Speaker 1: Like most of my generation, I grew up scared as
Speaker 1: hell of nuclear armageddon. Sometimes my father would sit at
Speaker 1: the edge of my bed and tell me not to worry,
Speaker 1: that nuclear war wouldn't happen, precisely because the superpowers had
Speaker 1: the capacity to blow each other up the military doctrine
Speaker 1: of mutual assured destruction. I'm not sure if he believed
Speaker 1: it or if he was just trying to make me
Speaker 1: feel better. Roger, this is not an exercise. But I
Speaker 1: was worried enough that I made sure to watch a
Speaker 1: made for TV movie on ABC called The Day After.
Speaker 1: It aired right before Thanksgiving with limited commercials, so you
Speaker 1: knew this was a really big deal. It depicted the
Speaker 1: destruction of Kansas City after a nuclear attack. Roger understanding
Speaker 1: missiles and bound Nountain. The Day After was shockingly graphic
Speaker 1: for the time. What I remember most, though, isn't the
Speaker 1: scene of the incineration a lot of people turning into skeletons,
Speaker 1: but the scene right before. A character played by Jason
Speaker 1: Robards is driving on the highway when enemy nuclear weapons
Speaker 1: detonate overhead. Suddenly, all the cars simply stopped running. They
Speaker 1: go silent. Robards and the other drivers tried turning their ignitions,
Speaker 1: but nothing. In other words, a nuclear bomb would subvert
Speaker 1: nature on such an elemental molecular level that cars everywhere
Speaker 1: would just go dead. I have no idea that the
Speaker 1: science on this checks out, but watching it then it
Speaker 1: was so completely unnerving. I was fourteen when the movie
Speaker 1: came out, a few years too old to admit how
Speaker 1: scared I was, but it's a good bet that most
Speaker 1: of the record breaking one hundred million Americans who watched
Speaker 1: that movie were just as afraid. We did watch it
Speaker 1: as a family, and it was deeply disturbing. I still
Speaker 1: have images in my head of it just being gray
Speaker 1: and dark, and people staggering through the destroyed wilderness. What
Speaker 1: we have seen, the missiles launched, the nuclear explosions, the
Speaker 1: devastating results, was all fiction. But what brought us to
Speaker 1: that point is fact. It's something we've been living with
Speaker 1: for years. It's the arms race. But not everyone was
Speaker 1: paralyzed by the fear of nuclear war. The previous November,
Speaker 1: a schoolgirl from Maine, a few years younger than me,
Speaker 1: decided to do something. She wrote a letter, a letter
Speaker 1: that asked a simple, eminently sane, and sensible question. Somehow
Speaker 1: Samantha managed to boil things down to the essence. We
Speaker 1: are all human beings and we shouldn't be looking to
Speaker 1: annihilate each other. And that letter made big news, and finally, tonight,
Speaker 1: the story of Samantha Smith, a ten year old girl
Speaker 1: from Manchester, Maine. At one of the tensest periods in
Speaker 1: Cold War history, Samantha Smith ended up going to the
Speaker 1: Soviet Union. The people that have been to the Soviet
Speaker 1: Union have a definite answer, them not wanting more and
Speaker 1: wanting peace, just like I do. She was an ordinary
Speaker 1: girl with an uncommon touch. She was that beam of
Speaker 1: sunshine that broke through the cold ice of cold work.
Speaker 1: Her life may have been short, she had such potential
Speaker 1: mo she could have done anything, but she left a
Speaker 1: powerful legacy and her short thirteen years she did more
Speaker 1: than a lot of people do. In fifty from CBS
Speaker 1: Sunday Morning, and I Heart, I'm Morocca And this is mobituaries,
Speaker 1: This mobid Samantha Smith. August the death of a peacemaker.
Speaker 1: Hi nice squeezed and I think At Manchester Elementary School
Speaker 1: in Manchester, Maine, the story of its most notable alum
Speaker 1: lives on. So today we're talking about Samantha Smith, who
Speaker 1: was a student at this school. Teachers like Mrs O'Brien
Speaker 1: have been telling Samantha Smith's story for forty years. So
Speaker 1: she and her parents traveled to the Soviet Union. And
Speaker 1: this is a picture of Samantha holding up the letter
Speaker 1: she became famous and this shy, really sweet little girl
Speaker 1: from Manchester, Maine, all of a sudden was being interviewed.
Speaker 1: Look at all the microphones in front of her. Samantha's
Speaker 1: story makes an immediate impression on the kids. What is
Speaker 1: the thing that sort of stands out? Um, probably how
Speaker 1: she's always smiling, Um, that she's always happy. She could
Speaker 1: It's basically like she could walk into any room with
Speaker 1: people at are grouchy and she can cheer him up
Speaker 1: in a matter of seconds. That's wild to be in
Speaker 1: this school that she went to, Yah, And I think
Speaker 1: that's the great part for the kids when they're sitting
Speaker 1: in the classroom and you can say, like, this is
Speaker 1: where she sat. I mean, so she was just like you.
Speaker 1: Jessica Dwyer is another one of the teachers telling Samantha's
Speaker 1: story today. She really knows the subject matter. Jessica and
Speaker 1: Samantha were students at this school together forty years ago
Speaker 1: and close friends. The pictures that I have, the memories
Speaker 1: that I have, which are fading, I think because it's
Speaker 1: been a while. She was always giggling and laughing. That's
Speaker 1: what I remember. Jessica met Samantha in the third grade
Speaker 1: when the Smith family first moved to Manchester, a town
Speaker 1: of about two thousand, just a few miles outside of Augusta,
Speaker 1: Mains Capital. It must have been hard to join as
Speaker 1: a new kid, but it did not take her long
Speaker 1: at all to develop lots of friends. Sarah Warren was
Speaker 1: another classmate and friend of Samantha's. Her mom was a
Speaker 1: Girl Scout troop leader, so we used to have some
Speaker 1: of our troop meetings at their house. Samantha's mother, Jane Smith,
Speaker 1: was a social worker for the State of Maine. Samantha
Speaker 1: was an only child. Samantha was just a very extroverted,
Speaker 1: bubbly kid. I can remember we were trying to learn
Speaker 1: how to dance like Michael Jackson because that was the
Speaker 1: era of thriller. So we were in the living room,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to learn how to moonwalk, and Samantha
Speaker 1: was leading the way. So she was she was fun.
