Through the Fog of History

Richard Nixon’s Visits to Austria

By Hannes Richter

Top Photo: President Richard Nixon arrives at Salzburg Airport just after 10:00 p.m. on June 10, 1974 and is greeted by Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudolf Kirchschläger. Photo: Salzburg Airport

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Austria and the United States, five U.S. Presidents have paid six official visits to Austria, according to the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Historian (Table 1 below provides an overview). Most of those visits occurred on the occasion of summit meetings, and each of them marks a significant point in history. President John F. Kennedy was first when he came to Austria to attend the Vienna Summit with Nikita Khrushchev in 1961. While the Austrian capital Vienna might seem like the obvious choice of location, it was the City of Salzburg that received half of U.S. Presidential visits. One man was responsible for the majority of these visits—President Richard Nixon.

Table 1. U.S. Presidential Visits to Austria
Name	Locale	Remarks	Date
John F. Kennedy	Vienna	Met with President Scharf and held talks with Soviet Premier Khrushchev.	June 3-4, 1961
Richard M. Nixon	Salzburg	Informal visit; met with Chancellor Kreisky.	May 20-22, 1972
Richard M. Nixon	Salzburg	Met with Chancellor Kreisky.	June 10-12, 1974
Gerald R. Ford	Salzburg	Met with Chancellor Kreisky and with Egyptian President Sadat.	June 1-3, 1975
Jimmy Carter	Vienna	State visit; met with President Kirchschlager and Chancellor Kreisky. Met with Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev to sign SALT II Treaty June 16-18.	June 14-18, 1979
George W. Bush	Vienna	Attended the U.S. - EU Summit.	June 20-21, 2006

Source: Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State

Nixon specifically chose the city of Salzburg for his presidential visits to Austria, but his ties with the country go back much further: as Vice President, he was dispatched to Vienna during the Hungarian Uprising in 1956, and before that, U.S. Congressman Richard Nixon was part of the so-called Herter Committee, tasked to visit Europe to report on the feasibility of a foreign aid plan proposed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall. This article provides a brief overview of Nixon’s visits to Austria - as a Member of Congress, as Vice President, and as President of the United States.

Early Encounters: Nixon and the Herter Committee

Richard Nixon was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on November 5, 1946, representing California’s 12th district. The next year, on July 30, 1947, Congressman Nixon was chosen by Speaker of the House Joe Martin to serve on a committee „to go to Europe and prepare a report in connection with the foreign aid plan that the Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, had unveiled at a Harvard commencement speech in June.“

Nixon himself recalls in his memoir that he learned about his appointment that Monday by opening the morning newspaper – making him „probably the most surprised man in Washington“ that day. The young Congressman immediately realized the significance of this appointment—for his Congressional career and for building reputable experience in foreign policy. But more importantly, as far as Austria is concerned, he would thus play an significant role in the passage of the socalled Marshall Plan, the historic U.S. aid package for post-war Europe that was so instrumental in Austrian reconstruction and its „economic miracle“ that followed.

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1956 - Vice President Nixon meets Hungarians scheduled to travel to the United States during his visit to Austria in the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution.

Photo: United States Information Service/ Austrian National Library

Nixon and his colleagues set sail for Europe aboard the Queen Mary at the end of August, leaving from New York. What must have been a rather pleasant ocean crossing was in stark contrast to what Nixon witnessed as soon as he arrived in Southampton: He recalled that „despite all our briefings and studying, I do not think that any of us was really prepared for what we found in Europe. From the minute we stepped off the luxurious ship in Southampton it was clear that we had come to a continent tottering on the brink of starvation and chaos. In every country we visited the situation was the same: without American aid, millions would starve or die of diseases caused by malnutrition before the winter was over. The political facts were equally evident: without food and aid, Europe would be plunged into anarchy, revolution, and ultimately, communism.“

Nixon was assigned to the subcommittee that was specifically tasked with assessing the situation in Italy and he spent almost three weeks there. And while no official stop of Nixon in Austria is on record for this trip, he likely traveled at least through it: The committee’s final report states that “dividing into subcommittees which included some Senators, the members visited every nation in Europe except Russia, Yugoslavia, and Albania.” The Herter mission thus constituted the young Congressman’s introduction to Europe, shaping his foreign policy preferences. Nixon should return in due time.

