Whatever else may be said of the late Fidel Castro, he has one distinction no-one can take from him or is likely to equal in the future: he was the only man in history who actively sought to provoke a nuclear war between the super-powers.

He had asked the Soviet Union to install nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962 and was furious when Khruschev withdrew them in response to President Kennedy’s blockade instead of launching them (Perhaps he was looking forward to haranguing an audience of obedient cinders).