Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Austria)/5–245

Memorandum by Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, to the Director of the Office of European Affairs (Matthews)

Washington, May 2, 1945.

The following message from Prime Minister Churchill is forwarded for information and for preparation of a draft reply:

“Prime Minister to President Truman, personal and Top Secret, Number 29, your Number 19.14 (1 May 1945)

1.
I have now received from Ambassador Winant a copy of the protest which you have instructed your representative at Moscow to deliver to the Soviet Government after concerting with our Chargé d’Affaires,14a I am in entire agreement with this protest and our representative in Moscow is instructed to make a similar protest.
2.
He is further to make the following separate communication: begins
  • 1. His Majesty’s Government are much concerned to hear from the British Chargé d’Affaires in Moscow that despite the invitation you extended to Mr. Harriman on April 13, the Soviet Government will not now agree to the Allied missions proceeding to Vienna until agreement has been reached in the EAC regarding representative zones in Vienna and the provisional control machinery. It is impossible for the EAC to reach any agreement about the zones in Vienna and the provisional control machinery until the Allied missions have reached Vienna and have been able themselves to ascertain the conditions there. The results of the Soviet refusal to allow them to go to Vienna have thus produced a complete deadlock and leave the Soviet Government in sole control of Austria.
  • “2. We therefore regard it as essential that the Allied representatives should be allowed to proceed at once to Vienna and thus enable a settlement to be reached on matters affecting the occupation and control of the country, and especially of Vienna itself, on the spot. We request that the necessary instructions be issued to Marshal Tolbukhin in order that the Allied missions may fly in at once from Italy. Ends.”
3.
I trust, Mr. President, that this will be in accordance with your views and that if so you will instruct your Chargé d’Affaires to support his British colleague.”15

William D. Leahy
  1. Telegram No. 19 not printed, but see footnote 94a, p. 104 ↩
  2. See telegram 981, April 30, to Moscow, p. 104.↩
  3. President Truman’s reply to Prime Minister Churchill, as suggested by the Department of State, read in part as follows: “1. I agree entirely with your number 29, and the American Chargé d’Affaires at Moscow is accordingly being instructed to deliver the following message to the Soviet Government after concerting with his British colleague.” The message to the Soviet Government is contained in Department’s telegram 995 to the Chargé in the Soviet Union, May 3, p. 113. President Truman’s message to the Prime Minister concluded as follows: “If you will let me know if this is approved, I will send the message to Moscow.” (740.00119 Control (Austria)/5–245)↩