Samantha Reed Smith (June 29, 1972, in Houlton, Maine – August 25, 1985, in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine) was an American schoolgirl from Manchester, Maine who became famous in the Cold War-era United States and Soviet Union. In 1982, Smith wrote a letter to the newly appointed Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Yuri Andropov, and received a personal reply which included a personal invitation to visit the Soviet Union, which she accepted.
Smith a...
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Samantha Reed Smith (June 29, 1972, in Houlton, Maine – August 25, 1985, in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine) was an American schoolgirl from Manchester, Maine who became famous in the Cold War-era United States and Soviet Union. In 1982, Smith wrote a letter to the newly appointed Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Yuri Andropov, and received a personal reply which included a personal invitation to visit the Soviet Union, which she accepted.
Smith attracted extensive media attention in both countries as a "Goodwill Ambassador", and became known as "America's Youngest Ambassador" participating in peacemaking activities in Japan. She wrote a book and co-starred in a television series, before her death at the age of 13 in the Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 plane crash.
When Yuri Andropov succeeded Leonid Brezhnev as leader of the Soviet Union in November 1982, the mainstream Western newspapers and magazines ran numerous front page photographs and articles about him. Most coverage was...
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