冷戰時期的青少年外交：兒童作為親善大使
Tinatin Japaridze，加州大學哈里曼研究所研究員
眾所周知，二軌外交能夠突破官方政治談判常遭遇的障礙。儘管這種方法並不完美，而且往往不足以在紙面上取得必要的成果，但細緻入微的方法表明，國家利益和人的因素之間的相互作用往往可以帶來意想不到的突破，特別是在傳統對話不僅困難而且不可能的衝突時期。
目前，俄羅斯與西方之間正經歷長時間的冬季寒冷天氣。有些人稱之為冷戰 2.0，而另一些人則認為，兩國關係已降至前所未有的不信任水平，最終導致溝通管道受阻，雙方不願聽取對方意見。
然而，當傳統手段失效時，非傳統的溝通甚至合作管道，例如二軌外交努力，將被證明比大多數懷疑論者願意承認的更為有成效。為此，在雙邊關係動盪時期，重溫冷戰時期的一個例子可能是及時的，因為傳統手段不僅不夠，而且可以說，也是成功解決衝突的重大障礙。
1983 年 3 月 8 日，雷根總統將蘇聯稱為「邪惡帝國」。[i]
雷根在演講中捍衛了美國的民主和基督教傳統，反對蘇聯的極權領導和缺乏宗教信仰。
這句話讓很多人感到震驚，讓某些人感到好笑，也激勵了一些人。雷根總統發表標誌性演講一個月後，在全球媒體以「相互保證摧毀」為主題的狂熱達到頂峰時，一位來自緬因州肯納貝克縣小鎮的美國女孩成為了鐵幕另一邊的頭條新聞。
六個月前，十歲的薩曼莎史密斯站出來捍衛她這一代岌岌可危的未來，她寫信給新任蘇聯共產黨總書記尤里安德羅波夫。
在蘇聯喉舌《真理報》發表的信中，她表達了對美蘇即將爆發的核戰的擔憂，並詢問政治局主席蘇聯的目標是否是征服世界，或者至少是征服她的國家。
儘管人們通常認為米哈伊爾·戈巴契夫透過改革重建了蘇聯停滯的政治和經濟體系，但蘇聯歷史學家的修正主義學派卻認為，自由化改革的最初基礎是由他的導師尤里·安德羅波夫奠定的。[ii]
從安德羅波夫擔任克格勃主席和後來的政治局主席的政治記錄來看，他進行這些改革的原始計劃可能比他的最終繼任者戈巴契夫的改革計劃更溫和，但更具建設性。
最近解密的檔案資料表明，1983 年 3 月雷根總統發表「邪惡帝國」演講後，薩曼莎史密斯於同年 7 月訪問了蘇聯，這一特定時間被認為是一項可能的改革前計劃。此舉很可能是為了融化冷戰對手之間的堅冰，以防止本已緊張的關係進一步升級。
這位美國五年級學生寫給新任蘇聯領導人的信件立刻被刊登在《真理報》上。幾週之內，安德羅波夫親自寫信給這位年輕女孩，稱讚她“勇敢”和“誠實”，[iii]並將她的勇敢與湯姆索亞的朋友貝基撒切爾的勇敢相提並論。總書記在信中證實，美國和伊朗都擁有「可怕的」核武器，有能力「瞬間殺死數百萬人」。[iv]不過，他強調，蘇聯方面無意「先針對任何國家」使用這些武器。[v]此外，安德羅波夫還補充說，蘇聯「提議停止」進一步生產，而是打算「銷毀地球上所有的庫存」。[vi]
其基本訊息很明確：
蘇聯領導階層準備進行建設性對話──不過，對話要按照他們的條件進行。
這封信附有一份正式邀請，邀請史密斯和她的家人訪問蘇維埃俄羅斯，以便「親自了解」蘇聯，與她的同時代人見面，最重要的是，親自看看在蘇聯，「每個人都支持和平與各國人民之間的友誼」。[七]
在精心策劃和嚴格安排的為期兩週的蘇聯俄羅斯之行中，薩曼莎·史密斯參觀了紅場，在莫斯科大劇院觀看了俄羅斯芭蕾舞表演，會見了第一位女宇航員瓦倫蒂娜·捷列什科娃，在時任美國駐蘇聯大使阿瑟·哈特曼的陪同下享用了包含漢堡和薯條的全美式午餐，最令人難忘的是，她參觀了蘇聯女的年輕人，許多蘇聯女營的年輕人。男童子軍。由於一種「神秘」[viii] 的疾病，當時，這種疾病被嚴格控制在雄偉的克里姆林宮牆內（但七個月後他還是去世了），安德羅波夫無法親自迎接他的年輕筆友。
乍一看，史密斯的這次出行是出於年輕人的善意和理想主義，是克里姆林宮官員精心策劃的親蘇聯宣傳的一部分，目的是讓這個社會主義國家看起來更「人性化」。[ix]
然而，「薩曼莎史密斯」這個文化計畫也有其弊端，它是由美國政府，特別是白宮和/或國務院付出相應努力和參與而構思和策劃的，旨在向整個共產主義集團傳播美國軟實力。
這個文化計畫是否是蘇聯或美國（或雙方）試圖透過公民外交進行政治對話的嘗試？
雷根檔案中的原始文件表明，白宮和總統政府對史密斯的公民外交計劃的熱情，與蘇聯方面與美國「和平鴿」接觸、試圖透過外交手段建立溝通橋樑的熱情相比顯得微不足道。
透過最近解密的備忘錄和信件可以清楚地看出，美國總統辦公室和雷根總統本人擔心美國和蘇聯之間分歧太大，難以透過「一些大膽的外交舉措」來解決。[十]
薩曼莎在蘇聯一夜成名，返回美國後，她成為電視脫口秀節目的常客，例如《夜線》和《今日 秀》。在這些節目中，她既被譽為美國的“小號大使”，又被貶低為“蘇聯公關陰謀的傀儡”。[xi] 但與她在蘇聯的勝利相比，她在美國受到的歡迎就顯得黯然失色了。
薩曼莎·史密斯的傳奇因一場致命事故而永垂不朽，在她蘇聯之行僅兩年後，她就不幸遭遇不幸，失去了生命。 1985 年 8 月 25 日，在與羅伯特·瓦格納一起拍攝美國廣播公司新電視劇《萊姆街》的途中 ，一架載有薩曼莎和她的父親以及其他四名乘客和兩名機組人員的巴爾港航空公司通勤飛機在緬因州奧本的一個小型機場附近墜毀。
直到今天，有關她英年早逝的問題仍然沒有答案。這位13歲的親善大使的逝世成為整個蘇聯民族的損失。
當時新任總書記米哈伊爾·戈巴契夫在公開信中稱薩曼莎·史密斯是「一束燦爛的陽光」。[xii] 此後不久，他的政府發行了一枚郵票，以紀念“美國青年和平鴿”，甚至以這位已故兒童大使的名字命名了俄羅斯的一座山峰，以紀念她在兩個對手的雙邊關係動盪時期的英勇努力。
1985年薩曼莎史密斯的去世導致雙邊文化交流計畫突然中斷。
