VIENNA, Austria -- Austria, which gave the world waltz music and whipped cream topped coffee, has an image problem in the United States, especially with President Reagan.
The problem was highlighted Thursday by Austrian newspaper reaction to President Rudolf Kirchschlaeger's visit to Washington and what Viennese editors saw as America's ignorance about their country.
The Viennese daily newspaper Kurier said Kirchschlaeger's visit was supposed to elevate U.S.-Austrian relations to a serious level, but that it ended up being Kitsch.
Kurier conceded that Reagan had praised Austria's neutrality during a state dinner for Kirchschlaeger, who arrived in Washington Monday as the first Austrian president to visit the United States.
'But what did he do then?' it asked. He 'crowned' his speech with verses from the 'sticky sweet' Sound of Music.
'It's no use,' the newspaper complained. 'We can't escape from the Kitsch. If the world doesn't want to take us any other way, we just have to sell ourselves under a thick layer of icing.'
Heinz Nussbaumer, the foreign editor of Kurier who is traveling with Kirchschlaeger, compared the visit to those of former Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, which were charged with political controversy over the Middle East and other issues.
This time, Nussbaumer wrote, 'politicians like Reagan allowed themselves when seeing Kirchschleager, with his fine sense of understatement, once again to reduce their picture of Austria down to a kind of happy Edelweiss.'
An edelweiss is a small flowering plant native to the Alps.
A cartoon in the mass circulation newspaper, Kronen Zeitung, showed Kirchschlaeger arriving in Washington mounted uncomfortably on one of Austria's famous white Lipizzaner stallions, violin strapped to the saddle, holding skis and wearing lederhosen.
Performing horses and waltz music aside, the commentators were aghast that Reagan referred to the United States as a 'guarantor' of Austria's sovereignty, something that is not mentioned in the 1955 state treaty that established an independent Austria after 10 years of post-war occupation by the United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France.
And the Vienna daily Die Presse noted that background information on Austria supplied by a State Department briefing included much that was erroneous.
'It represents an attitude,' said an Austrian government source.
'Kirchschlaeger is trying to play it down, but there is not much you can do in the United States about the false idea of Austria,' he said.
'This would never have happened in Russia -- they are slow, and prepare everything in smallest detail.'
