There was so much we didn‘t know: that behind the public stalemate a private channel of communication had been opened up; that when it came to missile strength, the balance of power was a lie – America had more powerful warheads that could travel further; that a face-saving deal was being worked out in which the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles from Cuba while America did the same from Italy and Turkey. But we were inured to secrecy in all kinds of ways. We accepted that things would be kept from us in the national interest, and though we understood that appearance often differed from reality in geopolitical strategies, who could be certain what the reality was?