0:03

Like most of my generation, I

0:06

grew up scared as hell of nuclear

0:08

armageddon. Sometimes

0:10

my father would sit at the edge of my bed and

0:13

tell me not to worry, that nuclear

0:15

war wouldn't happen, precisely because

0:17

the superpowers had the capacity to blow

0:20

each other up the military doctrine

0:22

of mutual assured destruction. I'm

0:25

not sure if he believed it or if he was

0:27

just trying to make me feel better. Roger,

0:30

this is not an exercise. But I

0:32

was worried enough that I made sure

0:34

to watch a made for TV movie on ABC

0:37

called The Day After. It

0:40

aired right before Thanksgiving with

0:43

limited commercials, so you knew this

0:45

was a really big deal. It

0:47

depicted the destruction of Kansas

0:49

City after a nuclear attack. Roger

0:52

understanding missiles and bound

0:54

Nountain. The

0:58

Day After was shockingly graphic

1:00

for the time. What I remember most,

1:03

though, isn't the scene of the incineration

1:05

a lot of people turning into skeletons,

1:08

but the scene right before. A

1:10

character played by Jason Robards

1:12

is driving on the highway when enemy

1:15

nuclear weapons detonate overhead.

1:21

Suddenly, all the cars simply

1:23

stopped running. They go silent. Robards

1:26

and the other drivers tried turning

1:28

their ignitions, but nothing.

1:33

In other words, a nuclear bomb

1:35

would subvert nature on such

1:37

an elemental molecular level

1:40

that cars everywhere would just go dead.

1:44

I have no idea that the science on this checks

1:46

out, but watching it then it

1:49

was so completely unnerving.

1:52

I was fourteen when the movie came out,

1:54

a few years too old to admit how

1:56

scared I was, but it's a good

1:59

bet that most of the record breaking

2:01

one hundred million Americans who

2:03

watched that movie were just as

2:05

afraid. We did watch it as a family,

2:08

and it was deeply disturbing. I

2:10

still have images in my head of it

2:13

just being gray and dark, and

2:15

people staggering through the destroyed

2:18

wilderness.

2:20

What we have seen, the missiles launched,

2:22

the nuclear explosions, the devastating

2:25

results, was all fiction. But

2:28

what brought us to that point is fact. It's

2:30

something we've been living with for years. It's

2:33

the arms race. But not

2:35

everyone was paralyzed by the fear

2:37

of nuclear war. The previous

2:40

November, a schoolgirl from Maine,

2:42

a few years younger than me, decided

2:44

to do something. She wrote

2:47

a letter, a

2:49

letter that asked a simple, eminently

2:52

sane, and sensible question. Somehow

2:55

Samantha managed to boil things

2:58

down to the essence. We

3:00

are all human beings and we

3:03

shouldn't be looking to annihilate each

3:05

other. And that letter made

3:07

big news, and finally,

3:09

tonight, the story of Samantha Smith, a

3:11

ten year old girl from Manchester, Maine.

3:14

At one of the tensest periods in

3:16

Cold War history, Samantha

3:19

Smith ended up going to the Soviet

3:21

Union. The people that have been to the Soviet

3:23

Union have a definite answer, them

3:26

not wanting more and wanting

3:28

peace, just like I do. She

3:31

was an ordinary girl with an uncommon

3:34

touch. She was that beam of sunshine

3:36

that broke through the cold ice of

3:38

cold work. Her life may

3:40

have been short, she had such

3:43

potential mo she could have

3:45

done anything, but she left

3:47

a powerful legacy and

3:49

her short thirteen years she

3:51

did more than a lot of people do. In fifty

3:54

from CBS Sunday Morning, and I

3:57

Heart, I'm Morocca

3:59

And this is mobituaries, This

4:04

mobid Samantha Smith.

4:07

August the

4:11

death of a peacemaker. Hi

4:29

nice squeezed

4:31

and I think At

4:34

Manchester Elementary School in Manchester,

4:37

Maine, the story of its most notable

4:39

alum lives on. So

4:42

today we're talking about Samantha Smith,

4:44

who was a student at this school. Teachers

4:47

like Mrs O'Brien have been telling

4:49

Samantha Smith's story for forty

4:52

years. So she and her parents

4:54

traveled to the Soviet Union.

4:57

And this is a picture of Samantha holding

4:59

up the letter she became

5:02

famous and this shy,

5:06

really sweet little girl from Manchester,

5:08

Maine, all of a sudden was being

5:11

interviewed. Look at all the microphones

5:13

in front of her. Samantha's

5:16

story makes an immediate impression

5:18

on the kids. What is the thing that sort

5:20

of stands out? Um, probably

5:22

how she's always smiling, Um, that

5:24

she's always happy. She

5:26

could It's basically like she could

5:28

walk into any room with people at are grouchy

5:30

and she can cheer him up in a matter of seconds.

5:35

That's wild to be in this school that she went

5:37

to, Yah, And I think that's the

5:40

great part for the kids when they're

5:42

sitting in the classroom and you can say,

5:45

like, this is where she sat. I

5:47

mean, so she was just like you. Jessica

5:50

Dwyer is another one of the teachers telling

5:52

Samantha's story today. She

5:55

really knows the subject matter. Jessica

5:57

and Samantha were students at this school

5:59

together forty years ago and close

6:01

friends. The pictures

6:03

that I have, the memories that

6:06

I have, which are fading,

6:08

I think because it's been a while.

6:11

She was always giggling and laughing.

6:14

That's what I remember. Jessica met

6:16

Samantha in the third grade when

6:18

the Smith family first moved to Manchester,

6:21

a town of about two thousand, just

6:23

a few miles outside of Augusta, Mains

6:25

Capital. It must have been hard

6:27

to join as a new kid, but it did

6:29

not take her long at all to develop

6:32

lots of friends. Sarah Warren

6:34

was another classmate and friend of Samantha's.

6:37

Her mom was a Girl Scout

6:40

troop leader, so we used to have some of our

6:42

troop meetings at their house. Samantha's

6:45

mother, Jane Smith, was a social

6:47

worker for the State of Maine. Samantha

6:49

was an only child. Samantha

6:52

was just a very extroverted,

6:54

bubbly kid. I can remember we

6:56

were trying to learn how to dance like Michael Jackson

7:05

because that was the era of thriller. So we

7:07

were in the living room, you know, trying to learn

7:09

how to moonwalk, and Samantha was leading the

7:11

way. So she was she was

7:13

fun. Samantha's father, Arthur

7:15

Smith, was a college English professor.

