ACCESS: Peace July/August 1984 RAIN Page 25 La Place de la Concorde Suisse, by John McPhee, 1984,150 pp., $12.95 from: Farrar, Straus & Giroux 19 Union Square New York, NY 10003 "The Swiss have not fought a war for nearly five hundred years, and are determined to know how so as not to," writes John McPhee. He was curious about the particulars, so he walked and ate and slept with a reconnaissance unit in the Swiss army. He discovered that the army has a bicycle regiment—which was quite effective during World War II—and a navy. He found out that hikers in the Swiss uplands sometimes happen upon artillery shells left over from training exercises. McPhee writes, "The Swiss make the claim that they do things in exercises no other army would do. No one disputes the claim. The Swiss are the sort of people who like to shoot apples off one another's heads." The Swiss keep an army because they saw large-scale destruction of cities around them during World War II, and "had no difficulty imagining such scenes transposed to Switzerland." Twenty years ago, the Swiss began designing shelters against the effects of nuclear weapons. According to McPhee, "Jonathan Schell, writing in a different and wider context, recently expressed the Swiss point of view exactly when he said, 'A society that systematically shuts its eyes to an urgent peril to its physical survival and fails to take any steps to save itself cannot be called psychologically well.'" This is a fascinating account of the Swiss perspective on how to maintain peace, written by a wonderful wordsmith. (The text originally appeared as a two- part series in The Neie Yorker—October 31 and November 7,1983, $1.50 each from: The New Yorker, 25 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036.)—TK My Country is the Whole World: An Anthology of Women's Work on Peace ■ and War, by the Cambridge Women's Press Collective, 1984, 306 pp., inquire for price from: Pandora Books 9 Park Street Boston, MA 02108 A treasury of writings on peace and war by women from many countries, from 600 B.C. to the present. Most selections are shorter than a page. These words reveal a long history of the individual speaking out, with common sense and compassion, for peace and against war. The passages in this book also draw connections between the heritage of women as nurturers and their ability to question the morality of a society that would wage war. —TK First Earth Battalion Esalen Institute Big Sur, CA 93920 A people/planet-serving army—a dream that shows signs of coming true. First Earth Battalion's founder, retired Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon, describes it as "a banner under which forces of good in the world can unite and find strength with others who share a common goal. It declares its primary allegiance to the planet." Though still a mythical "force," it serves as a vision of the U.S. Army for the 1990s. (Secretary of the Army Wilbur Marsh and Channon talked about initiating such a model, but the two men have decided against the idea for now.) The elements of "an army of light" are described in Channon's Evolutionary Tactics ($12.50 ppd. from First Earth Battalion). The title pertains to the human technologies—such as yoga, martial arts and neurolinguistic programming—that can evolve "warrior monks." "These people would bring evolutionary tactics to defuse the nuclear time bomb, promote international relations, spread awareness of the need for ecological balance, and assist the wise expansion of technology," he says. The manual is used in "futures" courses in four military schools. Channon's world peacekeeping armies would include earth battalions to enter conflict zones armed with TV equipment (sirKe he believes that public opinion decides the outcome of televised conflicts); an ecoforce to rescue citizens anywhere in case of war or natural disasters; a natural guard composed of children and unemployed persons to accelerate energy self-reliance and reforestation; a conscience corps of organized religions to carry out evolutionary projects; and devotional divisions that use the power of collective meditation and prayer to bring calmness and order out of chaos. The First Earth Battalion will hold its first public gathering in Los Angeles the week prior to the 1984 Olympics. —KN "Soldiers for Peace," by Taylor Morris, 1980, revised 1982, from: Taylor Morris c/o Soldiers for Peace 46 Union Street Peterborough, NH 03458 We could spend l/220th of the 1983 military budget (or about $1 billion) to create a lasting peace with Russia via Soldiers for Peace, claims Taylor Morris. "If we had 100,000 young Americans in Russia and if there were 100,000 young Russians in the United States there would, almost immediately, be a lessening of tension. The unthinkable but, apparently, doable nuclear war against Russia would become both unthinkable and undoable, and so would an attack on the U.S. by Russia. Vye would not destroy 100,000 of our young people, nor would the Russians. These volunteer-student- hostages would be soldiers for peace on a yearly exchange basis. The American volunteers, draftees, or both, would be signed up for . .'. one year. Each government would pay for the costs of transportation, food, and housing. The host governments would take care of medical expenses for each group. . . . Each group would be part of a massive work-studies program, arranged and organized by the host country. ... By the end of five years the numbers of Americans and Russians with a personal "stake" in the two countries would have become a sizable minority of 10 to 20 million people. . . . Former volunteer-hostages would want to return with families and friends to introduce them to their host families. Barriers would be breaking down." It's a peace corps, on a grand scale. Contact .Morris for details of the plan. —TK
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