France displays Cold War relics

The 3.6 metre long atomic bomb is on display in a French museum

CAEN, France -- Relics from the brief period 40 years ago when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war have gone on display at a museum in France.

An atomic bomb and the remains of a U2 spy plane which both featured in the Cuban Missile Crisis are the star attractions of a new Cold War exhibition in Caen.

The B28 Hydrogen bomb has been loaned to the Caen Memorial museum by the U.S. National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque for five years.

It is the first time a U.S. atomic bomb has been given to a foreign country.

RESOURCES CNN Special: The Cold War

The bomb was among the payload on the Strategic Air Commands' B28 flights which were permanently kept in the air ready for use during the Cold War.

The exhibition also includes a complete Soviet MIG 21 and two pieces of the Berlin Wall, painted by Eastern artists on the night of the fall of the wall.

Museum press manager Christine Dejou said the aim of the exhibition is to explain the diversity between the United Stated and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.

It will also show how close the world came to a Third World War in 1962 when the U.S. and Russia embarked on a tense stand-off over Soviet missiles based 90 miles off the American coast, on Cuba.

In September 1962, U.S. president John F. Kennedy warned the Soviets that "the gravest issues would arise" should they place offensive weapons -- a phrase widely understood to mean nuclear weapons -- on the island.

Medium Range Ballistic Missile site at San Cristobal, Cuba during Cuban missile crisis

Spy missions flown by American U2 surveillance aircraft during October that year produced photographs showing nuclear missile bases under construction in Cuba, with evidence of medium-range ballistic missiles and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in place.

On October 19 the U.S. announced a blockade of Cuban and demanded Russia withdraw the missiles.

During the standoff that followed, low-flying U.S. surveillance aircraft encountered hostile fire, and on October 27 the Cubans shot down a U2, killing its pilot.

Eventually, the Kremlin 'blinked' first and on October 28 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev said he would remove "offensive" weapons from Cuba in return for a U.S. pledge not to invade the island.

The exhibition -- which also includes the remains of the U2 shot down on October 27, 1962 -- opened on Thursday.

"We are proud of being able to make our visitors think of peace and war prevention," Dejou said.

The museum has 420,000 visitors a year and is expecting two thousands visitors on the first day of the exhibition.