‘After nearly destroying our world, our relatives are friends’: the gripping podcast from John F. Kennedy & Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

During the month of October 1962, humanity edged closer to destruction than at any other point in modern times. This transpired after a US surveillance plane discovered that Soviet nuclear weapon installations were being built on the island of Cuba, a mere 160 kilometers off the coast of the United States. Reacting to this, President John F Kennedy commanded a naval task force to enact a naval quarantine around Cuba. The ensuing period was almost two weeks of extreme tension.

An Catastrophic Danger

The threat remained palpable. Should President Kennedy, or his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, were to fire against the other side, a chain reaction involving global atomic strikes and counterstrikes might have ensued, casting mankind toward all-out ruination.

This pivotal 1962 event has been examined endlessly, through books, movies, as well as television programmes. However, for its third season, the BBC World Service podcast titled "The Bomb" has brought an unprecedented element into the story. It is co-presented featuring Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, family members belonging to the figures who, over 13 days, controlled the destiny of humanity in their hands.

"What were the Russians thinking? What were Washington planning?" asks Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s descendant and an academic of global relations.

In her view, the beauty of the show lies in its attempt to objectively ask: "How can nations hate each other and go against each other?"

"It was not lost on me how spectacular the fact that people can be friends or have the potential to be total adversaries," states Kennedy, son of RFK, related to JFK and now a writer and attorney. "We see this dynamic over and over when nations have gone to war, and it just illustrates the sheer folly it is to fight."

A Precipice of Disaster

What is striking about the Cuban missile crisis was that, since it transpired so publicly, individuals globally were able to observe almost as it happened while it moved towards armageddon. Even so, the risk of destruction was more imminent than anybody realised.

"Almost all officials in the White House wanted an airstrike followed by a ground invasion," notes Max Kennedy. "If we had struck Cuba using the Sixth Fleet, it is certain Soviet forces stationed there would've deployed a nuclear warhead at the American ships, which would have obliterated the naval vessels and sunk America's largest and most important naval force. In turn, the U.S. would have retaliated with massive retaliation which would have eradicated all life on Earth."

The reality this did not occur highlights the composure of Kennedy and Khrushchev, they succeeded in exercise restraint and calmly negotiate at a time when many advisors around them was pushing for action. Consequently, The Soviet premier agreed to withdraw the missiles in Cuba and Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed at the time) removed his similar weapons based in Turkey. The sense of relief was worldwide, as was a feeling of hope.

The Divergent Viewpoint

Yet, during those two weeks of October 1962, the fear was felt globally. The Bomb’s presenters were born shortly after these events, with Khrushcheva being taught about it via the USSR's education system, which presented a slightly different narrative of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father remembers it, and it was a frightening day," Khrushcheva notes. "But for Soviet citizens, the public really didn’t know that much about it, because it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system the official line was that everything was always fine or sunny."

Inside the Khrushchev household, though, it was different. "They told me what a great occasion it was, as it was a direct confrontation. The leaders managed to find a solution, thus didn’t start a global war, which was a positive outcome," she continues. Subsequently, however, that perspective would not be shared by everybody. "For decades in Russian politics, the crisis was viewed as a defeat for the Soviet leader, simply he refrained from destroying America."

A Unlikely Partnership

This podcast is so balanced , well produced that Nina jokes she nearly forgot she already knew the ending. This is, in part, thanks to contributions from historians. But, truly, the most significant aspect is the involvement of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it would be inconceivable that descendants of the leaders of the United States and Soviet Union would appear side by side. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva can do that, and exhibit such warmth toward one another, must be seen as a symbol of progress.

"We aren't the pioneers," smiles Nina. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son where he became great friends with the former president's family."

"But we had never met prior to this project," clarifies Kennedy. "Which is unfortunate since we got along immediately and we are friends, which is really great. Ultimately, following nearly 60 years of almost destroying the world, our lineages have become friends, so I think global relations is safer, a little bit."

Contemporary Echoes and Present Perils

Is that truly the case? One reason why The Bomb seems so urgent is that we now are living living through a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to catastrophe than ever before, in part because today's statesmen don’t seem to have the capacity to learn