740.00119 Control (Austria)/1–1946: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant )23

secret

623. You are requested to inform FonOff the following with reference to reduction of occupation forces Austria: U.S. agrees in principle with note of Brit Emb, Wash, Nov 28, 194524 that occupation forces Austria should be reduced and that Allied Council should be instructed to work out detailed plan. Instructions sent Jan 15 by JCS to General Clark to introduce at earliest practicable moment U.S. proposal for progressive reduction to begin Feb 1 and proceed to Nov.

In view of different conditions in zones, U.S. does not consider that occupation forces should be equalized in zones in immediate future. Account should be taken of different degrees of frontier responsibility, area and population in zones. Immediate objective of U.S. is large scale and progressive reduction as preliminary step in realizing ultimate objective stated in Article 14, Agreement on Control Machinery signed July 4, 1945.25 U.S. agrees that four power announcement of guarantee of frontiers is desirable and should accompany decision on reduction of forces. U.S. will support Brit proposal to this effect.26

U.S. hopes that Brit member Allied Council will be instructed to discuss specific plan for reduction. Similar notes have been sent to Paris27 and Moscow. Please inform Vienna when above is communicated to FonOff.28

Sent to London as 623; repeated to Vienna as 59.

Acheson
  1. Substantially the same telegram was sent to Paris as 302 and to Moscow as 107.
  2. Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. iii, p. 666.
  3. For negotiations leading to the Agreement on Control Machinery in Austria, see ibid., pp. 1 ff.; for text of the Agreement, see Foreign Relations, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, vol. i, pp. 351355.
  4. In a memorandum of January 21, Mr. Riddleberger noted that according to Mr. D. D. Maclean, First Secretary of the British Embassy, the Russian reply to the British approach in Moscow, proposing a reduction of Allied forces in Austria, was unfavorable. It contended “that one of the objectives of the occupation was to effect the disarmament of German forces in Austria. The Soviet Foreign Office said that this action was not as yet completed and accused the British Government of retaining some units of the German Army in its Austrian zone of occupation and under the command of a White Russian colonel.” (740.00119 Control-(Austria)/1–2146)
  5. In telegram 455 of January 29, from Paris, Ambassador Caffery reported that the French Foreign Ministry shared the views of the American Government and that instructions had been sent to General Bethouart to support General Clark’s proposals in the Allied Council (740.00119 Control (Austria)/1–2946).
  6. In telegram 1072 of January 29, from London, Ambassador Winant reported that the British Foreign Office warmly welcomed the Department’s proposals.