7:18

When Samantha was little, she would sit in

7:20

on some of his classes, including

7:22

one he taught about letter writing. At

7:25

age five, Samantha wrote a letter

7:27

to the Queen of England and got a postcard

7:29

response from her lady in waiting. Yeah.

7:32

See, I mean I wrote to the American presidents,

7:35

but I don't know that it ever occurred to me to write to leaders

7:37

of other countries. Oh, Sarah, you needed

7:39

to think bigger, You needed to go global. I

7:44

got there eventually. Sarah

7:48

now works in the Baltimore Public School

7:50

system. Before that, she spent

7:52

many years doing aid work overseas,

7:55

including in war zones, partly

7:57

inspired by what Samantha did back

8:00

three when they were just kids. I'm

8:04

just a few years older than you are. I

8:08

remember being terrified

8:10

by the idea of nuclear war.

8:14

Were you were you scared? I

8:17

was terrified. I can remember a period

8:20

of time in the fourth grade where I woke up every

8:22

day with a stomachache, and it

8:25

was because I was afraid of war. It

8:27

felt like a real possibility

8:30

there for for a period of time. And I remember

8:32

that especially in the fourth grade, which

8:35

I guess must have been impressing Samantha

8:37

to you know, and been pressing on her mind,

8:39

because um, that was around

8:42

you know, the time that she ended up writing a letter. Ah,

8:45

yes, the letter. We'll get

8:47

to that, but first some context.

8:50

In November of two, Soviet

8:53

leader Leoned Bresnev died

8:55

after eighteen years in power. Now,

8:57

as a kid, I remember the Soviet leaders

9:00

as a succession of crypt keepers,

9:03

each one more ghoulish than the one who

9:05

came before. The guy who took over

9:07

right after Bresnev was a former head

9:09

of the KGB spy agency named

9:12

Yuri and drop Of. As

9:14

ambassador to Budapest in nifty

9:17

six, he oversaw the suppression of

9:19

the Hungarian Revolution. As

9:21

head of the KGB for fifteen years,

9:23

he directed the Soviet campaign against

9:25

the dissident movement. To soften

9:28

and Dropov's image, the Kremlin

9:30

pr operation not exactly.

9:32

Madison Avenue put out that the new

9:35

leader spoke fluent English and

9:37

loved American jazz, So

9:40

relax everyone, this Soviet

9:43

leader was a hepcat.

9:48

It was around this time that Samantha was watching

9:51

a science program about nuclear war

9:53

on public TV that scared her much

9:55

like the day after would later scare me. She

9:58

couldn't shake that idea that I could

10:00

all be over tomorrow. Looking

10:03

for some reassurance, Samantha

10:05

and her mother Jane, together read

10:07

in November cover story

10:10

of Time magazine about and

10:12

drop off. It didn't make

10:14

Samantha any less worried, and

10:17

she told her mother that her mother

10:19

should write a letter and Jane,

10:22

her mom apparently turned

10:25

around and said, will you write the letter?

10:27

And I do think that her writing a letter

10:29

as a child was much

10:32

more powerful than any adult writing

10:34

a letter. She

10:36

wrote the following words, Dear

10:39

Mr androp Off, my name is Samantha

10:41

Smith. I am ten years old.

10:44

Congratulations on your new job. I

10:46

have been worrying about Russia and the United

10:48

States getting into a nuclear war.

10:51

Are you going to vote to have a war or not?

10:54

If you aren't, please tell me how you are

10:56

going to help to not have a war. This

10:59

question you do not have to answer, but

11:01

I would like it if you would. Why

11:03

do you want to conquer the world or at least

11:05

our country. God made the

11:07

world for us to share and take care of,

11:10

not to fight over or have one group of

11:12

people own it all. Please

11:14

let's do what he wanted and have everybody

11:16

be happy to Samantha Smith,

11:19

Manchester, Main, USA, PS,

11:22

please right back out

11:25

of the mouths of babes, right, I

11:28

mean, why do you want to have a

11:30

war with our country? Um?

11:32

Which is really what adults

11:34

should be asking each other, you know. I think

11:37

sometimes adults over complicate things,

11:39

and she was getting down to the basics.

11:43

At the time Samantha wrote her letter, Soviet

11:46

and American leaders hadn't held a real

11:48

meeting in five years. The

11:50

Soviet Union's stock pile of nuclear

11:53

weapons had surpassed that of the US,

11:56

and neither superpower was backing

11:58

away from the build up. Do or prior,

12:00

the doomsday clock, the symbol of

12:02

how close mankind was to annihilation

12:05

stood it four minutes to midnight,

12:08

perilously close to midnight.

12:11

While Samantha was waiting for a response,

12:14

U S President Ronald Reagan announced

12:17

the Strategic Defense initiative, called

12:19

star Wars by the press. The

12:21

program pledged hundreds of billions

12:24

of dollars to build a laser based

12:26

system to intercept Soviet missiles.

12:29

The President also delivered his now famous

12:31

Evil Empire speech to the National

12:34

Association of Evangelicals in Orlando.

12:37

I urge you to beware the temptation of pride,

12:39

the temptation of blithely declaring

12:43

yourselves above it all, and label

12:45

both sides equally at fault, to

12:48

ignore the facts of history and the aggressive

12:50

impulses of an evil empire, to simply

12:52

call the arms race a giant misunderstanding,

12:55

and thereby remove yourself from the struggle

12:58

between right and wrong and good and evil.

13:02

Weeks later, the Soviet state

13:04

newspaper Pravda published an

13:07

article featuring letters written by

13:09

Westerners concerned about nuclear

13:11

war. They included Samantha's

13:14

letter. The

13:16

next day, back at Manchester Elementary,

13:19

the school secretary, Mrs Peabody called

13:22

Samantha into the principal's office to

13:24

take a call from an American reporter.

13:27

Ten year old Samantha Smith of Manchester

13:30

Made was one of three Americans whose quotes

13:32

appeared in yesterday's edition of Pravda. She

13:34

says she wanted to get the complicated story cleared

13:37

up ask him questions about nuculate

13:39

war because I wasn't I'm not that sure.

