Samantha Smith…..

Posted by: Avanish on: July 1, 2008

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People would be wondering why am I writing about some one who is almost very rarely known to most of us. Actually I was reading about the aftermaths of world war II, the most obvious was the cold war regime that split the world into two poles. This bipolar structure had put world under extreme pressure that small countries were almost loosing their real sovereign power over their territory and democracy. Soviet’s communism was a great threat for democratic countries and democratic USA was equally dangerous for communist countries. This era has lead world to witness many wars or tensions in most of the countries while the superpowers worked to prove their dominance- Cuba, Vietnam, Korean, Afghanistan, libiya etc are the examples.

People were very much assured that these powers will usher a nuclear war to end each others supremacy and if it had happened probably world would have been in most grim disturbance ever seen or imagined.

In 1982, Yuri Andropov was deputed as the general secretary of “Communist Party of Soviet Union”, the most influential and authoritative position in USSR. The relations between Russia and were said to at their lowest point. He received a letter from an American girl “Samantha Smith” where she expressed her concerns about the future of world and especially USA. Samantha was just 10 at that time. following is the letter and reply from Andropov.

Samantha to Andropov

Dear Mr. Andropov,

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

Sincerely,

“Samantha Smith”

When I read the letter’s copy from wikipedia, I was overjoyed how a small girl can be so daring yet so humble, honest, innocent and patriotic that she questioned the supremo of the world’s most powerful nation…Salutes to Her!!!. The effect she had brought through this sweet and small letter was unimaginable. Following is the generous reply from Andropov

Andropov to Samantha

Dear Samantha,

I received your letter, which is like many others that have reached me recently from your country and from other countries around the world.

It seems to me – I can tell by your letter – that you are a courageous and honest girl, resembling Becky, the friend of Tom Sawyer in the famous book of your compatriot Mark Twain. This book is well known and loved in our country by all boys and girls.

You write that you are anxious about whether there will be a nuclear war between our two countries. And you ask are we doing anything so that war will not break out.

Your question is the most important of those that every thinking man can pose. I will reply to you seriously and honestly.

Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are trying to do everything so that there will not be war on Earth. This is what every Soviet man wants. This is what the great founder of our state, Vladimir Lenin, taught us.

Soviet people well know what a terrible thing war is. Forty-two years ago, Nazi Germany, which strove for supremacy over the whole world, attacked our country, burned and destroyed many thousands of our towns and villages, killed millions of Soviet men, women and children.

In that war, which ended with our victory, we were in alliance with the United States: together we fought for the liberation of many people from the Nazi invaders. I hope that you know about this from your history lessons in school. And today we want very much to live in peace, to trade and cooperate with all our neighbors on this earth—with those far away and those near by. And certainly with such a great country as the United States of America.

In America and in our country there are nuclear weapons—terrible weapons that can kill millions of people in an instant. But we do not want them to be ever used. That’s precisely why the Soviet Union solemnly declared throughout the entire world that never–never–will it use nuclear weapons first against any country. In general we propose to discontinue further production of them and to proceed to the abolition of all the stockpiles on earth.

It seems to me that this is a sufficient answer to your second question: ‘Why do you want to wage war against the whole world or at least the United States?’ We want nothing of the kind. No one in our country– neither workers, peasants, writers nor doctors, neither grown-ups nor children, nor members of the government–want either a big or ‘little’ war.

We want peace—there is something that we are occupied with: growing wheat, building and inventing, writing books and flying into space. We want peace for ourselves and for all peoples of the planet. For our children and for you, Samantha.

I invite you, if your parents will let you, to come to our country, the best time being this summer. You will find out about our country, meet with your contemporaries, visit an international children’s camp – ‘Artek‘ – on the sea. And see for yourself: in the Soviet Union, everyone is for peace and friendship among peoples.

Thank you for your letter. I wish you all the best in your young life.

“Y. Andropov”

The Result of letter was pretty clear, she was the youngest “Goodwill ambassador” to these countries. She visited USSR in 1983. Unfortunately she died in a plane crash in 1985.

Later Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev worked on policies to ease the tension and bilateral confidence building measures. In 1991, Soviet’s S communism found its graveyard in its own motherland and most of countries of USSR embraced democracy.

The contributions of Samantha will still be remembered….President Reagan sent his condolences to Smith’s mother, writing,

“Perhaps you can take some measure of comfort in the knowledge that millions of Americans, indeed millions of people, share the burdens of your grief. They also will cherish and remember Samantha, her smile, her idealism and unaffected sweetness of spirit.”