Following nearly destroying our world, our relatives are friends’: the gripping podcast from John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev’s relatives.

During October 1962, the world came nearer to destruction than at any other point during recent history. This occurred when an American surveillance plane identified the fact that Soviet atomic weapon installations were being built on Cuba, less than 160 kilometers from the US mainland. Reacting to this, U.S. President JFK ordered a naval task force to establish a naval blockade around the island. The next phase constituted nearly a fortnight of unbearable stress.

The Unthinkable Danger

The peril was palpable. If Kennedy, or else his Russian opposite, Nikita Khrushchev, initiated an attack on the other side, a chain reaction involving global nuclear attacks and retaliatory strikes might have ensued, thrusting humanity toward all-out ruination.

The Cuban missile crisis has been covered extensively, in volumes, movies, and TV documentaries. However, in its latest installment, the audio documentary series The Bomb has brought a completely new perspective into the story. The series is jointly hosted featuring Max Kennedy and Khrushchev's descendant, relatives belonging to the leaders that, for two tense weeks, controlled the fate of the planet in their hands.

"What were the Kremlin planning? What was Washington planning?" ponders Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s descendant who is also a professor of international affairs.

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

"It was not lost on me how spectacular it is that people can be friends or can become total enemies," adds Max Kennedy, son of RFK, related to JFK and now a writer and lawyer. "We see this over and over in instances where nations have gone to war, demonstrating the profound irrationality involved to fight."

A Brink Towards Disaster

What is remarkable about this event was that, since it transpired in the global spotlight, people around the world were able to observe almost as it happened while it moved towards armageddon. However, the danger of destruction came closer than what most people realised.

"The overwhelming majority in the White House were advocating for a military strike followed by a ground invasion," says Kennedy. "If we had attacked Cuba with the Sixth Fleet, it is certain the Russians on the ground would have deployed a tactical nuclear weapon against the US Sixth Fleet, which would have destroyed the aircraft carriers as well as sunk our largest and most important fleet. And, the U.S. would have retaliated through massive retaliation that would have ended most life on Earth."

The reality it didn’t stands as credit to both leaders, who managed to remain calm while engaging in diplomacy when many advisors in their governments demanded military action. Consequently, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons in the Caribbean island while President Kennedy (although not reported then) removed American missiles based in Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, matched by a feeling of hope.

A Different Perspective

Yet, during those 13 days of October 1962, the tension was felt globally. The Bomb’s co-hosts were born shortly after the crisis, with Khrushcheva being taught about it via the Soviet education system, which presented a slightly different picture of what happened.

"You said your father remembers it, and it was a scary day," she says. "However for Soviet citizens, people really didn’t know that much about it, because it was a tense situation, and in the Soviet Union we were told that things are constantly fine and sunny."

Inside the Khrushchev household, however, the perspective was different. "They told me that it was a triumphant moment for the USSR, because it was a direct confrontation. The leaders managed to resolve it, and avoided a global war, seen as a wonderful thing," she continues. Later on, though, that perspective was not held by everybody. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a failure for Khrushchev, because he refrained from destroying the United States."

A Unlikely Partnership

This podcast is remarkably balanced , well produced that Khrushcheva quips she nearly forgot she already knew the ending. This effect is, partly, thanks to the participation of historians. But, really, the most momentous aspect remains the participation of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it would be inconceivable that relatives of the leaders of the United States and Soviet Union would appear side by side. That these two individuals are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth toward one another, must be seen as a sign of progress.

"We are not the pioneers," smiles Khrushcheva. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative moved to America and became great friends with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we were strangers before the podcast," clarifies Kennedy. "That is a shame since we got along really well and we are friends, which is wonderful. Finally, following almost six decades since almost destroying the world, our families have become friends, suggesting global relations is more secure, somewhat."

Contemporary Parallels and Current Dangers

Or is it? Part of why this series feels so necessary is that we now are living living through a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock stands nearer to catastrophe in its history, in part because today's statesmen appear not to be able to learn