Editing Samantha Smith (section)

==Historical context==
When [[Yuri Andropov]] succeeded [[Leonid Brezhnev]] as [[leader of the Soviet Union]] in November 1982, the mainstream [[Western world|Western]] newspapers and magazines ran numerous front-page photographs and articles about him. Most coverage was negative and tended to give a perception of a new threat to the stability of the Western World. Andropov had been the Soviet Ambassador to Hungary during the [[1956 Hungarian Revolution]], which was put down by the [[Soviet Army]], and the Chairman of the [[KGB]] from 1967 to 1982; during his tenure, he was known in the West for [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|crushing the Prague Spring]] and the brutal suppression of dissidents, such as [[Andrei Sakharov]] and [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]. He began his tenure as Soviet leader by strengthening the powers of the [[KGB]], and by suppressing dissidents.<ref>Burns, John M. "[https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/06/books/the-emergence-of-yuri-andropov.html The Emergence of Yuri Andropov]". ''The New York Times'', November 6, 1983. Retrieved on March 14, 2022.</ref> According to [[Vasili Mitrokhin]], Andropov saw the struggle for human rights as a part of a wide-ranging imperialist plot to undermine the foundation of the Soviet state.<ref name="Andrew">[[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]] and [[Vasili Mitrokhin]]. ''The [[Mitrokhin Archive]]: The KGB in Europe and the West''. Gardners Books, 2000. {{ISBN|0-14-028487-7}}.</ref> Much international tension surrounded both Soviet and American efforts to develop weapons capable of being launched from satellites in orbit. Both governments had extensive research and development programs to develop such technology. However, both nations were coming under increasing pressure to disband the project. In the United States, President [[Ronald Reagan]] came under pressure from a lobby of US scientists and arms experts, while in the Soviet Union the government issued a statement that read, "To prevent the militarization of space is one of the most urgent tasks facing mankind".<ref name="time836"/>

At the time, large [[anti-nuclear protests]] were taking place across both Europe and North America, in the midst of which the November 20, 1983, screening of [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s [[post-nuclear war]] dramatization ''[[The Day After]]'' became one of the most anticipated media events of the decade.<ref>{{cite book |author-first=Bruce |author-last=Allyn |title=The Edge of Armageddon: Lessons from the Brink |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hAafpVIQVQQC&pg=PT10 |date=September 19, 2012 |publisher=RosettaBooks |isbn=978-0-7953-3073-5 |page=10 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The two [[superpower]]s had by this point abandoned their strategy of ''[[détente]]'' and in response to the deployment of the Soviet Union's new [[RSD-10 Pioneer|SS-20]], NATO deployed [[cruise missile|cruise]] and [[Pershing II]] missiles in Europe. The 1979–1989 [[Soviet–Afghan War]] was also into its third year. In this atmosphere, on November 22, 1982, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine published an issue with Andropov on the cover. When Smith viewed the edition, she asked her mother: "If people are so afraid of him, why doesn't someone write a letter asking whether he wants to have a war or not?" Her mother replied, "Why don't you?"<ref>{{cite web |title=Youngest Ambassador |publisher=samanthasmith.info |url=http://www.samanthasmith.info/index.php/8-home/1-youngest-ambassador |access-date=September 19, 2015 |archive-date=September 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907170209/http://www.samanthasmith.info/index.php/8-home/1-youngest-ambassador |url-status=dead }}</ref>