Samantha Smith: Death of a Peacemaker

feel better. Roger, this is not an exercise. But I was worried enough that I made sure to watch a made for TV movie on ABC called The Day After. It aired right before Thanksgiving with limited commercials, so you knew this was a really big deal. It depicted the destruction of Kansas City after a nuclear attack. Roger understanding missiles and bound Nountain. The Day After was shockingly graphic

for the time. What I remember most, though, isn't the scene of the incineration a lot of people turning into skeletons, but the scene right before. A character played by Jason Robards is driving on the highway when enemy nuclear weapons detonate overhead. Suddenly, all the cars simply stopped running. They go silent. Robards and the other drivers tried turning their ignitions,

but nothing. In other words, a nuclear bomb would subvert nature on such an elemental molecular level that cars everywhere would just go dead. I have no idea that the science on this checks out, but watching it then it was so completely unnerving. I was fourteen when the movie came out, a few years too old to admit how scared I was, but it's a good bet that most of the record breaking one hundred million Americans who watched that movie were just as afraid. We did watch it

as a family, and it was deeply disturbing. I still have images in my head of it just being gray and dark, and people staggering through the destroyed wilderness. What we have seen, the missiles launched, the nuclear explosions, the devastating results, was all fiction. But what brought us to that point is fact. It's something we've been living with for years. It's the arms race. But not everyone was

paralyzed by the fear of nuclear war. The previous November, a schoolgirl from Maine, a few years younger than me, decided to do something. She wrote a letter, a letter that asked a simple, eminently sane, and sensible question. Somehow Samantha managed to boil things down to the essence. We are all human beings and we shouldn't be looking to annihilate each other. And that letter made big news, and finally, tonight, the story of Samantha Smith, a ten year old girl

from Manchester, Maine. At one of the tensest periods in Cold War history, Samantha Smith ended up going to the Soviet Union. The people that have been to the Soviet Union have a definite answer, them not wanting more and wanting peace, just like I do. She was an ordinary girl with an uncommon touch. She was that beam of sunshine that broke through the cold ice of cold work.

Her life may have been short, she had such potential mo she could have done anything, but she left a powerful legacy and her short thirteen years she did more than a lot of people do. In fifty from CBS Sunday Morning, and I Heart, I'm Morocca And this is mobituaries, This mobid Samantha Smith. August the death of a peacemaker. Hi nice squeezed and I think At Manchester Elementary School in Manchester, Maine, the story of its most notable alum

lives on. So today we're talking about Samantha Smith, who was a student at this school. Teachers like Mrs O'Brien have been telling Samantha Smith's story for forty years. So she and her parents traveled to the Soviet Union. And this is a picture of Samantha holding up the letter she became famous and this shy, really sweet little girl from Manchester, Maine, all of a sudden was being interviewed. Look at all the microphones in front of her. Samantha's

story makes an immediate impression on the kids. What is the thing that sort of stands out? Um, probably how she's always smiling, Um, that she's always happy. She could It's basically like she could walk into any room with people at are grouchy and she can cheer him up in a matter of seconds. That's wild to be in this school that she went to, Yah, And I think that's the great part for the kids when they're sitting in the classroom and you can say, like, this is

where she sat. I mean, so she was just like you. Jessica Dwyer is another one of the teachers telling Samantha's story today. She really knows the subject matter. Jessica and Samantha were students at this school together forty years ago and close friends. The pictures that I have, the memories that I have, which are fading, I think because it's been a while. She was always giggling and laughing. That's

what I remember. Jessica met Samantha in the third grade when the Smith family first moved to Manchester, a town of about two thousand, just a few miles outside of Augusta, Mains Capital. It must have been hard to join as a new kid, but it did not take her long at all to develop lots of friends. Sarah Warren was another classmate and friend of Samantha's. Her mom was a Girl Scout troop leader, so we used to have some of our troop meetings at their house. Samantha's mother, Jane Smith,

was a social worker for the State of Maine. Samantha was an only child. Samantha was just a very extroverted, bubbly kid. I can remember we were trying to learn how to dance like Michael Jackson because that was the era of thriller. So we were in the living room, you know, trying to learn how to moonwalk, and Samantha was leading the way. So she was she was fun. Samantha's father, Arthur Smith, was a college English professor. When Samantha was little, she would sit in on some of

his classes, including one he taught about letter writing. At age five, Samantha wrote a letter to the Queen of England and got a postcard response from her lady in waiting. Yeah. See, I mean I wrote to the American presidents, but I don't know that it ever occurred to me to write to leaders of other countries. Oh, Sarah, you needed to think bigger, You needed to go global. I got there eventually.