根據蘇聯塔斯社報道，和平締造者基金會的孩子們請求莫斯科市少先隊宮推薦一位候選人，將薩曼莎·史密斯的火炬帶回美國。該請求包括尋找一名「參與反戰活動且年齡不比薩曼莎大的兒童」。[xiii]當時就讀於莫斯科第四特殊英語學校的卡佳·雷切娃（Katya Lycheva）是從蘇聯國際友誼俱樂部青年和平活動家名單中選出的。萊切瓦試圖透過寫信給美國總統羅納德·雷根（並最終與他會面）來複製史密斯的成功。然而，與薩曼莎最初的勝利相比，她的成功顯得黯然失色。 1988年，也就是蘇聯解體的三年前，萊切娃和家人移居法國，並從1995年開始在巴黎外國投資促進中心工作。 2000 年，卡佳（現名為葉卡捷琳娜）回到俄羅斯，在俄羅斯聯邦勞動和社會發展部任職，並於 2004 年成為聯合飛機聯合體的成員。此後，葉卡捷琳娜·萊切娃便不再在俄羅斯和國外的媒體上露面。
在她的家鄉，當地媒體稱讚薩曼莎·史密斯是“看清真相的女孩”，[xiv]這位年輕和平活動家的故事之所以受到蘇聯人民的歡迎，是因為她不顧官僚體系的束縛，真心實意地想要做出改變。她的努力得到了美方短暫的認可甚至慶祝。然而，最終蘇聯還是將這位年輕大使跨越鐵幕的旅程視為英雄之舉，認為這賦予了美國“一張人性的面孔”，同時也讓美國同胞“罕見地一睹（人性化的）蘇聯”。十五
缺乏足夠的原始文件來驗證「薩曼莎·史密斯」計畫是否由兩個競爭國家中的任何一個構思，
可以用兩種可能的理論來解釋。
一方面，該計畫似乎對兩個瀕臨爆發史無前例的核戰的國家有利。因此，為了避免在沒有政治妥協的情況下發生直接對抗，他們轉向了二軌外交。
另一方面，「薩曼莎史密斯」計畫和她去世的相關情況仍然模糊不清，這一事實或許可以解釋為什麼直到今天，雙方完全解密的主要文件都非常少。
這個因素反過來或許可以強化這樣的理論：
薩曼莎·史密斯的使命對美國和蘇聯領導層同樣有益，並表明她的英年早逝暫時阻礙了兩國公民之間外交關係的進一步發展。
前者或許也能解釋為何突然決定任命另一位青年大使卡佳·萊切娃 (Katya Lycheva) 來取代薩曼莎·史密斯 (Samantha Smith)，從而維持兩個對手之間的溝通橋樑。
共產主義已經垮台，鐵幕已被成功拆除，意識形態矛盾不再是導致翻譯和轉型過程中出現的所有損失的原因，但後蘇聯俄羅斯人民與整個西方之間的核心誤解仍然存在——或許現在比冷戰結束以來的任何時候都更為嚴重。不願理解——更不用說接受——「他者」的心態繼續主宰美俄關係，導致兩國之間的分歧進一步擴大。在這種長期的冬日寒冷籠罩著兩個國家及兩國公民的心靈的情況下，文化外交儘管有種種限制和局限，也許能夠（重新）創造出對手之間一個但卻十分重要的溝通管道。
我們不應將二軌外交視為傳統外交和政治手段的替代或阻礙，而應將其視為協助官方領導人尋找方法（即使不能解決，至少也能緩解正在醞釀的衝突）的進程。
透過允許公民相互接觸並重建注定會失敗的政治談判的橋樑，可以為培育目前仍封閉的新溝通管道提供一個健康且富有成效的平台。
* 資料部分由 Tinatin Japaridze 在2018 年 12 月 6 日舉行的斯拉夫、東歐和歐亞研究協會 ( ASEEES) 大會以及 2019 年 2 月 1 日舉行的哥倫比亞大學 IMEMO/哈里曼研究所青年分析師會議上發表。本文及其摘錄迄今均未出版。
[i] 雷根總統，《雷根總統向全國福音派協會發表關於『邪惡帝國』的演講》，《創造 1989 年的歷史》，第 64 項。網路。
[ii] Andrei Konchalovsky，《戈巴契夫：安德羅波夫改革的錯誤人選》，《開放民主》，2011 年 3 月 30 日。網路。
[iii] “薩曼莎的信”，薩曼莎史密斯基金會，1983 年 4 月 19 日。網路。
[iv]同上。
[v]同上。
[vi]同上。
[vii]同上。
[viii] Steven R. Reed，《安德羅波夫可能生病了》，UPI檔案館，UPI，1983年6月16日。網路。
[ix] Lena Nelson，《米哈伊爾·戈巴契夫回憶美國最年輕的大使薩曼莎·史密斯》，BDN Maine，2013 年 7 月 10 日。網路。
[x]雷根寫給戴爾·A·加西亞的信，1983 年 11 月 1 日，CO 165（蘇聯）文件夾標題：案卷 183454（178700-183499）盒子：191，羅納德·裡根圖書館。
[xi] 威廉‧普拉默，《一場飛機失事結束了美國最小大使薩曼莎‧史密斯的短暫美好時光》，《人物，1985 年 9 月 9 日。網路。
[xii] Carl Schreck，“30年後人們回憶美國女學生的蘇聯和平使命”，Sputnik News，2013 年 7 月 22 日。網路。
[xiii] Ilana Feldman 和 Miriam Ticktin 編，《以人性的名義：威脅與關懷的政府》（達勒姆：杜克大學出版社，2010 年），第 72-73 頁。
[xiv] 格里·斯特拉特邁爾牧師，《薩曼莎·史密斯：看見真相的女孩》AGNT，網絡版。
[xv] 尼爾森，“米哈伊爾·戈巴契夫回憶美國最年輕的大使薩曼莎·史密斯。”
Youth Diplomacy in the Cold War: Children as Goodwill Ambassadors
Tinatin Japaridze, UC Fellow Harriman Institute
Track Two diplomacy has been known to break through the barriers where official political negotiations are largely known to stumble and fall. And though imperfect and frequently insufficient to achieve the necessary results on paper, a nuanced approach demonstrates that the interplay between national interests and the human factor can often lead to surprising breakthroughs, particularly in