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Nov 26
What’s the most unrealistic event in history that actually happened?

Pepsi, the soda company, once had the 6th largest military in the world.

It all started in 1959, when then US President Dwight Eisenhower decided
to send a bunch of American cultural icons to the Soviet Union as part
of a goodwill tour.

Among them was the vice president of Pepsi, Donald Kendall, who had a
brilliant idea: why not introduce the Soviets to the sweet taste of
capitalism by giving them some free samples of Pepsi?

He managed to get permission from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to set
up a Pepsi booth at a Moscow exhibition.

There, he offered Khrushchev a cup of Pepsi, and the Soviet leader liked
it so much that he asked for a second one.

Kendall snapped a photo of Khrushchev drinking Pepsi, which became a
sensation in the US media.

That photo also helped Kendall secure a deal with the Soviets to sell
Pepsi in their country.

But there was a problem: the Soviet ruble was not convertible to any
other currency, so Pepsi couldn't get paid in cash.

Instead, they agreed to exchange Pepsi syrup for Soviet vodka, which
they could then sell in the US and other markets.

This deal worked well for both parties for a while, until Pepsi's
popularity in the Soviet Union grew so much that they needed more syrup
than the vodka could cover.

So, in 1989, Kendall came up with another solution: instead of vodka,
Pepsi would accept Soviet warships as payment.

Yes, you read that right. Freaking Warships.

As in, naval vessels armed with guns and missiles. The Soviets had a
surplus of them after the Cold War, and they were eager to get rid of
them and modernize their fleet.

So they agreed to trade 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate and a
destroyer for $3 billion worth of Pepsi syrup.

That's enough syrup to make 20 billion cans of Pepsi, by the way.

The deal was signed by Kendall and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev,
and it made Pepsi the owner of the 6th largest navy in the world at that
time.

Bigger than those of France, Britain or China. Just imagine that.

Of course, Pepsi didn't really want to keep those ships. They quickly
sold them to a Swedish company that scrapped them for metal.

But for a brief moment in history, Pepsi had enough firepower to start a
soda war with anyone who dared to challenge them.

Luckily, they didn't.

They just wanted to sell some refreshing drinks to thirsty people around
the world. And that's how Pepsi became a naval superpower for a hot minute.

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