No. 537

663.001/3–2251: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Legation in Austria 1

secret

1961. Aust Min presented aide-mémoire Mar 232 containing info similar urtel 2087 Mar 22.3 Points raised re Treaty were effectively covered by Deputies at Paris mtg Mar 23 (Paris tel 174 to Vienna Mar 24).4 Dept aware propaganda advantages of complete recital Sov stalling tactics Treaty negots plus Sov evasions of Potsdam and Moscow declarations and is developing this theme through our propaganda media.

US Govt cannot prevent Aust appeal to Intl Court or UN but feels initiative must come from Aust Govt and only after all other means exhausted.

Views Aust on Trieste question are appreciated but Dept at present prefers Yugo and Italy continue seek some mutually acceptable solution. A plebiscite not believed feasible or useful to resolve issue.

Acheson
  1. Drafted by Montgomery H. Colladay of the Office of Western European Affairs and cleared with Bonbright. Repeated to Paris for Jessup.
  2. Not printed. (663.001/3–2351) Kleinwaechter gave the aide-mémoire to Williamson on March 23.
  3. Telegram 2087 informed the Department of State of instructions issued by the Austrian Foreign Office which contended that there was no connection between the questions of Trieste and the Austrian Treaty. (663.001/3–2251)
  4. Same as telegram 5685, vol. iii, Part 1, p. 1106. At the 17th session of the Four-Power Exploratory Talks held on March 23, Soviet representative Gromyko repeated the previous Soviet position that the Austrian and Trieste questions were inseparably linked and that the Trieste question must be included as a separate item on the proposed agenda. This position was refuted by the delegates of the three Western powers.