13:41

It's a little bit hard to understand the news that

13:43

because they put it in grown up words, you know, I can't

13:45

understand what they mean, but

13:48

what Samantha really couldn't understand Why

13:51

didn't she receive a response? They

13:53

published her letter in Pravda, but Entropov

13:56

couldn't write her back, so

13:58

she wrote another letter, this time

14:00

to the Soviet embassy in Washington, d

14:02

c. Expressing her disappointment.

14:05

A week later, she got a call from a Soviet

14:07

official a heavily accented voice,

14:10

telling her to watch the mail. At

14:12

first, Samantha thought it might be one

14:14

of her dad's friends playing a joke. It

14:17

wasn't. Just a few days

14:19

later, a special envelope arrived

14:22

at the small town post office, addressed

14:25

to Samantha and signed by

14:27

Urie and drop off. Samantha

14:30

and her dad read the letter on the way

14:32

to school, and her dad wouldn't

14:34

let her bring it to school because she was He was afraid

14:36

that she would lose it. Can you picture

14:38

your parents saying that you can't take this important

14:40

letter to school. It just came

14:42

in the mail at seven this morning.

14:45

What do you think when you go? I

14:48

was happy. I was

14:51

happy that he had responded

14:53

after I had already complained that he hadn't,

14:55

And it basically said that he didn't

14:58

want to rule the world. He did want

15:00

to have a war that he respected

15:04

children, and he talked about

15:06

the children and his family. And

15:08

drop Off compared her to the character

15:10

of Becky Thatcher in Mark Twain's

15:13

Tom Sawyer, because he wrote she

15:15

was brave and smart, and he

15:18

invited her to come and visit the

15:20

Soviet Union. Samantha,

15:22

you recall, is the eleven year old from Maine

15:24

who wrote erion drop Off about her concern over

15:27

nuclear war. She says she hardly

15:29

expected a personal invitation to visit

15:31

the Soviet Union. Now

15:34

it remains unclear if Andropov

15:36

himself actually wrote the letter, and

15:38

it's impossible to know what the Kremlin's

15:41

precise aim was here. Inviting

15:43

an American girl to the otherwise cloistered

15:46

nation was a dramatic public

15:48

relations gambit for the newly minted

15:50

Soviet leader. One possibility,

15:53

since the struggling Soviet economy couldn't

15:55

keep up with US defense spending, perhaps

15:58

in drop Off wanted instead to appeal

16:00

directly to the American people and

16:03

undercut public support for Reagan's

16:05

hardline stance against the Soviets.

16:08

Andropov has been trying hard to shed

16:10

his bad cop image. He left the KGB

16:13

six months ago to improve his chances

16:16

for leadership. It wouldn't have

16:18

been the first time a Soviet leader

16:20

tried to use a child to soften

16:22

his image. In ninety

16:25

six, Joseph Stalin took a

16:27

photo embracing an adorable

16:29

seven year old Indigenous Siberian

16:31

girl named Gellia. The image

16:34

became iconic propaganda of the

16:36

Stalinist era, depicted in

16:38

countless posters, murals,

16:40

and sculptures, and no wonder,

16:43

little Gallia beams Stalin

16:46

looks warm, positively paternal.

16:49

But only a year after the photo was

16:51

taken, Gallia's parents were arrested

16:54

on suspicion of disloyalty, her

16:56

father executed, and her mother dying

16:59

in exile. What did you

17:01

really expect a happy ending? We're talking Stalwin

17:03

here now. A letter

17:05

from the Soviet leader to an American school

17:08

kid would have made news no matter what.

17:10

But it just so happened that and drop

17:13

Off wrote to a kid with a charisma

17:15

that very soon captivated the media.

17:18

She's a fifth grader who wrote

17:20

to and received the now famous

17:23

letter from Soviet leader Urie and drop Off. Would

17:25

you welcome ten year old Samantha Smith on

17:29

The Tonight Show Johnny Carson

17:31

introduced Samantha to the world.

17:34

She was funny. Are you getting

17:36

tired of answering all the questions that people

17:39

like myself when the people on the news show are asking

17:41

you? Yes. I

17:45

remember her sitting in the chair and her little legs

17:47

dangling over and swinging because she could reached

17:49

the floor. And she was just bubbly

17:51

and cute. She was unaffected.

17:54

How did you get the idea to write the letter? Well,

17:58

nukiwarved and on t be a lot lately

18:01

and it got to be so little steady on

18:03

TV. I got scared. It's

18:06

remarkable how at ease she was. There's

18:08

nothing kid act or about her. You've

18:11

never heard of me before you came on the show. Ye

18:16

did they tell you anything about me? They

18:18

told me or a median. What

18:24

immediately comes across is her smile.

18:27

Whether it was her natural disposition or

18:29

the product of a happy upbringing, she

18:31

just had a great natural smile.

18:34

This is no small thing. I

18:36

had a terrible smile when I was a kid.

18:39

Part of it was that I was trying to match the smile

18:41

of people on toothpaste commercials.

18:43

A high bar, I know. But I

18:45

was in a song in dance troop when I was in junior

18:48

high and I needed a smile to match

18:50

the sequence we wore when we performed at

18:52

White Flint Mall in Rockville, Maryland.

18:54

Anyway, I'll never forget when one day

18:56

in rehearsal, I was really pushing

18:59

my smile and the British director

19:01

walked up to me and said, I know what

19:03

you think it looks like, but

19:06

it doesn't. It

19:08

was devastating because she

19:10

was right after that,

19:12

I stuck with a closed lip smile

19:14

for the rest of junior high and all of

19:17

high school. Samantha smile,

19:19

on the other hand, was dynamite, as

19:21

the world could now see.

19:25

I mean, that was big news in Manchester Main. I don't

19:27

think anything is big in my recollection

19:30

has happened before or since. The

19:32

classmate, Jessica Dwyer says that while

19:35

she knew Samantha had poked her head

19:37

into the adult world in a big way, Samantha

19:40

herself kept things real. The

19:42

period when Samantha got

19:45

the reply from her letter,

19:48

it was kept very separate from

19:52

us. Yes, they the media

19:54

was here, we'd be outside at recess,

19:56

but Samantha it wasn't

19:59

something we talked about because I think she

20:01

didn't want to stand out in any way.

