Samantha Smith - Youngest Peace Ambassador

Samantha Smith
1972 – 1985

  Samantha Reed Smith was an American schoolgirl, peace activist and child actress from Manchester, Smith  became famous in the Cold War-era United States and Soviet Union. In November 1982, when Smith was 9 years old, she wrote to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, seeking to understand why the relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were so tense. Her letter was published in the Soviet newspaper Pravda. Samantha was happy to discover that her letter had been published, however, she had not received a reply. She then sent a letter to the Soviet Union’s Ambassador to the United States asking if Mr. Andropov intended to respond. On April 26, 1983, she received a response from Andropov.
April 25, 1983: Samantha Smith invited to visit USSR. The 9-year-old girl was worried about a war, so she wrote directly to Yuri Andropov to ask him about his intentions. In return, she received a letter emphasizing the USSR's desire for peace, and an invitation to visit the country. She spent 2 weeks there with her parents, and wrote a book about her experiences when she returned home.
Smith attracted extensive media attention in both countries as a “Goodwill Ambassador”, and became known as “America’s Youngest Ambassador”.
She wrote a book and co-starred in a television series, before her death, She died at the age of 13 in the Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 plane crash.
Image: 1985 USSR Stamp with “Samantha Smith” in Cyrillic.

  Soviet Union's  School girls