Introduction

Coverage and Organization of the Volume

This volume presents documentation on the efforts of the United States during 1948 to make progress toward the long-delayed peace settlements for Germany and Austria. Sessions of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Moscow and London, protracted meetings of the Austrian Treaty Commission in Vienna, and innumerable meetings of the Deputies for Germany and Austria of the Council of Foreign Ministers in London had not brought the settlements any closer during 1947. Documentation on these meetings is presented in Foreign Relations, 1947, Volume II. In the face of Soviet intransigence, both at the international conference table and in the quadripartite organizations created to administer post-defeat Germany and Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France were frustrated in the quest for binding, four-power settlements. Unwilling to delay any longer, the United States and its allies set about in 1948, in that portion of Germany under their control, to develop programs aimed at the creation of a viable democratic German government and the rehabilitation of economic life which would enable Germany to contribute to the general European recovery. These programs were carried forward despite increasing Soviet antagonism and the eruption of a major East-West diplomatic crisis resulting from the final breakdown of quadripartite agencies in Germany and the Soviet blockade of Berlin. Although conflicts of crisis proportions were not encountered in occupied Austria, little was achieved in prolonged discussions of the terms of the draft treaty to re-establish an independent Austria.

Chapter I of this volume presents papers relating to the convening, proceedings, and decisions of the London Conference on Germany. From this Conference emerged the basic outline of a program for the step-by-step evolution of a democratic German government and the concomitant transformation of United States-British-French mechanisms for the control of occupied Germany. It was neither possible nor appropriate to include here the complete records of the Conference. The editors have striven, however, to present materials indicating the essential lines of the Conference discussions and delineating the basic considerations and aims of United States policies and attitudes.

The negotiations and activities, at different official levels and in various locations, to implement the decisions of the London Conference [Page VIII] on Germany are documented in Chapter II. These included a major conference in London on the Ruhr question, meetings among the three Western Military Governors for Germany and among their representatives on a variety of problems, conferences and exchanges between the Military Governors and German officials, and the efforts of the Germans themselves in the Parliamentary Council. The range and complexity of these negotiations and activities were too great to be presented here in any detail. The editors have sought, however, to present a selection of the most important papers indicating major decisions and the main lines of debate from which they eventuated.

Chapter III of this volume is devoted to documentation on the continuing efforts of the Western Powers to foster economic rehabilitation in Germany while resolving the problems that were a legacy of Germany’s wartime aggression. Major consideration is given to the question of reparations. The endless and detailed arguments over this issue illustrated all the fears and hopes, hidden and revealed, engendered by the revival of Germany. The demands of time and space have deterred the editors from attempting to document, even in a cursory manner, a variety of important and hotly-argued aspects of the problem of German economic rehabilitation such as foreign trade, internal communications, labor policy, the food crisis, and the movement of displaced persons, refugees, and prisoners of war. It also has not been possible to present materials on the functioning of the joint U.S.–U.K. economic agencies. The papers presented in this chapter represent only a fraction of the vast quantity of papers in Central Files of the Department of State on these and related economic topics.

The final breakdown of the quadripartite Allied Control Authority for Germany and the evolution of the major diplomatic crisis over the land and water blockade of Berlin are documented in Chapter IV. The editors have brought together a comprehensive record of the most important negotiations between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union during the crisis. The extensive consideration of the Berlin question in the United Nations is not documented in detail here in view of the availability of those discussions in the public record. Nor has it been possible to present here a record of the airlift and the political and economic events in Berlin resulting from the blockade. Documentary sources and authoritative studies have been identified in annotations and editorial notes at appropriate places in the chapter.

A brief review of principal printed sources and works on the administration of the United States zone of occupation in Germany is presented in Chapter V.

A selection of major policy statements on the overall German question is presented in Chapter VI. Rather than distribute portions of these large documents in the other substantive chapters of the volume, [Page IX] the editors have gathered them together in a separate chapter to enable the reader to examine contemporary syntheses of the issues. A similar statement of policy for Austria is presented in Chapter VII.

Chapters VIII and IX present an outline record of the meetings of the Deputies for Austria of the Council of Foreign Ministers during the spring of 1948 as well as selected materials on the major problems confronting the United States as an occupying power in Austria. The documentation of the transactions of forty-seven meetings of the Deputies for Austria is confined to principal policy statements by the Deputies and instructions to the United States Delegation. A comprehensive record of the quadripartite control mechanism for Austria has not been attempted. Instead, papers included are restricted to important expressions of the United States policies aimed at achieving political stability and economic rehabilitation in Austria.

