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Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II and put an end to its isolationism for good. America sent its armed forces out into the world, more than sixteen million servicemen in all, and Coca-Cola went along with them. -
Exempted from Sugar Rationaing
" In our opinion, Coca-Cola could be classified as one of the essential morale-building products for the boys in the Service." Using dozens of similar letters as evedence, and after much lobbying in Washington with the armies explicit support, the company was even exempted from sugar rationing in 1942 on the grounds that its product was essential to the war effort. -
General Eisenhower's Telegram
General Dwight D. Eisenhower sent an urgent cablegram to Coca-Cola, requesting shipment of materials for 10 bottling plants. During the war, many people enjoyed their first taste of the beverage, and when peace finally came, the foundations were laid for Coca-Cola to do business overseas. -
Allied Victory of World War II
Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on 15 August 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II throughout the whole world.The surrender was signed on 2 Sept. 1945 aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay. -
Soviet Union Blockades West Berlin
The Soviet Union had directly challenged the United States by blockading West Berlin, a tiny toehold on the Soviet side of a now-divided Europe. The Western powers responded by airlifting supplies into West Berlin around the clock for over a year until the Soviets lifted the blockade. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
With the establishment in 1949 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance between the United States and its European allies, and the setting up of the rival Warsaw Treaty Organization by the Soviet Union, the stage was set for the decade-long military deadlock of the cold war. -
U.S. Trade and Cultural Fair in Moscow
American vice president Richard Nixon visited Moscow, where he traded insults with the Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, at a special trade fair showing off American products. In a public-relations coup for PepsiCo, Nixon and Khrushchev stopped at the Pepsi stand and were photographed drinking Pepsi together. But in 1965, when the Coca-Cola Company began to look into setting up operations in Russia, behind the Iron Curtain. -
Israeli Accusations
Israeli businessman accused the Coca-Cola company of staying out of the Israeli soft-drink market in order to protect its business in the much larger Arab market. The Arab world, with its ban on alcoholic drinks and its hot climate, was certainly a promising market for Coca-Cola. -
Abab Boycott
The company announced that it would license an Israeli bottling franchise in Tel Aviv. This, in turn, provoked the Arab League o call on its members to boycott Coca-Cola. The company refused to back down, and the Arab boycott came into force in August 1968. The company's decision was entirely pragmatic: It gave up the Arab market in order to avoid a domestic boycott by the Jewish community, which would have cost it far more. -
Collapse of Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, presaging the collapse of communist regimes across eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. As East Germans streamed through the cracks in the Berlin Wall, they were greeted with Coca-Cola. "We found ourselves welcoming the new arrivals with bananas, Coca-Cola, flowers, and anything else that smacked of Western consumerism." -
War in Iraq
By the time of the Iraq War in 2003, the idea of expressing anti-Americanism through attacks on its soft drinks had taken several new forms. Muslim youths in Thailand poured Coca-Cola onto the ground in protest at the American-led invasion, and sales were suspended amid growing anti-American protests.
