Austria in the First Cold War, 1945-55

At the height of the first Cold War in the early 1950s, the Western powers worried that occupied Austria might become 'Europe's Korea' and feared a Communist takeover. The Soviets exploited their occupation zone for maximum reparations. American economic aid guaranteed Austria's survival and economic reconstruction. Their military assistance turned Austria into a 'secret ally' of the West. Austrian diplomacy played a vital role in securing the Austrian treaty in bilateral negotiations with Stalin's successors in the Kremlin demonstrating the leverage of the weak in the Cold War.

Autorentext

GÜNTER BISCHOF is an Associate Professor of History and the Associate Director of Center for Austrian studies at the University of New Orleans. He has taught as a guest professor at the Universities of Salzburg (1998), Vienna (1998), Innsbruck (1993-4) and Munich (1992-4) and also lectured at the Austrian Diplomatic Academy (1998). He was appointed a guest scholar at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna (February 1998). He is founding co-editor of Contemporary Austria Studies (6 vols, Transaction, Rutgers University) and the Eisenhower Center Studies of War and Peace (7 vols, Louisiana State University Press). He has co-edited a dozen books and written some three dozen articles on the history of World War II military history and POW treatment, early Cold War diplomacy and Austrian contemporary history. His Harvard dissertation Between Responsibility and Rehabilitation: Austria in International Politics 1940-50 won prizes both from the Harvard History Department and the Austrian Ministry of Science. He won an undergraduate teaching prize at Harvard and won the Early Career Achievement Award from the UNO Alumni Association.

Inhalt

Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: THE AUSTRIANS' ROLE AND ALLIED PLANNING DURING WORLD WAR II No Indigestion: The Anschluss Perpetrators and Victims: Austrians in World War II Between Responsibility and Rehabilitation: Allied Planning for Postwar Austria PART II: THE ANGLO-SOVIET COLD WAR OVER AUSTRIA, 1945-46 The Rape of Austria: Liberation Soviet-Style The Looting of Austria: The Soviets and Austrian Reparations The Showdown: British Containment of Soviet Action PART III: PRESENT AT THE CREATION OF AUSTRIAN FOREIGN POLICY, 1945-46 The Agenda: Investing a Usable past The Campaign: Selling a Usable Past Whither Austria? Between East and East PART IV: AUSTRIAN ECONOMIC MALAISE: SOVIET-AMERICAN COLD WAR OVER AUSTRIA, 1946-47 The Take: Soviet Economic Pressure and the Origins of the Cold War in Austria The Dilemma: Austrian Economic Problems The Response: Washington and Austrian Economic Recovery PART V: IN THE SHADOW OF GERMANY: THE MILITARIZATION OF THE COLD WAR IN AUSTRIA, 1948-52 A Treaty: Austrian Treaty Negotiations in the Shadow of Germany No Treaty: The Communist Threat and the Militarization of Austria Short Treaty? The Ice Age of the First Cold War PART VI: AFTER STALIN'S DEATH: 'PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE' AND THE CONCLUSION OF THE AUSTRIAN TREATY, 1953-55 Peaceful Coexistence? The Western Response to Stalin's Death No Coexistence: The Berlin CFM and the Demise of Austrian Treaty Diplomacy The Leverage of the Weak: The Culmination of Austro-Soviet Bilateral Diplomacy and the Conclusion of the Austrian Treaty Conclusion Notes and References Select Bibliography Index