A report supplied by the Foreign Section and Cuban comrade Lazaro Peña, Director of the Latin American syndicate, on the political situation in Cuba. It describes the July 26th movement, Cuban relations with the United States, and the Cuban Popular Socialist Party.

An assessment by the Italian Foreign Ministry of the Cuban Missile Crisis - the international situation, the events that transpired and the lessons that can be learned from them.

In the early pages of the chapter, Ducci describes how by 22 October 1962, he had just arrived in Brussels as member of a delegation which included the top echelons of Italian foreign policy: Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni, Undersecretary Carlo Russo, Secretary General of the Ministry Attilio Cattani, and a number of other key dignitaries, including himself, who at the time was at the head of the Italian delegation which negotiated the possible accession of the United Kingdom to the European Economic Community. They had all gone to Brussels for a week of meetings between the Six members of the EEC, and were engaged in a preparatory meeting for the work ahead, when the news spread that the situation between the US and Cuba was deteriorating and that President Kennedy was about to give an important speech.

Diary entries from Manlio Brosio, an Italian foreign service diplomat, from his time as Ambassador to Paris during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The few excerpts about Cuba are a good example of the importance of the diaries: not only do they make clear Fanfani’s sense of danger and his willingness to search for a peaceful solution of the crisis, but the bits about his exchanges with Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlo Russo, with the Italian Ambassador in London Pietro Quaroni, or with the USSR Presidium member Frol Kozlov, help frame the Italian position during the crisis in a broader context.

Report form Carlos Rafael Rodriguez about his interview with Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow on 11 December 1962. "Dinner with Khrushchev" notes: Rodriguez writes about a dinner he attended with Mikoyan, Khrushchev, official delegates, and friends.