Following almost annihilating our planet, our relatives are friends’: a thrilling audio series from John F. Kennedy & Khrushchev’s descendants.

During the month of October 1962, the world came nearer toward destruction than at any other point in the contemporary era. This happened after a US surveillance plane identified that Russian nuclear weapon bases were being built in the island of Cuba, less than 160 kilometers off the coast of the United States. Reacting to this, President JFK directed the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to establish a naval quarantine around the island. The ensuing period was nearly two weeks of impossible tension.

The Catastrophic Danger

The peril remained palpable. If President Kennedy, or else the Russian opposite, Premier Khrushchev, were to fire against their enemy, a series involving global atomic strikes followed by counterstrikes could have ensued, casting civilization into all-out destruction.

The October crisis has been documented endlessly, in books, movies, as well as TV documentaries. However, for its third season, a prominent BBC World Service podcast titled "The Bomb" has brought an unprecedented dimension to the story. It is co-presented by Kennedy's relative and Nina Khrushcheva, family members belonging to the leaders that, for 13 days, held the fate of the world within their grasp.

"What were the Soviet side considering? What was the United States planning?" asks Nina Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's descendant who is also a professor of global relations.

For her, the unique appeal of the show is its attempt to objectively ask: "How can individuals hate each other and oppose each other?"

"I am acutely aware how remarkable it is that individuals can be friends or else have the potential to be complete adversaries," states Max Kennedy, the son of Robert Kennedy, related to JFK and now a writer and lawyer. "We see this dynamic over and over when nations have gone to war, and it just illustrates how unbelievably stupid it is to fight."

The Precipice of Disaster

What is notable regarding this event is that, because it transpired in the global spotlight, individuals globally were able to observe nearly as it happened as it moved towards catastrophe. Nonetheless, the danger of destruction came closer than anybody realised.

"Virtually everyone in the White House were advocating for an airstrike and a ground invasion," explains Max Kennedy. "If we had struck the Cubans using the naval blockade, there is no question Soviet forces on the ground would have deployed a nuclear warhead at the US Sixth Fleet, which would've destroyed our aircraft carriers as well as sunk America's largest and most important naval force. And, we would have responded with massive retaliation that would have ended most life on Earth."

The reality this did not occur stands as credit to both leaders, they managed to keep their heads while calmly negotiate at a time when everyone in their governments were advocating military action. As a result, Khrushchev removed the nuclear weapons from the Caribbean island while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed at the time) removed American similar weapons based in Turkey. The relief was palpable, as was the sense of hope.

A Different Perspective

Yet, during those 13 days of October 1962, the tension was palpable globally. The podcast's presenters came into the world shortly after the crisis, with Nina learned about the crisis via the USSR's school curriculum, which portrayed an alternative narrative of what happened.

"As you mentioned your parent remembers it, and it was a frightening day," she says. "But for Soviet citizens, people were largely unaware a great deal regarding the crisis, because it was a tense situation, and under the Soviet system the official line was that things are always wonderful or positive."

Within Khrushchev’s family, though, it was different. "I was informed what a great occasion for the USSR, as it was a direct confrontation. They were able to resolve it, and avoided a global war, seen as a positive thing," she adds. Subsequently, though, that perspective was not held by all Russians. "For a long time in Russian politics, the crisis was viewed as a failure for Khrushchev, simply he refrained from destroying the United States."

An Unlikely Collaboration

This podcast is so even-handed , expertly crafted that Khrushcheva 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 aspect is the involvement of the descendants. Not so long ago, it was inconceivable that relatives of the heads of state of the United States and the Soviet Union would appear side by side. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva can do that, and be so warm with each other, has to be a sign of optimism.

"We aren't the first," notes Khrushcheva. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son where he became great friends with the former president's family."

"But we were strangers before the podcast," clarifies Kennedy. "Which is unfortunate since we connected really well and now we’re friends, something that is really great. Ultimately, following nearly six decades of nearly annihilating the world, our lineages have become allies, so I think global relations is safer, a little bit."

Modern Echoes and Present Dangers

Is that truly the case? One reason the reason The Bomb feels so necessary is that we once again find ourselves living through a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock is closer to catastrophe than ever before, in part because today's statesmen appear not to have the capacity to grasp