‘After almost destroying our world, our relatives have become allies’: a gripping podcast from JFK and Nikita Khrushchev’s relatives.

During October 1962, the world came nearer toward ruin more so than ever during recent history. This transpired after an American reconnaissance aircraft found the fact that Soviet nuclear missile installations were under construction in Cuba, less than 160 kilometers from the United States. Reacting to this, U.S. President JFK commanded the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to establish a naval blockade encircling Cuba. The ensuing period was nearly a fortnight filled with extreme anxiety.

An Unthinkable Threat

The danger was palpable. Should President Kennedy, or else his Russian opposite, Nikita Khrushchev, initiated an attack on their enemy, a cascade of global nuclear strikes and retaliatory strikes could have ensued, casting mankind into all-out oblivion.

This pivotal 1962 event has been examined extensively, through books, films, and TV documentaries. However, for its third season, the audio documentary series titled "The Bomb" has brought an unprecedented dimension to the story. The series is co-presented by Max Kennedy and Khrushchev's descendant, relatives belonging to the figures that, over 13 days, controlled the fate of the world in their hands.

"What were the Soviet side planning? What were the American side planning?" questions Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's great-granddaughter who is also a professor specializing in international affairs.

In her view, the unique appeal of the podcast lies in its attempt to question: "Why do nations hate each other and oppose one another?"

"It was not lost on me how remarkable it is that people have the potential to be allies or else have the potential to be complete enemies," adds Kennedy, son of RFK, nephew of JFK and now a writer as well as lawyer. "We see this dynamic over and over when countries have gone to war, highlighting the profound irrationality involved to fight."

A Precipice of Catastrophe

What’s notable regarding the Cuban missile crisis is that, since it unfolded in the global spotlight, individuals worldwide were able to observe almost as it happened while it crept closer to armageddon. Nonetheless, the risk of annihilation came closer than what most people understood at the time.

"The overwhelming majority among Kennedy's advisors wanted an airstrike followed by an invasion," says Max Kennedy. "If we had attacked Cuba using the naval blockade, undoubtedly the Russians stationed there would've launched a tactical nuclear weapon at the American ships, and that would've sunk the aircraft carriers as well as sunk America's primary naval force. And, we would have responded with massive retaliation which would have ended most life on the planet."

The fact this did not occur highlights the composure of Kennedy and Khrushchev, who succeeded in keep their heads while engaging in diplomacy when hawkish elements in their governments were advocating action. As a result, Khrushchev removed the nuclear weapons from the Caribbean island while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) removed American missiles based in NATO ally Turkey. The sense of relief was worldwide, matched by the sense of hope.

The Divergent Perspective

Still, for those two weeks of October 1962, the anxiety was palpable by everyone. The Bomb’s co-hosts came into the world in the years following the crisis, with Nina learned about it via the USSR's school curriculum, which presented an alternative picture of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father recalls it, and it was a scary time," she says. "But for Soviet citizens, the public really didn’t know that much about it, since it was a tense situation, whereas in the Soviet Union the official line was that everything was constantly fine and sunny."

Inside the Khrushchev household, though, it was different. "I was informed what a great occasion for the USSR, as it represented eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to resolve it, and didn’t start a global war, seen as a positive thing," she adds. In the years to come, though, that interpretation would not be held by everybody. "For a long time in Russian politics, the crisis was viewed as a failure for the Soviet leader, simply he didn’t blow up America."

A Unlikely Partnership

This podcast is so balanced , well produced so much so that Khrushcheva quips it almost made her forget she already knew the ending. This effect is, in part, due to the participation of renowned scholars. Yet, really, the most significant thing is the involvement of the hosts themselves. Not so long ago, it would be unthinkable 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 exhibit such warmth toward one another, has to be 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 and became great friends with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we were strangers prior to this project," clarifies Max. "Which is a shame because we got along immediately and we are friends, something that is really great. Finally, after almost six decades since almost destroying the world, our families are now friends, so I think the world is safer, a little bit."

Contemporary Echoes and Present Perils

Is that truly the case? One reason the reason this series seems so urgent is that we now are living living through a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to midnight than ever before, partly since world leaders don’t seem to have the capacity to grasp