Sarah now works in the Baltimore Public School system. Before that, she spent many years doing aid work overseas, including in war zones, partly inspired by what Samantha did back three when they were just kids. I'm just a few years older than you are. I remember being terrified by the idea of nuclear war. Were you were you scared? I was terrified. I can remember a period of time in the fourth grade where I woke up every day with a stomachache, and it was because I was afraid of war.

It felt like a real possibility there for for a period of time. And I remember that especially in the fourth grade, which I guess must have been impressing Samantha to you know, and been pressing on her mind, because um, that was around you know, the time that she ended up writing a letter. Ah, yes, the letter. We'll get to that, but first some context. In November of two,

Soviet leader Leoned Bresnev died after eighteen years in power. Now, as a kid, I remember the Soviet leaders as a succession of crypt keepers, each one more ghoulish than the one who came before. The guy who took over right after Bresnev was a former head of the KGB spy agency named Yuri and drop Of. As ambassador to Budapest in nifty six, he oversaw the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution. As head of the KGB for fifteen years, he directed

the Soviet campaign against the dissident movement. To soften and Dropov's image, the Kremlin pr operation not exactly. Madison Avenue put out that the new leader spoke fluent English and loved American jazz, So relax everyone, this Soviet leader was a hepcat. It was around this time that Samantha was watching a science program about nuclear war on public TV that scared her much like the day after would later scare me. She couldn't shake that idea that I could

all be over tomorrow. Looking for some reassurance, Samantha and her mother Jane, together read in November cover story of Time magazine about and drop off. It didn't make Samantha any less worried, and she told her mother that her mother should write a letter and Jane, her mom apparently turned around and said, will you write the letter? And I do think that her writing a letter as a child was much more powerful than any adult writing a letter.

She wrote the following words, Dear Mr androp Off, 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 it if you would. Why do you want to conquer the

world or at least our country. God made the world for us to share and take care of, not to fight over or have one group of people own it all. Please let's do what he wanted and have everybody be happy to Samantha Smith, Manchester, Main, USA, PS, please right back out of the mouths of babes, right, I mean, why do you want to have a war with our country? Um? Which is really what adults should be asking each other, you know. I think sometimes adults over complicate things, and

she was getting down to the basics. At the time Samantha wrote her letter, Soviet and American leaders hadn't held a real meeting in five years. The Soviet Union's stock pile of nuclear weapons had surpassed that of the US, and neither superpower was backing away from the build up. Do or prior, the doomsday clock, the symbol of how close mankind was to annihilation stood it four minutes to midnight,

perilously close to midnight. While Samantha was waiting for a response, U S President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense initiative, called star Wars by the press. The program pledged hundreds of billions of dollars to build a laser based system to intercept Soviet missiles. The President also delivered his now famous Evil Empire speech to the National Association of Evangelicals

in Orlando. I urge you to beware the temptation of pride, the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all, and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding, and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil. Weeks later, the Soviet state newspaper Pravda published an article featuring letters written by Westerners concerned

about nuclear war. They included Samantha's letter. The next day, back at Manchester Elementary, the school secretary, Mrs Peabody called Samantha into the principal's office to take a call from an American reporter. Ten year old Samantha Smith of Manchester Made was one of three Americans whose quotes appeared in yesterday's edition of Pravda. She says she wanted to get the complicated story cleared up ask him questions about nuculate

war because I wasn't I'm not that sure. It's a little bit hard to understand the news that because they put it in grown up words, you know, I can't understand what they mean, but what Samantha really couldn't understand Why didn't she receive a response? They published her letter in Pravda, but Entropov couldn't write her back, so she wrote another letter, this time to the Soviet embassy in Washington,

d c. Expressing her disappointment. A week later, she got a call from a Soviet official a heavily accented voice, telling her to watch the mail. At first, Samantha thought it might be one of her dad's friends playing a joke. It wasn't. Just a few days later, a special envelope arrived at the small town post office, addressed to Samantha

and signed by Urie and drop off. Samantha and her dad read the letter on the way to school, and her dad wouldn't let her bring it to school because she was He was afraid that she would lose it. Can you picture your parents saying that you can't take this important letter to school. It just came in the mail at seven this morning. What do you think when

