‘After almost annihilating our world, our families are allies’: the gripping audio series featuring John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev’s relatives.

During the month of October 1962, the world came closer to ruin than at any other point during recent history. This occurred after a US reconnaissance aircraft discovered the fact that Soviet atomic missile installations were under construction on 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 encircling the island. What followed constituted nearly a fortnight filled with extreme stress.

An Unthinkable Threat

The threat remained obvious. If President Kennedy, or else his Russian opposite, Premier Khrushchev, were to fire against their enemy, a chain reaction involving worldwide nuclear attacks followed by retaliatory strikes could have ensued, casting mankind toward all-out ruination.

This pivotal 1962 event has been documented extensively, through books, movies, and television programmes. But, for its third season, the BBC World Service podcast The Bomb has brought a novel element to the story. It is jointly hosted featuring Kennedy's relative alongside Nina Khrushcheva, relatives belonging to the men that, for two tense weeks, held the destiny of humanity within their grasp.

"What was the Russians thinking? What was the American side considering?" asks Nina Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter and an academic of global relations.

For her, the strength of the show is its attempt to objectively ask: "How can individuals hate one another to the point they go against one another?"

"It struck me how remarkable the fact that humans have the potential to be allies or have the potential to be total enemies," adds Kennedy, son of RFK, nephew of the late president and currently a writer and attorney. "We see this dynamic repeatedly when nations enter into conflict, highlighting the sheer folly it is to engage in warfare."

A Brink Towards Catastrophe

What is striking regarding this event is that, because it unfolded in the global spotlight, people around the world could watch almost as it happened while it moved closer to disaster. Even so, the threat of destruction was more imminent than what anybody realised.

"Virtually everyone in the White House wanted a military strike followed by a ground invasion," says Max Kennedy. "Had the U.S. struck Cuba with the naval blockade, there is no question the Russians on the ground would've launched a nuclear warhead at the US Sixth Fleet, which would've destroyed the naval vessels and sunk America's largest and most important fleet. And, we would have retaliated with an overwhelming counterattack which would have ended all life on the planet."

The reality it didn’t highlights the composure of Kennedy and Khrushchev, who managed to exercise restraint and engaging in diplomacy at a time when everyone around them was pushing for action. As a result, Khrushchev removed the nuclear weapons in Cuba and Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed at the time) withdrew his similar weapons from Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, as was the sense of hope.

The Divergent Perspective

Yet, for those 13 days in October, the tension was palpable globally. The Bomb’s presenters were born in the years following these events, with Khrushcheva being taught about the crisis via the USSR's education system, which painted an alternative narrative of events.

"You said your father recalls it, describing it as a scary time," she says. "But in the Soviet Union, the public were largely unaware a great deal about it, since it was a crisis, whereas in the Soviet Union the official line was that things are constantly wonderful and positive."

Within the Khrushchev household, though, it was distinct. "They told me that it was a triumphant occasion it was, as it was eyeball to eyeball. They were able to find a solution, and avoided the war, which was a positive thing," she continues. Later on, though, that interpretation would not be held by everybody. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a setback for the Soviet leader, because he didn’t blow up America."

An Unlikely Collaboration

The Bomb is so even-handed , well produced that Nina jokes it almost made her forget the known the ending. This is, partly, due to contributions from historians. But, really, the most groundbreaking aspect remains the participation of the descendants. Even within living memory, it was unthinkable for descendants of the heads of state of America and USSR to appear together publicly. The fact that these two individuals are able to do so, and be so warm with each other, must be seen as a sign of hope.

"We are not the pioneers," notes Nina. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, my uncle Sergey Khrushchev’s son where he formed a close bond with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we had never met prior to this project," clarifies Kennedy. "That is unfortunate since we connected immediately and now we’re friends, something that is really great. Finally, following nearly 60 years of almost destroying the planet, our families have become allies, suggesting the world is safer, a little bit."

Modern Parallels and Current Perils

Or is it? One reason why The Bomb seems so urgent is because we now find ourselves in dark times. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to catastrophe than ever before, partly since today's statesmen don’t seem to have the capacity to learn