In his letter, Andropov had told Smith, "Soviet people well know what a terrible thing war is. Forty-two years ago, Nazi Germany which strove for supremacy over the whole world, attacked our country, burned and destroyed many thousands of our towns and villages, killed millions of Soviet men, women and children."
While at Artek, Smith and some fellow campers visited Yalta where Allied leaders Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met to devise a peace after World War II.
