740.00119 Control (Germany)/6–1445: Telegram
President Truman to the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union (Stalin)62
288. Now that the unconditional defeat of Germany has been announced and the Control Council for Germany has had its first meeting, [Page 136] I propose that we should at once issue definite instructions which will get forces into their respective zones and will initiate orderly administration of the defeated territory. As to Germany, I am ready to have instructions issued to all American troops to begin withdrawal into their own zone on 21 June in accordance with arrangements between the respective commanders, including in these arrangements simultaneous movement of the national garrisons into Greater Berlin and provision of free access by air, road, and rail from Frankfurt and Bremen to Berlin for U.S. forces.
I consider the settlement of the Austrian problem is of equal urgency to the German matter. The redistribution of forces into occupation zones which have been agreed in principle by the EAC, the movement of the national garrisons into Vienna and the establishment of the Allied Commission for Austria should take place simultaneously with these developments in Germany. I therefore attach utmost importance to settling the outstanding Austrian problems in order that the whole arrangement of German and Austrian affairs can be put into operation simultaneously. I hope that the recent visit of American, British and French missions to Vienna will result in the EAC being able to take the necessary remaining decisions to this end without delay.
If you agree with the foregoing, I propose that appropriate instructions be issued at once to our respective commanders.
- This message was repeated in President Truman’s No. 71 to Prime Minister Churchill ↩