Office of the Historian

740.00119 EAC/4–545: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)

Washington, April 10, 1945—7 p.m.

2794. The Department is disturbed by the Soviet desire, reflected in your 3477 April 5, 8 p.m., Cornea 208, to hold up completion of an agreement on control machinery unless we agree immediately to exact reparations from Austria.

We do not share the Soviet view that “in principle Austria must pay reparations for her contribution to the German war effort and for failure to assist the Allies in securing her liberation.” We feel that this view is unrealistic and would have dangerous political implications in Central Europe. Although in our propaganda we have consistently exhorted the Austrians to “contribute to their own liberation” we do not believe they can be judged at this time to have failed to do so, as stated by Gousev, considering the grip held by the Gestapo20 and the meager aid from outside up to the entry of the Red Army into Austria this month.

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We feel that a reparations program for Austria analogous to the German program would be inconsistent with the Moscow Declaration, and that execution of such a program would require a reversal of the whole policy towards Austria on which the Moscow Declaration is based. It would also be inconsistent with April 8 broadcasts by Moscow radio to the people of Austria21 and by General Tolbukhin to the people of Vienna,22 that “the Austrian population is resisting the evacuation carried out by the Germans and meeting hospitably the Red Army as liberator of Austria.” We believe it would turn the Austrians against our cause; and tend ultimately to force Austria back into the arms of Germany thus strengthening Germany again in later years.

While we are prepared to modify our previous position of flat opposition to payment of reparation by Austria, we would strongly oppose any Austrian reparation other than transfer of existing capital equipment of a type which is clearly redundant in relation to the requirements of a healthy, peacetime Austrian economy. Machinery in armament plants established in Austria since Anschluss would be the chief source of reparation under such a program. A program limited in this fashion might be properly regarded, and presented to the Austrian people, as part of the German reparation program, rather than as a separate and distinct imposition of reparation on Austria.

In carrying out the instruction contained in our 2696,22a you should avoid any statements which would commit us to a more extensive program than is set forth above. It would be desirable to avoid extensive discussion of Austrian reparation in EAC, leaving the matter as far as possible to Reparation Commission. The foregoing is, accordingly, for your background information.

Stettinius
  1. Geheime Staatspolizei (German Secret State Police).↩
  2. For text of broadcast, see Rot-Weiss-Rot Buch, Gerechtigkeit für Österreich, Darstellungen, Dokumente und Nachweise zur Vorgeschiclite und Geschichte der Okkupation Osterreichs, Erster Teil (Wien, 1946), p. 191.↩
  3. For text of Marshal Tolbukhin’s broadcast, see ibid., pp. 191–192.↩
  4. Dated April 6, p. 48.↩