Austria 801



312. Memorandum of Conversation

                                          Washington, February 9, 1959.

SUBJECT
     Austria and Europe
PARTICIPANTS
     His Excellency Dr. Bruno Pittermann, Vice-Chancellor of Austria1
     His Excellency Dr. Wilfried Platzer, Ambassador, Embassy of Austria
     The Secretary
     WE-Mr. Turner C. Cameron, Jr., Deputy Director, Office of Western European
     Affairs
     L/EUR-Mr. Richard D. Kearney, Assistant Legal Adviser
     WE-Mr. Frederic L. Chapin, Austrian Desk Officer
     Interpreter-Mrs. Nora Lejins

     The Vice-Chancellor said that Austria's tranquility permitted him
to come at last to the United States to which he had been invited many
years ago.
    The Secretary recalled that Austria had not always been so tranquil.
The United States had struggled hard to obtain the Austrian State
Treaty. The President had often spoken of the fact that the good inten-
tions of the Soviets could be demonstrated by deeds rather than words.
The deed had been the agreement reached on the Austrian State Treaty,
and this had led to the Summit Conference.
    Dr. Pittermann expressed his thanks for the steadfast policy of the
United States which had put the Austrian State Treaty in the forefront,
and which by its insistence on conclusion of the Treaty had had an im-
portant bearing on the ultimate favorable outcome.


    Source: Department of State, Austria Desk Files: Lot 68 D 123. Official
Use Only.
Drafted by Chapin. See also Document 313.
    1Pittermann visited the United States as a private citizen February 9-20.
He spent
February 9-12 in Washington, meeting with Dulles, Dillon, and other officials
of the De-
partment of State on February 9, Secretary of Labor Mitchell and President
Eisenhower on
February 10, and Vice President Nixon on February 11. A memorandum of his
conversa-
tion with Under Secretary Dillon is in Department of State, Austria Desk
Files: Lot 68 D
123. During the conversation, the two leaders discussed the fulfillment of
Austrian obliga-
tions under the Vienna Memorandum and Article 26 of the Austrian State Treaty
and the
release of counterpart funds. In discussing the latter, Pittermann pointed
out that the Aus-
trian Government had applied for release in June 1958 and that U.S. approval,
normally a
formality taking 2 or 3 months, had not been received. Dillon replied that
the delay was
not unusual, given the number of agencies involved.
    No records of conversations with any of the other officials visited by
Pittermnann
have been found.
    On February 12, Pittermann flew to Chicago. He traveled by train to New
York on
February 15, departing from there for Vienna on February 20.