The Military Might of Pepsi

 This is a rather strange tale from history, and the military industrial complex. A story that illustrates that when there is a will, there is a way, and sometimes that creates some rather odd results. The story begins in 1959 when, then Vice President Nixon, and Soviet Premier Nikita – pound the shoe on the table while saying “we will crush you” – Khrushchev, met in Moscow, about two years after the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile had been successfully tested by the United States. The venue – The American National Exhibition in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park. The pair, both with strong convictions and personalities, began to discuss the virtues of communism and capitalism. It was clear the two were not like-minded, and the conversation was quickly heating up. Before the quickly escalating exchange came to a head, the President of Pepsi International, Donald Kendall, offered both a nice cool drink of Pepsi – and a Soviet National Love affair began.