The story dates back to 1989, when the Soviet Union, facing severe shortages of hard currency, struck a barter deal with PepsiCo. In exchange for $3 billion worth of Pepsi products, the USSR transferred 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer to the American soft drink company.
The transfer was part of a larger trade agreement intended to keep Pepsi flowing to Soviet citizens, who had developed a taste for the Western beverage during détente.
The vessels were not meant for military use under Pepsi’s ownership. Instead, PepsiCo quickly arranged for the fleet to be sold to a Swedish scrap company. But for a brief moment, the soda company had, on paper, a military arsenal larger than many countries.
At the time, Pepsi executive Donald Kendall reportedly quipped to a U.S. national security adviser: “We’re disarming the Soviet Union faster than you are.”
While it never involved Pepsi deploying battleships with soda logos across the seas, the incident remains one of the most fascinating intersections of capitalism and geopolitics in modern history.