Vice President Richard Nixon and the Hungarian Uprising

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1956 - Richard Nixon with Jane Monroe Thompson in the “People’s Kitchen” (Volksküche) of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration in Vienna. Thompson was the wife of the U.S. ranking diplomatic offical in Austria at the time, Llewellyn E. “Tommy” Thompson, who also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union in the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations. Mrs. Thompson was also credited with forging closer ties with premier Nikita Khrushchev and his wife. She would later direct the State Department’s Art in Embassies program during the 1970s and the 1980s.

Photo: United States Information Service/ Austrian National Library

In October of 1956, a student protest in Hungary had turned into a nationwide revolt known as the Hungarian Uprising (also referred to as the Hungarian Revolution). It challenged the communist leadership in the Soviet satellite state and marked the first serious threat to Soviet control after World War II. Moscow soon decided to crush the uprising with military means, and in the early morning hours of November 4, 1956, Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to carry out the orders from Moscow and were met with violent resistance. The Soviet troops kept the upper hand and most of Budapest was under control by November 8, 1956. As a result of the fighting, large numbers of Hungarians fled the country and sought refuge in neighboring Austria. For the still young Second Republic, the revolution presented a number of problems, both political and logistical. While the details of the Hungarian Revolution have been extensively discussed elsewhere, its ripple effects had a significant impact on Austria, eventually triggering Vice President Nixon’s trip to Vienna.

Historians have routinely pointed out the substantial and positive role Austria has played during the crisis; however, many have also noted the diplomatic pitfalls that dealing with the crisis entailed. It provided the first, real-life test of Austrian neutrality only one year after the Austrian Republic regained her independence from the occupation powers via the conclusion of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955. The treaty had marked a special kind of diplomatic feat, as it successfully navigated and mitigated the strategic interests of both the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War and left Austria not only intact, but also free and neutral. It is noteworthy in this context that Austrian neutrality —the key concept that brought about successful completion of the negotiations—is not mentioned in the Austrian State Treaty. Instead it was passed as an Austrian constitutional law, and both the Soviet Union and the United States took note.

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1956 - Vice President Richard Nixon brings toys for children in Vienna and holds two little girls.

Photo: Austrian National Library

The Hungarian uprising was the first major international crisis widely televised, and it dominated international news. At the same time, it put Austria in the international spotlight and also in a volatile and potentially dangerous position. The country did have to uphold its neutrality while dealing with the influx of refugees, navigating the political situation within the framework of the Cold War, and keeping her borders save at the same time.

This situation posed some formidable challenges for the Raab administration, and relations with both Hungary and the Soviet Union worsened as a result. Indeed, Soviet officials accused Austria of violating her neutrality in the process; according to historian Johanna Granville, the accusations ranged from espionage to favoritism towards certain organizations, from repatriation of refugees to hostile propaganda. The Austrian government therefore had to walk a fine line.

In addition to the diplomatic issues, it soon became clear that Austria would not be able to handle the massive influx of refugees by herself. Still in recovery from the effects of World War II, the young republic simply did not have the resources and infrastructure in place to independently weather the large number of Hungarians crossing the border. The resulting problems were both financial and logistical: At first, arriving refugees were plagued by a substantial housing shortage and as a result, many had to be housed in still empty, war-torn structures and abandoned buildings—many were absolutely empty and without furniture; often the only comfort was provided by local farmers who brought straw to sleep on. In addition, the new inhabitants had to cope with missing windows and doors, or non-functioning bathroom facilities, while others had to be housed in train cars. However, coordination of aid soon improved, basic needs were mostly met, and refugees received sufficient nutrition, clothes and other necessities, like toiletries. And while housing conditions also improved, many Hungarians began to suffer from effects of being housed in crowded camps, including depression and a host of other ailments that were summarized as „camp psychosis.“

Other problem areas included coordination and also rivalries between the Austrian government and aid organizations, which included as many as forty different organizations, among them the Red Cross, the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM), the United Nations, as well as Caritas, the Knights of Malta, or the International Rescue Committee. On November 1, 1956, the Austrian government sent a telegram to the Austrian Embassy in Washington, DC, asking the Embassy to issue no more visas to Hungarian emigre organizations; rather, all assistance should be routed through the International Red Cross in order to remain impartial. At the same time, however, Austria did not have the means to deal with the refugees by herself, and the Eisenhower administration was very willing to help, eventually becoming the primary source of financial aid to Austria to help deal with the crisis.

