Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,25 Sep 2008,30 mins

Britain's Cuban Missile Crisis

Document

Available for over a year

Mike Thomson presents the series using documentary evidence to throw new light on past events. In the last week of October 1962, the world famously held its breath as two superpowers teetered on the precipice of nuclear war. The incident has gone down in history as a war of nerves between the Kremlin and the White House, but what role was the British Government playing, and what decisions was Prime Minister Harold Macmillan making on behalf of his people? How close did he bring Britain to all out nuclear war?

Programme Website
More episodes