The most dangerous day in history - The Bomb Podcast: Kennedy & Khrushchev, BBC World Service
BBC World Service
193,118 views
Soviet anti-aircraft fire takes down an American spy plane over Cuba, as the crisis spirals.
Click here to subscribe to our channel 👉🏽 https://bbc.in/3VyyriM
The pilot is killed.
With nuclear missiles almost ready for launch in Cuba, how can the two superpower leaders pull back from the brink of war?
This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.
00:00 Black Saturday
04:00 Khrushchev – A second letter
07:06 Crossed wires
10:47 US reaction to Arctic U-2
12:48 A last-minute preparation before nuclear war
16:21 News of U-2 reaches JFK
23:48 Back channels
How the nuclear bomb shaped world history. Nuclear war is terrifyingly close. Can the superpowers of the Soviet Union and the USA prevent apocalypse? Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and US President John F Kennedy, tell the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Watch more episodes of The Bomb here 👉🏽 The Bomb: Kennedy and Khrushchev
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20 Comments
We often think of historical events as occurring on a specific date, at a specific time.
But days begin and end at different times in different countries.
And an event that happened on Saturday Evening in the US will happen on Sunday Morning in Russia.
So two countries can have a completely different sense of history simply because of time zones.
Their history books will register different timelines.
This can also have different psychological effects on world leaders, particularly for cultural reasons, but not exclusively.
A leader may react to an event very differently depending on the time of day at which it takes place.
We often acknowledge the language barrier, and the cultural barrier, but we rarely ever acknowledge the time zone barrier.
Yet, in these high stakes, high intensity situations in international diplomacy, it can have a tremendous impact.
And we almost never acknowledge it.
As for their actions after the crisis came to an end, I will need to do a lot more reading to figure out whether on those too I have been unreasonably harsh.
Great series, BBC!
However - in 2022 declassified Soviet documents revealed that: “Soviet forces had NO pre-delegated authority to fire either strategic or tactical nuclear weapons except when ordered by Moscow… any order had to come from Moscow”
Presumably there were other barriers in place besides “following orders” – combination locks and codes.
The most dangerous day in history - The Bomb Podcast: Kennedy & Khrushchev, BBC World Service
BBC World Service
193,118 views
Soviet anti-aircraft fire takes down an American spy plane over Cuba, as the crisis spirals.
Click here to subscribe to our channel 👉🏽 https://bbc.in/3VyyriM
The pilot is killed.
With nuclear missiles almost ready for launch in Cuba, how can the two superpower leaders pull back from the brink of war?
This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.
00:00 Black Saturday
04:00 Khrushchev – A second letter
07:06 Crossed wires
10:47 US reaction to Arctic U-2
12:48 A last-minute preparation before nuclear war
16:21 News of U-2 reaches JFK
23:48 Back channels
How the nuclear bomb shaped world history. Nuclear war is terrifyingly close. Can the superpowers of the Soviet Union and the USA prevent apocalypse? Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and US President John F Kennedy, tell the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Watch more episodes of The Bomb here 👉🏽 The Bomb: Kennedy and Khrushchev
----------------
This is the official BBC World Service YouTube channel.
If you like what we do, you can also find us here:
Instagram 👉🏽 Instagram: bbcworldservice
Twitter 👉🏽 Twitter: bbcworldservice
Facebook 👉🏽 Facebook: bbcworldservice
BBC World Service website 👉🏽 https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio
Thanks for watching and subscribing!
#BBCWorldService #WorldService #kennedy #krushchev #cubanmissilecrisis #nuclearwar #coldwar