times of conflict where traditional dialogue is not only difficult but also impossible. We are currently living through a prolonged state of winter coolness between Russia and the West. Some call it Cold War 2.0, whereas others argue that the relations have plummeted to an entirely unprecedented level of mistrust, further culminating in blocked channels of communication and reluctance to hear the other side. Yet, where traditional means falter, the nontraditional avenues of communication and even cooperation, such as Track Two diplomatic efforts, can prove to be more productive than most skeptics would rush to admit. To this end, revisiting one such example from the Cold War days may be timely during a tumultuous period in the bilateral relations, whereby traditional means are not only insufficient, but, one could argue, are also serving as a major impediment to a successful conflict resolution.
On March 8, 1983, President Ronald Reagan famously branded the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire.”[i] In his speech, Reagan defended America’s democracy and Christian traditions against Soviet Union’s totalitarian leadership and lack of religious faith. The statement shocked many, amused some, but also inspired a few. One month after President Reagan’s iconic speech, at the peak of the global media frenzy centered on mutually assured destruction, a small-town American girl from Kennebec County, Maine would make headlines across the Iron Curtain. Six months earlier, ten-year-old Samantha Smith had stepped forward to defend her generation’s endangered future by writing to the newly minted General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov. In her letter published by Soviet mouthpiece, Pravda, she shared her fears about the impending nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union and asked the Politburo Chief if it was the Soviet Union’s goal to conquer the world or at least her country.
Although Mikhail Gorbachev is often credited for restructuring the USSR’s stagnating political and economic system through perestroika, the revisionist school of Soviet historians attributes his mentor, Yuri Andropov with the responsibility for the initial groundwork on liberal reforms.