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Samantha Smith: 10-year-old Goodwill Ambassador that embraced warmth during the Cold War

US schoolgirl Samantha Smith, who became a symbol of public diplomacy in the Cold War, was born on June 29, 1972

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Ten-year-old US schoolgirl Samantha Smith holds the letter from Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov on April 25, 1983 in Manchester, that have his personal assurance that the Soviet Union "Will never, but never be the first to use the nuclear weapons against any country"

© AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach

Samantha Smith, with her parents Arthur and Jane Smith, touring Red Square in Moscow on, July 9, 1983. Samantha wrote a letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov asking about peace between the US and Andropov wrote back to Samantha and invited her and her parents to visit the Soviet Union

© AP Photo/Boris Yurchencko

Samantha Smith at a press conference in Moscow hotel, 1983

American schoolgirl and peace activist Samantha Smith wearing Russian traditional dress during her visit to the Moscow Pioneer’s Palace, 1983

© Alexander Yakovlev, Vladimir Yatsina/TASS

Samantha Smith in the Artek international camp, 1983

Samantha Smith among Soviet pioneers during her stay at the Artek camp, 1983

© Valery Zufarov, Alexander Obukhovsky/TASS

American schoolgirl and peace activist Samantha Smith and her new friend Natasha Kashirina from Leningrad on the beach in Crimea, 1983

© Valery Zufarov/TASS

Samantha Smith during a visit of the sports complex in Krylatskoye, Moscow, 1983

© Vladimir Zavyalov, Alexander Yakovlev/TASS

Samantha Smith during her stay at the Artek camp in Crimea

© Valery Zufarov, Alexander Obukhovsky/TASS

American schoolgirl and peace activist Samantha Smith taking a boat trip down the Moskva River, 1983

© Alexander Yakovlev, Vladimir Yatsina/TASS

Samantha Smith, the famed pupil-peace activist from the US, would have celebrated her 45th birthday today. In the early 1980s, this 10-year-old American schoolgirl soared to fame by becoming a symbol of public diplomacy during the Cold War. In 1982, she wrote a letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov asking him if the USSR really wanted to conquer the United States. Andropov invited the girl and her family to the Soviet Union. She visited the USSR in 1983 as a Goodwill Ambassador and went to see Moscow, Leningrad and the Artek summer camp. In 1985, at the age of 13, Samantha Smith was killed in a plane crash in the US.

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