Speaker 1: Samantha's father, Arthur Smith, was a college English professor. When
Speaker 1: Samantha was little, she would sit in on some of
Speaker 1: his classes, including one he taught about letter writing. At
Speaker 1: age five, Samantha wrote a letter to the Queen of
Speaker 1: England and got a postcard response from her lady in waiting. Yeah. See,
Speaker 1: I mean I wrote to the American presidents, but I
Speaker 1: don't know that it ever occurred to me to write
Speaker 1: to leaders of other countries. Oh, Sarah, you needed to
Speaker 1: think bigger, You needed to go global. I got there eventually.
Speaker 1: Sarah now works in the Baltimore Public School system. Before that,
Speaker 1: she spent many years doing aid work overseas, including in
Speaker 1: war zones, partly inspired by what Samantha did back three
Speaker 1: when they were just kids. I'm just a few years
Speaker 1: older than you are. I remember being terrified by the
Speaker 1: idea of nuclear war. Were you were you scared? I
Speaker 1: was terrified. I can remember a period of time in
Speaker 1: the fourth grade where I woke up every day with
Speaker 1: a stomachache, and it was because I was afraid of war.
Speaker 1: It felt like a real possibility there for for a
Speaker 1: period of time. And I remember that especially in the
Speaker 1: fourth grade, which I guess must have been impressing Samantha
Speaker 1: to you know, and been pressing on her mind, because um,
Speaker 1: that was around you know, the time that she ended
Speaker 1: up writing a letter. Ah, yes, the letter. We'll get
Speaker 1: to that, but first some context. In November of two,
Speaker 1: Soviet leader Leoned Bresnev died after eighteen years in power. Now,
Speaker 1: as a kid, I remember the Soviet leaders as a
Speaker 1: succession of crypt keepers, each one more ghoulish than the
Speaker 1: one who came before. The guy who took over right
Speaker 1: after Bresnev was a former head of the KGB spy
Speaker 1: agency named Yuri and drop Of. As ambassador to Budapest
Speaker 1: in nifty six, he oversaw the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution.
Speaker 1: As head of the KGB for fifteen years, he directed
Speaker 1: the Soviet campaign against the dissident movement. To soften and
Speaker 1: Dropov's image, the Kremlin pr operation not exactly. Madison Avenue
Speaker 1: put out that the new leader spoke fluent English and
Speaker 1: loved American jazz, So relax everyone, this Soviet leader was
Speaker 1: a hepcat. It was around this time that Samantha was
Speaker 1: watching a science program about nuclear war on public TV
Speaker 1: that scared her much like the day after would later
Speaker 1: scare me. She couldn't shake that idea that I could
Speaker 1: all be over tomorrow. Looking for some reassurance, Samantha and
Speaker 1: her mother Jane, together read in November cover story of
Speaker 1: Time magazine about and drop off. It didn't make Samantha
Speaker 1: any less worried, and she told her mother that her
Speaker 1: mother should write a letter and Jane, her mom apparently
Speaker 1: turned around and said, will you write the letter? And
Speaker 1: I do think that her writing a letter as a
Speaker 1: child was much more powerful than any adult writing a letter.
Speaker 1: She wrote the following words, Dear Mr androp Off, my
Speaker 1: name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations
Speaker 1: on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia
Speaker 1: and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are
Speaker 1: you going to vote to have a war or not?
Speaker 1: If you aren't, please tell me how you are going
Speaker 1: to help to not have a war. This question you
Speaker 1: do not have to answer, but I would like it
Speaker 1: if you would. Why do you want to conquer the
Speaker 1: world or at least our country. God made the world
Speaker 1: for us to share and take care of, not to
Speaker 1: fight over or have one group of people own it all.
Speaker 1: Please let's do what he wanted and have everybody be
Speaker 1: happy to Samantha Smith, Manchester, Main, USA, PS, please right
Speaker 1: back out of the mouths of babes, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: why do you want to have a war with our country? Um?
Speaker 1: Which is really what adults should be asking each other,
Speaker 1: you know. I think sometimes adults over complicate things, and
Speaker 1: she was getting down to the basics. At the time
Speaker 1: Samantha wrote her letter, Soviet and American leaders hadn't held
Speaker 1: a real meeting in five years. The Soviet Union's stock
Speaker 1: pile of nuclear weapons had surpassed that of the US,
Speaker 1: and neither superpower was backing away from the build up.
Speaker 1: Do or prior, the doomsday clock, the symbol of how
Speaker 1: close mankind was to annihilation stood it four minutes to midnight,
Speaker 1: perilously close to midnight. While Samantha was waiting for a response,
Speaker 1: U S President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense initiative,
Speaker 1: called star Wars by the press. The program pledged hundreds
Speaker 1: of billions of dollars to build a laser based system
Speaker 1: to intercept Soviet missiles. The President also delivered his now
Speaker 1: famous Evil Empire speech to the National Association of Evangelicals
Speaker 1: in Orlando. I urge you to beware the temptation of pride,
Speaker 1: the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all, and
Speaker 1: label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts
Speaker 1: of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire,
Speaker 1: to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding, and
Speaker 1: thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong
Speaker 1: and good and evil. Weeks later, the Soviet state newspaper
Speaker 1: Pravda published an article featuring letters written by Westerners concerned
Speaker 1: about nuclear war. They included Samantha's letter. The next day,
Speaker 1: back at Manchester Elementary, the school secretary, Mrs Peabody called
Speaker 1: Samantha into the principal's office to take a call from
Speaker 1: an American reporter. Ten year old Samantha Smith of Manchester
Speaker 1: Made was one of three Americans whose quotes appeared in
Speaker 1: yesterday's edition of Pravda. She says she wanted to get
Speaker 1: the complicated story cleared up ask him questions about nuculate
Speaker 1: war because I wasn't I'm not that sure. It's a
Speaker 1: little bit hard to understand the news that because they
Speaker 1: put it in grown up words, you know, I can't
Speaker 1: understand what they mean, but what Samantha really couldn't understand
Speaker 1: Why didn't she receive a response? They published her letter
Speaker 1: in Pravda, but Entropov couldn't write her back, so she
Speaker 1: wrote another letter, this time to the Soviet embassy in Washington,
Speaker 1: d c. Expressing her disappointment. A week later, she got
Speaker 1: a call from a Soviet official a heavily accented voice,
Speaker 1: telling her to watch the mail. At first, Samantha thought
Speaker 1: it might be one of her dad's friends playing a joke.