20:04

As for and drop offs invitation to visit the

20:06

Soviet Union this summer, Samantha

20:08

is waiting for a decision by her kitchen cabinet,

20:11

her mom and dad. Samantha

20:13

knew she wanted to go. When she asked

20:15

her father, he said, we'll see. She

20:18

knew he always said that before saying

20:20

yes. As

20:23

she finished up fifth grade, Samantha

20:25

made plans for her diplomatic visit to

20:27

the Soviet Union in July. Samantha

20:30

would later write, lots of questions

20:33

came into my head when I looked at pictures

20:35

of Soviet people. I wondered if

20:37

I could be friends with Soviet kids. What they

20:39

think that I was a spy or that I was afraid

20:41

of them? What they think that I wanted to conquer

20:43

them. She flew with her parents,

20:46

first to Boston, then on to Montreal,

20:49

where the press attention was already starting

20:51

to annoy. Her mom told

20:53

me not to say it is because it's not you. It's

20:56

your job. I mean, you're really pstoring.

20:59

I ended a biting the nigrophore. But

21:03

the trip was not without risks coming

21:06

up. Samantha's two week adventure

21:09

in the Soviet Union. So

21:27

this is the kind of folk art that she was given

21:29

people who gave all kinds of things, Lots

21:31

of little dolls, lots of little teddy

21:34

bears. There must be forty teddy bears.

21:37

Lori Labar is chief curator of

21:39

History and Decorative Arts at the Main State

21:41

Museum in Augusta. She's showing

21:44

me the gifts that Samantha Smith received

21:46

on her trip to the Soviet Union in

21:48

the summer of three, including

21:50

a samovar from the Kremlin. This

21:53

is beautiful. It's a tea urn. Essentially, most

21:56

tea goes in there, and the water goes in there. And

21:59

what did these gifts mean? I

22:02

think they were gifts of friendship, someone

22:05

saying thank you for coming, Welcome

22:08

to my world. But at the heart of it, Samantha

22:10

was essentially saying, why

22:12

can't we be friends? That's exactly what she was

22:14

saying. That was the whole trip. She spent two weeks saying

22:17

why can't we be friends. When they arrived

22:19

in Moscow, Samantha, who had just

22:21

turned to Levin, and her parents, Arthur

22:23

and Jane, were greeted by guides

22:26

from the Soviet Friendship Society. They

22:28

paid for the trip, and Samantha

22:30

gave a brief press conference for the thirty

22:33

or so reporters who would follow her on

22:35

her trip. He promised me that

22:38

he wouldn't He wouldn't start a

22:40

war. Russia wouldn't start a war, and we America

22:43

says that they won't start

22:45

a war either. Then how

22:48

can we keep making both for a warfare no

22:50

one started? According

22:53

to Samantha's mother, the Smith's Soviet

22:55

hosts asked the family what they'd

22:57

like to see, and then proceeded

22:59

to help the family what they were going to see.

23:02

Samantha visited Lennon's tomb, She

23:05

tried chicken Kiev. She met Valentina

23:08

Tereshkova, the first female cosmonaut.

23:11

Not everything went as planned. At

23:14

one point, the Soviet made limousine

23:16

baring the Smith's broke down. It

23:18

was hastily replaced. Now,

23:21

the US government avoided taking

23:23

any official position on Samantha's

23:25

trip, not wanting to co sign a

23:27

Soviet propaganda ploy. I

23:30

think they were very worried because, you

23:32

know, there could have been an accident. She

23:35

could have been a tool of the Soviet Union, a

23:37

propaganda duke. Yes, exactly

23:39

Before they even left on their trip, the

23:41

Smith family was flooded with letters,

23:44

many from relatives of Soviet Jews

23:47

desperate to leave the country. The

23:49

family shied away from any particular

23:51

cause beyond peace, but passed

23:54

a packet of the letters along. They

23:56

two were worried about Samantha being

23:58

a propaganda pawn. Once

24:01

during the trip, a group of students asked

24:03

Samantha to sign a petition that

24:05

condemned US foreign policy,

24:08

but one of her Soviet guides swooped

24:10

in before she could sign it. When

24:12

Samantha and her parents visited Red

24:14

Square, her father Arthur, was asked

24:17

to lay a flower wreath on the tomb

24:19

of the Unknown Soldier, a monument

24:21

to the Soviet World War two dead. Afraid

24:24

to offend his hosts, he went ahead

24:26

and did it. Fortunately this

24:29

was before Twitter. Be

24:31

glad Samantha

24:36

was already a household name and

24:38

face across the Soviet Union. As

24:41

she put it herself, it's a funny feeling

24:43

to see articles about yourself with pictures

24:45

in a newspaper you can't read. Most

24:48

surprising to the Russian readers following

24:50

her every move, Samantha had

24:52

been invited to Camp ar Tech on the

24:54

Crimean Peninsula. It's a place

24:56

every Soviet kid dreamed of going.

25:00

ARC Tech is one place that Soviet leader

25:02

Urion drop Off really wanted Samantha

25:04

to see, to meet and talk with kids

25:06

her own age, and to see for herself

25:09

that everyone in the Soviet Union wants

25:11

peace and friendship. When

25:16

it was Natalia Rosten, I'm a teacher. It's

25:19

been a long time since I've sat in

25:22

a second grade classroom chair. It's

25:25

actually been I guess, uh

25:27

forty five years. But it feels

25:30

nice. Yes, I'm sitting in a chair

25:32

made for a second grader. And no,

25:34

it actually doesn't feel nice. Yeah,

25:37

and it's the right size for this desk with

25:39

the chairs and totally needs won't fit. Natalia

25:42

Roston now teaches second grade in

25:44

Los Angeles, but during Samantha's

25:47

visit, she was a Soviet kid raised

25:50

in the city then called Lennon Grad

25:52

and a camper at Camp ar Tech.

25:55

I think you and I around the same age. What year were

25:57

you born? As

25:59

was I teen? Sixteen nine one January?

26:04

Oh yeah, I sure you. My parents didn't

26:06

go to Woodstock, There's no

26:09

way. Natalia was the

26:11

daughter of an engineer and an English

26:13

teacher. She felt lucky to be at ar

26:15

Tech since it was the crown jewel

26:17

of what we're known as pioneer camps.

