CONCLUDING our look back at how The Herald covered the Thirteen Days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, 55 years ago.

AT 9am Washington time President Kennedy and his senior aides learned that, “in order to eliminate as rapidly as possible the conflict which endangers the cause of peace”, Nikita Khrushchev had promised to remove the missiles in exchange for a non-invasion pledge from the US. Privately, he also wrote to Kennedy to approve JFK’s confidential promise to remove Jupiter missiles from Turkey.

At an 11am meeting, Kennedy said that though Khrushchev’s reply was to be welcomed, “we are under no illusions nor can we reach any general conclusions about how the Russians will act in the future in areas other than Cuba”.

The Joint Chiefs, however, urged JFK to permit air-strikes on Cuba the next day, followed by an invasion, unless there were unambiguous evidence of an immediate withdrawal of Soviet missiles.

The crisis did not, of course, stop dead on October 28. Much work remained to be done, but the most dangerous spell was now over. Not everyone at the time, however, felt a sense of dread during the Thirteen Days.

Says the former MP and MSP Dennis Canavan, then an Edinburgh University student: “I do not recall any sense of Armageddon but perhaps that was partly because of the optimism of youth and partly because I did not fully appreciate the gravity of the crisis. Lectures were not cancelled and life went on, despite headlines telling us that the world was holding its breath.

“Back in my home town, Cowdenbeath, it was a different story. The Communist Party was still fairly strong, despite the Soviet Union’s barbaric invasion of Hungary in 1956. The local Communists were very good at community politics but, when it came to foreign affairs, they took their line from the Kremlin. There were heated arguments in the streets about the Cuban crisis.

“In retrospect, there was no monopoly of righteousness on either side. The USA was wrong to support the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 but I still do not support the use or threatened use of nuclear weapons in any circumstances.

“I now worry more about the situation in the world today. At least Kennedy and Khrushchev were sane, coherent people. I cannot say the same about Trump and Kim Jong-un.”

Herald reader R Russell Smith, 27 at the time, says: “I believed all would be well and was not particularly concerned about it. I suppose I was optimistic, believed in the good sense of JFK and politicians.

“I was busy with my own life, and was looking forward to my honeymoon in the November.”

Adds former MP Maria Fyfe: “To this day Cuba puts up with American use of part of its territory, and the blockade continues. And now we have a US President who is a danger to the world, so much so that senior members of the administration are deeply worried in case Trump starts a nuclear war, and are considering how they can stop him.”