Following nearly destroying the world, our families have become friends’: the gripping audio series featuring JFK and Khrushchev’s relatives.

During October 1962, the world veered closer toward destruction than at any other point in modern times. This happened following the discovery that an American surveillance aircraft identified the fact that Soviet nuclear missile bases were being built in the island of Cuba, less than 100 miles from the United States. Reacting to this, U.S. President John F Kennedy directed the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to impose a naval quarantine encircling Cuba. What followed was nearly 14 days filled with extreme anxiety.

An Unthinkable Threat

The peril was clear. Should Kennedy, or the Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, had fired on the other side, a chain reaction of global atomic strikes followed by retaliatory strikes could have followed, thrusting humanity toward all-out destruction.

The Cuban missile crisis has been covered extensively, through books, films, as well as television programmes. But, in its latest installment, a prominent BBC World Service podcast The Bomb presents a completely new element into the story. It is co-presented by Kennedy's relative alongside Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the men that, for 13 days, controlled the fate of the planet within their grasp.

"What were the Soviet side planning? What were the American side thinking?" questions Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter and a professor of global relations.

In her view, the beauty of the podcast lies in its attempt to question: "How can people detest each other and confront each other?"

"I am acutely aware how profound the fact that people have the potential to be friends or have the potential to be total adversaries," adds Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, nephew of JFK and currently a writer and attorney. "We see this dynamic repeatedly when nations enter into conflict, demonstrating the profound irrationality it is to engage in warfare."

The Brink Towards Catastrophe

What’s notable regarding this event is that, because it transpired in the global spotlight, people around the world could watch nearly as it happened as it moved closer to disaster. Even so, the risk of destruction was more imminent than what anybody realised.

"Virtually everyone among Kennedy's advisors wanted a military strike and a ground invasion," says Kennedy. "If we had attacked the Cubans with the Sixth Fleet, undoubtedly Soviet forces stationed there would've deployed a tactical nuclear weapon against the US Sixth Fleet, and that would've sunk our aircraft carriers as well as sunk our primary fleet. In turn, we would have retaliated through an overwhelming counterattack which would have ended most life on the planet."

The fact it didn’t highlights the composure of both leaders, who managed to exercise restraint while calmly negotiate when many advisors in their governments was pushing for action. As a result, The Soviet premier removed the nuclear weapons in Cuba while President Kennedy (although not reported at the time) removed American missiles based in NATO ally Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, as was a feeling of optimism.

The Divergent Perspective

Still, during those 13 days in October, the anxiety was palpable by everyone. The Bomb’s co-hosts were born shortly after these events, and Khrushcheva being taught about it via the USSR's school curriculum, which painted a slightly different picture of what happened.

"You said your father recalls it, and it was a scary day," she says. "But for Soviet citizens, people really didn’t know that much regarding the crisis, because it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system the official line was that everything was always fine and sunny."

Inside the Khrushchev household, though, the perspective was different. "They told me that it was a triumphant occasion it was, because it was eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to find a solution, and avoided the war, seen as a positive thing," she continues. In the years to come, though, that view was not held by everybody. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a setback for Khrushchev, simply he refrained from destroying America."

A Unprecedented Collaboration

This podcast is so even-handed and well produced that Nina jokes it almost made her forget the known the ending. This is, in part, thanks to contributions from historians. But, truly, the most groundbreaking thing remains the involvement of the descendants. Even within living memory, it was unthinkable for relatives of the heads of state of America and USSR to appear together publicly. That these two individuals are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth toward one another, has to be a sign of hope.

"Max and I are not the first," smiles Nina. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, my uncle moved to America and formed a close bond with the former president's family."

"However we had never met before the podcast," clarifies Max. "Which is a shame since we got along immediately and now we are friends, something that is really great. Finally, following nearly 60 years of nearly annihilating the planet, our lineages are now friends, suggesting the world is safer, a little bit."

Modern Parallels with Current Perils

Or is it? Part of the reason this series seems so urgent is that we once again find ourselves living through a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock is closer to catastrophe than ever before, partly since world leaders appear not to have the capacity to grasp