Switzerland’s office of civil defense displays an eye-catching graph showing the ratio between military and civilian victims of war. In World War I, it was 20:1 (20 military personnel killed to every one civilian). In World War II, it was 11:1; in the Korean War 1:5; in the Vietnam War 1:20. In a future nuclear war, the ratio is projected to be 1:100 for unprotected populations; that is, 100 civilians killed for every military person killed.
Facing these facts of the nuclear-space age is what led Switzerland 25 years ago to embark on a comprehensive plan to assure that Swiss citizens are not victims of nuclear war. Indeed, what could be a more important task of any government?
If not possessing nuclear weapons at all could make a nation safe, there would be no need for any plan because Switzerland possesses none. But other nations do have nukes, and rational governments must devise their defenses accordingly.
Swiss civil defense started with two laws in 1962-1963 and was expanded in a government report to the Parliament in 1971 which is still the master plan in use today. With hindsight, it reads well; with experience, it has proved workable and cost-efficient.
Today, Switzerland has 5.7 million shelter spaces ready for its 6.3 million inhabitants. That means 85% of the Swiss population can be put in emergency shelters. The 15% deficiency is mainly in rural areas, and the gap should be closed by the late 1990s.
The Swiss achieved this by the cooperation of the federal government, the canton governments, the communities, and the citizenry. Since 1964, all new residential structures have been required to include ventilated shelter space with ceilings and walls about one foot thick (and 60% of Swiss housing has been built since 1964). The local communities must build community shelters for those living in pre-1964 housing.
Shelter space is not idle in peacetime. Shelter space in apartment houses is used like storage lockers (for bicycles, furniture, wine, etc.) which can be emptied in a few hours. Community shelters have current peacetime uses such as underground parking or dormitory sleeping rooms for summer youth camps.
All men between the ages of 20 and 60 are required to be active in their local civil defense apparatus if they are not currently serving in the army. This means half a million men are part of the civil defense system, plus some 20,000 women volunteers.
It’s not a burdensome duty. They receive a basic training of 5 days, plus a refresher course of 2 days per year. The system is linked by 1,500 command posts, 60 training centers, and communications centers.
Almost every hospital has built facilities to enable its care, treatment, and surgery to be continued underground if necessary. The 1,100 medical facilities in the civil defense network have 84,500 protected beds, about 52% of the goal.
The community shelter I visited this summer has space-efficient dormitory beds, toilet facilities, special showers to decontaminate all who enter, a kitchen, a diesel generator to produce electricity, and special protections against the effect of the electromagnetic pulse. The apartment house shelter I visited has space for 31 persons (7 families), an air filter, an escape hatch, and steel and concrete doors.
The medical facility I visited has 224 moveable beds, an operating room, oxygen tanks, cupboards stocked with hospital supplies, and a well which could in emergency pump enough water for the entire town.
The rationale behind the Swiss civil defense effort was logically stated in the 1971 document and is even more relevant for them — and us — in the 1980s. History and daily events show that any country can be dragged into a war; modern armies are equipped with nuclear weapons, strategic, operational, and tactical, and can attack without warning.
Of particular danger in the nuclear age is the possibility of blackmail — compelling a nation to submit to unacceptable conditions by the threat of massive destruction. Another danger unique in our era is the nuclear accident.
Since evacuation is not practical, all inhabitants must be offered an equal chance for survival; therefore we must provide a place of shelter for every inhabitant. The soldier must know that his family at home will be protected.
Switzerland has made the financial commitment to make sure that its people will survive individually and as a nation whatever happens in the nuclear age. Why can’t the United States? To survive or not to survive; that is the question.
