Page 495 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

1135
ActA
Identity through alterity
For the woman as for the men defending freedom and the self-determination of the
country was defined as a supreme good and presented as a common shared ideal. The
idea of an abolishment of the Swiss armed forces in 1989 was contrariwise interpreted
as an attack against freedom and self-determination of the country. Protection of liberty
was seen as a deep-rooted characteristic of a true Swiss Confederate. Opponents of
the armed forces were therefore seen as “unswiss characters”. In the context of Cold
War bipolarity they were often linked with the “unfree world”, as subversive elements
23
guided by Moscow and as part of a crypto-communist conspiracy. In dubious and
ominous semantics critics of the Swiss Armed Forces as well as critics of the Diamond
Commemorations were always denoted as “certain individuals” or “certain circles” but
almost never with their real names.
Historians who criticised the Diamond Commemorations and their perception of his-
tory were mostly ignored within the Diamond speeches. Though the historical explana-
tion, that Switzerland was not attacked by the Axis Forces first and foremost due to its
military power and its dissuasive potential, was already doubted since the ninety sev-
enties and even more since the ninety eighties. Tough this explanation was spread and
learned over 50 years.Accordingly that created a strongly tightened historical narrative

in the popular cognition. 24
The Swiss Federal Military Department accented again and again that the Diamond
Commemorations had nothing to do with the political question of the Swiss Armed
Forces in 1989 and the vote on their abolishment. Apparently that was not true. The ma-
jority of the speeches held by politicians ended with the request to vote against the initia-
tive. As a general rule the mobilisation place commanders did not point out a political
statement in person. But they did by the selection of the speakers, which they invited to
their particular Diamond convention. During the whole commemoration there were only
two politicians of the left-wing spectrum invited to speak. One was Otto Stich, actually
member of the Swiss Federal Council (the government) and acting Finance minister.
The other was Jeanne Hersch, a Swiss philosopher without a political function but a
distinguished authority in questions of political philosophy. Both of them were known
as supporters of the Swiss armed forces and both of them shared the politico-historical
narrative which was performed at the Diamond Commemorations. Potential critics were
utterly not invited as speakers. 25

23 For an exaggerated example: Helfer, Hans-Ulrich, Wer steckt hinter “Schweiz ohne Armee”, Zürich, 1988.
Bürgin, Die Diamantreden, 82-89.
24 For further reading concering the historiographical changes: Jaun, Rudolf, Die militärische Landesverteidigung
1939–1945, in: Kreis, Georg: Die Schweiz und der Zweite Weltkrieg: Sonderband der Schweizerischen
Zeitschrift für Geschichte, Vol 47, Nr. 4, 449-844, Basel, 1997, S. 644-661. Kreis, Georg, Weltkrieg, Zweiter:
Historiografie und Debatte ab 1945, in: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS) online unter: http://www.
hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/d/D8927.php
25 The question what was taken as an exercise of political influence and what was not, was negotiable anyway.
The constant fusion of a historical narrative which pointed out the willingness to fight at the time of the
Second World War and the drill presentations and parades of the armed forces as a framework program to the
Commemorations in 1989 consolidated these two temporal levels and pointed out one declaration: