Following nearly annihilating our planet, our families are allies’: the gripping podcast from JFK & Khrushchev’s descendants.

In the month of October 1962, humanity came closer to annihilation than at any other point in the contemporary era. This occurred after a US surveillance aircraft found that Soviet atomic missile installations were being assembled on Cuba, less than 160 kilometers from the US mainland. Reacting to this, U.S. President JFK directed the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to enact a maritime blockade encircling Cuba. The ensuing period was nearly two weeks of unbearable anxiety.

An Unthinkable Danger

The peril was obvious. Should Kennedy, or the Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, had fired on the other side, a cascade involving global nuclear attacks followed by retaliatory strikes could have ensued, casting civilization into total destruction.

The October crisis has been covered extensively, through books, movies, and television programmes. However, for its third season, the BBC World Service podcast titled "The Bomb" has brought an unprecedented element to the story. The series is jointly hosted by Kennedy's relative and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the men who, for 13 days, grasped the fate of the world in their hands.

"What were the Soviet side considering? What was the United States planning?" questions Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s descendant and a professor of global relations.

For her, the beauty of the show is its endeavor to explore: "Why do nations detest each other to the point they confront one another?"

"It struck me how profound the fact that humans can be allies or else have the potential to be complete adversaries," states Kennedy, son of RFK, related to the late president and now an author as well as attorney. "History shows this dynamic repeatedly in instances where nations have gone to war, demonstrating the profound irrationality involved to fight."

The Brink of Catastrophe

What’s notable regarding the Cuban missile crisis was that, since it transpired so publicly, people globally were able to observe almost as it happened while it edged closer to disaster. Even so, the danger of destruction came closer than anybody realised.

"The overwhelming majority among Kennedy's advisors wanted an airstrike and a ground invasion," explains Kennedy. "If we had struck the Cubans using the Sixth Fleet, it is certain Soviet forces on the ground would've deployed a tactical nuclear weapon at the American ships, which would've obliterated the aircraft carriers as well as sunk our largest and most important fleet. In turn, the U.S. would have retaliated through massive retaliation which would have eradicated most life on Earth."

The fact this did not occur stands as credit to Kennedy and Khrushchev, they managed to keep their heads while engaging in diplomacy when hawkish elements around them was pushing for military action. Consequently, The Soviet premier agreed to withdraw the missiles from Cuba while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) withdrew American missiles based in Turkey. The relief was palpable, matched by the sense of optimism.

The Different Perspective

Still, for those two weeks in October, the anxiety was palpable by everyone. The Bomb’s presenters came into the world in the years following these events, and Khrushcheva learned about the crisis via the USSR's education system, which presented a slightly different picture of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father recalls it, and it was a scary time," Khrushcheva notes. "However for Soviet citizens, people were largely unaware that much regarding the crisis, because it was a crisis, and under the Soviet system we were told that everything was constantly fine or sunny."

Inside Khrushchev’s family, however, it was different. "They told me that it was a triumphant moment for the USSR, because it represented eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to resolve it, thus avoided a global war, seen as a wonderful thing," she continues. Subsequently, however, that perspective was not shared by everybody. "For a long time within Russian historical analysis, the crisis was viewed as a failure for Khrushchev, simply he refrained from destroying the United States."

A Unlikely Partnership

The Bomb is remarkably balanced and well produced that Khrushcheva jokes it almost made her forget the known the ending. This is, partly, due to contributions from renowned scholars. Yet, really, the most groundbreaking thing is the participation of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it was inconceivable that descendants of the heads of state of the United States and the Soviet Union to appear together publicly. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth with each other, must be seen as a sign of optimism.

"Max and I aren't the pioneers," notes Nina. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, my uncle moved to America where he formed a close bond with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"But we were strangers prior to this project," clarifies Max. "That is a shame since we connected immediately and now we’re friends, something that is really great. Ultimately, following almost 60 years since nearly annihilating the planet, our lineages have become friends, so I think the world is safer, a little bit."

Contemporary Parallels with Present Perils

Is that truly the case? Part of why The Bomb seems so urgent is that we once again are living living through a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock stands nearer to midnight than ever before, partly since today's statesmen appear not to have the capacity to grasp