‘After almost destroying our planet, the families have become friends’: a gripping podcast featuring JFK and Khrushchev’s relatives.

In October 1962, the world edged nearer toward annihilation than at any other point in recent history. This happened when an American reconnaissance aircraft discovered that Russian nuclear missile installations were being built in the island of Cuba, a mere 100 miles off the coast of the US mainland. In response, U.S. President John F Kennedy directed a naval task force to impose a naval blockade around the island. The ensuing period was nearly a fortnight filled with impossible tension.

An Catastrophic Threat

The danger remained clear. If President Kennedy, or else his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, were to fire on their enemy, a cascade involving worldwide nuclear strikes followed by retaliatory strikes would have followed, thrusting humanity into total destruction.

The October crisis has been documented repeatedly, through volumes, movies, and television programmes. However, for its third season, a prominent audio documentary series titled "The Bomb" presents an unprecedented element to this historical narrative. The series is jointly hosted featuring Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, family members of the men that, for 13 days, grasped the fate of humanity in their hands.

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

For her, the strength of the podcast is its attempt to explore: "How can individuals hate each other to the point they go against one another?"

"It was not lost on me how profound the fact that individuals can be allies or have the potential to be total adversaries," states Max Kennedy, son of RFK, nephew of the late president and currently a writer and lawyer. "History shows this dynamic repeatedly when nations enter into conflict, and it just illustrates the profound irrationality involved to engage in warfare."

A Precipice of Disaster

What is remarkable regarding the Cuban missile crisis was that, because it transpired in the global spotlight, people worldwide were able to observe almost as it happened as it moved towards armageddon. Even so, the risk of annihilation was more imminent than what anybody understood at the time.

"Virtually everyone in the White House wanted an airstrike and a ground invasion," explains Kennedy. "If we had struck the Cubans using the naval blockade, undoubtedly Soviet forces on the ground would have launched a tactical nuclear weapon against the American ships, and that would've obliterated the naval vessels and sunk America's largest and most important naval force. And, the U.S. would have retaliated with an overwhelming counterattack that would have ended all life on Earth."

The fact it didn’t is a testament to Kennedy and Khrushchev, they managed to remain calm while calmly negotiate at a time when many advisors around them demanded military action. As a result, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons in the Caribbean island while Kennedy (although not reported at the time) withdrew American missiles based in NATO ally Turkey. The relief was immense, matched by the sense of optimism.

The Divergent Viewpoint

Yet, for those two weeks in October, the tension was palpable by everyone. The podcast's presenters were born in the years following the crisis, and Khrushcheva being taught about the crisis via the USSR's education system, which presented a slightly different picture of events.

"You said your parent recalls it, describing it as a frightening day," Khrushcheva notes. "But for Soviet citizens, the public really didn’t know a great deal regarding the crisis, since it was a crisis, and in the Soviet Union the official line was that everything was always fine and sunny."

Within Khrushchev’s family, though, it was different. "They told me that it was a triumphant moment it was, as it represented a direct confrontation. They were able to resolve it, thus avoided the war, which was a wonderful outcome," she adds. Subsequently, however, that interpretation would not be held by everybody. "For a long time within Russian historical analysis, the crisis was viewed as a defeat for the Soviet leader, simply he refrained from destroying America."

An Unlikely Partnership

The Bomb is so balanced and well produced that Nina quips it almost made her forget she already knew outcome. This is, partly, due to the participation of renowned scholars. But, really, the most momentous aspect is the participation of the hosts themselves. Not so long ago, it was inconceivable that relatives of the heads of state of the United States and Soviet Union to appear side by side. The fact that these two individuals are able to do so, and be so warm with each other, has to be a sign of hope.

"Max and I are not the pioneers," notes Khrushcheva. "Following 1991, a relative moved to America where he became great friends with the former president's family."

"But we were strangers prior to this project," adds Kennedy. "That is unfortunate because we connected really well and now we are friends, which is really great. Finally, following almost six decades of almost destroying the planet, our families have become allies, suggesting global relations is safer, somewhat."

Contemporary Parallels and Current Perils

Or is it? Part of the reason The Bomb seems so urgent is because we once again are living living through a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to catastrophe in its history, partly since today's statesmen don’t seem to be able to comprehend