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December 21, 1956. Vice President Richard Nixon meets a grocer in front of her store in Vienna’s Schmidgasse.

Photo: United States Information Service/ Austrian National Library

It was at this critical point in time when President Eisenhower dispatched his Vice President, Richard Nixon, to go to Austria. Nixon’s official goal was to gather data and information that can be used in order to persuade the U.S. Congress to allocate funds to help Austria in dealing with the refugees. The estimates that Austrian officials submitted to Nixon amounted to some eight million Schilling for the year 1956 – mainly for providing housing, clothes, food, and transportation. In addition, as Granville points out, Nixon was also made aware of the issue of other refugees that had come to Austria after 1945, specifically from Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and other countries, totaling some 128,000 living on Austrian territory at that time.

The Vice President had assessed the situation on the ground during late December, 1956, met with refugees and Austrian officials, and reported back to Congress and President Eisenhower. At the same time, Austria was also making her case at the United Nations. On November 27, 1956, Kurt Waldheim, then Head of the Austrian Delegation to the UN, delivered a speech detailing the effects of the refugees pouring into the country, all fully dependent on Austrian support. In order to illustrate the urgency of the matter, Waldheim also alerted the UN to the fact that newly arrived Hungarian refugees had to stay in railway cars due to lack of accommodations.

As a result, the Eisenhower administration was ready to take action on two fronts - by providing Austria with funds to cope with the problem, and by moving refugees out of Austria. Out of the 175, 369 Hungarian refugees that crossed the border into Austria, some 83% (145,494) ended up leaving again. The biggest portion of those came to the United States, who took in 34,119 people, followed by Canada, the UK, West Germany, Switzerland, France, Australia, Sweden, Italy and Belgium. It was during this turbulent time when Richard Nixon was more intimately introduced to Austria - an encounter that would resonate with him in the future.

Meanwhile, Austria was hailed in the international arena for the role it played during the refugee crisis. James Michener wrote in his famous book, The Bridge at Andau, „It would require another book to describe in detail Austria’s contribution to freedom. I can express it briefly only in this way: If I am ever required to be a refugee, I hope to make it to Austria.“

Nixon Returns – The Moscow Summit

After his vice-presidential visit to Vienna 16 years earlier, Richard Nixon would return to Austria as President of the United States in 1972 on his way to the Moscow Summit to meet with Leonid Brezhnev. Following his historic visit to China earlier that year, Nixon would be the first U.S. president to visit Moscow. The summit is regarded as one of the cornerstones of Détente and marked the signing of SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty), as well as the U.S. – Soviet Incidents at Sea – agreement.

In preparation for the summit, The White House was debating a two-day stop-over in Europe on the way to Moscow in order to allow the President and his staff to acclimate and get ready for the meeting. Among the locations considered were Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria. The President himself favored Austria, as evidenced by a phone conversation recorded between Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Tape No. 022-097 of the so-called Nixon Tapes details a conversation President Nixon had with Kissinger on the morning of April 11, 1972, shortly before 11:00 a.m., during which the President made his preference for Austria clear. Nixon emphasized the „very close relationship with Austria from a personal standpoint,“ also pointing out that „it is a country not aligned to us or the Russians“—Austria’s unique position as a neutral in the Cold War again proved attractive.

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Nixon’s visits were also viewed critically by some Austrians. Here, young women participate in an anti-Vietnam War protest in Vienna on May 15, 1970. The sign reads “Nixon kills, Kreisky keeps silent.”

