740.019 EAC/4–45: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
3400. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War and Navy Departments have now considered the proposal of the Soviet representative to amend the British proposal in the European Advisory Commission for zones of occupation in Austria described in your 3449 April 4, midnight, Cornea 205. The views of this Government are as follows:
- 1.
- There are no military objections to the Soviet amendment that the part of the province of Upper Austria north of the Danube River and the Styrian part of Burgenland be made parts of the Soviet zone.
- 2.
- However, the Soviet proposal that the area to be occupied by the quadripartite forces in the Vienna area should be limited to the pre-1938 City of Vienna is not acceptable. In consideration of the original Soviet proposal for subdivision of only the City of Vienna, the Secretaries of War and Navy pointed out in a letter of January 48 that the U.S. subdivision in Vienna must extend sufficiently beyond the city limits to provide adequate air facilities for U.S. forces within the U.S. subdivision. They also stated in a letter of April 59 containing comments on the British proposal for subdivision of Greater Vienna that the U.S. subdivision must include adequate air facilities for U.S. forces. This letter included a U.S. proposal for subdivision of Greater Vienna that would provide suitable air facilities for U.S. forces. Division of the pre-1938 City of Vienna will not assure any known air facilities to the U.S. forces in the Vienna area, in as much as the subdivision now proposed for Soviet occupation contains the only known airfield within the area. Such a division would result in all five of the airfields known to be in the Greater Vienna area being under Soviet control. It is believed that the U.S. should press for the division of Greater Vienna as proposed in the letter of April 5 which is mentioned, in as much as such a division would result in a more equitable distribution of airfields.
It is suggested that U.S. agreement to the inclusion of that area of Upper Austria north of the Danube River in the Soviet zone could probably be used as a basis for getting Soviet agreement to the U.S. proposal on the division of Greater Vienna.
The foregoing views were expressed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff prior to a telegram addressed by the War Department to General [Page 108] McNarney on April 22 as number 72646,10 instructing him to go or send a representative to Vienna to arrive at recommendations for submission to the Government for final approval after consideration in the European Advisory Commission of points relating to the zoning of Vienna not yet settled. In that telegram the foregoing views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were modified to the extent of instructing General McNarney that an airfield with adequate supporting facilities must be an integral part of the United States zone in Vienna, but that in that case it would not be necessary to insist on the entire Gau or the entire district in which the airfield might be located.
Sent to London as Department’s no. 3400; repeated to AmPolAd, Caserta, for Erhardt, as Department’s no. 415.