Speaker 1: It wasn't. Just a few days later, a special envelope
Speaker 1: arrived at the small town post office, addressed to Samantha
Speaker 1: and signed by Urie and drop off. Samantha and her
Speaker 1: dad read the letter on the way to school, and
Speaker 1: her dad wouldn't let her bring it to school because
Speaker 1: she was He was afraid that she would lose it.
Speaker 1: Can you picture your parents saying that you can't take
Speaker 1: this important letter to school. It just came in the
Speaker 1: mail at seven this morning. What do you think when
Speaker 1: you go? I was happy. I was happy that he
Speaker 1: had responded after I had already complained that he hadn't,
Speaker 1: And it basically said that he didn't want to rule
Speaker 1: the world. He did want to have a war that
Speaker 1: he respected children, and he talked about the children and
Speaker 1: his family. And drop Off compared her to the character
Speaker 1: of Becky Thatcher in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, because he
Speaker 1: wrote she was brave and smart, and he invited her
Speaker 1: to come and visit the Soviet Union. Samantha, you recall,
Speaker 1: is the eleven year old from Maine who wrote erion
Speaker 1: drop Off about her concern over nuclear war. She says
Speaker 1: she hardly expected a personal invitation to visit the Soviet Union.
Speaker 1: Now it remains unclear if Andropov himself actually wrote the letter,
Speaker 1: and it's impossible to know what the Kremlin's precise aim
Speaker 1: was here. Inviting an American girl to the otherwise cloistered
Speaker 1: nation was a dramatic public relations gambit for the newly
Speaker 1: minted Soviet leader. One possibility, since the struggling Soviet economy
Speaker 1: couldn't keep up with US defense spending, perhaps in drop
Speaker 1: Off wanted instead to appeal directly to the American people
Speaker 1: and undercut public support for Reagan's hardline stance against the Soviets.
Speaker 1: Andropov has been trying hard to shed his bad cop image.
Speaker 1: He left the KGB six months ago to improve his
Speaker 1: chances for leadership. It wouldn't have been the first time
Speaker 1: a Soviet leader tried to use a child to soften
Speaker 1: his image. In ninety six, Joseph Stalin took a photo
Speaker 1: embracing an adorable seven year old Indigenous Siberian girl named Gellia.
Speaker 1: The image became iconic propaganda of the Stalinist era, depicted
Speaker 1: in countless posters, murals, and sculptures, and no wonder, little
Speaker 1: Gallia beams Stalin looks warm, positively paternal. But only a
Speaker 1: year after the photo was taken, Gallia's parents were arrested
Speaker 1: on suspicion of disloyalty, her father executed, and her mother
Speaker 1: dying in exile. What did you really expect a happy ending?
Speaker 1: We're talking Stalwin here now. A letter from the Soviet
Speaker 1: leader to an American school kid would have made news
Speaker 1: no matter what. But it just so happened that and
Speaker 1: drop Off wrote to a kid with a charisma that
Speaker 1: very soon captivated the media. She's a fifth grader who
Speaker 1: wrote to and received the now famous letter from Soviet
Speaker 1: leader Urie and drop Off. Would you welcome ten year
Speaker 1: old Samantha Smith on The Tonight Show Johnny Carson introduced
Speaker 1: Samantha to the world. She was funny. Are you getting
Speaker 1: tired of answering all the questions that people like myself
Speaker 1: when the people on the news show are asking you? Yes.
Speaker 1: I remember her sitting in the chair and her little
Speaker 1: legs dangling over and swinging because she could reached the floor.
Speaker 1: And she was just bubbly and cute. She was unaffected.
Speaker 1: How did you get the idea to write the letter? Well,
Speaker 1: nukiwarved and on t be a lot lately and it
Speaker 1: got to be so little steady on TV. I got scared.
Speaker 1: It's remarkable how at ease she was. There's nothing kid
Speaker 1: act or about her. You've never heard of me before
Speaker 1: you came on the show. Ye did they tell you
Speaker 1: anything about me? They told me or a median. What
Speaker 1: immediately comes across is her smile. Whether it was her
Speaker 1: natural disposition or the product of a happy upbringing, she
Speaker 1: just had a great natural smile. This is no small thing.
Speaker 1: I had a terrible smile when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: Part of it was that I was trying to match
Speaker 1: the smile of people on toothpaste commercials. A high bar,
Speaker 1: I know. But I was in a song in dance
Speaker 1: troop when I was in junior high and I needed
Speaker 1: a smile to match the sequence we wore when we
Speaker 1: performed at White Flint Mall in Rockville, Maryland. Anyway, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget when one day in rehearsal, I was really
Speaker 1: pushing my smile and the British director walked up to
Speaker 1: me and said, I know what you think it looks like,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't. It was devastating because she was right
Speaker 1: after that, I stuck with a closed lip smile for
Speaker 1: the rest of junior high and all of high school.
Speaker 1: Samantha smile, on the other hand, was dynamite, as the
Speaker 1: world could now see. I mean, that was big news
Speaker 1: in Manchester Main. I don't think anything is big in
Speaker 1: my recollection has happened before or since. The classmate, Jessica
Speaker 1: Dwyer says that while she knew Samantha had poked her
Speaker 1: head into the adult world in a big way, Samantha
Speaker 1: herself kept things real. The period when Samantha got the
Speaker 1: reply from her letter, it was kept very separate from us. Yes,
Speaker 1: they the media was here, we'd be outside at recess,
Speaker 1: but Samantha it wasn't something we talked about because I
Speaker 1: think she didn't want to stand out in any way.
Speaker 1: As for and drop offs invitation to visit the Soviet
Speaker 1: Union this summer, Samantha is waiting for a decision by
Speaker 1: her kitchen cabinet, her mom and dad. Samantha knew she
Speaker 1: wanted to go. When she asked her father, he said,
Speaker 1: we'll see. She knew he always said that before saying yes.
