When Samantha Smith was 10 years old, she became very concerned about the threat of nuclear war between the Soviet Union, and her home country of the United States. She wrote a letter to the president of the Soviet Union, begging him not to start a war. Several months later she received a letter from him, inviting her to visit the Soviet Union so she could see for herself that his people were very much like people everywhere, and that they wanted peace too. During her visit she made friends with young people her age, and several years later the presidents of the two countries agreed to begin dismantling their weapons. Sadly, Samantha did not live long enough to see the result of her peacemaking efforts: she and her father died in a plane crash shortly before the agreement was signed. However, her words still ring out, loud and true: “God made the world for us to share, and take care of,” she said. “Please let’s do what he wanted, and have everybody be happy too.”