[ii] Judging by his political record as both the head of the KGB and later the Politburo, Andropov’s original plan for conducting these reforms was likely to have been less drastic and more constructive than those undertaken by his eventual successor, Gorbachev. Recently declassified archival material suggests that the particular timing of Samantha Smith’s trip to the Soviet Union in July of 1983 following President Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech in March of that same year was conceived as a possible pre-perestroika project. It was likely meant to melt the ice between the Cold War rivals as a precaution against further escalation of the already strenuous relations
.
The American fifth-grader’s message to the newly appointed leader of the Soviet Union was immediately printed in Pravda. Within weeks, Andropov personally wrote to the young girl, calling her “courageous” and “honest,”[iii] and comparing her bravery to that of Tom Sawyer’s friend, Becky Thatcher. In his letter, the General Secretary confirmed that both the United States and his country hold “terrible” nuclear weapons that have the ability to “kill millions of people in an instant.”[iv] However, he emphasized that it is not the intention of the Soviet side to ever use these weapons “first against any country.”[v] Furthermore, Andropov added that the Soviet Union “proposes to discontinue” their further production, instead intending to proceed to the “abolition of all the stockpiles on earth.”[vi] The underlying message was clear: the Soviet leadership was prepared to engage in constructive dialogue—a dialogue, however, conducted on their terms. The correspondence was accompanied by an official invitation for Smith and her family to visit Soviet Russia in order to “find out” first-hand about the USSR, meet with her contemporaries, and, most importantly—to see for herself that in the Soviet Union, “everyone is for peace and friendship among peoples.”[vii]
During the carefully planned and thoroughly scripted two-week tour of Soviet Russia, Samantha Smith visited Red Square, attended a Russian ballet performance at the Bolshoi Theater, met the first female astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova, enjoyed an all-American lunch with burgers and fries in the company of then U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Arthur Hartman, and, most memorably, visited the Soviet youth camp, Artek, on the Black Sea, where she met fellow youngsters—Soviet girl- and boy-scouts known as the young pioneers. Due to a “mysterious”[viii] illness that, at the time, was strictly contained behind the imposing Kremlin walls (but would eventually take his life seven months later), Andropov was unable to personally welcome his young pen pal.
