Montgomery memorandum cast shadow over Swiss neutrality
01 September 1995
Officially Switzerland has always claimed to be a neutral country. A former member of the Federal Council, Max Petitpierre, wrote in 1963: "neutrality makes sense for a country like Switzerland not to get involved in any war activities nor to participate voluntarily in any armed conflicts. Only in the case of an attack against Swiss independence by military forces would the Swiss army defend its territory". Now a document discovered in the UK Public Records Office shows that a secret deal was agreed in 1956 for Switzerland to join NATO if Europe was attacked.
The document, classified as "top secret", is dated 10 February 1956 with the reference PREM 11/1224. It was declassified in 1987 but only found by two researchers - Mauro Montavoni and Peter H Hufschmid - this year. The memorandum was written by Field Marshal Bernard L Montgomery, then a vice-general with NATO, and addressed to the then UK Prime Minister, Anthony Eden. It summarise discussions between Montgomery ("Monty") and government representatives of Yugoslavia and Switzerland.
"Monty" who was popular in Switzerland held informal talks with Swiss government politicians and officials and in particular Swiss Minister of Military Defence, Paul Chaudet. Chaudet was convinced by Montgomery that if there was a conflict between East and West nuclear weapons would be used and Switzerland could not remain neutral. On 10 February 1956 Chaudet told Montgomery the Swiss government had decided that if there was a war in Europe they would side with the Western alliance. He insisted this agreement should made secret and that in times of peace Switzerland would maintain its neutral stance.
"Secret army" set up
At the time of this agreement the Swiss government was secretly evaluating the possibility of building its own nuclear weapons and wanted to reassure NATO of its loyalty. But there was another more sinister reason why the Swiss would negotiate through a British army general. In the 1950s the UK helped the Swiss build up a secret resistance organisation, a "secret army", the "P 26". This fact was only discovered in 1990 when a parliamentary inquiry examined the activities of the Military department and especially those of the secret service. Around 500 "soldiers" were in the P 26, some of them receiving special training at UK military bases. It was intended to sabotage foreign armies of occupation and to fight the "internal enemy".
Other documents also shows that Swiss neutrality was a fiction. Earlier this year another document was released titled "The position of the United States with respect to Switzerland" (a "Presidential Directive on National Security prepared for Harry Truman in 1951). This says: "Switzerland becomes more and more important concerning the production of weapons for NATO countries... it also delivers precision instruments and other materials necessary for the armament of the USA and NATO countries.." A 1961 telegram from a former US Foreign Minister said Switzerland was integrated into the NATO Communication System.
Paul Rechsteiner, socialist member of the Swiss parliament, has now asked the Federal Council why the government still maintains there was never any cooperation with NATO or the CIA.
Tages Anzeiger, 4 & 7 & 9.10.95; Kommittee Schluss mit dem Schnuffelstaat, Bern, Switzerland.