Speaker 1: As she finished up fifth grade, Samantha made plans for
Speaker 1: her diplomatic visit to the Soviet Union in July. Samantha
Speaker 1: would later write, lots of questions came into my head
Speaker 1: when I looked at pictures of Soviet people. I wondered
Speaker 1: if I could be friends with Soviet kids. What they
Speaker 1: think that I was a spy or that I was
Speaker 1: afraid of them? What they think that I wanted to
Speaker 1: conquer them. She flew with her parents, first to Boston,
Speaker 1: then on to Montreal, where the press attention was already
Speaker 1: starting to annoy. Her mom told me not to say
Speaker 1: it is because it's not you. It's your job. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're really pstoring. I ended a biting the nigrophore. But
Speaker 1: the trip was not without risks coming up. Samantha's two
Speaker 1: week adventure in the Soviet Union. So this is the
Speaker 1: kind of folk art that she was given people who
Speaker 1: gave all kinds of things, Lots of little dolls, lots
Speaker 1: of little teddy bears. There must be forty teddy bears.
Speaker 1: Lori Labar is chief curator of History and Decorative Arts
Speaker 1: at the Main State Museum in Augusta. She's showing me
Speaker 1: the gifts that Samantha Smith received on her trip to
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union in the summer of three, including a
Speaker 1: samovar from the Kremlin. This is beautiful. It's a tea urn. Essentially,
Speaker 1: most tea goes in there, and the water goes in there.
Speaker 1: And what did these gifts mean? I think they were
Speaker 1: gifts of friendship, someone saying thank you for coming, Welcome
Speaker 1: to my world. But at the heart of it, Samantha
Speaker 1: was essentially saying, why can't we be friends? That's exactly
Speaker 1: what she was saying. That was the whole trip. She
Speaker 1: spent two weeks saying why can't we be friends. When
Speaker 1: they arrived in Moscow, Samantha, who had just turned to Levin,
Speaker 1: and her parents, Arthur and Jane, were greeted by guides
Speaker 1: from the Soviet Friendship Society. They paid for the trip,
Speaker 1: and Samantha gave a brief press conference for the thirty
Speaker 1: or so reporters who would follow her on her trip.
Speaker 1: He promised me that he wouldn't He wouldn't start a war.
Speaker 1: Russia wouldn't start a war, and we America says that
Speaker 1: they won't start a war either. Then how can we
Speaker 1: keep making both for a warfare no one started? According
Speaker 1: to Samantha's mother, the Smith's Soviet hosts asked the family
Speaker 1: what they'd like to see, and then proceeded to help
Speaker 1: the family what they were going to see. Samantha visited
Speaker 1: Lennon's tomb, She tried chicken Kiev. She met Valentina Tereshkova,
Speaker 1: the first female cosmonaut. Not everything went as planned. At
Speaker 1: one point, the Soviet made limousine baring the Smith's broke down.
Speaker 1: It was hastily replaced. Now, the US government avoided taking
Speaker 1: any official position on Samantha's trip, not wanting to co
Speaker 1: sign a Soviet propaganda ploy. I think they were very
Speaker 1: worried because, you know, there could have been an accident.
Speaker 1: She could have been a tool of the Soviet Union,
Speaker 1: a propaganda duke. Yes, exactly Before they even left on
Speaker 1: their trip, the Smith family was flooded with letters, many
Speaker 1: from relatives of Soviet Jews desperate to leave the country.
Speaker 1: The family shied away from any particular cause beyond peace,
Speaker 1: but passed a packet of the letters along. They two
Speaker 1: were worried about Samantha being a propaganda pawn. Once during
Speaker 1: the trip, a group of students asked Samantha to sign
Speaker 1: a petition that condemned US foreign policy, but one of
Speaker 1: her Soviet guides swooped in before she could sign it.
Speaker 1: When Samantha and her parents visited Red Square, her father Arthur,
Speaker 1: was asked to lay a flower wreath on the tomb
Speaker 1: of the Unknown Soldier, a monument to the Soviet World
Speaker 1: War two dead. Afraid to offend his hosts, he went
Speaker 1: ahead and did it. Fortunately this was before Twitter. Be
Speaker 1: glad Samantha was already a household name and face across
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. As she put it herself, it's a
Speaker 1: funny feeling to see articles about yourself with pictures in
Speaker 1: a newspaper you can't read. Most surprising to the Russian
Speaker 1: readers following her every move, Samantha had been invited to
Speaker 1: Camp ar Tech on the Crimean Peninsula. It's a place
Speaker 1: every Soviet kid dreamed of going. ARC Tech is one
Speaker 1: place that Soviet leader Urion drop Off really wanted Samantha
Speaker 1: to see, to meet and talk with kids her own age,
Speaker 1: and to see for herself that everyone in the Soviet
Speaker 1: Union wants peace and friendship. When it was Natalia Rosten,
Speaker 1: I'm a teacher. It's been a long time since I've
Speaker 1: sat in a second grade classroom chair. It's actually been
Speaker 1: I guess, uh forty five years. But it feels nice. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in a chair made for a second grader.
Speaker 1: And no, it actually doesn't feel nice. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: the right size for this desk with the chairs and
Speaker 1: totally needs won't fit. Natalia Roston now teaches second grade
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, but during Samantha's visit, she was a
Speaker 1: Soviet kid raised in the city then called Lennon Grad
Speaker 1: and a camper at Camp ar Tech. I think you
Speaker 1: and I around the same age. What year were you born?
Speaker 1: As was I teen? Sixteen nine one January? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I sure you. My parents didn't go to Woodstock, There's
Speaker 1: no way. Natalia was the daughter of an engineer and
Speaker 1: an English teacher. She felt lucky to be at ar
Speaker 1: Tech since it was the crown jewel of what we're
Speaker 1: known as pioneer camps. I think boy Scout or Girl
Speaker 1: Scout camp, but communist. Was it a pretty big deal
Speaker 1: when you found out you were going to go, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: It was pretty big guilt to me, and it was
Speaker 1: pretty big guilt to my friends. We were all extatic
Speaker 1: because it was it was like winning a lot of
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a huge privilege. Natalia was not
Speaker 1: from the elite. When I got to camp, I found
Speaker 1: out that there was a group of kids from political
Speaker 1: elite that were the year of the year of the year.
