Just Like Clockwork

SWITZERLAND in the middle ages had an image problem. The rest of Europe saw the Swiss as a backward, uncultured group. The only thing they seemed to be good at was slaughtering large portions of whatever nation's army happened to traverse their rocky frontiers. They were such good fighters, in fact, that in the days before chocolate and watches the confederation's main export was the mercenary armies they hired out to shore up the troops of nations that had given up trying to conquer the Swiss.

A couple of centuries after repelling their last would-be attacker Switzerland presents a different face to the world. Far from being backward, it is now one of the most modern and attractive nations in the world. From an economy based on exporting soldiers, the Swiss have diversified to become a provider of expensive manufactured goods as well as the world's premier bankers. If there was ever a nation that could be described as a bastion of capitalism, Switzerland is it.

And, as John McPhee explain in La Place de la Concorde Suisse, woe betide any nation that tries to change this. While Switzerland's economic fortunes have changed over the last half-millennia, its commitment to a strong defense has not. McPhee begins the book by noting that, "The Swiss have not fought a war for nearly five hundred years and are determined to know how so as not to." For the next 150 pages McPhee shows us just how they go about this. Most important are the frequent maneuvers that the Swiss army holds in the mountainous countryside. McPhee tagged along for three weeks of the last year's fall war games and La Place de in Concorde Suisse is what he came up with.

McPhee's first, albeit somewhat obvious, point is that whereas most nations pay lip service to the idea of armed deterrence, the Swiss pay military service: anywhere from 10 days to more than five months a year, from every male citizen who is physically capable. If you can imagine the United States National Guard being made compulsory for every American, you've begun to understand the Swiss system.

McPhee's account of his three week traipse through the Alps is nothing short of glowing (not entirely surprising coming from an author who is known to write paeans to the Rockies). If any nation had been planning to violate Swiss neutrality, reading La Place de la Concorde Suisse would be enough to make them scrap their battle plans and figure out another way to get through central Europe. Every bridge and railway track and alpine tunnel is mined and ready to blow up whenever needed. The army is scheduled to go into full mobilization in 48 hours. In practice, it rarely taker half that long. And, needless to add, the Swiss have prepared for nuclear attack with the most complete array of shelters and civil defense plans in the world.

BUT IT QUICKLY becomes clear that McPhee's admiration for the Swiss system is not limited to their ability to repel an attack. He is equally impressed by the role the Swiss citizen army has played in shaping one of the world's more tranquil societies. He writes that "Switzerland does not have an army. Switzerland is an Army." The Swiss seem to have maintained the idea, out of fashion elsewhere in the developed world, that an army can do more for a nation than just protect it. Instead, the Swiss see their army as a reversed social institution, bringing together citizens from different regions, who often speak different languages, for the common goal of defending Swiss neutrality. This, McPhee implies, is the army's real function in Switzerland, and should perhaps be its task elsewhere.

It is hard to read La Place de la Concorde Suisse without feeling admiration for the Swiss and their army. It is tempting as well to draw comparisons between the Swiss system and our own. Clearly there are great differences between the two nations. But the idea of a citizen army is nonetheless an attractive one which does not, perhaps, receive the attention it should.

The concept that the army can play a role in unifying a society as well as in protecting it has scarcely been discussed in the United States in recent years. Instead, our armed forces have primarily become a home for socially marginal individuals who cannot find anything better to do. In Switzerland, military service is revered as a social duty, much like voting. By contrast, many Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of military service and keep it at arm's length--if they can afford to.

At one point in La Place de la Concorde Suisse, McPhee describes maneuvers on the outskirts of a small alpine town. While the bullets whizz by above, the townspeople go about their business, not concerned with the activity above. It is hard to imagine a similar scene in the United States. Unlike the Swiss, Americans seem uncomfortable with the idea of the varied role the army can play within a nation's own borders. McPhee suggests that Americans have a lot to learn.