‘After almost destroying our world, the relatives are allies’: a gripping podcast featuring JFK and Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

In the month of October 1962, the planet edged closer toward ruin more so than ever during modern times. This happened after a US reconnaissance plane found the fact that Soviet atomic weapon sites were being assembled on Cuba, less than 100 miles off the coast of the United States. Reacting to this, U.S. President John F Kennedy directed the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to establish a maritime quarantine encircling the island. The next phase was almost two weeks of unbearable anxiety.

An Catastrophic Threat

The peril remained clear. If Kennedy, or else his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, were to fire against the other side, a series involving worldwide nuclear strikes followed by retaliatory strikes might have followed, casting mankind toward total oblivion.

The Cuban missile crisis has been examined endlessly, in books, movies, and television programmes. However, for its third season, a prominent BBC World Service podcast titled "The Bomb" introduces a completely new element to the story. It is co-presented by Max Kennedy alongside Nina Khrushcheva, family members of the figures who, for two tense weeks, controlled the destiny of humanity in their hands.

"What was the Russians planning? What was the American side planning?" ponders Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's great-granddaughter and a professor of global relations.

For her, the beauty of the show is its endeavor to objectively ask: "Why do people detest each other and confront one another?"

"It struck me how profound it is that humans can be allies or can become total enemies," remarks Max Kennedy, the son of Robert Kennedy, nephew of the late president and currently a writer as well as lawyer. "We see this dynamic over and over in instances where nations enter into conflict, and it just illustrates the profound irrationality it is to fight."

The Precipice of Disaster

What’s notable about the Cuban missile crisis is that, because it unfolded so publicly, people worldwide were able to observe almost as it happened as it edged towards armageddon. However, the danger of destruction came closer than most people realised.

"The overwhelming majority among Kennedy's advisors were advocating for an airstrike and an invasion," explains Max Kennedy. "Had the U.S. struck Cuba using the Sixth Fleet, undoubtedly Soviet forces on the ground would have launched a tactical nuclear weapon at the American ships, which would've obliterated our naval vessels as well as destroyed our largest and most important naval force. And, we would have responded through massive retaliation which would have eradicated most life on Earth."

The fact this did not occur is a testament to Kennedy and Khrushchev, who succeeded in exercise restraint while calmly negotiate at a time when everyone around them demanded action. Consequently, Khrushchev removed the missiles in the Caribbean island while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) withdrew American missiles from NATO ally Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, as was a feeling of optimism.

The Divergent Perspective

Yet, during those 13 days in October, the tension was palpable globally. The Bomb’s presenters were born in the years following these events, and Nina learned about the crisis through the Soviet school curriculum, which portrayed a slightly different version of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father recalls it, describing it as a frightening time," she says. "However in the Soviet Union, people really didn’t know a great deal about it, since it was a tense situation, whereas in the Soviet Union we were told that everything was always wonderful and positive."

Inside Khrushchev’s family, though, it was distinct. "They told me that it was a triumphant moment it was, because it was a direct confrontation. The leaders managed to resolve it, and avoided the war, seen as a positive thing," she continues. In the years to come, though, that perspective was not held by everybody. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, the crisis was viewed as a setback for the Soviet leader, because he didn’t blow up America."

A Unlikely Collaboration

The Bomb is so balanced and well produced so much so that Khrushcheva quips she nearly forgot she already knew the ending. This effect is, in part, due to the participation of historians. Yet, really, the most significant aspect is the participation of the descendants. Even within living memory, it was unthinkable that relatives of the heads of state of America and the Soviet Union to appear side by side. That Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva can do that, and exhibit such warmth toward one another, must be seen as a symbol of optimism.

"Max and I aren't the pioneers," notes Nina. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son and became great friends with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we had never met prior to this project," adds Kennedy. "That is a shame since we connected really well and we are friends, something that is really great. Finally, after almost six decades since almost destroying the world, our lineages have become friends, suggesting global relations is safer, a little bit."

Contemporary Echoes with Current Perils

Is that truly the case? One reason the reason The Bomb seems so urgent is that we now find ourselves living through dark times. The symbolic clock of doom stands nearer to midnight than ever before, in part because today's statesmen don’t seem to have the capacity to comprehend