In1989,theSovietUniontraded17submarines,acruiser,afrigate,andadestroyertoPepsiCoinexchangeforPepsi.Forabriefmoment,Pepsihadmorefirepowerthanmostcountries.
Abstract expressionism — Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning — was literally a Cold War weapon. The CIA secretly bankrolled exhibitions, galleries, and critics through front organizations to prove American culture was superior to Soviet realism. The artists never knew.
Elizabeth Holmes convinced Henry Kissinger, Rupert Murdoch, and the US military that her machine could run 200 tests from a single drop of blood. It couldn't run any.
In 1989, the Soviet Union traded 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer to PepsiCo in exchange for Pepsi. For a brief moment, Pepsi had more firepower than most countries.
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