At first glance, Smith’s mission motivated by youthful goodwill and idealism was part of the meticulously scripted pro-Soviet propaganda conducted by the Kremlin officials as a way of granting the socialist country a “human face.”[ix] However, there is also a flipside to the same coin—“Samantha Smith” as a cultural project conceived and orchestrated with matching effort and involvement on the part of the U.S. government, specifically the White House and/or the Department of State as a means of spreading American soft power throughout the communist bloc. Was this cultural project an attempt by either Soviet or American—or perhaps both—sides to engage in political dialogue through citizen diplomacy? Primary documents from the Ronald Reagan Archives suggest that the White House and the Presidential Administration’s enthusiasm vis-à-vis Smith’s citizen diplomacy project paled next to the eagerness of the Soviet side to engage the American “Dove of Peace” in an effort to build a bridge of communication through diplomatic means. Through recently declassified memos and letters, it is clear that the Office of the President of the United States and President Reagan personally feared that the issues the U.S. and the USSR disagreed upon were far too complex to be subject to resolution with “a few bold diplomatic strokes.”[x]
An overnight sensation in the USSR, upon her return to the United States, Samantha became a regular guest on television talk shows, such as Night Line and Today Show, where she was celebrated as both America’s “pint-size ambassadress” and disparaged as a “dupe of Soviet PR machinations.”[xi] But her American reception paled significantly next to her triumph in the Soviet Union.
The legacy of Samantha Smith was immortalized by a fatal accident that took her young life just two years after the Soviet tour. On August 25, 1985, en route from filming a new ABC television drama, Lime Street alongside Robert Wagner, a Bar Harbor Airlines commuter plane carrying Samantha and her father, along with four other passengers and two crew members, crashed near a small airport in Auburn, Maine. To this day, questions surrounding her untimely death remain unanswered. The 13-year-old Goodwill Ambassador’s passing became a personal loss for the entire Soviet nation. In his open letter, then newly appointed General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev called Samantha Smith “a brilliant beam of sunlight.”[xii] Shortly thereafter, his government issued a postal stamp in memory of the “Young American Dove of Peace” and even named a mountain in Russia after the late child ambassador to commemorate her brave efforts during a tumultuous time in bilateral relations between the two adversaries.
The passing of Samantha Smith in 1985 created a sudden gap in the bilateral cultural exchange program. According to the Soviet news agency, TASS, Children at the Peacemakers Foundation asked the Moscow City Young Pioneers Palace to recommend a candidate who would carry Samantha Smith’s torch back to the United States. The request entailed finding a “child involved in anti-war activities who was no older than Samantha.”[xiii] Katya Lycheva, who at the time was studying at a Special English School No. 4 in Moscow, was selected from a proposed list of young peace activists of the International Friendship Club of the Soviet Union. Lycheva attempted to replicate Smith’s success by writing to—and eventually meeting—U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Yet, her success paled next to Samantha’s original triumph. In 1988, three years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Lycheva and her family relocated to France, and from 1995 she worked in the Paris Foreign Investment Promotion Center. In 2000, Katya—now Ekaterina—returned to Russia to serve in the Ministry of Labor and Social Development of the Russian Federation, where in 2004, she became a member of the United Aircraft Consortium. Ekaterina Lycheva has since declined from making media appearances both in Russia and abroad.
