‘After nearly annihilating our world, our relatives have become friends’: a thrilling audio series from JFK and Nikita Khrushchev’s relatives.

In the month of October 1962, the world veered nearer to annihilation than at any other point in modern times. This happened after a US reconnaissance plane discovered the fact that Russian atomic missile installations were being assembled in the island of Cuba, less than 160 kilometers off the coast of the United States. Reacting to this, U.S. President JFK directed the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to establish a maritime blockade encircling Cuba. What followed constituted nearly 14 days of extreme anxiety.

The Catastrophic Threat

The danger remained obvious. Should Kennedy, or his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, were to fire against their enemy, a series of global atomic strikes and counterstrikes would have ensued, thrusting humanity into all-out destruction.

The Cuban missile crisis has been examined endlessly, in books, films, as well as TV documentaries. However, in its latest installment, the BBC World Service podcast The Bomb introduces an unprecedented perspective into the story. The series is jointly hosted featuring Kennedy's relative alongside Nina Khrushcheva, family members of the men who, for two tense weeks, held the destiny of the planet in their hands.

"What were the Soviet side thinking? What were the American side planning?" ponders Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's great-granddaughter who is also a professor specializing in international affairs.

For her, the beauty of the show is its endeavor to question: "Why do nations hate one another to the point they oppose each other?"

"It struck me how profound the fact that humans can be allies or have the potential to be total enemies," adds Kennedy, the son of RFK, related to the late president and now an author and lawyer. "We see this dynamic over and over when countries enter into conflict, demonstrating the sheer folly involved to engage in warfare."

A Brink of Disaster

What’s remarkable about this event was that, since it transpired in the global spotlight, citizens worldwide could watch nearly as it happened as it moved closer to disaster. Even so, the risk of annihilation came closer than what most people understood at the time.

"Almost all officials in the White House wanted an airstrike followed by an invasion," explains Max Kennedy. "Had the U.S. struck the Cubans using the naval blockade, there is no question Soviet forces stationed there would've deployed a tactical nuclear weapon against the US Sixth Fleet, which would've destroyed our aircraft carriers as well as sunk America's largest and most important naval force. And, the U.S. would have responded with massive retaliation that would have ended most life on the planet."

The reality it didn’t stands as credit to Kennedy and Khrushchev, they succeeded in remain calm and calmly negotiate at a time when many advisors in their governments were advocating action. Consequently, The Soviet premier agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons from the Caribbean island while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed at the time) withdrew his missiles from Turkey. The relief was worldwide, matched by the sense of optimism.

A Divergent Viewpoint

Still, during those two weeks in October, the fear was palpable globally. The podcast's presenters came into the world shortly after these events, with Khrushcheva being taught about it via the USSR's school curriculum, which portrayed an alternative narrative of what happened.

"You said your parent remembers it, describing it as a scary time," she says. "But for Soviet citizens, people really didn’t know a great deal about it, because it was a crisis, and in the Soviet Union we were told that everything was always fine and sunny."

Within Khrushchev’s family, though, it was distinct. "They told me that it was a triumphant moment for the USSR, because it was eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to resolve it, and avoided the war, seen as a positive outcome," she adds. Subsequently, however, that perspective would not be shared by all Russians. "For a long time within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a setback for Khrushchev, because he refrained from destroying America."

An Unprecedented Collaboration

The Bomb is remarkably even-handed , well produced so much so that Nina jokes it almost made her forget she already knew the ending. This is, in part, due to the participation of historians. But, really, the most momentous thing remains the participation of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it would be inconceivable for descendants of the heads of state of America and the Soviet Union would appear side by side. That these two individuals can do that, and exhibit such warmth with each other, has to be a symbol of progress.

"Max and I are not the first," notes Khrushcheva. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative moved to America where he became great friends with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we were strangers prior to this project," clarifies Max. "Which is unfortunate because we connected immediately and we are friends, which is wonderful. Finally, after nearly six decades since almost destroying the world, our families have become allies, so I think global relations is more secure, a little bit."

Contemporary Parallels with Current Dangers

Or is it? One reason the reason The Bomb feels so necessary is that we once again are living in a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock is closer to catastrophe than ever before, in part because world leaders appear not to have the capacity to learn