Following almost destroying our world, our relatives are friends’: a gripping audio series featuring JFK and Nikita Khrushchev’s relatives.

In October 1962, humanity veered nearer toward annihilation than at any other point in the contemporary era. This occurred when an American surveillance plane found that Soviet nuclear missile installations were under construction in the island of Cuba, less than 100 miles from American soil. Reacting to this, U.S. President John F Kennedy directed the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to establish a maritime quarantine around Cuba. The ensuing period constituted almost a fortnight filled with impossible anxiety.

The Unthinkable Threat

The peril was obvious. Should President Kennedy, or his Russian opposite, Nikita Khrushchev, had fired against the other side, a chain reaction involving global nuclear attacks and retaliatory strikes might have ensued, thrusting mankind toward all-out destruction.

This pivotal 1962 event has been documented repeatedly, through books, movies, and TV documentaries. But, for its third season, the BBC World Service podcast The Bomb introduces a novel element into this historical narrative. It is co-presented featuring Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the figures who, for two tense weeks, controlled the fate of humanity within their grasp.

"What were the Russians considering? What was the American side considering?" questions Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's great-granddaughter and an academic specializing in global relations.

In her view, the beauty of the show lies in its attempt to objectively ask: "Why do individuals detest one another and confront one another?"

"It was not lost on me how profound the fact that people have the potential to be allies or have the potential to be total enemies," adds Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, nephew of JFK and now a writer as well as attorney. "We see this dynamic over and over in instances where countries enter into conflict, highlighting how unbelievably stupid involved to fight."

The Precipice of Catastrophe

What’s notable regarding this event was that, because it transpired in the global spotlight, individuals worldwide were able to observe almost as it happened as it moved towards catastrophe. Even so, the danger of annihilation was more imminent than anybody understood at the time.

"The overwhelming majority in the White House were advocating for an airstrike and an invasion," notes Max Kennedy. "If we had struck Cuba using the naval blockade, undoubtedly Soviet forces stationed there would have launched a tactical nuclear weapon at the US Sixth Fleet, and that would have obliterated our aircraft carriers as well as sunk our largest and most important fleet. And, we would have retaliated with an overwhelming counterattack that would have ended most life on Earth."

The fact it didn’t highlights the composure of Kennedy and Khrushchev, who succeeded in exercise restraint while engaging in diplomacy when everyone around them were advocating military action. Consequently, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles in Cuba and President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) withdrew American similar weapons from NATO ally Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, matched by a feeling of optimism.

A Divergent Viewpoint

Still, for those 13 days in October, the tension was palpable by everyone. The Bomb’s co-hosts came into the world shortly after the crisis, with Nina learned about it via the Soviet school curriculum, which presented a slightly different version of what happened.

"As you mentioned your parent remembers it, describing it as a frightening time," Khrushcheva notes. "However in the Soviet Union, people really didn’t know a great deal regarding the crisis, because it was a tense situation, and under the Soviet system the official line was that everything was constantly fine and positive."

Inside the Khrushchev household, however, the perspective was distinct. "They told me that it was a triumphant moment for the USSR, as it was a direct confrontation. They were able to resolve it, and didn’t start the war, seen as a positive thing," she adds. In the years to come, however, that perspective was not shared by everybody. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a failure for Khrushchev, because he refrained from destroying the United States."

A Unlikely Partnership

The Bomb is so balanced , expertly crafted that Nina jokes she nearly forgot the known outcome. This is, in part, due to the participation of renowned scholars. Yet, really, the most momentous aspect remains the involvement of the descendants. Even within living memory, it was unthinkable for relatives of the leaders of the United States and the USSR to appear side by side. That Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva can do that, and exhibit such warmth with each other, has to be a symbol of progress.

"We are not the first," smiles Nina. "After 1991, a relative moved to America where he formed a close bond with the former president's family."

"However we were strangers before the podcast," adds Kennedy. "Which is a shame since we got along immediately and we are friends, something that is really great. Finally, after nearly 60 years of almost destroying the planet, our families are now friends, so I think global relations is more secure, somewhat."

Contemporary Echoes with Current Perils

Is that truly the case? One reason the reason this series seems so urgent is that we now are living in a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom stands nearer to midnight in its history, in part because world leaders appear not to be able to comprehend