While in her hometown the local press hailed Samantha Smith as “the girl who saw the truth,”[xiv] what made the story of the young peace activist appealing to the Soviet people was her perceived genuine intent at making a difference in spite of the ramifications of the bureaucratic system. Her efforts were briefly acknowledged and even celebrated by the American side. Yet, it was ultimately the Soviet Union that embraced the young ambassador’s journey to the other side of the Iron Curtain as a heroic act that granted “a human face” to the United States, while, simultaneously, offering her compatriots “a rare glimpse of the [humanized] Soviet Union.”[xv]
Lack of sufficient primary documents that verify whether the “Samantha Smith” project was conceived by either of the two rivaling states can be explained by two possible theories. On the one hand, it appears that the project was mutually beneficial for both countries that were on the verge of engaging in an unprecedented nuclear war. Therefore, in order to avoid direct confrontation without political compromise, they turned to Track II Diplomacy. On the other hand, the very fact that the circumstances surrounding the “Samantha Smith” project and her passing remain ambiguous at best may explain why, to this day, so very few of the primary documents have been fully declassified on either side. This factor may, in turn, reinforce the theory that Samantha Smith’s mission was equally beneficial for both U.S. and Soviet leaderships, and demonstrate that her untimely death served as a temporary impediment for further development of diplomatic relations on a citizen-to-citizen level. The former may also shed light on the sudden decision to designate another youth ambassador, Katya Lycheva, to replace Samantha Smith, thus sustaining a communication bridge between the two adversaries.
Communism has fallen, the Iron Curtain has been successfully demolished, ideological contradictions can no longer be blamed for all that remains lost in translation and transition, but the core misunderstandings between the people of post-Soviet Russia and the West as a whole persists—perhaps more so now than at any other time since the end of the Cold War. The reluctance to understand—let alone accept—the “other” continues to dictate U.S.-Russian relations, causing a wider divide between the two countries. In this prolonged state of winter coolness dominating the hearts and minds of both states and their respective citizens, cultural diplomacy with all of its restrictions and limitations may (re)create just one but nonetheless an important channel of communication between the adversaries.
Instead of viewing Track Two diplomacy as a replacement for or an impediment to traditional diplomatic and political tools, we must instead see this process as one that is designed to assist official leaders to find ways to, if not resolve, then at least mitigate brewing conflicts. By allowing citizens to engage with each other and rebuild bridges where political talks are otherwise doomed to fail can provide a healthy and fruitful platform for cultivating renewed channels of communication that for the time being remain closed.
* This material was partially presented by Tinatin Japaridze at the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Convention on December 6, 2018, and the IMEMO/Harriman Institute Young Analysts Conference at Columbia University on February 1, 2019. Neither this article nor its excerpts had been published until now.
[i] President Ronald Reagan, “President Reagan's ‘Evil Empire’ Speech to the National Association of Evangelicals,” Making the History of 1989, Item #64. Web.
[ii] Andrei Konchalovsky, “Gorbachev: The Wrong Man for Andropov’s Reforms,” Open Democracy, March 30, 2011. Web.
[iii] “Samantha’s Letter,” Samantha Smith Foundation, April 19, 1983. Web.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Steven R. Reed, “Andropov May Be Ill,” UPI Archives, UPI, June 16, 1983. Web.
[ix] Lena Nelson, “Mikhail Gorbachev Reflects on America’s Youngest Ambassador, Samantha Smith,” BDN Maine, July 10, 2013. Web.
[x] Letter, Ronald Reagan to Dale A. Garcia, November 1, 1983, CO 165 (Soviet Union) Folder Title: casefile 183454 (178700-183499) Box: 191, Ronald Reagan Library.
[xi] William Plummer, “A Plane Crash Ends the Bright Brief Passage of Samantha Smith, America's Littlest Ambassador,” People, September 9, 1985. Web.
[xii] Carl Schreck, “U.S. Schoolgirl’s Soviet Peace Mission Remembered 30 Years Later,” Sputnik News, July 22, 2013. Web.
[xiii] Ilana Feldman and Miriam Ticktin, eds., In the Name of Humanity: The Government of Threat and Care (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), pp. 72-73.
[xiv] Rev. Gerry Straatemeier, “Samantha Smith: The Girl Who Saw the Truth,” AGNT, n.d. Web.
[xv] Nelson, “Mikhail Gorbachev Reflects on America’s Youngest Ambassador, Samantha Smith.”
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