Speaker 1: They treated Artech as a regular summer camp, but most
Speaker 1: of us, we were from different backgrounds, from all over
Speaker 1: the Union, and most of the campers that summer had
Speaker 1: never even met in American They got the whole part
Speaker 1: of our Artech camp together at an assembly and the said,
Speaker 1: guess what, there's this girl whose personal guests of all
Speaker 1: of you, of our premier and she's coming to visit
Speaker 1: our tech and guess what, We're so lucky because she's
Speaker 1: going to be guest in our camp, and what do
Speaker 1: you think? And we were we were crazy. We started.
Speaker 1: We started cleaning our door right away. We started like
Speaker 1: ironing our uniforms right away. In Russia, when when any
Speaker 1: guest comes, it's a big deal. When a foreign guest comes,
Speaker 1: it's a triple big deal. And when the personal guest
Speaker 1: of a premier comes. We were just through in seventh Heaven.
Speaker 1: And the fact that she was American made it even more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a big deal because Russian propaganda was saying
Speaker 1: this that American people are peace loving people, but the
Speaker 1: government is brainwashing them to believe that we're the enemy.
Speaker 1: And so we thought the cementy is gonna arrive and
Speaker 1: she was gonna look at us like we were the enemy.
Speaker 1: And so then your job, as it were, was just
Speaker 1: to change your mind and to show who we really
Speaker 1: really are, you know, our hospitality and how great the
Speaker 1: country is. Because thirteen year rold In Natalia spoke more
Speaker 1: English than anyone else, she would be Samantha's camp buddy
Speaker 1: and deliver the welcome speech before thousands of campers. I
Speaker 1: had to memorize this speech because my English wasn't fluent.
Speaker 1: It was very Rudimentaria. Were you nervous when you delivered it?
Speaker 1: I was petrified. My mouth was dry. I was yeah,
Speaker 1: especially like you know, the camp counselors. They were young,
Speaker 1: but they acted like Russian grandma's. They would like, spit
Speaker 1: polished my forehead and make sure that everything is perfectly.
Speaker 1: There was not. There was not a wrinkle. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: They wouldn't let me sit some there would There wouldn't
Speaker 1: be like a wrinkle in my shirt. My my ribbons
Speaker 1: and my my braids were bigger than my head. I
Speaker 1: mean it was. It was a huge deal because you
Speaker 1: were essentially you were the lead of the welcome committee here. Well,
Speaker 1: they told me that was the face of the country.
Speaker 1: It was to be a simple welcoming ceremony for Samantha
Speaker 1: at r Tech, a Sylvia youth camp. But oftentimes the
Speaker 1: world's largest country does simple things and way. In this case,
Speaker 1: two thousand uniformed young people and the Communist youth group
Speaker 1: known as the Young Pioneers filled every seat of an
Speaker 1: outdoor theater. It's the same clap and give their American
Speaker 1: guests or warn hello. Now, at least Natalia spoke some English.
Speaker 1: Remember Samantha spoke no Russian. But Natalia says that hardly mattered.
Speaker 1: I remember They was so easy, Like it's like it's
Speaker 1: if we knew each other the whole life. It was
Speaker 1: so easy to kind of communicate, even though the language
Speaker 1: abilities were very limited. Just smiling and trading things and um,
Speaker 1: you know, sharing jokes and sharing our opinions about cafeteria food,
Speaker 1: about the boys and out troop, about bathing suits, me
Speaker 1: just fivorite. Everything was so easy. Although she would only
Speaker 1: be staying for four days. Samantha asked to where the
Speaker 1: Pioneer uniform. She was given the uniform with the blue
Speaker 1: scarf for visitors instead of the red one worn by
Speaker 1: Pioneer members. She also wanted to sleep in the cabin
Speaker 1: with the other campers. Do you remember when the lights
Speaker 1: went out? Were you quiet or was there giggling and
Speaker 1: whispering and you know, tiptoeing around the room and our
Speaker 1: camp counselor going if I have to walk in there
Speaker 1: one more time? Are you're gonna have you know, actual
Speaker 1: extra duties tomorrow? All of that happened you, Yes, I
Speaker 1: would be disappointed if there had been no giggling. We
Speaker 1: were so excited. Everybody was. She was excited. We were
Speaker 1: excited me And what was she curious about? Everything. She
Speaker 1: wanted to know what kind of music we were listening.
Speaker 1: She wanted to know what kind of books we were reading.
Speaker 1: She wanted to know what kind of sports were playing,
Speaker 1: what kind of dances with dance, you know everything. She
Speaker 1: wanted to do everything. Natalia played Italian pop music for
Speaker 1: Samantha like Total Contunio, and Samantha played her favorite music
Speaker 1: at the time for Natalia. I can remember the cars
Speaker 1: were huge that summer. I'm guessing this was all on
Speaker 1: cassette tape. Did you talk about politics? Was that sort
Speaker 1: of understood or you just weren't interested. Once we saw her,
Speaker 1: we understood that she doesn't think we want war and
Speaker 1: she doesn't want war, So it was it was unnecessary.
Speaker 1: It was just never came up because we felt that
Speaker 1: it was not necessary to discuss. On Samantha's second day
Speaker 1: at ar Tech, she and other campers wrote out into
Speaker 1: the Black Sea to participate in an artech tradition. We
Speaker 1: would write the message with our most sacred wish and
Speaker 1: we would see it in this little glass bottle and
Speaker 1: toss it overboard. So most kids would We wish for,
Speaker 1: you know, end of starvation. We wish for health, We
Speaker 1: wish for um bright future. You know things like that,
Speaker 1: Samantha wrote on her card, I am for peace in
Speaker 1: my lifetime. On the boat, they sang a favorite Soviet
Speaker 1: children's song, May They're always be sanshine me They're always
Speaker 1: be blue Sky. May They're always be Mommy. May They're
Speaker 1: always be me? May there always be Sunshine is based
Speaker 1: on a short poem, a Plea for Peace, by a
Speaker 1: four year old Russian boy. The song has been performed
Speaker 1: all over the world, translated into many languages. The kids
Speaker 1: here and all the people here are really much like
Speaker 1: Americans except for the language. And I didn't have any
Speaker 1: trouble um making friends. Images of Samantha smiling and playing
Speaker 1: in the Black Sea alongside her young pioneer comrades delighted
Speaker 1: Soviet audiences, but left some viewers in her home country uneasy.