26:20

I think boy Scout or Girl Scout camp,

26:22

but communist. Was it a pretty

26:25

big deal when you found out you were going to go, oh

26:27

yeah, It was pretty big guilt

26:29

to me, and it was pretty big guilt to my friends. We were all extatic

26:32

because it was it was like winning a lot of I mean, it was

26:34

a huge privilege. Natalia

26:36

was not from the elite. When

26:38

I got to camp, I found out that

26:40

there was a group of kids from political

26:43

elite that were the year of the year of the year.

26:45

They treated Artech as a regular summer

26:47

camp, but most of us,

26:50

we were from different backgrounds, from all over

26:52

the Union, and most of the campers

26:54

that summer had never even met in American

26:57

They got the whole part of our Artech camp

26:59

together at an assembly and the said,

27:01

guess what, there's this girl whose

27:04

personal guests of all of you, of our premier

27:06

and she's coming to visit our tech

27:08

and guess what, We're so lucky because she's going to be guest

27:11

in our camp, and what

27:13

do you think? And we were we were crazy.

27:15

We started. We started cleaning our door

27:17

right away. We started like ironing our uniforms

27:19

right away. In Russia, when when

27:21

any guest comes, it's a big deal. When a foreign

27:24

guest comes, it's a triple big deal. And when the personal

27:26

guest of a premier comes. We were just through

27:29

in seventh Heaven. And the fact that she was

27:31

American made it even more. Yeah, it was

27:33

a big deal because Russian propaganda

27:36

was saying this that American people are peace

27:38

loving people, but the government is brainwashing

27:41

them to believe that we're the enemy. And

27:43

so we thought the cementy is gonna arrive

27:46

and she was gonna look at us like we were

27:48

the enemy. And so then your job,

27:50

as it were, was just to change your mind

27:53

and to show who we really really are, you

27:56

know, our hospitality and how great the country

27:59

is. Because thirteen year

28:01

rold In Natalia spoke more English than

28:03

anyone else, she would be Samantha's

28:05

camp buddy and deliver the welcome

28:08

speech before thousands of campers.

28:10

I had to memorize this speech because my English

28:13

wasn't fluent. It was very

28:16

Rudimentaria. Were you nervous when you delivered

28:18

it? I

28:21

was petrified. My mouth was dry. I

28:23

was yeah, especially like you know,

28:25

the camp counselors. They were young, but they acted like Russian

28:27

grandma's. They would like, spit polished my forehead

28:29

and make sure that everything is perfectly. There was not. There

28:32

was not a wrinkle. I wouldn't They wouldn't let me sit

28:34

some there would There wouldn't be like a wrinkle in my shirt. My

28:37

my ribbons and my my braids were bigger

28:39

than my head. I mean it was.

28:42

It was a huge deal because you were

28:44

essentially you were the lead of the welcome

28:47

committee here. Well, they told me that was

28:49

the face of the country.

28:51

It was to be a simple welcoming ceremony

28:53

for Samantha at r Tech, a Sylvia youth

28:56

camp. But oftentimes the world's largest

28:58

country does simple things and way.

29:00

In this case, two thousand uniformed

29:02

young people and the Communist youth group known as

29:04

the Young Pioneers filled every seat

29:07

of an outdoor theater. It's the same clap and give

29:09

their American guests or warn hello. Now,

29:13

at least Natalia spoke some English.

29:16

Remember Samantha spoke no

29:18

Russian. But Natalia says

29:20

that hardly mattered. I

29:23

remember They was so easy, Like it's

29:25

like it's if we knew each other the whole life.

29:27

It was so easy to kind of communicate,

29:30

even though the language abilities were very limited.

29:32

Just smiling and trading things

29:34

and um, you know, sharing jokes

29:37

and sharing our opinions about cafeteria

29:39

food, about the boys and out troop, about

29:42

bathing suits, me just fivorite.

29:44

Everything was so easy. Although

29:46

she would only be staying for four days. Samantha

29:49

asked to where the Pioneer uniform.

29:52

She was given the uniform with the blue scarf

29:54

for visitors instead of the red one

29:56

worn by Pioneer members. She

29:59

also wanted to sleep in the cabin with the

30:01

other campers. Do you remember

30:04

when the lights went out? Were you quiet or was there

30:06

giggling and whispering and you know, tiptoeing

30:09

around the room and our camp counselor going if

30:11

I have to walk in there one more time? Are

30:13

you're gonna have you know, actual extra duties

30:15

tomorrow? All of that happened

30:17

you, Yes, I would be disappointed

30:20

if there had been no giggling. We

30:22

were so excited. Everybody was. She was excited. We

30:24

were excited me And what was she

30:26

curious about? Everything.

30:28

She wanted to know what kind of music we were listening.

30:30

She wanted to know what kind of books we were reading.

30:33

She wanted to know what kind of sports were

30:35

playing, what kind of dances with dance, you know

30:37

everything. She wanted to do everything. Natalia

30:40

played Italian pop music for Samantha

30:43

like Total Contunio, and

30:49

Samantha played her favorite music at the time

30:52

for Natalia. I can remember the

30:54

cars were huge that summer. I'm

31:00

guessing this was all on cassette tape. Did

31:03

you talk about politics? Was

31:06

that sort of understood or you just weren't interested. Once

31:09

we saw her, we understood that she doesn't

31:11

think we want war and she doesn't

31:13

want war, So it was it was unnecessary.

31:15

It was just never came up because we felt

31:18

that it was not necessary to discuss.

31:20

On Samantha's second day at ar Tech,

31:22

she and other campers wrote out into

31:24

the Black Sea to participate in

31:27

an artech tradition. We would

31:29

write the message with our most sacred

31:32

wish and we would

31:34

see it in this little glass bottle

31:36

and toss it overboard. So

31:39

most kids would We wish for, you know, end

31:41

of starvation. We wish for health, We

31:43

wish for um bright

31:45

future. You know things like that, Samantha

31:48

wrote on her card, I am for peace

31:51

in my lifetime. On the boat,

31:53

they sang a favorite Soviet children's

31:55

song, May They're always

31:58

be sanshine me They're always

32:01

be blue Sky. May They're always

32:04

be Mommy. May They're always

32:06

be me? May

32:12

there always be Sunshine is based

32:15

on a short poem, a Plea for

32:17

Peace, by a four year old Russian

32:19

boy. The song has been performed

32:21

all over the world, translated

32:23

into many languages. The

32:25

kids here and all the people here

32:27

are really much like Americans

32:31

except for the language. And I

32:34

didn't have any trouble um making

32:37

friends. Images

32:39

of Samantha smiling and playing

32:41

in the Black Sea alongside her young

32:43

pioneer comrades delighted

32:46

Soviet audiences, but left

32:48

some viewers in her home country uneasy.

