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The National Press Club, Washington.

In a smoky wood-paneled room,

journalists hang out at the long bar.

In 1962, it's a go-to place for cheap drinks, food and gossip.

Amongst the journalists are Russian spies, listening in to conversations and picking up what useful information they can.

Something, anything, to pass on to their superiors.

It's Wednesday night, October 24th, day nine of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A KGB agent working undercover as a foreign correspondent chats to the barman, Johnny Prokhov.

Prokhov whispers something to the agent.

He's just overheard a conversation between two reporters from the New York Herald Tribune.

One of them has been selected to travel with the U.S. Marines, if they invade Cuba,

and write an article about the operation.

Prokhov tells the agent that he heard the reporter say,

It looks like I'm going.

That information gets passed to the Soviet ambassador,

Anatoly Dobrynin, who urgently telegrams Moscow.

The gossip becomes top secret intelligence information

and reaches Nikita Khrushchev's desk.

For the Soviet premiere, it's one of several signs

that the United States is on the verge of invading Cuba.

From the BBC World Service, this is the bomb. is on the verge of invading Cuba.

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