Kennedy and Khrushchev: 3. Gamble

The Bomb

BBC

History

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Soviets secretly plan to move an arsenal of nuclear weapons to Cuba. It is an audacious move by Nikita Khrushchev, to protect Fidel Castro’s communist regime from an American invasion. Since Castro and the Soviet leader met in a New York hotel in 1960, they’ve had a personal bond. Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, tell the story of how America plotted to overthrow Castro and how Khrushchev persuaded the Cuban leader to go along with his bold plan. This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you can't wait for new episodes of this podcast the Black Sea in the Soviet Union.
0:29.6	It's being loaded with troops and military equipment.
0:34.6	The captain boards, he holds a letter in his hand.
0:39.3	He is not to open the letter until he reaches the Atlantic Ocean.
0:44.3	He doesn't know the final destination of the ship.
0:47.3	He'll find that out when he opens the letter.
0:57.0	The mission is completely secret. The ship was overcrowded.
1:00.0	It's carrying four times the number of men it was built for.
1:04.0	Just eight months after the confrontation in Berlin, the Soviet nuclear arsenal is on the move to Cuba.
1:16.6	I'm Max Kennedy.
1:20.6	And I'm Nina Krushcheva.
1:23.6	This is the bomb, season three, Kennedy and Crucef.
1:28.5	Episode 3, Gamble. Why does Khrushchev send Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba?
2:01.6	And how does he get them there?
2:03.6	It's a huge undertaking.
2:05.6	To an island on the other side of the world ruled by a revolutionary guerrilla leader who is ruthless, impetuous, and unpredictable.
2:15.6	Nina, can we talk about the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro?
2:21.0	I think your great-grandfather Khrushchev was fond of him.
2:24.4	Is that right?
2:25.2	My grandfather was so interested in people.
2:29.6	I mean, he could drop them when they upset him.
2:32.4	Khrushchev was very big on kind of promoting youth because he thought that if we can
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