April 25:

1983 : Andropov writes to U.S. student

On this day in 1983, the Soviet Union releases a letter that Russian
leader Yuri Andropov wrote to Samantha Smith, an American fifth-grader
from Manchester, Maine, inviting her to visit his country. Andropov's
letter came in response to a note Smith had sent him in December 1982,
asking if the Soviets were planning to start a nuclear war. At the
time, the United States and Soviet Union were Cold War enemies.
President Ronald Reagan, a passionate anti-communist, had dubbed the
Soviet Union the "evil empire" and called for massive increases in
U.S. defense spending to meet the perceived Soviet threat.
In his public relations duel with Reagan, known as the "Great
Communicator," Andropov, who had succeeded longtime Soviet leader
Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, assumed a folksy, almost grandfatherly
approach that was incongruous with the negative image most Americans
had of the Soviets. Andropov's letter said that Russian people wanted
to "live in peace, to trade and cooperate with all our neighbors on
the globe, no matter how close or far away they are, and, certainly,
with such a great country as the United States of America." In
response to Smith's question about whether the Soviet Union wished to
prevent nuclear war, Andropov declared, "Yes, Samantha, we in the
Soviet Union are endeavoring and doing everything so that there will
be no war between our two countries, so that there will be no war at
all on earth." Andropov also complimented Smith, comparing her to the
spunky character Becky Thatcher from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by
Mark Twain.

Smith, born June 29, 1972, accepted Andropov's invitation and flew to
the Soviet Union with her parents for a visit. Afterward, she became
an international celebrity and peace ambassador, making speeches,
writing a book and even landing a role on an American television
series.

In February 1984, Yuri Andropov died from kidney failure and was
succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko. The following year, in August 1985,
Samantha Smith died tragically in a plane crash at age 13.

history.com/tdih.do

General Interest
1983 : Andropov writes to U.S. student
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52441

1859 : Ground broken for Suez Canal
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6878

1990 : Space telescope in orbit
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4949

#########################################