‘After nearly destroying the planet, our families are friends’: a gripping podcast from JFK & Nikita Khrushchev’s relatives.

During the month of October 1962, the planet veered closer toward annihilation than at any other point during the contemporary era. This happened when a US reconnaissance aircraft identified that Soviet nuclear weapon installations were being assembled on the island of Cuba, less than 160 kilometers from the US mainland. Reacting to this, U.S. President John F Kennedy directed a naval task force to enact a maritime blockade around Cuba. What followed constituted almost a fortnight of unbearable tension.

An Unthinkable Threat

The peril remained palpable. If President Kennedy, or else his Soviet counterpart, Premier Khrushchev, had fired against their enemy, a cascade involving worldwide nuclear attacks followed by retaliatory strikes would have ensued, thrusting mankind into total destruction.

The Cuban missile crisis has been covered extensively, in books, movies, and television programmes. However, for its third season, a prominent BBC World Service podcast The Bomb has brought a completely new perspective into the story. It is jointly hosted by Kennedy's relative alongside Khrushchev's descendant, relatives of the leaders who, over 13 days, held the destiny of the world in their hands.

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

For her, the strength of the show is its attempt to objectively ask: "Why do nations hate one another and oppose one another?"

"It was not lost on me how spectacular the fact that humans have the potential to be friends or have the potential to be complete enemies," adds Max Kennedy, the son of RFK, related to JFK and currently a writer as well as attorney. "We see this over and over when nations have gone to war, and it just illustrates how unbelievably stupid it is to fight."

The Brink of Catastrophe

What is striking about this event is that, since it unfolded in the global spotlight, individuals globally could watch nearly as it happened while it edged towards disaster. However, the danger of destruction was more imminent than most people realised.

"The overwhelming majority in the White House were advocating for a military strike followed by an invasion," notes Max Kennedy. "If we had struck Cuba using the Sixth Fleet, undoubtedly the Russians on the ground would have deployed a nuclear warhead against the US Sixth Fleet, which would've sunk our aircraft carriers and sunk America's primary naval force. In turn, we would have retaliated with an overwhelming counterattack which would have eradicated all life on the planet."

The reality this did not occur highlights the composure of Kennedy and Khrushchev, who succeeded in remain calm while engaging in diplomacy when hawkish elements around them were advocating action. As a result, The Soviet premier removed the missiles from the Caribbean island while President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed at the time) withdrew American similar weapons from NATO ally Turkey. The relief was palpable, matched by the sense of hope.

The Different Perspective

Still, for those 13 days in October, the tension was felt by everyone. The podcast's presenters came into the world shortly after these events, and Nina learned about it via the Soviet education system, which presented an alternative picture of what happened.

"You said your father recalls it, and it was a frightening time," Khrushcheva notes. "But for Soviet citizens, the public really didn’t know a great deal regarding the crisis, because it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system we were told that everything was always fine or sunny."

Within Khrushchev’s family, though, the perspective was different. "I was informed what a great moment for the USSR, as it was eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to find a solution, 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 setback for the Soviet leader, simply he refrained from destroying America."

A Unprecedented Partnership

The Bomb is remarkably even-handed and well produced that Khrushcheva quips she nearly forgot she already knew the ending. This is, partly, due to the participation of renowned scholars. Yet, really, the most groundbreaking thing remains the participation of the descendants. Not so long ago, it was inconceivable that relatives of the heads of state of America and Soviet Union to appear together publicly. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth toward one another, has to be a sign of hope.

"Max and I are not the pioneers," notes Khrushcheva. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, my uncle Sergey Khrushchev’s son where he formed a close bond with the former president's family."

"But we had never met before the podcast," adds Kennedy. "Which is unfortunate because we connected really well and we’re friends, something that is really great. Finally, after almost 60 years of nearly annihilating the world, our families are now friends, so I think the world is safer, somewhat."

Modern Parallels and Current Dangers

Is that truly the case? One reason the reason The Bomb feels so necessary is because we once again find ourselves in a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to catastrophe in its history, partly since world leaders don’t seem to have the capacity to comprehend