Photo: Austrian National Library

Nixon further highlighted his amicable relationship with the Austrian Ambassador in Washington, DC at that time, Karl Gruber. Gruber, who had previously served as Governor of the Tyrol for a few months after World War II, and as Austrian Foreign Minister from 1945 to 1953, had subsequently served as Ambassador to the United States twice, once from 1954 to 1957, and again from 1969 to 1972. Gruber’s first tenure in Washington thus coincided with Nixon’s vice presidency and his first trip to Austria discussed above. On the tape Nixon refers to Gruber as a „hell of a nice guy“ and states that their relationship had developed out of Nixon’s visit to Vienna during the Hungarian Refugee Crisis in 1956. Nixon goes on to state that another beneficial factor was the friendliness of the people („hell, they love Americans in Austria, they really do“), as well as the availability of proper facilities. This includes the availability of an airfield to accommodate Air Force One (which at the time was a Boeing 707) – a concern that Kissinger brings up during the conversation. Nixon replies that he previously landed there with „a Constellation“ during his 1952 visit. It also becomes apparent during this conversation that Nixon himself insisted to include a bilateral meeting with Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, an aspect that was not originally on Kissinger’s agenda on the way to Moscow.

The President, his wife, and Mr. Kissinger arrived in Salzburg on Saturday, May 20, 1972 at 10:30 p.m. and were greeted by Chancellor Bruno Kreisky. The next day, President Nixon and Chancellor Kreisky met at Klessheim Palace for discussion before a luncheon in the Kobenzl-Gaisberg Hotel. The hotel, later known as the Vitalhotel Kobenzl, appears to be out of business and closed today. During their luncheon, Nixon thanked the Austrian people for “what they did for the refugees who came into the country from Hungary. It was a difficult time for the world, for those refugees, for this country. But the great warmth, the hospitality, as a matter of fact, the sacrifice that was made by the Austrian people in order to help those who were having very difficult times made an enormous impression upon us.” On Monday, May 22, Nixon left Salzburg for Moscow.

Nixon Returns – The Middle East Tour

Nixon would return to Austria for a record third time some two years later, flying again to Salzburg to meet with Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky. As The New York Times noted on June 12, 1974, Nixon met with Kreisky, who recently led a Socialist International fact‐finding mission on a tour of Middle East capitals, in preparation of his upcoming trip to the Middle East. “Kreisky shared his observations with the President during a conversation lasting an hour and 40 minutes,“ the paper wrote. Nixon’s destinations during that trip included Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Israel – the first visit of a sitting U.S. President in the young Jewish state, just about a year after it faced its existential crisis. In addition, Chancellor Kreisky had also recently concluded an official visit to Moscow, which was again on President Nixon’s travel list just two weeks later. At that point in time in Austria, Nixon was the most-traveled President in U.S. history.

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President Richard Nixon arrives in Salzburg, June 10, 1974 before his Middle East tour. Next to him is Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, Foreign Minister Rudolf Kirchschläger stands behind him - just a few days later, on June 23, Kirchschläger was elected Federal President.

Photo: Austrian National Library

But Nixon had left an already beleaguered White House back home, the Watergate scandal was looming over his presidency. The White House Press Secretary, Ronald, L. Ziegler, told The New York Times that „the President was keeping in touch with the White House on all domestic matters through cable and voice communications. He said it had not been necessary to have any contact with any of the Presidential lawyers and he declined to discuss a question about impeachment possibilities if Mr. Nixon refuses to obey Supreme Court rulings.“ The President would eventually resign some two months later, on August 8, 1974, facing certain impeachment.

But Watergate was not the only trouble for Nixon on this trip. As historian Stephen Ambrose points out in Nixon Volume III: Ruin and Recovery, Henry Kissinger planned to hold a press conference upon arrival in Salzburg to address a Time editorial. Nixon opposed the idea, fearing that such a move would “only play into their hands by giving them a Watergate lead for their first story from this trip,” Nixon told his Chief of Staff Alexander Haig on the plane. Regardless, Kissinger held the press conference over the objections of his boss after their arrival in Salzburg.

In addition, the President was plagued by health issues; “as irritating as Kissinger was Nixon’s leg,” assessed Ambrose: Nixon was suffering from phlebitis, his left leg was swollen to about double the size of the right. The President had the few people knowing about this condition sworn to secrecy. However, Nixon walking with a limp during his Middle East visit was widely noticeable.

