‘After almost annihilating the planet, our families are allies’: the thrilling audio series featuring John F. Kennedy & Khrushchev’s descendants.

In October 1962, the world came nearer toward annihilation more so than ever during modern times. This transpired after an American surveillance plane identified the fact that Soviet atomic weapon sites were being built in Cuba, a mere 160 kilometers from the US mainland. In response, U.S. President JFK directed the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to establish a maritime blockade around the island. What followed constituted nearly a fortnight of impossible tension.

The Unthinkable Danger

The peril remained clear. Should Kennedy, or the Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, initiated an attack on the other side, a cascade involving global atomic strikes and counterstrikes could have followed, casting mankind into all-out oblivion.

The Cuban missile crisis has been documented repeatedly, in volumes, movies, and television programmes. But, for its third season, a prominent BBC World Service podcast titled "The Bomb" has brought a completely new perspective to this historical narrative. It is co-presented featuring Max Kennedy alongside Nina Khrushcheva, family members of the leaders who, for two tense weeks, grasped the destiny of the world within their grasp.

"What were the Kremlin considering? What were Washington considering?" questions Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's great-granddaughter and an academic of global relations.

In her view, the beauty of the show lies in its attempt to question: "How can people detest each other to the point they confront one another?"

"It was not lost on me how profound the fact that individuals have the potential to be friends or can become total adversaries," remarks Kennedy, son of RFK, related to JFK and now an author as well as lawyer. "We see this dynamic over and over in instances where nations enter into conflict, and it just illustrates the profound irrationality it is to fight."

The Brink of Catastrophe

What’s remarkable regarding this event was that, because it unfolded in the global spotlight, people around the world were able to observe nearly in real time as it moved closer to catastrophe. Even so, the risk of annihilation came closer than what anybody realised.

"The overwhelming majority among Kennedy's advisors were advocating for a military strike and 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 at the American ships, and that would've sunk our naval vessels as well as sunk America's primary fleet. In turn, we would have responded through an overwhelming counterattack which would have eradicated all life on Earth."

The fact it didn’t stands as credit to Kennedy and Khrushchev, they managed to remain calm while engaging in diplomacy at a time when everyone around them was pushing for action. As a result, The Soviet premier agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons from the Caribbean island while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed at the time) removed American missiles from Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, as was a feeling of hope.

A Divergent Viewpoint

Yet, for those two weeks of October 1962, the anxiety was felt by everyone. The podcast's co-hosts came into the world in the years following the crisis, and Khrushcheva being taught about the crisis through the USSR's school curriculum, which presented a slightly different version of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father recalls it, and it was a scary time," she says. "However for Soviet citizens, people were largely unaware that much about it, because it was a crisis, and under the Soviet system the official line was that things are always wonderful and positive."

Inside Khrushchev’s family, however, it was different. "I was informed what a great moment it was, as it was a direct confrontation. The leaders managed to find a solution, and avoided the war, which was a wonderful outcome," she adds. Later on, though, that interpretation would not be shared by everybody. "For a long time in Russian politics, it was considered a setback for the Soviet leader, simply he refrained from destroying America."

A Unprecedented Collaboration

This podcast is remarkably balanced , well produced that Nina quips she nearly forgot she already knew outcome. This effect is, in part, due to the participation of historians. Yet, really, the most momentous thing remains the participation of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it would be inconceivable that relatives of the heads of state of America and the USSR would appear side by side. That Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and be so warm toward one another, has to be a symbol of progress.

"Max and I aren't the first," notes Khrushcheva. "After 1991, my uncle moved to America and formed a close bond with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"But we were strangers prior to this project," adds Max. "That is a shame because we connected immediately and now we are friends, something that is wonderful. Finally, after almost six decades of almost destroying the planet, our families are now allies, so I think the world is safer, somewhat."

Modern Parallels with Present Perils

Or is it? Part of the reason this series seems so urgent is because we now find ourselves in a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to midnight in its history, partly since today's statesmen appear not to have the capacity to learn