. The 1982 letter she wrote to the then leader of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov, beseeched him to work with the United States to avoid nuclear war. Anyone who grew up in the 1980s knows how palpable this scenario was and Samantha Smith became a light in a period of darkness.  It seemed that back then that was all that was on our minds: the Cold War and the potential for nuclear war. Now as the US and Russia have assumed the roles of antagonists once again, we must look for other people who can take up the role so well embodied and embraced by Samantha. 

In her letter (when she was ten years old) to Mr. Andropov, she wrote:  

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

Did her letter have an effect? Yes. According to Maria Grigoryan and Oleg Yegorov, Andropov read the letter and invited Samantha and her family to visit the Soviet Union. Grigoryan and Yegorov write:

"The world sat up and took note. Andropov answered Samantha, assuring her that no one in the USSR wanted war, and invited her to visit the country. She accepted the offer, and the whole world followed her journey across the USSR with her parents. Along the way, Samantha understood that the USSR was full of kind, peaceful people, and she made many new friends. Her youthful idealism became a symbol of hope for a better future for all."

As the 37th anniversary of her death approaches (August 25), we should step back and admire what she did.  There was no social movement pressing her to take the role of peace activist and citizen diplomat. She simply wanted a better world. After her death schools in the state of Washington were renamed in her honor and many schools in the Soviet Union held memorials to her. We need to recapture this feeling of commonality, solidarity and friendship. But more than anything, on August 25th, we should stop and remember Samantha, whose life was cut too short. 

Katya Lycheva is second from the right.

On the Soviet side, there was a young woman who embodied the same spirit that Samantha demonstrated so passionately. Her name was Katya Lycheva.  She came to the US, met with Ronald Reagan and even met Ronald McDonald, making many friends along the way. Click here to learn more about her.

As international education continues to grow and diversify it must not lost sight of its strong citizen diplomacy tradition. 

You do not have to be an international educator to be an internationalist or peace activist.