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by Eric S. Margolis
March 24, 2025
Switzerland. ‘Fight to the last cartridge, then use your bayonets!’ Gen. Henri Gulsan
So warned the retired US general Ben Hodges in an interview with the newspaper SonntagsBlick. Hodges was the former US military commander in Europe.
Before frightened Swiss start moving their gold and cows to mountain shelters, they should recall that Hodges was one of the crack US generals who led the US army to win brilliant victories in Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Excuse me if I sound a bit cynical. I was a volunteer in the US regular army during the Vietnam era. I know the politicians handcuffed our generals at every turn. But wars are about political goals, not killing as many people as possible.
Gen. Hodges implied that the Russians could steamroll flimsy Swiss defenses. As a long-time resident of Switzerland, veteran war correspondent, and one of the first – if not the first - non-Swiss to be shown Switzerland’s top secret mountain forts, I advise all would-be invaders to steer clear of the small but fierce Helvetic Republic.
During the Renaissance, the thinker Niccolo Machiavelli said of the Swiss, ‘most heavily armed and most free.’ The Vatican’s Swiss Guards are a dramatic reminder of what was called ‘the Furia Helvetica’ when Swiss pikemen terrorized Europe’s battlefields. Today, Swiss citizen soldiers keep their weapons at home and are renowned as sharpshooters. I have been in the field with the Swiss Army and can attest to their military skills and professionalism. Swiss mountain forts cover most entry points to the country.
I have long suspected that the secretive Swiss have a small number of nuclear weapons hidden in their Alpine redoubt. Swiss engineers make advanced chemicals, tanks and aircraft. Tactical nuclear weapons are just one more advanced degree.
Gen. Hodges warnings about Soviet Russian offensive strategy appear exaggerated but are still to be taken seriously. I was made aware of the Soviet plan in 1990 to launch a huge envelopment campaign against NATO.
The plan called for two or three Soviet mechanized armies to attack west from Czechoslovakia and burst into almost unarmed Austria. Red Guards tank armies would then race into southern Germany south of Munich and then drive north towards the main NATO resupply port at Antwerp. In short, outflanking the bulk of NATO forces facing east and trapping most US ground forces in Europe.
This was, of course, a variation on the famous Schlieffen Plan of World War I in which the Germans tried a vast flanking movement around Paris. It failed because Russian offensives drew off German divisions and led to their defeat on the Marne.
Swiss fortifications were built 1938-1960 to thwart a Soviet attack from Lichtenstein. The Sargans region on Switzerland’s eastern border is one of three major fortress zones in that country along with Gothard and St Maurice. Interestingly, in the 1950’s, the Swiss and French began upgunning their forts to resist a possible attack by the Soviet Union. This included some of the original Maginot Line forts of the 1930’s.
Today’s Russia shows no signs of planning to attack Europe in spite of western-generated war hysteria. Moscow can barely deal with the weak Ukrainian forces. Russia does not need more land. But all the war propaganda in the west might just trigger an east-west conflict.
During WWII, Russia fielded over 200 divisions on the western front alone. Today, Moscow is lucky to deploy 24 and keeps warning it may have to resort to tactical nuclear weapons. But it’s now springtime for western arms makers as the great Red Scare engulfs Europe. I just bought stock of some German arms makers. The tough Swiss will be ready for whatever happens.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2025