Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, European Advisory Commission, Austria, Germany, Volume III

740.019 Control (Austria)/4–2645: Telegram

The United States Political Adviser on Austrian Affairs (Erhardt) to the Secretary of State

Caserta, April 26, 1945—9 p.m.
[Received April 26—9:20 a.m.]

1733. The Department should read W 72646 of April 25 from Joint Chiefs of Staff for General McNarney⁸⁰ in regard to the proposed Allied Mission to proceed to Vienna. General McNarney discussed this subject with Field Marshal Alexander and a message, No. FX–65623 from General McNarney to Joint Chiefs of Staff, is going out tonight.

The Field Marshal is sending a parallel instruction to the British Chiefs of Staff expecting [excepting?] that he is urging that the discussions in Vienna be upon Gau Vienna rather than the narrower limits of the city. It has been decided and the British Foreign Office concurs, so I am told, that the Field Marshal will not now proceed to Vienna.

The Department should know that the military representatives in Caserta are, in general, disposed to question the advisability of having representatives proceed to Vienna before a general agreement is reached on the equality of status of all occupying forces. What they have in mind includes joint occupation and use of the Innere Stadt, airports, facilities, transit rights and freedom of movement of all personnel. The Field Marshal and General McNarney have always been especially insistent on these points. Even today Alexander argued strongly for Gau Vienna and he wished, until dissuaded by General McNarney’s position on the subject, to inform the British Chiefs of Staff that unless equality of status in the Vienna Gau was accepted by the Russians now he felt it would be inadvisable to despatch a mission to Vienna.⁸¹

Sent Department, repeated London as 171.

[Erhardt]

80. Not printed. The Department of Defense has supplied information that this message, dispatched by the Joint Chiefs of Staff through the War Department, was dated April 24. For a summary of this telegram, see the last paragraph of Department’s telegram 3400 to London, May 1, 3 p.m., p. 107.
81. In his telegram 1792, April 28, 12 p.m., Mr. Erhardt reported that the British Chiefs of Staff were in accord with Field Marshal Alexander’s views as outlined above, and the British Chiefs of Staff directed Alexander to make arrangements with Marshal Tolbukhin regarding the mission to Vienna (740.00119 Control (Austria)/4–2845).