Greenham Common: Files highlight 'political concerns'

The Conservative government was prepared for a confrontation between armed troops and anti-nuclear protesters at RAF Greenham Common in 1983 - but it was concerned of the political consequences if a demonstrator was shot by US personnel, according to newly-released files at the National Archives in Kew.

On November 13, as the first US cruise missiles arrived at the RAF base in Berkshire, 30,000 women demonstrators protested at the site.

After a 1987 deal between Russia and the US, it took four years before all missiles were removed.