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"Meet and Greet" for U.S. Students with
Governor Gabi Burgstaller

Remarks by Chargé d'Affaires Scott F. Kilner

Old Archbishop's Residence, Salzburg

April 10, 2008

(As prepared for delivery)

F.l.t.r.: Chargé d'Affaires Scott Kilner, U.S. Embassy Vienna, Governor Gabi Burgstaller, AAS President Sigrid Stadler. Photo by Otto Wieser

First let me thank you, Governor Burgstaller, for hosting this event today. I'm told this is the first time that a Salzburg Governor has invited U.S exchange students and their teachers for such a get-together. I know that the Americans present here today are all very appreciative of your gesture, which underscores the friendship between the United States of America and Austria, and the Province of Salzburg, in particular.

I would also like to thank you, Frau Stadler, for taking the initiative for this event. You and I have had the pleasure of meeting before, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Austro-American Society last June. That was another vibrant celebration of Austrian-American friendship. And of course it is wonderful to see all of these American students here in Salzburg today.

At least since the end of World War II, Salzburg has been a special location for Americans. It was the focal point until 1955 of the so-called American zone. Throughout the Cold War, it was the site of one of one of Europe's most interesting private institutions, the Salzburg Seminar -- located at Schloss Leopoldskron just across the way, and still going strong today. And the "The Sound of Music" film made every American somehow feel that Salzburg was "their Austrian city." Many would say the film was "too successful" in propagating a particular image of Salzburg. So you students are following in a long and honored tradition of ties between Salzburg and the U.S.

I would like to stress that educational exchange is one of the key areas the American Embassy has been promoting. During the last two years, I also had the privilege of working with Ambassador Susan McCaw, who placed great emphasis on educational exchange. Ambassador McCaw, who left Austria this past November, negotiated with the Government of Austria to turn over some of the interest from the Marshall Plan European Recovery Program Fund, which exists to this day and is being used to finance improvements in Austrian infrastructure, for scholarship purposes. The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation is currently working on advertising these scholarships in cooperation with a number of Austrian universities, mainly in the sciences, to both Austrian and American students.

In the United States, educational exchange is also inseparably connected with the name of Senator J. William Fulbright, a Rhodes Scholar from Arkansas, who spent six formative months of his life in Vienna in 1928. It was here where he came to understand the dialectical and complex relationships between domestic and international politics, knowledge that would serve him well in his later incarnations including President of the University of Arkansas, U.S. Senator, and Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Fulbright, the founder and namesake of the Fulbright Exchange Program, which was first proposed in the U.S. Senate in 1945, wrote in an article that appeared in "The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences" in 1976:

"After 30 years in the U.S. Senate, 15 years as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and travel at home and abroad, I remain convinced that educational and cultural exchange offers one of the best means available for improving international understanding."

I would wager that after you have yourself experienced educational exchange and its benefits, you will agree with the Senator's words and thoughts.

Meetings like the one today also allow me to reflect on my own personal experience with educational exchange. When I was your age in the 1970s, I was a student at Stanford University and came to Austria on the "Stanford-in-Austria" program. Just like Senator Fulbright, I spent six months in Vienna and still have fond memories of those days. One might even say that my study abroad experience led me to my current profession as a Foreign Service Officer and head of the U.S. Embassy in Vienna - although my path was a somewhat meandering one, it ultimately ended in the right place.

Now that I am no longer a long-haired student, but rather a balding gray-beard, let me in closing remind you of two things. First, whether you wish to be or not while you are here in Austria you are seen as representatives -- young ambassadors if you will -- for your own country, the United States. You will be continuously asked why "America" is the way it is, and does what it does. These can be hard questions to answer, and it will probably force you to look at your own values and your cultural roots in a way you have not before. For me, this has always been one of the most interesting and rewarding aspects of working and living overseas - even if it is uncomfortable at times.

Then, once you are back in the United States, you will be doing the same for Salzburg, and for Austria. Just as I'm sure you will ask Austrians not to adopt overly simplistic views about the United States, so you should explain to your fellow Americans that there is more to Austria than the Sound of Music, Mozart, and skiing. Or Kurt Waldheim and Joerg Haider.

In short, you will be correcting clichés on both ends or, as Senator Fulbright put it:

"I think of these alumni scattered throughout the world, acting as interpreters of their own and other societies -- and as opinion leaders communicating their appreciation of the societies which they visited to others in their own society. In my view, such exchange-of-persons programs are among the most significant activities now going on in the world."

So, Alles Gute! Enjoy your time in Austria, and thank you.

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