32:51

A CBS report pointed out activities

32:53

at our tech Samantha wasn't being

32:56

shown. These young pioneers

32:58

are out on a different kind of extra size,

33:00

learning to patrol the beaches day and night,

33:03

learning to handle the automatic weapons they carry.

33:05

As part of their summer session at the exclusive

33:08

camp, they are trained by a special section

33:10

of the secret police, the KGB border

33:12

patrols, But for Samantha

33:14

there will be no night patrols on lonely beaches.

33:17

Instead, a festival of clowns and laughing

33:20

bears at an evening concert where

33:22

the slogan is peace and friendship. On

33:25

Samantha's final night at Artech, a

33:27

big Soviet send off. I

33:29

shall my new international friends,

33:32

but we will remain friends. Prossy.

33:35

Let our countries be friends too. Satday,

33:38

I hope to return. Samantha

33:45

says she has been very impressed by the Soviet

33:47

Union. Although her routine is tiring, the

33:49

Soviets seemed to want to show her everything they

33:51

can in tightly packed days. There

33:54

is still no answer to her most important wish

33:56

while in the Soviet Union, a visit with Leader

33:59

Urien drop off Of. On her

34:01

last full day in the Soviet Union,

34:03

Samantha got the news and drop

34:05

Off was unable to meet her. She

34:08

said that he was sorry that he couldn't meet

34:10

with me, and he was just too busy,

34:13

and he wishes me um

34:17

quote for no war and good health. In

34:19

fact, the Soviet leader was already

34:22

dying from kidney failure. There

34:25

had been talking to Samantha, meeting and drop off.

34:28

In retrospect, you think it's good that that meeting didn't

34:30

work out. Does

34:33

it really matter? It might have

34:35

mattered to the political elite, but what

34:37

she wanted to accomplish, I don't think it

34:40

really matter whether she met a or not. And

34:43

what was the goodbye like when you had to say

34:45

goodbye to Samantha. Well, we thought

34:47

that she was going to come back, you know, we thought that maybe

34:49

in a few years they come and visit again. It

34:51

wasn't. It wasn't like a farewell goodbye

34:53

was goodbye for now, I see you later. When

34:58

Samantha landed back in Maine on July,

35:03

more than three hundred people greeted her

35:05

at the airport. She walked down a red

35:07

carpet and wrote a limousine back home.

35:10

On programs like The Phil Donna Hugh Show,

35:13

Samantha reflected on her peace mission

35:17

obviously one of the reasons you wrote this letter. As she felt

35:19

a little scared. I think,

35:21

as you said, be less scared. Yeah,

35:24

really, I don't think I was scared anymore at

35:26

all. What do you

35:28

mean? What? Oh?

35:31

I went to Russia and

35:34

the Soviets and me and

35:36

I got to know each other,

35:40

and they just joined nice people tonight,

35:42

or at least the people I met on

35:45

the other side of the break the conclusion

35:48

of Samantha's story,

36:03

So kids are pretty much the same every where you thinking,

36:07

Unfortunately you didn't get to meet Uri

36:10

Andropov, did you know. Less

36:12

than a week after returning from her trip

36:14

to the Soviet Union, Samantha Smith

36:16

was back on Johnny Carson. Samantha

36:19

told Johnny about her new friend Natalia,

36:21

who back then went by the nickname Natasha.

36:24

You can think you're gonna keep in contact through letters

36:26

within your fringe. Min Oh, We're

36:29

not nowhere close to being definite

36:32

about this, but I made a really close friend

36:34

Natasha that we might invite

36:37

her to America sometimes. He that would be nice.

36:39

When it may have been Samantha's second

36:41

time on the Tonight Show, but she wasn't

36:43

the least bit jaded in both

36:46

instances. There's something

36:49

so just reassuringly,

36:51

refreshingly normal, all

36:54

right, yes, and love. It is such a

36:56

magical age. That's Lori

36:58

Labarre again from the State Museum.

37:01

And I don't think it would have been as successful

37:03

if it had been a teenager. And I

37:05

think really that what we needed was an eleven year old

37:07

to do this? Why because she

37:10

was guileless? She was just what

37:12

you saw is what you got. She was a cheerful,

37:14

happy, smart kid. She

37:17

wasn't a morose seventeen year old listening

37:19

to the Smith's love the Smith's mother. But

37:27

any afterglow in this country from

37:29

Samantha's trip faded quickly.

37:32

Just forty one days after her return,

37:35

a horrific international incident

37:38

on September one,

37:40

the Soviet military shot down

37:42

a Korean Airlines jetliner that

37:44

had drifted into Soviet air space while

37:47

flying between Anchorage and Soul. All

37:50

two hundred sixty nine civilians,

37:52

including a US congressman, were

37:55

killed. Whatever

37:57

goodwill and drop off had engendered

37:59

in the way vanished. Some

38:02

anger was directed at the Smith's Samantha's

38:05

father, Arthur, conveyed the family's

38:07

horror at the massacre, but defended

38:10

the need for peaceful dialogue as

38:12

more important than ever. In

38:15

December of Samantha

38:18

and her mother were invited to Japan

38:20

to address an international children's

38:22

symposium. She wasn't

38:24

in school as much anymore. That's

38:27

childhood friend Sarah Warren again.

38:30

She was always off sort of doing another

38:32

events, which was undoubtedly

38:34

even more educational than school.

38:36

I think that the education she

38:39

was getting was pretty profound

38:41

for for a child. So um

38:45

yeah, I mean her life just completely transformed.

38:49

Most people know me as the girl who want to Russia,

38:51

but now I'm going to Washington. The

38:56

Disney Channel hired Samantha to

38:58

interview most of that year's Democratic

39:00

presidential candidates, including

39:02

Jesse Jackson, George McGovern and

39:05

former Florida Governor Ruben Ask

39:07

you, how do you feel about inviting

39:09

the Soviets over here to talk about peace.

39:12

I think that there's no reason that this this country,

39:15

and the Soviet Union can't get together and start seeking

39:17

at more commonality adventures. With

39:20

all this exposure, perhaps it was inevitable

39:23

that Hollywood would come calling.

