Rescuing the Ramparts of Order

Charles de Gaulle once described the French armed forces as "the rampart of order." Today that rampart looks as if it were part of a half-ruined fortress. Morale in the ranks is so low, warned General Alain de Boissieu in a top-secret report that leaked to the press last December, that an upheaval similar to the one that racked France in May 1968 could break out within the army. Even the professional cadre of officers, wrote Boissieu (who happens to be De Gaulle's son-in-law), "have lost confidence in the hierarchy."

Last week, prodded by President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the French Cabinet took some major steps to alleviate the army's malaise: the pay of conscripts was tripled (from 600 a day to a still paltry $1.80), recruits were guaranteed a free monthly trip home, a modernization program for barracks will be stepped up, and the promotion system will be reformed to allow young officers to rise faster in rank. "The decisions taken today are only the first step," said Giscard. In fact, they were really a second step. Last January he shook up France's military leadership by naming Yvon Bourges, 53, a tough, energetic and sometimes abrasive Gaullist, as Minister of Defense to replace the ineffectual Jacques Soufflet. General Marcel Bigeard, 59, a paratroop hero and one of France's most decorated soldiers, was named Bourges's deputy.

Cold Reveilles. The reforms may not have come a moment too soon. For nearly a year, draftees have been getting angrier and angrier and have even dared to demonstrate publicly. Just before the reforms were announced, 50 conscripts protested in Nancy during a conference organized by Young Communists to discuss conditions in the army. Several days later 150 soldiers, their fists clenched, marched through Verdun.

Military officials do not dispute the legitimacy of the soldiers' complaints. Before last week's pay raise, the 220,000 conscripts in the 338,000-man army were the lowest salaried troops in Western Europe; they could barely afford a daily beer at the local bistro. Nearly 90% of their barracks were constructed at or before the start of the century. At Evreux, soldiers of the 41st Communications Regiment have no hot water in their quarters, must trudge to a separate building for frequently nonfunctioning showers and shiver through winter reveilles because the ancient coal furnace has to be extinguished at night to avoid the danger of fire.

About 30% of today's conscripts have passed the highly competitive ba-chot, which qualifies them to enter a university or specialized technical college. Nonetheless, they still spend most of their compulsory year of military service performing menial tasks. Unlike Dutch or West German soldiers, they are prohibited from wearing their hair long or engaging in any kind of political activity. Corporal punishment has been abolished, but the men are subjected to harsh discipline: an occasional kick in the pants from a sergeant is still used as a reprimand.

Morale has also deteriorated among the cadres (officers and senior noncoms), who say that they lack the money and equipment to train the recruits properly. Although the 33,000 volunteer privates (who have enlisted for at least three years) are better paid than the draftees, all volunteers--including cadres--are dissatisfied because they earn less than civil servants holding equivalent jobs. Young career officers also complain of limited opportunities for advancement. Almost all soldiers lack what one French colonel calls "a sense of goal, a mission" and feel that they are unappreciated by the public. It is no wonder that about 40% of the army's cadre slots are unfilled and that both conscripts and officers have been edging politically toward the left.

High-Price Doomsday. The cause of the malaise is well understood: France has tried to develop its highly touted nuclear force de frappe while retaining a large conventional armed force, all for an expenditure in 1974 of $9 billion, or less than 3% of the gross national product. In comparison, the U.S. spends some 6% of its G.N.P. and Britain almost 5% on defense. Although the nuclear program has been partly successful, at least in the sense that Washington and Moscow must take France's fleet of bombers and missile-firing submarines into account in constructing their doomsday scenarios of atomic confrontation, it has come at a high price. Limited funds remain for the army, and most of that is earmarked for equipment rather than personnel.

The Cabinet's action last week may be the start of a general evaluation by the government of its armed forces. "Our army has fallen asleep," admits General Bigeard; to awaken it, Paris will probably weigh a number of proposals. Among them: eliminating the army's cumbersome divisions and forming troops into highly mobile brigades and commando regiments; creating a smaller, better trained army composed solely of volunteers (despite the widespread French fear that a professional army might interfere in politics); establishing closer relations with NATO in order to benefit from joint technical planning. No one doubts that additional reforms are needed quickly. As General Bigeard candidly noted last week, "These new measures are not sufficient; there will still be disturbances."

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