Speaker 1: A CBS report pointed out activities at our tech Samantha
Speaker 1: wasn't being shown. These young pioneers are out on a
Speaker 1: different kind of extra size, learning to patrol the beaches
Speaker 1: day and night, learning to handle the automatic weapons they carry.
Speaker 1: As part of their summer session at the exclusive camp,
Speaker 1: they are trained by a special section of the secret police,
Speaker 1: the KGB border patrols, But for Samantha there will be
Speaker 1: no night patrols on lonely beaches. Instead, a festival of
Speaker 1: clowns and laughing bears at an evening concert where the
Speaker 1: slogan is peace and friendship. On Samantha's final night at Artech,
Speaker 1: a big Soviet send off. I shall my new international friends,
Speaker 1: but we will remain friends. Prossy. Let our countries be
Speaker 1: friends too. Satday, I hope to return. Samantha says she
Speaker 1: has been very impressed by the Soviet Union. Although her
Speaker 1: routine is tiring, the Soviets seemed to want to show
Speaker 1: her everything they can in tightly packed days. There is
Speaker 1: still no answer to her most important wish while in
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union, a visit with Leader Urien drop off Of.
Speaker 1: On her last full day in the Soviet Union, Samantha
Speaker 1: got the news and drop Off was unable to meet her.
Speaker 1: She said that he was sorry that he couldn't meet
Speaker 1: with me, and he was just too busy, and he
Speaker 1: wishes me um quote for no war and good health.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Soviet leader was already dying from kidney failure.
Speaker 1: There had been talking to Samantha, meeting and drop off.
Speaker 1: In retrospect, you think it's good that that meeting didn't
Speaker 1: work out. Does it really matter? It might have mattered
Speaker 1: to the political elite, but what she wanted to accomplish,
Speaker 1: I don't think it really matter whether she met a
Speaker 1: or not. And what was the goodbye like when you
Speaker 1: had to say goodbye to Samantha. Well, we thought that
Speaker 1: she was going to come back, you know, we thought
Speaker 1: that maybe in a few years they come and visit again.
Speaker 1: It wasn't. It wasn't like a farewell goodbye was goodbye
Speaker 1: for now, I see you later. When Samantha landed back
Speaker 1: in Maine on July, more than three hundred people greeted
Speaker 1: her at the airport. She walked down a red carpet
Speaker 1: and wrote a limousine back home. On programs like The
Speaker 1: Phil Donna Hugh Show, Samantha reflected on her peace mission
Speaker 1: obviously one of the reasons you wrote this letter. As
Speaker 1: she felt a little scared. I think, as you said,
Speaker 1: be less scared. Yeah, really, I don't think I was
Speaker 1: scared anymore at all. What do you mean? What? Oh?
Speaker 1: I went to Russia and the Soviets and me and
Speaker 1: I got to know each other, and they just joined
Speaker 1: nice people tonight, or at least the people I met
Speaker 1: on the other side of the break the conclusion of
Speaker 1: Samantha's story, So kids are pretty much the same every
Speaker 1: where you thinking, Unfortunately you didn't get to meet Uri Andropov,
Speaker 1: did you know. Less than a week after returning from
Speaker 1: her trip to the Soviet Union, Samantha Smith was back
Speaker 1: on Johnny Carson. Samantha told Johnny about her new friend Natalia,
Speaker 1: who back then went by the nickname Natasha. You can
Speaker 1: think you're gonna keep in contact through letters within your fringe.
Speaker 1: Min Oh, We're not nowhere close to being definite about this,
Speaker 1: but I made a really close friend Natasha that we
Speaker 1: might invite her to America sometimes. He that would be nice.
Speaker 1: When it may have been Samantha's second time on the
Speaker 1: Tonight Show, but she wasn't the least bit jaded in
Speaker 1: both instances. There's something so just reassuringly, refreshingly normal, all right, yes,
Speaker 1: and love. It is such a magical age. That's Lori
Speaker 1: Labarre again from the State Museum. And I don't think
Speaker 1: it would have been as successful if it had been
Speaker 1: a teenager. And I think really that what we needed
Speaker 1: was an eleven year old to do this? Why because
Speaker 1: she was guileless? She was just what you saw is
Speaker 1: what you got. She was a cheerful, happy, smart kid.
Speaker 1: She wasn't a morose seventeen year old listening to the
Speaker 1: Smith's love the Smith's mother. But any afterglow in this
Speaker 1: country from Samantha's trip faded quickly. Just forty one days
Speaker 1: after her return, a horrific international incident on September one,
Speaker 1: the Soviet military shot down a Korean Airlines jetliner that
Speaker 1: had drifted into Soviet air space while flying between Anchorage
Speaker 1: and Soul. All two hundred sixty nine civilians, including a
Speaker 1: US congressman, were killed. Whatever goodwill and drop off had
Speaker 1: engendered in the way vanished. Some anger was directed at
Speaker 1: the Smith's Samantha's father, Arthur, conveyed the family's horror at
Speaker 1: the massacre, but defended the need for peaceful dialogue as
Speaker 1: more important than ever. In December of Samantha and her
Speaker 1: mother were invited to Japan to address an international children's symposium.
Speaker 1: She wasn't in school as much anymore. That's childhood friend
Speaker 1: Sarah Warren again. She was always off sort of doing
Speaker 1: another events, which was undoubtedly even more educational than school.
