Kennedy and Khrushchev: 1. Opening moves
The Bomb
BBC
4.4 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the USA and Soviet Union race for supremacy in the 1960s, Premier Khrushchev sizes up his rival, President John F Kennedy. Hosts Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the superpower leaders, explore their rise to power - one wealthy, smooth-talking and Harvard educated, the other a hardened Soviet war leader from a peasant family. As they prepare to meet for the first and only time as world leaders, the stakes couldn't be higher: they are fierce rivals in the race to build ever more devastating missiles. This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Nina Khrushcheva is the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev and Max Kennedy is the nephew of President John F Kennedy, and the son of Robert F Kennedy.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.5 | If you can't wait for new episodes of this podcast and you're in the UK, more episodes are available now. |
| 0:12.4 | First on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:19.2 | Moscow's Keesky railway station. |
| 0:21.6 | A crowd of thousand wave, as Premier Nikita Khrushchev leaves on board a dark green steam train. |
| 0:29.6 | He's heading for Vienna. It's a journey of more than a thousand miles. |
| 0:35.6 | In Kiev, his arms are filled with flowers. |
| 0:42.3 | In a sunny Prague, more clapping crowds. |
| 0:46.3 | As his train passes through the countryside of the communist world, |
| 0:51.3 | he is waved on enthusiastically. |
| 1:04.2 | President John F. Kennedy soaks in a large gold-plated bath. |
| 1:08.3 | He's staying in the King's Chamber, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, |
| 1:11.3 | a 19th century palace overlooking the river Seine. |
| 1:16.3 | The deep steaming waters are easing his back pain, which is worse than ever. |
| 1:20.8 | He's been touring Paris all day in an open-topped French limousine. |
| 1:23.9 | Huge crowds lined the streets waving to him, |
| 1:27.9 | everyone wanting to catch a glimpse of the young and handsome President Kennedy and his elegant and sophisticated wife, Jackie. It's the 31st of May, 1961. In just three days, |
| 1:36.3 | the world will be watching as he meets Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna. |
| 1:43.2 | Khrushchev has heard reports of the huge crowds in Paris. |
| 1:47.5 | The White House claims that a million people have lined the streets to catch sight of the American president. |
| 1:55.9 | This is the Cold War, a time of great mutual suspicion. |
| 2:03.7 | The Vienna meeting will be the first and only time that Kennedy and Khrushchev meet as world leaders, the youthful and charming American president |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.