Unpublished Sources

The principal source of papers included in this volume is the indexed Central Files of the Department of State. Numerous important collections of documents, however, have been retained in special files outside of the Central Files. In addition, missions abroad have accumulated file collections of their own which have eventually been returned to Washington for maintenance by the Department of State. The most important of these collections of special files used in preparing this volume are as follows:

1.
CFM Files (Lot M–88)—This special consolidated file of 249 boxes is the Department of State’s principal collection of papers relating to all aspects of the activities of the Council of Foreign Ministers and the antecedents of Council meetings. It includes the most complete collections of the records of the Deputies for Austria, the papers of the London Conference on Germany, the London Conference on the Ruhr, and the various negotiations and meetings on the Occupation Statute, the Ruhr, frontier rectification, reparations, and prohibited industries.
2.
Policy Planning Staff Files (Lot 64D563)—These files include the most comprehensive collection of the papers and records of the Policy Planning Staff.
3.
Executive Secretariat Files—These files include the principal collections of the papers and records and supporting documentation of the National Security Council as well as collections of the papers of the Policy Planning Staff. Also included are the Department’s collections of the classified publications Current Foreign Relations, Daily Summary, and Top Secret Daily Summary.
4.
USPolAd Germany Files (Lots F–80 and F–169)—The files of the United States Political Adviser for Germany were subsequently included as a segment of the Frankfurt Consulate Files. These files are particularly important for their valuable chronological collections of [Page X] Ambassador Murphy’s telegrams and letters and their subject files of papers collected by the Office, of the Political Adviser.
5.
London Embassy Files (Lot 58FA7)—Messages and papers accumulated by the Embassy during the London Conference on Germany, the London Conference on the Ruhr, and London reparations conversations.
6.
Moscow Embassy Files (Lot F–132)—These files include an important top secret chronological collection of messages exchanged by the Embassy during 1948 regarding the Berlin Crisis.
7.
Paris Embassy Files (Lot 55FA3)—The top secret segment of these files for 1945–1949 contains important messages and communications exchanged between the Embassy and the French Foreign Ministry together with significant subject files on various German topics.
8.
Vienna Legation Files (Lots 54F57 and 55F74)—Included in these papers are materials on various aspects of the United States occupation of Austria. The collection of communications of the United States High Commissioner is particularly valuable.
9.
Bureau of Economic Affairs Files (Lot 54D361)—These files contain collections of papers of the Informal Working Group on the International Control of the Ruhr and a collection of the Department’s classified publication Current Economic Developments.
10.
News Division Files—The principal repository for complete sets of the press and radio conferences of the Secretary of State and the press releases of the Department of State.

Published Sources

In addition to the Foreign Relations of the United States volumes and the Department of State Bulletin, the volumes listed below were found to be of particular value in the preparation of this volume. Other publications consulted by the editors are identified in editorial notes and footnotes.

Berlin (West), Senate, Berlin: Quellen und Dokumente 1945–1951 (Berlin: Heinz Spitzing Verlag, 1964), 2 vols. Hereafter cited as “Berlin Senate, Berlin, Quellen und Dokumente”.

British Cmd. 7534, Germany No. 2 (1948): Germany: An Account of the Events Leading up to a Reference of the Berlin Question to the United Nations, 11th October, 1948. Hereafter cited as “Cmd. 7534”.

Margaret Carlyle (ed.), Documents on International Affairs 1947–1948, Issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1952). Hereafter cited as “Carlyle, Documents on International Affairs”.

Lucius D. Clay, Decision in Germany (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1950). Hereafter cited as “Clay, Decision in Germany”.

Raymond Dennett and Robert K. Turner, Documents on American Foreign Relations, Volume X, January 1–December 31, 1948, Published for the World Peace Foundation (Princeton University Press, 1950). Hereafter cited as “Documents on American Foreign Relations”.

Wolfgang Heidelmeyer and Guenter Hindrichs (eds.), Documents on Berlin 1948–1963, Issued under the auspices of the Forschungsinstitut der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik (München: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1963). Hereafter cited as “Documents on Berlin”.

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Edward H. Litchfield and Associates, Governing Postwar Germany (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1953). Hereafter cited as “Litchfield, Governing Postwar Germany”.

Walter Millis (ed.), The Forrestal Diaries (New York: The Viking Press, 1951). Hereafter cited as “Forrestal Diaries”.

Office of Military Government for Germany (US), Civil Administration Division, Documents on the Creation of the German Federal Constitution, 1 September 1949. Hereafter cited as “Documents on the Creation of the German Federal Constitution”.

Office of Military Government for Germany (US), Documented Chronology of Political Developments Regarding Germany (Berlin: 1948). Hereafter cited as “Documented Chronology”.

Polish Embassy in London, Press Office, Poland, Germany and European Peace: Official Documents 1944–1948 (London: Polish Embassy, n.d.). Hereafter cited as “Poland, Germany and European Peace”.

Beate Ruhm von Oppen (ed.), Documents on Germany Under Occupation 1945–1954, Issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1955). Hereafter cited as “Ruhm von Oppen, Documents on Germany”.

Walter Bedell Smith, Moscow Mission 1946–1949 (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1956). Hereafter cited as “Smith, Moscow Mission”.

Soviet Union, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Soviet Union and the Berlin Question (Documents) (Moscow: 1948). Hereafter cited as “The Soviet Union and the Berlin Question”. [The Russian language edition of this work contains the original Russian texts of Soviet notes presented to the United States during the Berlin crisis.]

Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, Volume Two, Years of Trial and Hope (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1956). Hereafter cited as “Truman, Years of Trial and Hope”.

United States, Department of State, Germany 1941–1949: The Story in Documents (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950). Hereafter cited as “Germany 1941–1949”.

United States, Department of State, The Berlin, Crisis: A Report on the Moscow Discussions 1948 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1948). Hereafter cited as “The Berlin Crisis”.