‘After almost destroying the world, the families are allies’: the gripping podcast featuring John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev’s relatives.

In the month of October 1962, the planet edged closer toward annihilation than at any other point during modern times. This transpired after a US reconnaissance aircraft identified the fact that Russian nuclear weapon installations were being built on Cuba, a mere 160 kilometers off the coast of American soil. In response, U.S. President John F Kennedy ordered the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to enact a maritime quarantine around the island. The next phase was almost two weeks of impossible anxiety.

The Catastrophic Threat

The peril remained obvious. Should President Kennedy, or his Soviet counterpart, Premier Khrushchev, had fired on the other side, a cascade involving worldwide atomic strikes and retaliatory strikes would have followed, thrusting civilization toward total ruination.

This pivotal 1962 event has been documented extensively, through volumes, films, as well as television programmes. However, for its third season, the BBC World Service podcast titled "The Bomb" introduces a completely new element into the story. The series is co-presented featuring Max Kennedy alongside Khrushchev's descendant, relatives of the men that, over two tense weeks, grasped the destiny of humanity within their grasp.

"What was the Kremlin planning? What were the United States considering?" questions Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's descendant and a professor specializing in global relations.

In her view, the beauty of the show is its endeavor to objectively ask: "How can individuals hate each other to the point they confront one another?"

"It struck me how profound the fact that individuals have the potential to be allies or have the potential to be complete enemies," adds Kennedy, the son of RFK, nephew of JFK and currently an author as well as lawyer. "History shows this dynamic repeatedly in instances where nations enter into conflict, demonstrating the sheer folly it is to engage in warfare."

The Brink Towards Catastrophe

What’s striking regarding this event was that, because it transpired in the global spotlight, individuals globally could watch almost as it happened while it crept towards armageddon. Even so, the danger of destruction came closer than most people understood at the time.

"Virtually everyone among Kennedy's advisors were advocating for an airstrike followed by a ground invasion," explains Max Kennedy. "Had the U.S. attacked the Cubans using the Sixth Fleet, there is no question Soviet forces on the ground would have deployed a nuclear warhead at the US Sixth Fleet, and that would've sunk the naval vessels as well as destroyed our largest and most important naval force. And, we would have retaliated through massive retaliation which would have ended most life on the planet."

The fact it didn’t highlights the composure of both leaders, who managed to keep their heads while calmly negotiate when many advisors around them were advocating military action. As a result, The Soviet premier removed the nuclear weapons in Cuba while President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed at the time) withdrew his similar weapons from NATO ally Turkey. The relief was worldwide, matched by the sense of optimism.

A Divergent Perspective

Still, during those two weeks in October, the anxiety was felt by everyone. The Bomb’s presenters were born in the years following these events, with Khrushcheva learned about it via the USSR's school curriculum, which portrayed an alternative picture of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father recalls it, describing it as a scary day," she says. "But in the Soviet Union, people were largely unaware a great deal regarding the crisis, since it was a tense situation, and under the Soviet system we were told that everything was constantly fine and sunny."

Within the Khrushchev household, however, the perspective was distinct. "I was informed that it was a triumphant occasion for the USSR, as it represented eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to find a solution, and avoided a global war, seen as a wonderful outcome," she adds. Later on, however, that perspective would not be shared by all Russians. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a setback for the Soviet leader, simply he refrained from destroying America."

A Unprecedented Partnership

This podcast is so even-handed and well produced that Khrushcheva jokes she nearly forgot she already knew the ending. This effect is, in part, due to the participation of historians. But, truly, the most momentous thing remains the involvement of the hosts themselves. Not so long ago, it was inconceivable for relatives of the leaders of America and USSR to appear together publicly. That Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and be so warm toward one another, has to be a sign of progress.

"Max and I aren't the pioneers," notes Khrushcheva. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, my uncle moved to America where he became great friends with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we were strangers before the podcast," clarifies Kennedy. "Which is unfortunate since we got along really well and we are friends, something that is wonderful. Finally, after almost 60 years since nearly annihilating the planet, our lineages are now allies, so I think the world is more secure, somewhat."

Contemporary Parallels with Current Perils

Is that truly the case? Part of why this series seems so urgent is that we now are living in dark times. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to catastrophe in its history, in part because today's statesmen don’t seem to have the capacity to comprehend