‘After almost annihilating the planet, the relatives are friends’: a thrilling audio series featuring JFK & Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

During October 1962, the planet came closer to ruin than at any other point in recent history. This occurred following the discovery that an American reconnaissance aircraft identified that Soviet atomic missile sites were being built on Cuba, a mere 160 kilometers off the coast of the United States. In response, President John F Kennedy directed a naval task force to impose a naval blockade encircling the island. The next phase was almost a fortnight of extreme tension.

The Unthinkable Danger

The threat was obvious. Should President Kennedy, or the Russian opposite, Nikita Khrushchev, were to fire against the other side, a series involving worldwide nuclear strikes followed by retaliatory strikes could have followed, thrusting civilization toward total ruination.

The Cuban missile crisis has been examined endlessly, through volumes, films, as well as TV documentaries. However, in its latest installment, the BBC World Service podcast The Bomb presents a completely new dimension to the story. The series is co-presented featuring Max Kennedy alongside Khrushchev's descendant, family members of the figures that, over two tense weeks, grasped the destiny of humanity within their grasp.

"What were the Soviet side thinking? What were Washington planning?" questions Nina Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's great-granddaughter who is also an academic of global relations.

For her, the beauty of the podcast is its attempt to explore: "Why do people detest each other and confront one another?"

"I am acutely aware how spectacular it is that people have the potential to be allies or can become complete enemies," states Max Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, related to JFK and now a writer as well as lawyer. "We see this repeatedly in instances where countries enter into conflict, highlighting the sheer folly it is to fight."

A Precipice of Disaster

What is notable about the Cuban missile crisis is that, because it transpired so publicly, people around the world could watch almost as it happened as it edged closer to disaster. Even so, the risk of destruction was more imminent than what most people understood at the time.

"Virtually everyone in the White House wanted an airstrike and an invasion," notes Max Kennedy. "If we had attacked Cuba with the naval blockade, it is certain Soviet forces on the ground would've launched a nuclear warhead against the US Sixth Fleet, and that would've obliterated our aircraft carriers and sunk America's largest and most important naval force. In turn, we would have responded through an overwhelming counterattack that would have eradicated most life on Earth."

The reality this did not occur highlights the composure of Kennedy and Khrushchev, who managed to exercise restraint while engaging in diplomacy when hawkish elements around them demanded action. Consequently, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons in the Caribbean island and Kennedy (although not reported then) withdrew his missiles from Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, matched by the sense of hope.

A Divergent Perspective

Yet, during those two weeks of October 1962, the fear was palpable globally. The Bomb’s co-hosts were born in the years following these events, and Nina being taught about the crisis via the Soviet education system, which presented a slightly different narrative of what happened.

"You said your father remembers it, and it was a scary day," she says. "But in the Soviet Union, people really didn’t know a great deal about it, because it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system we were told that everything was always wonderful or positive."

Within the Khrushchev household, however, it was different. "I was informed that it was a triumphant occasion it was, as it represented eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to resolve it, and didn’t start a global war, which was a wonderful thing," she adds. In the years to come, however, that interpretation was not shared by all Russians. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a defeat for the Soviet leader, simply he didn’t blow up the United States."

An Unlikely Collaboration

This podcast is so balanced and well produced so much so that Khrushcheva quips it almost made her forget the known the ending. This is, partly, due to the participation of historians. Yet, truly, the most groundbreaking aspect remains 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 together publicly. That these two individuals are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth with each other, has to be a sign of progress.

"We are not the pioneers," notes Nina. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative moved to America where he became great friends with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"But we were strangers before the podcast," adds Max. "Which is unfortunate since we connected really well and we’re friends, which is wonderful. Ultimately, following almost six decades of almost destroying the planet, our lineages are now friends, suggesting the world is more secure, a little bit."

Contemporary Echoes with Current Perils

Is that truly the case? Part of the reason this series feels so necessary is that we now find ourselves in dark times. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to catastrophe than ever before, in part because world leaders appear not to have the capacity to comprehend