Speaker 1: I think that the education she was getting was pretty
Speaker 1: profound for for a child. So um yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: her life just completely transformed. Most people know me as
Speaker 1: the girl who want to Russia, but now I'm going
Speaker 1: to Washington. The Disney Channel hired Samantha to interview most
Speaker 1: of that year's Democratic presidential candidates, including Jesse Jackson, George
Speaker 1: McGovern and former Florida Governor Ruben Ask you, how do
Speaker 1: you feel about inviting the Soviets over here to talk
Speaker 1: about peace. I think that there's no reason that this
Speaker 1: this country, and the Soviet Union can't get together and
Speaker 1: start seeking at more commonality adventures. With all this exposure,
Speaker 1: perhaps it was inevitable that Hollywood would come calling. Sarah
Speaker 1: Warren remembers when Samantha began acting, appearing in an episode
Speaker 1: of the CBS sitcom Charles in Charge, which we were
Speaker 1: all very jealous about because we all had a crush
Speaker 1: on Scott Bao at the time. Soon after, she was
Speaker 1: casting Lime Street, a weekly action adventure series starring actor
Speaker 1: Robert Wagner. I was very flattered that you asked me
Speaker 1: to do this, And when it comes to Samantha Smith,
Speaker 1: I'll do anything. I met Robert Wagen. I grew up
Speaker 1: watching him on TV's Heart to Heart near his home
Speaker 1: in Aspen, Colorado, inside the historic hotel Jerome, So tell
Speaker 1: us a landmark. You know that I stayed here at nine,
Speaker 1: Wagner says. The producers of Lime Street, Harry Thomason and
Speaker 1: Linda Bloodworth. Thomason had first seen Samantha on Johnny Carson.
Speaker 1: Linda had seen her and she thought she was, you know,
Speaker 1: just so marvelous and had this great quality, and you know,
Speaker 1: the camera just drank her in. I meant Samantha, I
Speaker 1: could see exactly what they were talking about. In the series,
Speaker 1: Samantha played Elizabeth Culver, the spunky daughter of a jet
Speaker 1: setting insurance investigator played by Wagner. Yes, are you going
Speaker 1: to Mary? Why not? Because I've already got enough press,
Speaker 1: which get upstairs and take that with Some people felt
Speaker 1: betrayed that the little diplomat had gone Hollywood. Her mother,
Speaker 1: Jane told the press at the time that it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be natural for Samantha to devote her life to Soviet
Speaker 1: American relations, after all, she was a kid. Jessica Dwyer
Speaker 1: remembers when Samantha had just gotten her braces off right
Speaker 1: before she left for London, where Lime Street was shooting.
Speaker 1: She was in the midst of packing and getting things together,
Speaker 1: and sam was just making peace suit at the stove,
Speaker 1: something that was soft and wasn't going to hurt her.
Speaker 1: She just a typical teenager. Is that the last time
Speaker 1: that you saw her? That was the last time that
Speaker 1: we saw it. She left the next day. In August,
Speaker 1: Samantha finished filming her fourth episode of Lime Street. On
Speaker 1: she and her father Arthur, flew home. Their commuter plane
Speaker 1: from Boston was on its final approach to Auburn Lewiston,
Speaker 1: Maine Airport when it crashed just two hundred yards from
Speaker 1: the airport's runway. All eight people on board perished. This morning,
Speaker 1: thirteen year old Samantha Smith is dead, the victim of
Speaker 1: a plane crash last night in her native Maine. Just recently,
Speaker 1: she began work on a new ABC TV series with
Speaker 1: actor Robert Wagner. You know, Samantha maids such an impression
Speaker 1: upon people of wand to be taken like that, who
Speaker 1: was unbelievable to us, unbelievable, unbelievable to young Jessica Dwyer
Speaker 1: in Maine. It took me a long time to accept it.
Speaker 1: Um and I'll share this. I haven't shared it with
Speaker 1: very many people. I always thought that she and her
Speaker 1: dad escaped the plane and we're in a and that
Speaker 1: she and her dad were living this great life. And
Speaker 1: I think that was just my way of keeping her
Speaker 1: memory alive. The news was barely comprehensible to young Natalia.
Speaker 1: In Leningrad. There was a beautiful a social author who
Speaker 1: said that chazz Ear does not comprehend the word death.
Speaker 1: I mean, I knew she died, but I really didn't
Speaker 1: process the loss. Hundreds of mourners gathered today and Augusta, Maine,
Speaker 1: at a memorial service for Samantha Smith, the schoolgirl whose
Speaker 1: plea for peace made her internationally famous. Well, it was
Speaker 1: difficult to even get into the church because there were
Speaker 1: so many people there. I just remember being really sad
Speaker 1: for Jane because she lost her family. The first Secretary
Speaker 1: to the Soviet Embassy in Washington was among the mourners
Speaker 1: and described Samantha in his eulogy as a brilliant beam
Speaker 1: of sunshine that millions old mothers and fathers and kids
Speaker 1: back in the Russian in the Soviet Union share the
Speaker 1: being of this tragic loss. President Reagan, who had avoided
Speaker 1: mentioning Samantha in public, sent condolences to Samantha's mother, Jane
Speaker 1: in Maine, writing that millions of Americans would remember Samantha's smile,
Speaker 1: her idealism, and her quote unaffected sweetness of spirit. Samantha
Speaker 1: Smith's pioneer uniform, the one she wore at Artech, is
Speaker 1: still at the Main State Museum with Lorie Labar. When
Speaker 1: I first walked in and saw it, I gasped. The uniform.
Speaker 1: It's just so small, just eleven year old girl. It's
Speaker 1: a reminder just this was a small girl. This was
Speaker 1: a little kid. Um, this wasn't an adult. This was
Speaker 1: just someone who had asked a question. Samantha's death at
Speaker 1: such an unnaturally young age effectively froze her legacy as
Speaker 1: that of a child's peace activist. Here's Sarah Warren again.
Speaker 1: As tragic and awful as it was that she died,
Speaker 1: it really did draw more attention to her trip and
Speaker 1: to what she had done. And many of us then
Speaker 1: found a way to make meaning somehow of her life
Speaker 1: and her passing by trying to carry forward what she
Speaker 1: had started. All right, So what impact did Samantha's improbable
Speaker 1: life as a child diplomat make well for starters. Jane
Speaker 1: Smith established the nonprofit Samantha Smith Foundation to promote international
Speaker 1: understanding through youth exchange trips. One year after Samantha's death,
Speaker 1: Sarah Warren, along with Jane Smith, and a group of
Speaker 1: classmates from Maine, made their own trip to the Soviet Union.
Speaker 1: Well essentially, we were following on the same footsteps of
Speaker 1: Samantha and her parents, the same trip that they had done.
