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

In the month of October 1962, the world edged nearer toward destruction than at any other point in modern times. This happened after a US reconnaissance plane discovered that Soviet nuclear missile installations were being built in the island of Cuba, less than 160 kilometers from the US mainland. In response, President John F Kennedy directed a naval task force to enact a naval blockade encircling Cuba. What followed constituted almost 14 days of extreme stress.

An Catastrophic Danger

The peril remained obvious. If President Kennedy, or else his Russian opposite, Premier Khrushchev, had fired on their enemy, a cascade involving worldwide atomic attacks followed by retaliatory strikes would have followed, plunging humanity into all-out ruination.

The Cuban missile crisis has been examined extensively, in volumes, films, as well as television programmes. However, in its latest installment, the BBC World Service podcast titled "The Bomb" has brought an unprecedented perspective into the story. It is jointly hosted featuring Kennedy's relative and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives belonging to the leaders that, for 13 days, controlled the destiny of the planet within their grasp.

"What were the Russians thinking? What were the American side considering?" asks Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter who is also a professor of international affairs.

For her, the beauty of the show is its endeavor to objectively ask: "Why do people hate one another to the point they confront one another?"

"It was not lost on me how profound the fact that humans have the potential to be friends or else can become total adversaries," states Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, related to JFK and currently an author and attorney. "We see this dynamic repeatedly when countries have gone to war, highlighting the sheer folly it is to engage in warfare."

A Brink of Disaster

What is striking about this event is that, since it transpired in the global spotlight, citizens globally could watch nearly in real time as it crept closer to disaster. However, the risk of annihilation was more imminent than anybody understood at the time.

"Almost all officials among Kennedy's advisors wanted an airstrike and a ground invasion," explains Kennedy. "If we had struck Cuba with the naval blockade, there is no question Soviet forces stationed there would've fired a tactical nuclear weapon against the American ships, which would have obliterated our naval vessels and sunk our primary fleet. In turn, we would have retaliated through massive retaliation which would have ended all life on the planet."

The reality it didn’t stands as credit to Kennedy and Khrushchev, who succeeded in exercise restraint while engaging in diplomacy when everyone around them was pushing for action. Consequently, The Soviet premier removed the missiles in the Caribbean island while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) removed American missiles from Turkey. The relief was worldwide, matched by a feeling of optimism.

A Different Viewpoint

Yet, for those two weeks of October 1962, the anxiety was palpable by everyone. The Bomb’s presenters were born shortly after these events, and Khrushcheva learned about the crisis through the Soviet school curriculum, which portrayed an alternative version of events.

"You said your father remembers it, and it was a scary day," Khrushcheva notes. "However in the Soviet Union, the public really didn’t know that much regarding the crisis, since it was a crisis, whereas under the Soviet system the official line was that everything was constantly wonderful and sunny."

Within the Khrushchev household, though, it was distinct. "They told me what a great occasion it was, as it represented eyeball to eyeball. They were able to find a solution, and avoided the war, which was a positive outcome," she adds. Subsequently, though, that view was not shared by everybody. "For decades in Russian politics, it was considered a setback for Khrushchev, because he didn’t blow up America."

A Unlikely Partnership

The Bomb is remarkably balanced and well produced that Nina jokes she nearly forgot she already knew outcome. This effect is, in part, due to the participation of renowned scholars. But, truly, the most significant thing is the involvement of the descendants. Not so long ago, it was inconceivable that descendants of the heads of state of the United States and the USSR to appear together publicly. That these two individuals can do that, and exhibit such warmth with each other, has to be a sign of optimism.

"We aren't the first," notes Khrushcheva. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, my uncle moved to America and became great friends with the former president's family."

"However we were strangers before the podcast," clarifies Max. "That is unfortunate since we got along really well and we are friends, something that is wonderful. Finally, after nearly six decades of nearly annihilating the planet, our lineages are now friends, suggesting global relations is safer, a little bit."

Modern Parallels and Present Perils

Is that truly the case? Part of the reason The Bomb seems so urgent is that we now find ourselves living through a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock stands nearer to midnight in its history, partly since today's statesmen appear not to be able to learn