Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson,

the past brought to life by those who were there.

Coming up the dangers faced by the political cartoonist.

It would have been very difficult for him to ever from his message and to compromise because what he had to say he said it,

what he had to draw he drew it.

Plus a massacre in India which served as a warning about what would happen at partition

the discovery of a vast floating island of rubbish in the Pacific and the people who knew Florence Nightingale.

All I knew was she was a very charming great aunt.

And then as I grew up, I found out what marvelous work she'd done for the soldiers and for hospitals.

That's all to come.

But first, there's Saber Ratt rattling and then there's the genuine threat of warlike intention.

This past week we've heard Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump going at it.

Kim denouncing Trump as bereft of reason, Trump warning of

fire and fury if North Korea continues to threaten the US. Whether this is all just

jaw, jaw, or a prelude to something much more serious remains to be seen.

But we have an example of potentially dangerous talk from an earlier era.

23 years ago the American President Ronald Reagan made an off-the-cuff remark during a sound check for his weekly radio address.

He said, we've outlawed Russia forever, we begin bombing in five minutes.

It was just an unscripted joke, but it terrified ordinary Russians.

Ronald Reagan's advisor, Morton Blackwell, has been discussing with Dina Newman,

the president's love of anti-Soviet jokes and his determination to destroy communism.

All right, my fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that

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