Samantha Reed Smith

Samantha Reed Smith (https://vk.com/club7450994 ())

Samantha Reed Smith was an American pupil, who became famous in the Cold War era United States and Soviet Union. She was only ten years old when the whole world knew about her letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov in which she was asking for a peace. At such a young age, she has become a world famous peacemaker who changed history. Who knows, maybe she stopped a Third World War by herself. She has done a lot for world peace.

Samantha Reed Smith (https://vk.com/club7450994 ())

Samantha was born on June 29, 1972 in the small town Houlton, Maine, of United States. Since birth, she was an unusual girl. When she was five years old, she wrote a letter to Queen Elizabeth II in which she was expressing her admiration to the monarch. I think she was too clever for her age. 

At age ten, she read an article from "Time Magazine" about a serious conflict between the United States President Ronald Reagan and the new Soviet leader Yuri Andropov. She was seriously concerned about the tension between these two countries. Samantha was afraid that there was going to be the nuclear war. So what did she decide to do? This girl wrote a letter to the Soviet Premier, Yuri Andropov. In it, she was asking him about who started it all, and whether it is to continue. At the end, she wrote these words: "God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight."

Samantha with Yuri Andropov's letter (https://vk.com/club7450994)

Firstly, she did not get any answer, so she sent one more letter to the Soviet Union's Ambassador to the USA asking if Mr. Andropov intended to respond. On April 26, 1983, she got a letter from Andropov. He was surprised by her courage and answered all her questions. He wrote that he did not want to start a war and wants world peace too. He invited her to visit the Soviet Union in order to verify this by herself. A few days later, the whole world knew about Samantha and her letter. Nobody thought Yuri Andropov would answer on her letter. 

Samantha Reed Smith in Artek (https://vk.com/club7450994)

On July 7, 1983, Samantha with her parents flew to Moscow at the expense of the Soviet Union. For two weeks, she toured the country: Leningrad, Moscow, and Red Square. She met with the first woman has been in space, Valentina Tereshkova.

She also spent several days at the Soviet youth camp Artek on the Black Sea and then said that Russian people are same with American. Before flying home, she loudly pronounced in Russian: "We will live". All this time every her step was followed by Media. After arriving home, she wrote her own book "Journey to the Soviet Union". She really liked Russia and found many friends there.

However, on this her role as "America's Youngest Ambassador" did not finish.  In December 1983, she was invited to Japan, where she met with the Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and attended the Children's International Symposium in Kobe.

Samantha was so talented. Except her courage, intelligence, beauty and ability to find friends so quickly, she was a good child actress. 

On August 25, 1985, while Smith and her father were returning home from Boston, they suffered aircraft crash. Everybody in the plane died. Samantha was only 13 years old. 

Despite her short life, she did a lot for the world. People cannot change the world history at 70 or 80, but she did it at the age of 10. We can confidently call her a "peacemaker". This little girl brought calm to the Earth and may have saved millions of lives. 

That's why she is MY HERO!