Speaker 1: They started to understand what their friend had meant to
Speaker 1: the rest of the world. Although she had been getting
Speaker 1: a lot of media coverage in the US, she was
Speaker 1: just downright famous in the Soviet Union. Everybody there knew
Speaker 1: who she was. Jessica Dwyer went on that trip too.
Speaker 1: Mobs of people just wanted to be near us and
Speaker 1: around us. Everywhere we went. We were just greeted by
Speaker 1: so many people that wanted to talk to us, touch
Speaker 1: us because we knew Samantha. Samantha was memorialized in Maine.
Speaker 1: A statue of her holding a dub stands outside the
Speaker 1: main State Museum in Augusta, But in the Soviet Union,
Speaker 1: Samantha's face appeared on a postage stamp, on murals, her
Speaker 1: name graced schools, street, a flower, a ship, a diamond,
Speaker 1: and asteroid. Even a mountain was named in her honor.
Speaker 1: Samantha Smith. Even now she is more popular than she
Speaker 1: is here. Why do you think that is? Because maybe
Speaker 1: for us she was a symbol of hope that the
Speaker 1: relationship could be of friendship between the two countries. And
Speaker 1: that gets it perhaps her greatest and most ironic legacy.
Speaker 1: By inviting Samantha to the Soviet Union, Urie and drop
Speaker 1: Off was hoping to improve the image of his regime
Speaker 1: in America, but the opposite kind of happened. American University
Speaker 1: professor Anton Fetiyashin, who grew up in the Soviet Union,
Speaker 1: put it this way. Quote The fact that Samantha Smith
Speaker 1: is still remembered in Russia but is mostly forgotten in
Speaker 1: the US is testament that and drop offs original idea
Speaker 1: of projecting an image to the world was reversed by
Speaker 1: Samantha projecting herself much more successfully on a Soviet society.
Speaker 1: In other words, Samantha wasn't anyone's dupe. By the way,
Speaker 1: the Soviets ended up exporting their own version of Samantha
Speaker 1: In ninety six, fifteen year old Katya Licheba visited the
Speaker 1: US on a peace mission. Katia actually met Reagan briefly,
Speaker 1: but the Soviet Samantha didn't have the original Samantha's curiosity
Speaker 1: or charisma and quickly fizzled in The Samantha Smith Foundation
Speaker 1: inaugurated its own World Peace Camp in Poland Spring Maine.
Speaker 1: Two years later, Natalia Rostin visited the camp. Was that
Speaker 1: your first trip to the United States was first trip abroad?
Speaker 1: And what did you think of Maine when you saw it? Beautiful?
Speaker 1: It the nature kind of reminded me a little bit
Speaker 1: of Russia, but not quite like Russia. Lots of like
Speaker 1: the citious trees, you know, the greenery view doful, like
Speaker 1: rolling hills. Is there anything you ate there that you've
Speaker 1: never eaten before? Lobster. More than thirty years later, as
Speaker 1: a second grade teacher, Natalia includes Samantha in her curriculum.
Speaker 1: We learned the story and I always tied into writing.
Speaker 1: I tell you know, writing is your superpower. You know
Speaker 1: you want to change the world, you need to learn
Speaker 1: how to write. Look at Samantha, you know she made
Speaker 1: a huge impact because she was write. She knew she
Speaker 1: knew what she wanted to say, and she says she
Speaker 1: stay did it clearly. And how did the kids react
Speaker 1: to the story of Semanthea inspired? They get inspired, They
Speaker 1: get inspired by that. You know, the kids have have
Speaker 1: power working on this mobid. I've thought about all that
Speaker 1: Samantha didn't live to see. Just three months after she died,
Speaker 1: President Reagan and then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met for
Speaker 1: the first time to discuss nuclear disarmament. Just six years later,
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union dissolved. I also wondered what Samantha would
Speaker 1: be doing today. When I spoke to her childhood friend
Speaker 1: Sarah Warren back in July, it was just a few
Speaker 1: days past Samantha's birthday. Samantha would have turned fifty on June.
Speaker 1: And it's sorry, it's pretty profound to think about what
Speaker 1: she did all those years ago. And I don't know.
Speaker 1: I try not to think about her too much as
Speaker 1: an adult because I think she did what she needed
Speaker 1: to as a kid. But um, and we want a legacy,
Speaker 1: you know. I'm sure had she lived to be fifty,
Speaker 1: she would have been beautiful and she would have been
Speaker 1: doing lots of amazing things in the world. But in her,
Speaker 1: you know, short thirteen years, she did more than a
Speaker 1: lot of people do in fifty. So Samantha's life was short,
Speaker 1: But the questions she asked in that handwritten letter all
Speaker 1: those years ago, her plea for peace are no less
Speaker 1: powerful today. I hope you enjoyed this Mobituary. May I
Speaker 1: ask you to please rate and review our podcast. You
Speaker 1: can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you
Speaker 1: can follow me on Twitter at Morocca. Here all new
Speaker 1: episodes of Mobituaries every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts
Speaker 1: and check out Mobituaries Great Lives Worth Reliving, the New
Speaker 1: York Times best selling book now available in paperback and
Speaker 1: audio book that includes plenty of stories not in this podcast.
Speaker 1: This episode of Mobituaries was produced by Aaron Shrank. Our
Speaker 1: team of producers also includes Wilco, Martinez Caccetro, and Me Morocca.
Speaker 1: It was edited by Moral Walls and engineered by Josh Hahn,
Speaker 1: with fat checking by Catherine Newhan. Our production company is
Speaker 1: Neon Houm Media. Our chival producer doing his home state
Speaker 1: of Maine proud is Jamie Benson. Our theme music is
Speaker 1: written by Daniel Hart. Indispensable support from Craig Swaggler, Dustin Gervei,
Speaker 1: Alan Pang, Reggie Basil, and everyone at CBS News Radio.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Lena Nelson, Mary lou Till, Megan Marcus,
Speaker 1: Barbara Quill for her reporting on Samantha's trip, and Alberto Robina,
Speaker 1: and our deepest appreciation to Jane Smith, the Imperturbable Aaron
Speaker 1: Shrank as our senior producer. Executive producers for Mobituaries include
Speaker 1: Steve raise E's and Morocca. The series is created by
Speaker 1: yours truly and as always, thanks to Rand Morrison and
Speaker 1: John carp for helping breathe life into Mobituaries. M