In his frequent speeches to executives, Commerce Secretary Peter Peterson often quotes his friend Henry Kissinger as cracking: "Peterson, you wouldn't have any way of knowing this, but power is the ultimate aphrodisiac." The line invariably draws a laugh, but the fact is that Peterson is no stranger to power and enjoys being referred to in Washington as "the economic Kissinger." As the nation's foreign-trade spokesman, he is out to prove that "trade policy is foreign policy, trade policy is security policy, trade policy is domestic policy." After less than a year in the job, he is wielding more clout than any Commerce Secretary since Herbert Hoover. But, says Peterson: "I keep a portrait of Hoover hanging over the fireplace in my office to remind me of the hazards of ambition."
Peterson has made himself a leader in U.S. diplomacy toward the East, in line with the Nixon Administration principle that relations with Communist nations are best cemented by economic mortar. In talks with Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev and other officials, the Commerce chief has formed the out lines of a U.S.-Russian arrangement in which U.S. goods and technology would be exchanged for huge amounts of Soviet natural gas and other fuels. Last month he signed an agreement with Poland that will grant U.S. Export-Import Bank credits to the country, and is expected in five years to triple U.S.-Polish trade to about $600 million annually. The Poles also agreed to let U.S. companies buy up to 49% of Polish businesses and share in long-term profits. The pact may lead to U.S. trade agreements with other Eastern European countries.
Peterson has also been a prominent figure in the effort to right the American balance of international payments. As the White House adviser on trade in 1970-71, he created a slide show using jazzy, multicolored charts to hammer home to high officials that the U.S. share of world commerce was slipping. The presentation deeply impressed President Nixon and helped motivate the U.S. world financial offensive that culminated in upward revaluation of foreign currencies and devaluation of the dollar. Peterson is a firm supporter of Treasury Secretary George Shultz's plan to keep the world's major trading nations in rough balance with each other automatically by placing international sanctions on countries that run up persistent large foreign-exchange surpluses or deficits. Secretary Peterson is almost certain to play a major role in negotiations next year for world monetary reform.
Holding Fire. Domestically, Peterson has performed the Commerce Secretary's job as liaison man between business and Government with much more sensitivity to modern trends than his predecessor, Maurice Stans, who later became Nixon's campaign treasurer. Indeed, the 46-year-old Peterson, who dresses in dark suits augmented by flashy ties, square-toed shoes and gold-rimmed glasses, seems more than just one generation more mod than the 64-year-old Stans. Stans took the business side in almost every dispute; among other things, he decried tough anti-pollution regulations and defended the clubbing of Alaskan seals.