The stakes were high at the Cuban military airfield in San Antonio de los Baños, some 20 miles south west of Havana, two days before Christmas in 1962.

Planners for the aftermath of a nuclear strike in Belfast during the Cold War had a disturbingly naive attitude to its apocalyptic impact, records have revealed.

CUBA’S President Fidel Castro has said on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis that Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev helped create the conflict