Samantha Smith: The Girl Who Went to the Soviet Union

[Marta Sáenz de Aguilera]

Hi

I'm thinking of doing a Samantha Smith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith) lives TL. Would anyone be interested in reading it - or helping me write it?

[The Red]

Would she have that much impact if she had survived?

[Tocomocho]

Would she have that much impact if she had survived?

Maybe if she had defected to the Soviet Union (which is the first thing I though reading the thread title).

[basileus]

Hi

I'm thinking of doing a Samantha Smith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith) lives TL. Would anyone be interested in reading it - or helping me write it?

I still remember her. God, I was so afraid of war those days. And i was only 8-9.

[Plumber]

I always saw her as the first female U.S. President, or a Senator.

[d32123]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_John_Bardo

This guy probably would have killed her if the plane crash didn't

[Baruch]

Pretty smart kid. I think the russians didn't appreciate her very well. They were looking for a tool, but I feel if she had survived she would have cut them very badly.

I felt at the time she was being badly used. There is something seriously wrong with you if you see Andropov as avuncular.

[Marta Sáenz de Aguilera]

I think Samantha mentioned in an interview that the only propaganda she cared about making was "propagana for peace".

She's still an icon in the former Soviet Union, almost 30 years after her visit and 26 years after her death.

[Hnau]

@d32123
Wow! Good link. Poor Samantha Smith... :( so many ways to die. Plane crash, homicide, nuclear war.

[Peelitebkearns]

Hi

I'm thinking of doing a Samantha Smith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith) lives TL. Would anyone be interested in reading it - or helping me write it?

I'd only recently heard of her, having been born in the same year she died. Since then I've wanted to do a TL based on her surviving and eventually becoming president in 2020, but haven't had the time to undertake the necessary research (was thinking of putting it off until early January, when I'll have less on my plate).

I can't imagine she'll have much affect on the cold war, which was about to start winding down anyway. Therefore I don't think she'd be an affective "tool" for the soviets, even if they continued to try and use her as one.

In my (very) rough outline I've drafted, she fades in to obscurity for a while about a year after her OTL death, allowing her to concentrate on her education/career. After that (around the time 9/11 happens), she re-emerges as an "adult", with more solid, realistic ideas on maintaining as peaceful a world as possible.

[yourworstnightmare]

While I don't think she would have that much influence this TL could be different for one reason: make it a personal TL about a character who are in the center of things without having much influence over what happens. That could be an interesting experiment, a low level alt.hist.

[basileus]

I think Samantha mentioned in an interview that the only propaganda she cared about making was "propagana for peace".

She's still an icon in the former Soviet Union, almost 30 years after her visit and 26 years after her death.

*Facebook-style LIKE IT*

[CaliBoy1990]

Hi

I'm thinking of doing a Samantha Smith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith) lives TL. Would anyone be interested in reading it - or helping me write it?

Hey Marta! I always found Samantha Smith to be an interesting and inspiring figure......perhaps maybe she could have a political career later in life? :D

[Marta Sáenz de Aguilera]

I just found out that someone's created an alternate version of Samantha for the Alt History Wiki - http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Samantha_Smith_%281983:_Doomsday%29

[jkarr]

i cant see her defecting to the soviets, but i could imagine her surviving the crash and speeding up the dissolution of the socivets and great russian-american realtions

[MaskedPickle]

Plus as an American politician, or maybe an UN diplomat.

[Twin City Lines]

Hey Marta! I always found Samantha Smith to be an interesting and inspiring figure......perhaps maybe she could have a political career later in life? :D

Skeleton TL:

May 1987: Samantha Smith joins the Communist Party, USA, Maine District, and becomes a local reporter for the People's Daily World, covering peace and disarmament issues. A Gorbachev True Believer, she is oblivious to he fact that he's destroying the Soviet Union.

April 1989: With the fall of Democratic Germany imminent, Samantha speaks out against the imminent danger to the socialist system. Due to her turnabout against Gorbachev, Gus Hall appoints her second in command and she moves to New York, becoming Editor-in-Chief of both the People's Daily World (the reduction in frequency to weekly is butterflied away - in fact the PDW becomes a true daily - 7 days a week rather than just Tuesday through Saturday) and Political Affairs magazine.

January 1992: With the restoration of capitalism in Russia, Samantha gets depressed and tries to kill herself, but fails. She is hspitalised and forced to take a break from Party work.

January 1996: Samantha is back at work within the CPUSA, one of Gus Hall's favourites, she is now second in command.

October 2000: Gus Hall dies at age 90. The National Committee of the Communist Party USA unanimously votes Samantha the new National Chairperson.

2004: Samantha Smith runs for President of the United States on the Communist ticket, beating Democratic ketchup baron John Kerry but losing to George W. Bush.

2008: Samantha Smith runs for President of the United States again.

20 January 2009: Samantha Smith is inaugurated as the first Communist President of the United States. Her first act as President is to have Sam Webb, Chairman of the Michigan District of the CPUSA, indicted on fraud charges stemming from his attempts to lead the Party astray from its duty to fight valiently for the restoration of the Soviet Union and the extirpation of capitalist Mafia thugs from Russian territory.

[The Ubbergeek]

Eh, I REALLY doubt a communist president is possible like 50 MINIMUM from the end of cold war. The USA will need 2-3 gens to end the effects of the maccarthism(s) and cold war fears, if you ask me - to even just have a left leaning guy.

[Grand_Panjandrum]

Eh, I REALLY doubt a communist president is possible like 50 MINIMUM from the end of cold war. The USA will need 2-3 gens to end the effects of the maccarthism(s) and cold war fears, if you ask me - to even just have a left leaning guy.

I would assume he is being tongue-in-cheek, since not many fifteen-year-olds are made editors-in-chief.

[Lalli]

I don't believe that Smith would become POTUS unless she abandons communism. And I think that 2009 is too early for her. Maybe 2020's is more ralistic.

[Marta Sáenz de Aguilera]

Samantha Smith was not a Communist!

Certainly she let herself be used by the Soviets but the only political thing she stated she cared about was peace.

[Noravea]

She would never join the CPUSA. If anything, she probably wouldn't be part of any major political party until later in life. She'd probably be a Republican or Democrat.

[LtNOWIS]

*facepalm*

That was obviously not a serious timeline. She would be too young to be president in 2004, and the idea of the US electing an inexperienced Communist Party president is completely unrealistic.

[Twin City Lines]

I would assume he is being tongue-in-cheek, since not many fifteen-year-olds are made editors-in-chief.

She would have been 16 and 9 months at the time she became Editor-in-Chief in this TL, but yes it was tongue-in-cheek.

[The Marauder]

She would have been 16 and 9 months at the time she became Editor-in-Chief in this TL, but yes it was tongue-in-cheek.

I did like your Sam Weber touch, real nice. I wouldn't mind such an outcome for him.

But yeah, I don't see Samantha falling under the sway of communism. She had too much influence from all directions surrounding her after the visit to the Soviet Union; hell, even if she wanted to be a communist, I think she would be redirected rather quickly.

A senate position is possible in her later life. If not, I could see her being a famous personality later in life that shows up on talk shows or CNN reports occasionally, perhaps throwing the occasional controversial quote taken out of context (or in context, she'd have great potential to be used by the spin machine). Politically? Probably going to be true liberal Democrat.

[Kammada]

She's still an icon in the former Soviet Union, almost 30 years after her visit and 26 years after her death.

I fear, I must disappoint you. I'm from the former USSR (in fact, I was 9 when she died) and she's anything but an icon (and has never really been, I'm afraid, save for the first years after her death). Most people remember that she's been in the USSR on an invitation and then crashed in a plane, and that's all.

I'm not even sure the present-day mainstream Russian communists (of the CPRF allegiance) are really remembering her, such a bunch of reactionary bigot pigs they are.

[Twin City Lines]

I did like your Sam Weber touch, real nice. I wouldn't mind such an outcome for him.

But yeah, I don't see Samantha falling under the sway of communism. She had too much influence from all directions surrounding her after the visit to the Soviet Union; hell, even if she wanted to be a communist, I think she would be redirected rather quickly.

A senate position is possible in her later life. If not, I could see her being a famous personality later in life that shows up on talk shows or CNN reports occasionally, perhaps throwing the occasional controversial quote taken out of context (or in context, she'd have great potential to be used by the spin machine). Politically? Probably going to be true liberal Democrat.

Thanks on the Sam Webb issue. Are you CP, former CP, or just a friend? I can't stand Webb; he ruined the Party and "dropped" eight of the most active comrades in Minnesota. My Red card now has a home in my junk drawer, as a momento.

Of course you're right, Samantha wasn't a Communist and probably wouldn't become one unless she was really convinced it would lead to world peace. And even then it's unlikely to butterfly away Gorby's betrayal. Losing the Soviet Union demolishes the "peace" motive for being a Communist, so Samantha would probably get disillusioned by the mid-1990s....