you go? I was happy. I was happy that he had responded after I had already complained that he hadn't, And it basically said that he didn't want to rule the world. He did want to have a war that he respected children, and he talked about the children and his family. And drop Off compared her to the character of Becky Thatcher in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, because he wrote she was brave and smart, and he invited her

to come and visit the Soviet Union. Samantha, you recall, is the eleven year old from Maine who wrote erion drop Off about her concern over nuclear war. She says she hardly expected a personal invitation to visit the Soviet Union. Now it remains unclear if Andropov himself actually wrote the letter, and it's impossible to know what the Kremlin's precise aim was here. Inviting an American girl to the otherwise cloistered nation was a dramatic public relations gambit for the newly

minted Soviet leader. One possibility, since the struggling Soviet economy couldn't keep up with US defense spending, perhaps in drop Off wanted instead to appeal directly to the American people and undercut public support for Reagan's hardline stance against the Soviets. Andropov has been trying hard to shed his bad cop image. He left the KGB six months ago to improve his chances for leadership. It wouldn't have been the first time a Soviet leader tried to use a child to soften

his image. In ninety six, Joseph Stalin took a photo embracing an adorable seven year old Indigenous Siberian girl named Gellia. The image became iconic propaganda of the Stalinist era, depicted in countless posters, murals, and sculptures, and no wonder, little Gallia beams Stalin looks warm, positively paternal. But only a year after the photo was taken, Gallia's parents were arrested on suspicion of disloyalty, her father executed, and her mother

dying in exile. What did you really expect a happy ending? We're talking Stalwin here now. A letter from the Soviet leader to an American school kid would have made news no matter what. But it just so happened that and drop Off wrote to a kid with a charisma that very soon captivated the media. She's a fifth grader who wrote to and received the now famous letter from Soviet leader Urie and drop Off. Would you welcome ten year old Samantha Smith on The Tonight Show Johnny Carson introduced

Samantha to the world. She was funny. Are you getting tired of answering all the questions that people like myself when the people on the news show are asking you? Yes. I remember her sitting in the chair and her little legs dangling over and swinging because she could reached the floor. And she was just bubbly and cute. She was unaffected. How did you get the idea to write the letter? Well, nukiwarved and on t be a lot lately and it got to be so little steady on TV. I got scared.

It's remarkable how at ease she was. There's nothing kid act or about her. You've never heard of me before you came on the show. Ye did they tell you anything about me? They told me or a median. What immediately comes across is her smile. Whether it was her natural disposition or the product of a happy upbringing, she just had a great natural smile. This is no small thing. I had a terrible smile when I was a kid. Part of it was that I was trying to match

the smile of people on toothpaste commercials. A high bar, I know. But I was in a song in dance troop when I was in junior high and I needed a smile to match the sequence we wore when we performed at White Flint Mall in Rockville, Maryland. Anyway, I'll never forget when one day in rehearsal, I was really pushing my smile and the British director walked up to me and said, I know what you think it looks like,

but it doesn't. It was devastating because she was right after that, I stuck with a closed lip smile for the rest of junior high and all of high school. Samantha smile, on the other hand, was dynamite, as the world could now see. I mean, that was big news in Manchester Main. I don't think anything is big in my recollection has happened before or since. The classmate, Jessica Dwyer says that while she knew Samantha had poked her head into the adult world in a big way, Samantha

herself kept things real. The period when Samantha got the reply from her letter, it was kept very separate from us. Yes, they the media was here, we'd be outside at recess, but Samantha it wasn't something we talked about because I think she didn't want to stand out in any way. As for and drop offs invitation to visit the Soviet Union this summer, Samantha is waiting for a decision by her kitchen cabinet, her mom and dad. Samantha knew she wanted to go. When she asked her father, he said,

we'll see. She knew he always said that before saying yes. As she finished up fifth grade, Samantha made plans for her diplomatic visit to the Soviet Union in July. Samantha would later write, lots of questions came into my head when I looked at pictures of Soviet people. I wondered if I could be friends with Soviet kids. What they think that I was a spy or that I was afraid of them? What they think that I wanted to

conquer them. She flew with her parents, first to Boston, then on to Montreal, where the press attention was already starting to annoy. Her mom told me not to say it is because it's not you. It's your job. I mean, you're really pstoring. I ended a biting the nigrophore. But the trip was not without risks coming up. Samantha's two week adventure in the Soviet Union. So this is the kind of folk art that she was given people who gave all kinds of things, Lots of little dolls, lots

of little teddy bears. There must be forty teddy bears. Lori Labar is chief curator of History and Decorative Arts at the Main State Museum in Augusta. She's showing me the gifts that Samantha Smith received on her trip to the Soviet Union in the summer of three, including a samovar from the Kremlin. This is beautiful. It's a tea urn. Essentially, most tea goes in there, and the water goes in there.

