‘After nearly destroying the world, the families are allies’: the gripping podcast from John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev’s descendants.

During the month of October 1962, the world edged nearer to annihilation more so than ever during the contemporary era. This transpired when an American surveillance aircraft found that Soviet nuclear weapon bases were being built on the island of Cuba, a mere 160 kilometers off the coast of the United States. Reacting to this, President JFK directed a naval task force to establish a naval quarantine encircling Cuba. What followed constituted almost 14 days filled with unbearable stress.

An Catastrophic Danger

The danger remained clear. If President Kennedy, or else his Soviet counterpart, Premier Khrushchev, had fired on the other side, a chain reaction of global nuclear strikes followed by retaliatory strikes could have ensued, thrusting mankind toward total oblivion.

This pivotal 1962 event has been examined repeatedly, in books, movies, as well as TV documentaries. However, for its third season, the BBC World Service podcast The Bomb introduces an unprecedented perspective to the story. The series is jointly hosted by Kennedy's relative alongside Khrushchev's descendant, family members of the leaders that, over 13 days, held the fate of the planet within their grasp.

"What were the Russians planning? What was Washington thinking?" questions Nina Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s descendant and an academic specializing in global relations.

For her, the strength of the podcast lies in its attempt to objectively ask: "How can people hate each other to the point they confront one another?"

"I am acutely aware how spectacular the fact that people can be friends or have the potential to be total adversaries," adds Max Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, nephew of JFK and now an author as well as lawyer. "History shows this repeatedly in instances where nations have gone to war, and it just illustrates the profound irrationality it is to fight."

A Precipice of Catastrophe

What’s notable regarding the Cuban missile crisis is that, because it transpired in the global spotlight, citizens globally were able to observe almost in real time as it crept closer to catastrophe. Nonetheless, the risk of destruction was more imminent than what most people understood at the time.

"Virtually everyone in the White House wanted a military strike followed by a ground invasion," notes Max Kennedy. "If we had attacked Cuba with the Sixth Fleet, there is no question the Russians on the ground would have launched a nuclear warhead against the American ships, which would've sunk the naval vessels and destroyed our largest and most important naval force. In turn, we would have retaliated with an overwhelming counterattack that would have ended all life on Earth."

The fact this did not occur stands as credit to Kennedy and Khrushchev, they succeeded in remain calm and calmly negotiate at a time when hawkish elements around them was pushing for military action. As a result, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles in the Caribbean island while President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) withdrew his missiles based in NATO ally Turkey. The relief was worldwide, as was a feeling of hope.

A Divergent Viewpoint

Yet, for those two weeks of October 1962, the tension was palpable globally. The Bomb’s co-hosts came into the world shortly after these events, with Nina being taught about the crisis through the Soviet school curriculum, which painted an alternative picture of what happened.

"You said your parent remembers it, and it was a frightening time," Khrushcheva notes. "But for Soviet citizens, the public really didn’t know that much about it, since it was a tense situation, and under the Soviet system the official line was that everything was constantly wonderful or sunny."

Inside the Khrushchev household, though, it was different. "I was informed that it was a triumphant occasion it was, as it was eyeball to eyeball. They were able to resolve it, and avoided a global war, which was a wonderful outcome," she adds. Subsequently, though, that interpretation was not shared by all Russians. "For decades in Russian politics, the crisis was viewed as a failure for Khrushchev, simply he refrained from destroying the United States."

A Unlikely Partnership

This podcast is so balanced and well produced that Nina jokes she nearly forgot she already knew the ending. This is, partly, due to contributions from renowned scholars. But, really, the most groundbreaking aspect is the involvement of the descendants. Even within living memory, it was inconceivable that descendants of the heads of state 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, must be seen as a sign of optimism.

"Max and I are not the first," notes Khrushcheva. "Following 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son and became great friends with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we had never met before the podcast," clarifies Kennedy. "That is unfortunate because we got along immediately and we are friends, something that is really great. Finally, after nearly six decades since nearly annihilating the world, our lineages are now allies, suggesting the world is more secure, somewhat."

Contemporary Echoes and Present Dangers

Or is it? One reason the reason The Bomb feels so necessary is that we once again find ourselves living through a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom stands nearer to catastrophe than ever before, in part because world leaders don’t seem to have the capacity to grasp