Dear General Keyes:
Now that you have returned to your homeland, I wish to express my congratulations and my gratitude for the services you have rendered to your country as the United States High Commissioner to Austria. During a period of complex strains and vexing problems, you have displayed statesmanship of the highest order.
We now mark the point in the history of the Occupation of Austria at which the Department of State will assume the occupation responsibilities which have heretofore been exercised by the Department of the Army through you. This represents the climax of one of the finest chapters in the history of our Army--the chapter in which our soldiers, after carrying through to victory the battle against Fascism, turned to the tasks of peace and helped to rebuild a shattered world.
To you and to all the Army personnel who have worked with you, both in uniform and as civilians, our nation pays profound respect for the effectiveness with which you have handled the work of peaceful reconstruction and economic rehabilitation which, in large part, has been the American contribution toward the settlement of Austria's post-war problems.
Sincerely yours,
HARRY S. TRUMAN
[Lieutenant General Geoffrey Keyes, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C.]
Note: General Keyes was designated by the President to be United States High Commissioner on the Allied Council for Austria, effective May 17, 1947.
On October 12, 1950, the President signed Executive Order 10171 "Transferring Occupation Functions in Austria to the Department of State" (3 CFR, 1949-1953 Comp., p. 355).
See also Item 218.
Harry S Truman, Letter to General Geoffrey Keyes, Retiring U.S. High Commissioner in Austria Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/230403