And what did these gifts mean? I think they were gifts of friendship, someone saying thank you for coming, Welcome to my world. But at the heart of it, Samantha was essentially saying, why can't we be friends? That's exactly what she was saying. That was the whole trip. She spent two weeks saying why can't we be friends. When they arrived in Moscow, Samantha, who had just turned to Levin, and her parents, Arthur and Jane, were greeted by guides

from the Soviet Friendship Society. They paid for the trip, and Samantha gave a brief press conference for the thirty or so reporters who would follow her on her trip. He promised me that he wouldn't He wouldn't start a war. Russia wouldn't start a war, and we America says that they won't start a war either. Then how can we keep making both for a warfare no one started? According to Samantha's mother, the Smith's Soviet hosts asked the family what they'd like to see, and then proceeded to help

the family what they were going to see. Samantha visited Lennon's tomb, She tried chicken Kiev. She met Valentina Tereshkova, the first female cosmonaut. Not everything went as planned. At one point, the Soviet made limousine baring the Smith's broke down. It was hastily replaced. Now, the US government avoided taking any official position on Samantha's trip, not wanting to co sign a Soviet propaganda ploy. I think they were very worried because, you know, there could have been an accident.

She could have been a tool of the Soviet Union, a propaganda duke. Yes, exactly Before they even left on their trip, the Smith family was flooded with letters, many from relatives of Soviet Jews desperate to leave the country. The family shied away from any particular cause beyond peace, but passed a packet of the letters along. They two

were worried about Samantha being a propaganda pawn. Once during the trip, a group of students asked Samantha to sign a petition that condemned US foreign policy, but one of her Soviet guides swooped in before she could sign it. When Samantha and her parents visited Red Square, her father Arthur, was asked to lay a flower wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument to the Soviet World War two dead. Afraid to offend his hosts, he went

ahead and did it. Fortunately this was before Twitter. Be glad Samantha was already a household name and face across the Soviet Union. As she put it herself, it's a funny feeling to see articles about yourself with pictures in a newspaper you can't read. Most surprising to the Russian readers following her every move, Samantha had been invited to Camp ar Tech on the Crimean Peninsula. It's a place

every Soviet kid dreamed of going. ARC Tech is one place that Soviet leader Urion drop Off really wanted Samantha to see, to meet and talk with kids her own age, and to see for herself that everyone in the Soviet Union wants peace and friendship. When it was Natalia Rosten, I'm a teacher. It's been a long time since I've sat in a second grade classroom chair. It's actually been I guess, uh forty five years. But it feels nice. Yes, I'm sitting in a chair made for a second grader.

And no, it actually doesn't feel nice. Yeah, and it's the right size for this desk with the chairs and totally needs won't fit. Natalia Roston now teaches second grade in Los Angeles, but during Samantha's visit, she was a Soviet kid raised in the city then called Lennon Grad and a camper at Camp ar Tech. I think you and I around the same age. What year were you born? As was I teen? Sixteen nine one January? Oh yeah, I sure you. My parents didn't go to Woodstock, There's

no way. Natalia was the daughter of an engineer and an English teacher. She felt lucky to be at ar Tech since it was the crown jewel of what we're known as pioneer camps. I think boy Scout or Girl Scout camp, but communist. Was it a pretty big deal when you found out you were going to go, oh yeah, It was pretty big guilt to me, and it was pretty big guilt to my friends. We were all extatic because it was it was like winning a lot of I mean, it was a huge privilege. Natalia was not

from the elite. When I got to camp, I found out that there was a group of kids from political elite that were the year of the year of the year.

They treated Artech as a regular summer camp, but most of us, we were from different backgrounds, from all over the Union, and most of the campers that summer had never even met in American They got the whole part of our Artech camp together at an assembly and the said, guess what, there's this girl whose personal guests of all of you, of our premier and she's coming to visit our tech and guess what, We're so lucky because she's going to be guest in our camp, and what do

you think? And we were we were crazy. We started. We started cleaning our door right away. We started like ironing our uniforms right away. In Russia, when when any guest comes, it's a big deal. When a foreign guest comes, it's a triple big deal. And when the personal guest of a premier comes. We were just through in seventh Heaven.

And the fact that she was American made it even more. Yeah, it was a big deal because Russian propaganda was saying this that American people are peace loving people, but the government is brainwashing them to believe that we're the enemy. And so we thought the cementy is gonna arrive and she was gonna look at us like we were the enemy. And so then your job, as it were, was just to change your mind and to show who we really really are, you know, our hospitality and how great the

country is. Because thirteen year rold In Natalia spoke more English than anyone else, she would be Samantha's camp buddy and deliver the welcome speech before thousands of campers. I had to memorize this speech because my English wasn't fluent. It was very Rudimentaria. Were you nervous when you delivered it? I was petrified. My mouth was dry. I was yeah, especially like you know, the camp counselors. They were young,

but they acted like Russian grandma's. They would like, spit polished my forehead and make sure that everything is perfectly. There was not. There was not a wrinkle. I wouldn't They wouldn't let me sit some there would There wouldn't be like a wrinkle in my shirt. My my ribbons and my my braids were bigger than my head. I mean it was. It was a huge deal because you were essentially you were the lead of the welcome committee here. Well, they told me that was the face of the country.

It was to be a simple welcoming ceremony for Samantha at r Tech, a Sylvia youth camp. But oftentimes the world's largest country does simple things and way. In this case, two thousand uniformed young people and the Communist youth group known as the Young Pioneers filled every seat of an outdoor theater. It's the same clap and give their American guests or warn hello. Now, at least Natalia spoke some English. Remember Samantha spoke no Russian. But Natalia says that hardly mattered.

I remember They was so easy, Like it's like it's if we knew each other the whole life. It was so easy to kind of communicate, even though the language abilities were very limited. Just smiling and trading things and um, you know, sharing jokes and sharing our opinions about cafeteria food, about the boys and out troop, about bathing suits, me just fivorite. Everything was so easy. Although she would only be staying for four days. Samantha asked to where the

Pioneer uniform. She was given the uniform with the blue scarf for visitors instead of the red one worn by Pioneer members. She also wanted to sleep in the cabin with the other campers. Do you remember when the lights went out? Were you quiet or was there giggling and whispering and you know, tiptoeing around the room and our camp counselor going if I have to walk in there one more time? Are you're gonna have you know, actual extra duties tomorrow? All of that happened you, Yes, I

would be disappointed if there had been no giggling. We were so excited. Everybody was. She was excited. We were excited me And what was she curious about? Everything. She wanted to know what kind of music we were listening. She wanted to know what kind of books we were reading. She wanted to know what kind of sports were playing, what kind of dances with dance, you know everything. She

wanted to do everything. Natalia played Italian pop music for Samantha like Total Contunio, and Samantha played her favorite music at the time for Natalia. I can remember the cars were huge that summer. I'm guessing this was all on cassette tape. Did you talk about politics? Was that sort of understood or you just weren't interested. Once we saw her, we understood that she doesn't think we want war and she doesn't want war, So it was it was unnecessary.

It was just never came up because we felt that it was not necessary to discuss. On Samantha's second day at ar Tech, she and other campers wrote out into the Black Sea to participate in an artech tradition. We would write the message with our most sacred wish and we would see it in this little glass bottle and toss it overboard. So most kids would We wish for, you know, end of starvation. We wish for health, We

wish for um bright future. You know things like that, Samantha wrote on her card, I am for peace in my lifetime. On the boat, they sang a favorite Soviet children's song, May They're always be sanshine me They're always be blue Sky. May They're always be Mommy. May They're always be me? May there always be Sunshine is based on a short poem, a Plea for Peace, by a four year old Russian boy. The song has been performed

all over the world, translated into many languages. The kids here and all the people here are really much like Americans except for the language. And I didn't have any trouble um making friends. Images of Samantha smiling and playing in the Black Sea alongside her young pioneer comrades delighted Soviet audiences, but left some viewers in her home country uneasy. A CBS report pointed out activities at our tech Samantha

wasn't being shown. These young pioneers are out on a different kind of extra size, learning to patrol the beaches day and night, learning to handle the automatic weapons they carry. As part of their summer session at the exclusive camp, they are trained by a special section of the secret police, the KGB border patrols, But for Samantha there will be no night patrols on lonely beaches. Instead, a festival of clowns and laughing bears at an evening concert where the

slogan is peace and friendship. On Samantha's final night at Artech, a big Soviet send off. I shall my new international friends, but we will remain friends. Prossy. Let our countries be friends too. Satday, I hope to return. Samantha says she has been very impressed by the Soviet Union. Although her routine is tiring, the Soviets seemed to want to show

her everything they can in tightly packed days. There is still no answer to her most important wish while in the Soviet Union, a visit with Leader Urien drop off Of. On her last full day in the Soviet Union, Samantha got the news and drop Off was unable to meet her. She said that he was sorry that he couldn't meet with me, and he was just too busy, and he wishes me um quote for no war and good health. In fact, the Soviet leader was already dying from kidney failure.

There had been talking to Samantha, meeting and drop off. In retrospect, you think it's good that that meeting didn't work out. Does it really matter? It might have mattered to the political elite, but what she wanted to accomplish, I don't think it really matter whether she met a or not. And what was the goodbye like when you had to say goodbye to Samantha. Well, we thought that she was going to come back, you know, we thought that maybe in a few years they come and visit again.

It wasn't. It wasn't like a farewell goodbye was goodbye for now, I see you later. When Samantha landed back in Maine on July, more than three hundred people greeted her at the airport. She walked down a red carpet and wrote a limousine back home. On programs like The Phil Donna Hugh Show, Samantha reflected on her peace mission obviously one of the reasons you wrote this letter. As she felt a little scared. I think, as you said, be less scared. Yeah, really, I don't think I was

scared anymore at all. What do you mean? What? Oh? I went to Russia and the Soviets and me and I got to know each other, and they just joined nice people tonight, or at least the people I met on the other side of the break the conclusion of Samantha's story, So kids are pretty much the same every where you thinking, Unfortunately you didn't get to meet Uri Andropov, did you know. Less than a week after returning from her trip to the Soviet Union, Samantha Smith was back

on Johnny Carson. Samantha told Johnny about her new friend Natalia, who back then went by the nickname Natasha. You can think you're gonna keep in contact through letters within your fringe. Min Oh, We're not nowhere close to being definite about this, but I made a really close friend Natasha that we might invite her to America sometimes. He that would be nice. When it may have been Samantha's second time on the Tonight Show, but she wasn't the least bit jaded in

both instances. There's something so just reassuringly, refreshingly normal, all right, yes, and love. It is such a magical age. That's Lori Labarre again from the State Museum. And I don't think it would have been as successful if it had been a teenager. And I think really that what we needed was an eleven year old to do this? Why because she was guileless? She was just what you saw is what you got. She was a cheerful, happy, smart kid. She wasn't a morose seventeen year old listening to the

Smith's love the Smith's mother. But any afterglow in this country from Samantha's trip faded quickly. Just forty one days after her return, a horrific international incident on September one, the Soviet military shot down a Korean Airlines jetliner that had drifted into Soviet air space while flying between Anchorage and Soul. All two hundred sixty nine civilians, including a US congressman, were killed. Whatever goodwill and drop off had

engendered in the way vanished. Some anger was directed at the Smith's Samantha's father, Arthur, conveyed the family's horror at the massacre, but defended the need for peaceful dialogue as more important than ever. In December of Samantha and her mother were invited to Japan to address an international children's symposium. She wasn't in school as much anymore. That's childhood friend

Sarah Warren again. She was always off sort of doing another events, which was undoubtedly even more educational than school. I think that the education she was getting was pretty profound for for a child. So um yeah, I mean her life just completely transformed. Most people know me as the girl who want to Russia, but now I'm going

to Washington. The Disney Channel hired Samantha to interview most of that year's Democratic presidential candidates, including Jesse Jackson, George McGovern and former Florida Governor Ruben Ask you, how do you feel about inviting the Soviets over here to talk about peace. I think that there's no reason that this this country, and the Soviet Union can't get together and start seeking at more commonality adventures. With all this exposure,

perhaps it was inevitable that Hollywood would come calling. Sarah Warren remembers when Samantha began acting, appearing in an episode of the CBS sitcom Charles in Charge, which we were all very jealous about because we all had a crush on Scott Bao at the time. Soon after, she was casting Lime Street, a weekly action adventure series starring actor Robert Wagner. I was very flattered that you asked me to do this, And when it comes to Samantha Smith,

I'll do anything. I met Robert Wagen. I grew up watching him on TV's Heart to Heart near his home in Aspen, Colorado, inside the historic hotel Jerome, So tell us a landmark. You know that I stayed here at nine, Wagner says. The producers of Lime Street, Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth. Thomason had first seen Samantha on Johnny Carson. Linda had seen her and she thought she was, you know, just so marvelous and had this great quality, and you know,

the camera just drank her in. I meant Samantha, I could see exactly what they were talking about. In the series, Samantha played Elizabeth Culver, the spunky daughter of a jet setting insurance investigator played by Wagner. Yes, are you going to Mary? Why not? Because I've already got enough press, which get upstairs and take that with Some people felt

betrayed that the little diplomat had gone Hollywood. Her mother, Jane told the press at the time that it wouldn't be natural for Samantha to devote her life to Soviet American relations, after all, she was a kid. Jessica Dwyer remembers when Samantha had just gotten her braces off right before she left for London, where Lime Street was shooting.

She was in the midst of packing and getting things together, and sam was just making peace suit at the stove, something that was soft and wasn't going to hurt her. She just a typical teenager. Is that the last time that you saw her? That was the last time that we saw it. She left the next day. In August, Samantha finished filming her fourth episode of Lime Street. On

she and her father Arthur, flew home. Their commuter plane from Boston was on its final approach to Auburn Lewiston, Maine Airport when it crashed just two hundred yards from the airport's runway. All eight people on board perished. This morning, thirteen year old Samantha Smith is dead, the victim of a plane crash last night in her native Maine. Just recently, she began work on a new ABC TV series with

actor Robert Wagner. You know, Samantha maids such an impression upon people of wand to be taken like that, who was unbelievable to us, unbelievable, unbelievable to young Jessica Dwyer in Maine. It took me a long time to accept it. Um and I'll share this. I haven't shared it with very many people. I always thought that she and her dad escaped the plane and we're in a and that she and her dad were living this great life. And I think that was just my way of keeping her

memory alive. The news was barely comprehensible to young Natalia. In Leningrad. There was a beautiful a social author who said that chazz Ear does not comprehend the word death. I mean, I knew she died, but I really didn't process the loss. Hundreds of mourners gathered today and Augusta, Maine, at a memorial service for Samantha Smith, the schoolgirl whose plea for peace made her internationally famous. Well, it was difficult to even get into the church because there were

so many people there. I just remember being really sad for Jane because she lost her family. The first Secretary to the Soviet Embassy in Washington was among the mourners and described Samantha in his eulogy as a brilliant beam of sunshine that millions old mothers and fathers and kids back in the Russian in the Soviet Union share the

being of this tragic loss. President Reagan, who had avoided mentioning Samantha in public, sent condolences to Samantha's mother, Jane in Maine, writing that millions of Americans would remember Samantha's smile, her idealism, and her quote unaffected sweetness of spirit. Samantha Smith's pioneer uniform, the one she wore at Artech, is still at the Main State Museum with Lorie Labar. When I first walked in and saw it, I gasped. The uniform. It's just so small, just eleven year old girl. It's

a reminder just this was a small girl. This was a little kid. Um, this wasn't an adult. This was just someone who had asked a question. Samantha's death at such an unnaturally young age effectively froze her legacy as that of a child's peace activist. Here's Sarah Warren again. As tragic and awful as it was that she died, it really did draw more attention to her trip and

to what she had done. And many of us then found a way to make meaning somehow of her life and her passing by trying to carry forward what she had started. All right, So what impact did Samantha's improbable life as a child diplomat make well for starters. Jane Smith established the nonprofit Samantha Smith Foundation to promote international

understanding through youth exchange trips. One year after Samantha's death, Sarah Warren, along with Jane Smith, and a group of classmates from Maine, made their own trip to the Soviet Union. Well essentially, we were following on the same footsteps of Samantha and her parents, the same trip that they had done. They started to understand what their friend had meant to the rest of the world. Although she had been getting a lot of media coverage in the US, she was

just downright famous in the Soviet Union. Everybody there knew who she was. Jessica Dwyer went on that trip too. Mobs of people just wanted to be near us and around us. Everywhere we went. We were just greeted by so many people that wanted to talk to us, touch us because we knew Samantha. Samantha was memorialized in Maine.

A statue of her holding a dub stands outside the main State Museum in Augusta, But in the Soviet Union, Samantha's face appeared on a postage stamp, on murals, her name graced schools, street, a flower, a ship, a diamond, and asteroid. Even a mountain was named in her honor. Samantha Smith. Even now she is more popular than she is here. Why do you think that is? Because maybe for us she was a symbol of hope that the

relationship could be of friendship between the two countries. And that gets it perhaps her greatest and most ironic legacy. By inviting Samantha to the Soviet Union, Urie and drop Off was hoping to improve the image of his regime in America, but the opposite kind of happened. American University professor Anton Fetiyashin, who grew up in the Soviet Union,

put it this way. Quote The fact that Samantha Smith is still remembered in Russia but is mostly forgotten in the US is testament that and drop offs original idea of projecting an image to the world was reversed by Samantha projecting herself much more successfully on a Soviet society. In other words, Samantha wasn't anyone's dupe. By the way, the Soviets ended up exporting their own version of Samantha In ninety six, fifteen year old Katya Licheba visited the

US on a peace mission. Katia actually met Reagan briefly, but the Soviet Samantha didn't have the original Samantha's curiosity or charisma and quickly fizzled in The Samantha Smith Foundation inaugurated its own World Peace Camp in Poland Spring Maine. Two years later, Natalia Rostin visited the camp. Was that your first trip to the United States was first trip abroad? And what did you think of Maine when you saw it? Beautiful? It the nature kind of reminded me a little bit

of Russia, but not quite like Russia. Lots of like the citious trees, you know, the greenery view doful, like rolling hills. Is there anything you ate there that you've never eaten before? Lobster. More than thirty years later, as a second grade teacher, Natalia includes Samantha in her curriculum. We learned the story and I always tied into writing. I tell you know, writing is your superpower. You know you want to change the world, you need to learn

how to write. Look at Samantha, you know she made a huge impact because she was write. She knew she knew what she wanted to say, and she says she stay did it clearly. And how did the kids react to the story of Semanthea inspired? They get inspired, They get inspired by that. You know, the kids have have power working on this mobid. I've thought about all that Samantha didn't live to see. Just three months after she died, President Reagan and then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met for

the first time to discuss nuclear disarmament. Just six years later, the Soviet Union dissolved. I also wondered what Samantha would be doing today. When I spoke to her childhood friend Sarah Warren back in July, it was just a few days past Samantha's birthday. Samantha would have turned fifty on June. And it's sorry, it's pretty profound to think about what she did all those years ago. And I don't know. I try not to think about her too much as an adult because I think she did what she needed

to as a kid. But um, and we want a legacy, you know. I'm sure had she lived to be fifty, she would have been beautiful and she would have been doing lots of amazing things in the world. But in her, you know, short thirteen years, she did more than a lot of people do in fifty. So Samantha's life was short, But the questions she asked in that handwritten letter all those years ago, her plea for peace are no less powerful today. I hope you enjoyed this Mobituary. May I

ask you to please rate and review our podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow me on Twitter at Morocca. Here all new episodes of Mobituaries every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts and check out Mobituaries Great Lives Worth Reliving, the New York Times best selling book now available in paperback and audio book that includes plenty of stories not in this podcast.

This episode of Mobituaries was produced by Aaron Shrank. Our team of producers also includes Wilco, Martinez Caccetro, and Me Morocca. It was edited by Moral Walls and engineered by Josh Hahn, with fat checking by Catherine Newhan. Our production company is Neon Houm Media. Our chival producer doing his home state of Maine proud is Jamie Benson. Our theme music is

written by Daniel Hart. Indispensable support from Craig Swaggler, Dustin Gervei, Alan Pang, Reggie Basil, and everyone at CBS News Radio. Special thanks to Lena Nelson, Mary lou Till, Megan Marcus, Barbara Quill for her reporting on Samantha's trip, and Alberto Robina, and our deepest appreciation to Jane Smith, the Imperturbable Aaron Shrank as our senior producer. Executive producers for Mobituaries include

Steve raise E's and Morocca. The series is created by yours truly and as always, thanks to Rand Morrison and John carp for helping breathe life into Mobituaries. M