By the early severities, investments in Japan had blossomed into the largest Coke market outside the United States. In 1973, Japan contributed 18 percent of Coca-Cola's entire corporate profit, despite an increasingly militant consumer movement and various administrative import barriers. In 1972, Jimmy Carter revealed that he had ambitions beyond Georgia, asking Paul Austin for Coca-Cola's support if he ran for President. Austin agreed without contemplating that the nationally unknown Carter would actually succeed. Nonetheless, when the Georgian governor groomed himself by traveling overseas to Tokyo and Brussels, ostensibly to boost the nation's trade, but also garnering considerable international experience and exposure, Coca-Cola employees there squired him around the country, providing background information on local politics, culture, and economy. With Austin's sponsorship, Carter joined the prestigious Trilateral Commission set up by David Rockefeller and the East Coast establishment as a fellow member successfully.

In 1977, Paul Austin quietly flew to Cuba, where he held closed door secret meetings with Fidel Castro, presumably to negotiate the Company's return to the country, even though Coca-Cola officially held a $27.5 million claim against Cuba for confiscating its plants in 1961. His mission proved unsuccessful, except for some Havana cigars, which Castro had sent to Robert Woodruff by means of Austin. Having promised President Carter that he would report on his trip to Cuba, Austin then met with him briefly in the White House. When acid-penned columnist William Safire learned of the episode, he concluded that it was...