‘After nearly annihilating our world, our relatives are allies’: a gripping podcast featuring JFK & Khrushchev’s relatives.

In the month of October 1962, the planet came nearer to annihilation more so than ever in the contemporary era. This occurred after an American surveillance aircraft identified that Russian atomic weapon sites were being assembled on the island of Cuba, a mere 100 miles from the US mainland. Reacting to this, U.S. President JFK ordered the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to enact a naval quarantine around the island. The next phase constituted almost two weeks filled with unbearable stress.

An Catastrophic Threat

The peril was palpable. Should President Kennedy, or else the Soviet counterpart, Premier Khrushchev, had fired against the other side, a cascade involving worldwide nuclear strikes followed by retaliatory strikes would have ensued, thrusting civilization into all-out destruction.

The Cuban missile crisis has been covered repeatedly, in books, films, as well as TV documentaries. However, for its third season, the BBC World Service podcast titled "The Bomb" introduces a completely new dimension into this historical narrative. The series is co-presented by Kennedy's relative alongside Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the leaders who, for 13 days, held the destiny of the planet in their hands.

"What were the Russians planning? What was Washington considering?" asks Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter who is also a professor of global relations.

For her, the strength of the show is its attempt to question: "How can nations detest each other and go against each other?"

"I am acutely aware how spectacular it is that humans can be friends or can become total enemies," adds Kennedy, son of RFK, related to the late president and currently a writer as well as attorney. "We see this repeatedly when nations have gone to war, demonstrating the sheer folly it is to fight."

The Precipice Towards Catastrophe

What’s remarkable regarding this event is that, since it transpired so publicly, citizens worldwide were able to observe nearly as it happened while it crept towards disaster. Nonetheless, the danger of destruction was more imminent than most people understood at the time.

"Virtually everyone among Kennedy's advisors wanted a military strike and an invasion," says Max Kennedy. "Had the U.S. attacked the Cubans with the naval blockade, there is no question the Russians stationed there would've fired a tactical nuclear weapon at the US Sixth Fleet, which would have obliterated the naval vessels as well as destroyed our largest and most important fleet. In turn, we would have responded with massive retaliation that would have ended all life on Earth."

The reality it didn’t is a testament to both leaders, who managed to remain calm and calmly negotiate at a time when hawkish elements around them were advocating military action. Consequently, The Soviet premier removed the nuclear weapons from the Caribbean island and President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) withdrew his missiles from NATO ally Turkey. The relief was worldwide, matched by a feeling of hope.

A Divergent Perspective

Still, during those 13 days of October 1962, the anxiety was palpable by everyone. The Bomb’s co-hosts were born shortly after the crisis, with Nina learned about the crisis via the Soviet school curriculum, which portrayed a slightly different picture of events.

"As you mentioned your parent remembers it, and it was a scary day," Khrushcheva notes. "But in the Soviet Union, the public really didn’t know a great deal regarding the crisis, since it was a crisis, whereas in the Soviet Union the official line was that everything was constantly wonderful and sunny."

Within Khrushchev’s family, though, the perspective was different. "They told me that it was a triumphant moment for the USSR, because it represented eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to resolve it, and avoided a global war, which was a positive thing," she adds. Subsequently, though, that interpretation would not be held by everybody. "For decades in Russian politics, it was considered a failure for the Soviet leader, because he didn’t blow up the United States."

An Unlikely Collaboration

This podcast is remarkably balanced , well produced that Khrushcheva jokes it almost made her forget she already knew the ending. This is, partly, thanks to the participation of historians. Yet, truly, the most momentous thing is the involvement of the hosts themselves. Not so long ago, it was unthinkable that descendants of the leaders of the United States and the USSR to appear side by side. That Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva can do that, and be so warm toward one another, has to be a sign of progress.

"We are not the first," smiles Khrushcheva. "After 1991, my uncle moved to America and formed a close bond with the former president's family."

"However we had never met before the podcast," clarifies Max. "Which is a shame because we connected really well and we’re friends, something that is wonderful. Ultimately, following nearly 60 years since almost destroying the world, our families have become allies, suggesting the world is safer, somewhat."

Modern Parallels with Present Perils

Is that truly the case? Part of the reason The Bomb seems so urgent is because we once again are living living through a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock stands nearer to midnight in its history, partly since today's statesmen appear not to have the capacity to grasp