39:26

Sarah

39:29

Warren remembers when Samantha began

39:31

acting, appearing in an episode

39:33

of the CBS sitcom Charles

39:35

in Charge, which we were all very jealous

39:37

about because we all had a crush on Scott Bao

39:39

at the time. Soon

39:43

after, she was casting Lime Street,

39:46

a weekly action adventure series

39:49

starring actor Robert Wagner. I

39:52

was very flattered that you asked me to do this, And

39:54

when it comes to Samantha Smith, I'll

39:57

do anything. I met Robert

39:59

Wagen. I grew up watching him on TV's

40:02

Heart to Heart near his home in Aspen,

40:04

Colorado, inside the historic

40:06

hotel Jerome, So tell us

40:09

a landmark. You know that I stayed

40:11

here at nine, Wagner

40:14

says. The producers of Lime Street, Harry

40:16

Thomason and Linda Bloodworth. Thomason

40:19

had first seen Samantha on Johnny

40:21

Carson. Linda had seen her

40:24

and she thought she was, you know,

40:26

just so marvelous

40:29

and had this great quality, and you

40:31

know, the camera just drank her in. I

40:34

meant Samantha, I

40:36

could see exactly what they were talking about.

40:39

In the series, Samantha played Elizabeth

40:41

Culver, the spunky daughter of

40:43

a jet setting insurance investigator

40:46

played by Wagner. Yes,

40:52

are you going to Mary? Why

40:56

not? Because I've already

40:58

got enough press, which get upstairs

41:01

and take that with Some

41:04

people felt betrayed that the little

41:06

diplomat had gone Hollywood. Her

41:08

mother, Jane told the press at the time that

41:10

it wouldn't be natural for Samantha to devote

41:13

her life to Soviet American relations,

41:16

after all, she was a kid. Jessica

41:20

Dwyer remembers when Samantha had just

41:22

gotten her braces off right

41:24

before she left for London, where Lime

41:26

Street was shooting. She was

41:28

in the midst of packing and

41:30

getting things together, and

41:33

sam was just making peace suit at

41:35

the stove, something

41:38

that was soft and wasn't going

41:40

to hurt her. She just a

41:43

typical teenager. Is

41:46

that the last time that you saw her? That

41:49

was the last time that we saw

41:51

it. She left the next day.

41:54

In August, Samantha

41:57

finished filming her fourth episode of

41:59

Lime Street. On she

42:02

and her father Arthur, flew home. Their

42:05

commuter plane from Boston was on its

42:07

final approach to Auburn Lewiston,

42:09

Maine Airport when it crashed just

42:11

two hundred yards from the airport's runway.

42:15

All eight people on board perished.

42:18

This morning, thirteen year old Samantha

42:20

Smith is dead, the victim of a plane

42:22

crash last night in her native Maine. Just

42:25

recently, she began work on a new ABC

42:27

TV series with actor Robert Wagner.

42:30

You know, Samantha maids

42:33

such an impression upon people

42:35

of wand to be taken like that, who

42:38

was unbelievable

42:41

to us, unbelievable, unbelievable

42:46

to young Jessica Dwyer in Maine. It

42:49

took me a long time to accept it.

42:51

Um and I'll share this. I haven't shared it with very

42:53

many people. I always thought that she and

42:56

her dad escaped the

42:59

plane and we're in a and

43:01

that she and her dad were

43:03

living this great life. And I

43:05

think that was just my way

43:08

of keeping

43:11

her memory alive. The

43:13

news was barely comprehensible

43:15

to young Natalia. In Leningrad. There

43:18

was a beautiful a social author who said

43:20

that chazz Ear does not comprehend

43:22

the word death. I mean, I knew

43:25

she died, but I really didn't process

43:27

the loss. Hundreds of mourners

43:30

gathered today and Augusta, Maine, at a memorial

43:32

service for Samantha Smith, the schoolgirl

43:35

whose plea for peace made her internationally

43:37

famous. Well, it was difficult

43:39

to even get into the church because

43:42

there were so many people there. I just

43:45

remember being really sad

43:48

for Jane because she lost

43:50

her family. The

43:53

first Secretary to the Soviet Embassy

43:56

in Washington was among the mourners

43:58

and described Samantha in his eulogy

44:01

as a brilliant beam of sunshine

44:05

that millions old mothers and fathers

44:07

and kids back in

44:09

the Russian in the Soviet Union share

44:12

the being of this tragic loss.

44:16

President Reagan, who had avoided mentioning

44:18

Samantha in public, sent condolences

44:21

to Samantha's mother, Jane in Maine, writing

44:24

that millions of Americans would remember

44:26

Samantha's smile, her idealism,

44:29

and her quote unaffected sweetness

44:32

of spirit. Samantha

44:36

Smith's pioneer uniform, the

44:38

one she wore at Artech, is still

44:40

at the Main State Museum with Lorie

44:42

Labar. When I first walked

44:44

in and saw it, I gasped. The

44:47

uniform. It's just so small,

44:50

just eleven year old girl. It's a reminder

44:53

just this was a small girl. This was a little

44:55

kid. Um, this wasn't an adult.

44:58

This was just someone who

45:00

had asked a question. Samantha's

45:04

death at such an unnaturally young

45:06

age effectively froze her

45:09

legacy as that of a child's peace

45:11

activist. Here's Sarah Warren

45:13

again. As tragic and awful

45:15

as it was that she

45:18

died, it really did draw more

45:21

attention to her trip

45:23

and to what she had done. And

45:26

many of us then found

45:28

a way to make meaning somehow of

45:31

her life and her passing by

45:34

trying to carry forward what she had started.

45:37

All right, So what impact did

45:40

Samantha's improbable life

45:42

as a child diplomat make well

45:44

for starters. Jane Smith established

45:47

the nonprofit Samantha Smith Foundation

45:50

to promote international understanding

45:52

through youth exchange trips. One

45:54

year after Samantha's death, Sarah

45:57

Warren, along with Jane Smith,

45:59

and a group of classmates from Maine, made

46:01

their own trip to the Soviet Union. Well

46:04

essentially, we were following on the same footsteps

46:06

of Samantha and her parents, the same

46:08

trip that they had done. They started

46:10

to understand what their friend had meant

46:13

to the rest of the world. Although

46:15

she had been getting a lot of media coverage in the

46:17

US, she was just downright famous

46:20

in the Soviet Union. Everybody there knew

46:22

who she was. Jessica Dwyer

46:24

went on that trip too. Mobs

46:27

of people just wanted to

46:29

be near us and around

46:31

us. Everywhere we went. We

46:33

were just greeted by so

46:36

many people that wanted to talk

46:38

to us, touch us because

46:41

we knew Samantha. Samantha

46:43

was memorialized in Maine. A

46:46

statue of her holding a dub stands

46:48

outside the main State Museum in Augusta,

46:51

But in the Soviet Union, Samantha's

46:54

face appeared on a postage stamp, on

46:56

murals, her name graced

46:58

schools, street, a flower,

47:01

a ship, a diamond, and asteroid.

47:04

Even a mountain was named in her honor. Samantha

47:07

Smith. Even now she is more popular than

47:10

she is here. Why do you think that is?

47:13

Because maybe for us she was a symbol of hope

47:15

that the relationship could be of

47:17

friendship between the two countries.

47:20

And that gets it perhaps her greatest

47:22

and most ironic legacy.

47:25

By inviting Samantha to the Soviet

47:27

Union, Urie and drop Off was

47:29

hoping to improve the image of his regime

47:32

in America, but the

47:34

opposite kind of happened. American

47:37

University professor Anton Fetiyashin,

47:39

who grew up in the Soviet Union, put

47:42

it this way. Quote The fact

47:44

that Samantha Smith is still remembered

47:46

in Russia but is mostly forgotten

47:48

in the US is testament that

47:50

and drop offs original idea of

47:52

projecting an image to the world was

47:55

reversed by Samantha projecting

47:57

herself much more successfully

47:59

on a Soviet society. In

48:01

other words, Samantha wasn't anyone's

48:04

dupe. By

48:06

the way, the Soviets ended up exporting

48:08

their own version of Samantha In

48:11

ninety six, fifteen year old

48:13

Katya Licheba visited the US

48:16

on a peace mission. Katia actually

48:18

met Reagan briefly, but the

48:20

Soviet Samantha didn't have the

48:22

original Samantha's curiosity or

48:25

charisma and quickly fizzled

48:27

in The Samantha Smith

48:30

Foundation inaugurated its own

48:32

World Peace Camp in Poland

48:34

Spring Maine. Two years later,

48:36

Natalia Rostin visited the

48:38

camp. Was that your first trip to the United

48:41

States was first

48:43

trip abroad? And what did you

48:45

think of Maine when you saw it?

48:47

Beautiful? It

48:51

the nature kind of reminded me a little bit

48:53

of Russia, but not quite like Russia. Lots

48:56

of like the citious trees, you know, the

48:58

greenery view doful, like rolling

49:00

hills. Is there anything you ate

49:02

there that you've never eaten before? Lobster.

49:08

More than thirty years later, as a second

49:10

grade teacher, Natalia includes

49:12

Samantha in her curriculum.

49:15

We learned the story and I always tied into

49:17

writing. I tell you know, writing is your superpower.

49:20

You know you want to change the world, you need to learn how to write.

49:23

Look at Samantha, you know she made a huge

49:25

impact because she was write. She knew she

49:27

knew what she wanted to say, and she says she stay did it clearly.

49:30

And how did the kids react to the story of Semanthea

49:33

inspired? They get inspired,

49:35

They get inspired by that. You know, the

49:38

kids have have power working

49:40

on this mobid. I've thought about all

49:42

that Samantha didn't live to see.

49:45

Just three months after she died, President

49:48

Reagan and then Soviet leader Mikhail

49:50

Gorbachev met for the first time

49:52

to discuss nuclear disarmament.

49:55

Just six years later, the Soviet

49:58

Union dissolved. I

50:00

also wondered what Samantha would be doing

50:02

today. When I spoke to her childhood

50:04

friend Sarah Warren back in July,

50:08

it was just a few days past Samantha's

50:10

birthday. Samantha would have turned

50:12

fifty on June.

50:15

And it's

50:19

sorry, it's pretty

50:21

profound to

50:23

think about what she did all

50:26

those years ago. And

50:28

I don't know. I try not to think

50:30

about her too much as an adult because I think

50:32

she did what she needed to as a kid. But

50:36

um, and we want

50:38

a legacy, you know. I'm

50:40

sure had she lived to be fifty, she

50:42

would have been beautiful and she would have been doing lots

50:45

of amazing things in the world. But in

50:48

her, you know, short thirteen

50:50

years, she did more than a lot of people do

50:52

in fifty. So Samantha's

50:55

life was short, But the questions

50:57

she asked in that handwritten letter all

51:00

those years ago, her plea for

51:02

peace are no less powerful

51:04

today. I

51:10

hope you enjoyed this Mobituary.

51:12

May I ask you to please rate and review our

51:15

podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries

51:17

on Facebook and Instagram, and you

51:19

can follow me on Twitter at Morocca.

51:22

Here all new episodes of Mobituaries

51:25

every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts

51:28

and check out Mobituaries Great Lives

51:30

Worth Reliving, the New York Times

51:32

best selling book now available in

51:35

paperback and audio book that

51:37

includes plenty of stories not in this

51:39

podcast. This episode

51:41

of Mobituaries was produced by

51:43

Aaron Shrank. Our team of producers

51:45

also includes Wilco, Martinez Caccetro,

51:48

and Me Morocca. It was edited

51:51

by Moral Walls and engineered

51:53

by Josh Hahn, with fat checking

51:55

by Catherine Newhan. Our production

51:57

company is Neon Houm Media. Our

52:00

chival producer doing his home state

52:02

of Maine proud is Jamie Benson.

52:05

Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart.

52:07

Indispensable support from Craig

52:09

Swaggler, Dustin Gervei, Alan

52:12

Pang, Reggie Basil, and everyone

52:14

at CBS News Radio. Special

52:17

thanks to Lena Nelson, Mary lou

52:19

Till, Megan Marcus, Barbara

52:21

Quill for her reporting on Samantha's trip,

52:24

and Alberto Robina, and

52:26

our deepest appreciation to Jane

52:29

Smith, the Imperturbable

52:31

Aaron Shrank as our senior producer.

52:34

Executive producers for Mobituaries include

52:36

Steve raise E's and Morocca. The

52:38

series is created by yours truly

52:41

and as always, thanks to Rand Morrison

52:43

and John carp for helping breathe

52:45

life into Mobituaries.

52:49

M