Following nearly annihilating the world, our relatives are friends’: a thrilling podcast from John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev’s descendants.

During the month of October 1962, the world veered nearer to annihilation more so than ever during the contemporary era. This transpired when an American surveillance plane found the fact that Russian nuclear weapon bases were being built in the island of Cuba, less than 160 kilometers from the United States. Reacting to this, U.S. President John F Kennedy commanded a naval task force to impose a maritime quarantine around Cuba. What followed was nearly a fortnight of impossible anxiety.

The Catastrophic Threat

The peril was obvious. If President Kennedy, or else the Russian opposite, Nikita Khrushchev, were to fire against their enemy, a cascade of worldwide nuclear attacks followed by retaliatory strikes could have ensued, thrusting humanity into total oblivion.

The October crisis has been examined extensively, in books, films, as well as TV documentaries. However, in its latest installment, the audio documentary series The Bomb introduces a novel element to the story. It is co-presented featuring Kennedy's relative and Nina Khrushcheva, family members belonging to the men that, over two tense weeks, grasped the fate of the world within their grasp.

"What were the Russians considering? What was the United States considering?" ponders Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's descendant who is also a professor specializing in global relations.

For her, the strength of the podcast is its attempt to question: "How can individuals detest one another and confront one another?"

"It was not lost on me how spectacular the fact that individuals have the potential to be friends or can become total enemies," adds Max Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, related to the late president and currently an author and attorney. "We see this repeatedly in instances where countries enter into conflict, highlighting the sheer folly involved to engage in warfare."

The Precipice Towards Disaster

What’s remarkable about this event is that, since it transpired in the global spotlight, individuals around the world were able to observe almost as it happened as it moved towards catastrophe. Even so, the threat of annihilation came closer than most people realised.

"Virtually everyone among Kennedy's advisors wanted a military strike and a ground invasion," says Kennedy. "If we had attacked the Cubans using the naval blockade, undoubtedly Soviet forces stationed there would've launched a nuclear warhead against the American ships, and that would've sunk our aircraft carriers as well as destroyed our largest and most important fleet. In turn, we would have retaliated through an overwhelming counterattack that would have eradicated all life on the planet."

The reality this did not occur stands as credit to Kennedy and Khrushchev, they managed to remain calm while engaging in diplomacy when everyone around them demanded action. As a result, Khrushchev removed the nuclear weapons from Cuba while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed at the time) withdrew American similar weapons based in NATO ally Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, matched by a feeling of hope.

The Different Viewpoint

Still, for those two weeks of October 1962, the fear was palpable by everyone. The Bomb’s co-hosts were born in the years following the crisis, and Khrushcheva learned about it via the USSR's school curriculum, which painted a slightly different picture of events.

"You said your father recalls it, describing it as a frightening time," she says. "However in the Soviet Union, people really didn’t know that much about it, because it was a tense situation, and under the Soviet system the official line was that everything was always fine and sunny."

Within the Khrushchev household, however, it was different. "They told me what a great moment for the USSR, as it represented eyeball to eyeball. They were able to find a solution, and avoided a global war, seen as a wonderful thing," she adds. Later on, however, that interpretation was not held by all Russians. "For a long time within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a defeat for Khrushchev, because he didn’t blow up the United States."

A Unlikely Collaboration

The Bomb is remarkably even-handed , expertly crafted so much so that Nina quips she nearly forgot she already knew the ending. This is, partly, thanks to the participation of renowned scholars. But, really, the most significant thing remains the participation of the descendants. Even within living memory, it was inconceivable that relatives of the heads of state of the United States and the USSR to appear together publicly. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth toward one another, must be seen as a sign of optimism.

"Max and I aren't the first," smiles Nina. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son where he formed a close bond with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"But we were strangers before the podcast," clarifies Kennedy. "That is unfortunate since we got along immediately and we’re friends, which is really great. Finally, after nearly 60 years of almost destroying the world, our lineages have become allies, suggesting the world is more secure, somewhat."

Contemporary Parallels with Present Dangers

Or is it? One reason why this series seems so urgent is that we once again are living in a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom stands nearer to catastrophe than ever before, in part because today's statesmen appear not to be able to grasp