If we were all surprised when Alfred López revealed to us that Fanta was a soft drink created by the Nazis, today I was stunned when, looking for documentation for an article, I stumbled upon an article in The New York Times and another in BBC that They say that Coca-Cola created «White Coke «, a special edition of the most popular soft drink for the most decorated officer of the Soviet Union… Marshal Georgy Zhukov .
Zhukov and Eisenhower (1945)
The international success of Coca-Cola, which allows you to drink one of its soft drinks anywhere in the world -well, except Cuba and North Korea-, began in World War II and a lot has to do with the friendship of Dwight D. Eisenhower , Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, with Robert Woodruff , president of Coca-Cola from 1923 to 1954. He got from him a special authorization to be able to import all the sugar that the company needed, a scarce item and subject to rationing. In exchange, Woodruff promised that Coca-Cola would go to any place in the world where an American soldier was fighting and that he could have his soda for 5 cents. And so he did, 62 bottling plants were distributed throughout the world to reach any corner. After the war, the marines returned home but the plants stayed… only their clients changed.
After the capture of Berlin (1945), it seems that a certain friendship was forged by mutual admiration between Eisenhower and Zhukov, who was the one who gave him the famous Coca-Cola to try. The marshal became fond of that refreshing drink but knew that for Stalin it was a symbol of «American capitalist imperialism «. So, he asked Eisenhower if he could make a Coca-Cola that looked like vodka. Eisenhower contacted President Harry S. Truman and he gave him his authorization to approve that contraband shipment. Now there was the most difficult part… you had to make a soft drink that had the same taste as Coca-Cola but had to be colorless (so that it looked like Zhukov was drinking vodka). Woodruff put chemists to work to make what would be called White Coke … and it seems that they succeeded. In addition, the typical bottle with curves was changed for a straight one and a white cap with a red star in the center was put on [I guess it would be like Pepsi Crystal, a clear-colored cola that Pepsi launched in the 1990s]. Zhukov was the top commander of the Soviet occupation troops in Germany and the person in charge of the military administration of these regions, so the consignment of 50 bottles arrived in Berlin through Austria. There were no more games... In 1946, Zhukov's popularity among the Red Army troops, even among the Germans (he asked Stalin to be allowed to improve the diet of the civilian population, claiming to "make a difference between Nazism and german town »And his friendship with Dwight Eisenhower, aroused the suspicion and distrust of Stalin and with false accusations« transferred »him to the Urals.
In 1985, Coca-Cola began to be marketed in the Soviet Union, ending the USSR monopoly that rival Pepsi-Cola had held for more than 10 years. Zhukov died in 1974 and was unable to "legally" test a Coca-Cola on Soviet Union soil.