Switzerland in the Cold War
Bern, Geneva, Buchs, Panmunjom (Korea)
Key figures: Max Petitpierre, Elisabeth Kopp
HLS (German): Cold War, Nuclear weapons
Neutral, but Western. In 1945 both the United States and the Soviet Union view Swiss neutrality with suspicion. With the Washington Agreement of 1946 and the resumption of relations with the USSR, sought by the head of the Political Department Max Petitpierre, Switzerland emerges from isolation. The Federal Council deliberately keeps its neutrality policy vague, but the country feels part of the Western world: in 1948 it joins the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, buys weapons only from the West and quietly complies with the American trade embargo against the East. Yet it recognises the People’s Republic of China as early as 1950, long before the United States.
A useful neutrality. In 1953 Switzerland, a “Western neutral”, joins the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission for the armistice in Korea, where it is still present today. The Geneva conferences of 1954 and the Austrian State Treaty of 1955, which takes Swiss neutrality as its model, increase its standing. From 1973 Switzerland takes an active part in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe and in the Helsinki Accords.
The Swiss bomb (1946–1988). In 1946 the Federal Council sets up a commission to study atomic energy, including for military purposes, and between 1953 and 1955 secretly buys 10 tonnes of uranium. In 1958, under the pressure of the Soviet threat, it decides to study nuclear armament for the army; the Soviet Union considers this incompatible with neutrality. A popular initiative to ban nuclear weapons is rejected in 1962 by 65.5% of voters. But the project loses momentum: Switzerland signs the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1969 and ratifies it in 1977; in 1988 the committee in charge is dissolved.
1956 and the refugees. Anti-communism peaks after the crushing of the Hungarian uprising: on 20 November 1956 the country observes three minutes of silence, and Switzerland withdraws from the Melbourne Olympics. It takes in some 12,000 Hungarians, then 1,200 Tibetans after 1959, 12,000 Czechs and Slovaks after 1968 and 8,200 Vietnamese between 1975 and 1983. In 1957 the civil protection law is passed, and the army invests in aircraft and armour to defend an armed neutrality.
The secret files scandal (1989). Throughout the Cold War the federal and cantonal police keep watch on anyone suspected of left-wing sympathies, often without a legal basis. In 1989, after the resignation of Federal Councillor Elisabeth Kopp, a parliamentary commission of inquiry uncovers some 900,000 files. On 3 March 1990 about 30,000 people demonstrate in front of the Federal Palace against the “snooping state”. Meanwhile the Berlin Wall falls: the Cold War ends, and with it the context that had allowed Switzerland to remain neutral and outside the major international organisations.
The federal police file card on Max Frisch (first card), one of the roughly 900,000 files uncovered in 1989. Translation: “Surname: Frisch. First name: Max. Born: 15.5.1911. Occupation: writer and architect. Residence: Zurich, Zollikerstrasse 265, Berzona TI. Parents: Franz and Lina née Wildermuth. Place of origin: Zurich. Marital status: married to Gertrud Anne Constance née Meyenburg. Remarks: passport no. 577238/410. 27.8.48, from the Department agency: on 23.8.48 travelled to Poland to take part in the World Congress of Intellectuals for the Cause of Peace. 25.9.48, from the Basel-Stadt police inspectorate: report on the ‘World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace’. According to Prof. Birchler of the ETH Zurich, F. left early. 31.8.49, from the Basel police inspectorate: report on the ‘Swiss-German Cultural Association’, which grew out of ‘Freies Deutschland’; it initially had a left-wing course but allegedly has pursued no political aims since 1946. Several prominent communists sit on its board; F. is also a board member. The association is said to be in the process of dissolution. 14.6.50, from Dr Balsiger: in 1948 F. took part in the communist ‘World Peace Congress’ in Breslau. 28.8.51, from ‘Vorwärts’ of 20.8.51, no. 190, article ‘Art and Politics’: it is pointed out that F. has left the ‘Partisans de la paix’, has become bourgeois again and will soon make a six-month study trip to the USA on an American grant; one can imagine that this does not come for nothing.”
Swiss Federal Archives, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Max Petitpierre with Eduard Zellweger and Hermann Flückiger, 5 April 1946, a few weeks after diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union were resumed
Dodis, Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
The plaque at Buchs SG station, unveiled in 2006: the Hungarian refugees of 1956, many of whom crossed the border here, thank the Swiss people
Photo NAC, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
A Mirage III S, the interceptor flown by the Swiss Air Force from 1967 to 1999, now in the Aviation Museum at Dübendorf
Photo Sandstein, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain