IT IS 60 years since the Cuban Missile Crisis, a week in October 1962 when it really did feel like the end of the world.
At my old school pupils and staff gathered on the playing field and looked up at the skies, half expecting to see the mushroom cloud appear that would herald the end of mankind. And they were not alone.
During those late October days, as autumn moved imperceptibly into winter, the world held its breath as the Russians and Americans played out a potentially lethal game of cat and mouse, teetering on the brink of all-out nuclear war.
And it all began in the Spring of 1962 when the Russian leader, Nikita Khrushchev, felt his grip on power loosening.
Not only was Khrushchev having to contend with rivals within Russia’s ruling Presidium, he was
