Truth, and nothing like the truth

Yes, the Cubans really did shoot down an American U2 spy plane, and its pilot was killed.

Yes, the USA did authorise the test of a hydrogen bomb to go forward at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

And yes, President Kennedy and his advisers discussed dropping a dummy depth charge on to a Soviet submarine to bring it to the surface at a point of screaming tension between the super-powers.

But no, Kennedy did not personally order the captain of the USS Pierce, on full emergency alert, to raise the sub.

No, powerful Right-wingers did not engage in a scheme to manoeuvre Jack Kennedy into nuclear war.

And no, a dozen times no, a top Kennedy aide did not telephone US pilots and instruct them to lie to their superiors about being shot at while on photographic missions over missile sites on Castro's island.

So, is Thirteen Days, the new movie about the most famous crisis of nuclear brinkmanship, historically accurate? The answer is yes and no. But few complaints have been heard from the people who took part in that momentous episode in October 1962. Professor Philip Zelikow, a former staffer on the White House National Security Council, says: "The movie-makers have dramatised a very complex event. But the essence of the story is there. It does re-create the atmosphere of the high Cold War period and conveys the truth that it was an extremely dangerous time."

The Cuban missile crisis was the closest the world has come to nuclear war. We know now that Soviet field commanders in Cuba were ready to use nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Since the failed US-backed invasion of the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro feared a second attack. So, starting in the late summer of 1962, the Soviets secretly sent 60 missiles and their warheads to Cuba using civilian ships.

In Washington, rumours began to circulate. The CIA warned as early as 10 August of the Soviet plans. But it was only on Monday, 15 October, the first of the Thirteen Days, that Kennedy was told that a U2 spy plane had taken pictures of SS-4 nuclear missiles with a range of 1,100 miles, easily able to strike Washington and New York. Kennedy at once formed Ex-Comm, a group of a dozen of his closest advisers, including his brother Bobby.

After seven days of tense debate, Kennedy decided to put a naval quarantine around Cuba, announced that any missile attack from Castro would be regarded as an attack by the Soviets, and demanded that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev remove all weapons from Cuba.

On Day 12, Kennedy received an impassioned letter from Khrushchev offering to remove missiles and personnel from Cuba if Kennedy would announce publicly that he would never invade the island. "You and I," wrote the Soviet leader, "should not now pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied a knot of war."

Next day, an American U2 was shot down over Cuba and a second letter came from Khrushchev, this time also demanding the removal of US missiles from Turkey. Bobby Kennedy suggested ignoring the second letter and accepting the offer contained in the first. On the 13th day the crisis eased. Khrushchev announced that he would withdraw the missiles, trusting that America would not invade.