Stefan Karner, Barbara Stelzl-Marx, Natalja Tomilina, Alexander Tschubarjan, Bischof,Günter, Iscenko,Viktor, Prozumenscikov,Michail, Ruggenthaler,Peter, Wetting,Gerhard, WilkeManfred. Der Wiener Gipfel 1961: Kennedy – Chruschtschow. Innsbruck: StudienVerlag, 2011. 1.055 S. gebunden, ISBN 978-3-7065-5024-6.
Reviewed by Gregory Weeks
Published on H-Soz-u-Kult (November, 2011)
In a meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita as a neutral state and led to further summits in Khrushchev at the Soviet Embassy in Vienna on the city in 1975 between U.S. President Gerald R. June 4, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy re‐ Ford and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, the Vienna Disar‐ ferred to Vienna as “a city that is symbolic of the mament Talks, and the 1979 summit for signing possibility of fnding equitable solutions.” The the SALT II Treaty. events on June 3 and 4 would prove how true this In “Der Wiener Gipfel 1961”, a group of dis‐ was. The Cold War took a short “breather” follow‐ tinguished Austrian and international authors at‐ ing the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and before the tempt a broad study not only of the summit itself Berlin Crisis to follow just two months later in Au‐ but also of the events of 1961, especially the later gust and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of the Berlin Crisis that culminated in the building of the following year. Managing to organize a summit Wall in August. Drawing widely from previously and bring the leaders of the two superpowers to‐ inaccessible sources and eyewitness accounts, it gether with less than two weeks’ notice was a trib‐ brings new weight to the literature on Cold War ute to the fexibility, diplomatic talent, and organi‐ diplomacy and U.S.-Soviet relations as well as the zational ability of the Austrians, who accepted the foreign policy perspectives of these two nations. challenge as hosts. At the same time, it also does justice to the role of From June 30 to July 8, 1960, Nikita Austria as a neutral state and to how the Soviets Khrushchev had had made a state visit to Austria and Americans viewed the crisis spots in the and toured the country at the invitation of Austri‐ world in 1961-1962. an Federal Chancellor Julius Raab. Khrushchev At 1,055 pages, this is a monumental work, was so taken with Austria and the Austrians’ hos‐ and it will certainly be the standard reference on pitality that he suggested Vienna as the location the Vienna Summit in German for many years to for the frst bi-lateral superpower meeting. The come. Well written, even at this daunting size, the Vienna Summit established Austria’s reputation various perspectives of the authors are well inte‐ H-Net Reviews grated, making the book a pleasure to read and other before the impending, critical crises of 1961 more than worth the Euro 39 purchase price. and 1962 when knowing the other side would In a sense, the title of the book is misleading prove advantageous to defusing armed confict since “Der Wiener Gipfel 1961” also includes four and restoring a state of mutual tolerance, the further sections on the meaning of the Vienna “peaceful coexistence” that characterized Soviet- Summit for international politics; on the context Western politics under Khrushchev. of the summit; on the Berlin Crisis; and fnally on the Soviet Union and Austria. The book itself is logically organized and detailed, even including a look at the infuence of Peking on the Khrushchev-Kennedy meeting as well as the Laos question, precursor to the Vietnam War, and Khrushchev’s engagement within the context of the 1960-1961 Congo Crisis. In fact, as becomes clear from the book and its depiction of the events preceding and follow‐ ing the summit, the world in the summer of 1961 was an extremely unstable and dangerous place. A Paris Summit scheduled for May 16, 1960, had collapsed due to the shoot down of a U.S. U2 re‐ connaissance plane piloted by Francis Gary Pow‐ ers over Soviet airspace on May 1. The United States’ cover up of the incident and President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s refusal to apologize led Soviet Premier Khruschev to leave the Summit, which was thus a failure, and relations between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. worsened to the point of paralysis in the intervening year. The election of John F. Kennedy in 1960, and his inauguration as President in 1961, provided a chance to schedule a new summit and to show of Kennedy’s new diplomacy to the world. Kennedy was worried that he would not be able to show his strength in foreign policy and would be viewed as a foreign policy “lightweight,” but the Vienna Summit laid these fears to rest, and Kennedy’s wife Jacqueline wowed the world with her style and grace at the so-called “Ladies’ Sum‐ mit.” Despite the precarious political situation in 1961, the Vienna Summit provided an opportunity for the leaders of the world’s two superpowers to meet face to face and to better understand one an‐
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Citation: Gregory Weeks. Review of Karner, Stefan; Stelzl-Marx, Barbara; Tomilina, Natalja; Tschubarjan, Alexander; Bischof,Günter; Iscenko,Viktor; Prozumenscikov,Michail; Ruggenthaler,Peter; Wetting,Gerhard; WilkeManfred. Der Wiener Gipfel 1961: Kennedy – Chruschtschow. H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews. November, 2011.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=34582
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