According to Nixon’s diary, the President and his delegation were greeted upon arrival in Salzburg by Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and Foreign Minister Rudolf Kirchschlager; additional dignitaries included the Governor of the State of Salzburg, Hans Lechner, the Mayor of the City of Salzburg, Heinrich Salfenauer, as well as the U.S. Ambassador to Austria, John P. Humes. Furthermore, the diary also lists as present two children, Christa (12 years old) and Mathias (13 years old)—both identified, without further explanation, as „children of Mr. Schmidhuber, the „Chairman of the Folkloristic Dance Group.“ At 9:55 a.m., the President went to the sitting room at Klessheim Castle to join Kissinger and Scocroft. From there, the trio went to the main entrance of the castle, where they greeted Kreisky and Kirchschlager, followed by a joint walk through the grounds of Schloss Klessheim. At five past ten, Nixon, Kissinger and Scowcroft held a meeting with Kreisky and Kirchschlager that lasted until 11:31 a.m.; afterwards Nixon retired to his suite.

The next day, on June 12th, President Nixon, accompanied by Ambassador Humes, arrived at the airport at around 8:00 a.m. After the farewell ceremony, Nixon left on the Spirit of 76 for Cairo International Airport to commence his landmark Middle East tour, which would pave the way for U.S. Presidents after him.

Beyond Nixon – Presidential Visits After 1974

President Nixon remains the lone record holder in Presidential visits to Austria (and particularly to Salzburg), but he was not the last one to enjoy Austrian hospitality. Not even a year after President Nixon’s last visit his successor, President Gerald Ford, flew to Salzburg on May 31, 1975 for a bilateral meeting with Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat. According to The New York Times, “Egypt and other Arab states see the meeting as a crucial event - a crossroads that may set the Middle East on the road to peace of to war“(sic). Sadat was flying in from Vienna, accompanied by Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, the Egyptian Ambassador to the United States, Ashraf Gorbal, and his Foreign Minister, Ismail Fahmy, to meet with Ford in Salzburg.

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Beyond Nixon: Gerald R. Ford (left) and Anwar Al-Sadat talking at Klessheim Castle during their 1975 meeting in Salzburg.

Photo: National Archives and Records Administration

Austrian high-level summitry continued in 1979 in Vienna: President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT II treaty in Belvedere Palace on June 18th, concluding a series of talks on curbing strategic nuclear weapons programs. Leisurely activities included a visit to the opera. Carter’s visit put an end to the (relative) hustle and bustle of the 1970s, and over a quarter of a century would pass before a U.S. President would officially return to Austria. However, high-level visitations (albeit not yet Presidential) did not come to a halt. On August 24, 1983, The White House announced that, at the request of President Reagan, Vice President George H.W. Bush (accompanied by his wife) will visit Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, as well as Austria, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia between September 11 and 21, 1983. According to the announcement, the Vice President’s visit to Austria and Yugoslavia „underscores the important international role of these countries and U.S. support for Austria’s neutrality and respect for Yugoslavia’s independence and nonalignment.“ Vice President Bush’s visit in 1983 proved to be the highest-ranking U.S. visit to Austria during the Reagan administration (however, President Reagan had previously received Chancellor Bruno Kreisky for a working visit in the Oval Office on February 3, 1983).

Beyond Nixon: 1979 - Leonid Brezhnev (left), Austrian Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger (center left), President Jimmy Carter (center right), and Mrs. Herma Kirchschläger (far right) at the opera in Vienna.

Austrian National Library/ Kainerstorfer

It would not be until June of 2006 until a sitting U.S. President returned to Austria on official business: George W. Bush attended the U.S. - EU Summit in Vienna on June 20 and 21, 2006 during Austria’s second Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Those visits mark the highlevel cornerstones of the bilateral relationship between Austria and the United States, from the early days of Austria’s post-WWII independence, through the summitry of the Cold War, and into the era of Austria’s European Union membership. Still, over the course of this history, Richard Nixon’s visitation record remains untouched. Furthermore, these presidential visits also serve as reminders of Austria’s reputation as a neutral meeting place, particularly during the Cold War, and they helped to cement Austria’s image as a host to world powers and international organizations alike.

Hannes Richter is the deputy director of the Austrian Press and Information Service in Washington, DC, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Austrian Marshall Plan Center for European Studies at the University of New Orleans.