The modern Legion still has a few things in common with its previous incarnations.
Today, legionnaires are much more than a band of mere ‘expendables’. Now in its third, the official image of the Legion is of an elite fighting force, to be compared with the British SAS or the US Navy SEALs. In its second incarnation, the Legion became a sort of substitute family.
In its first version, the Legion was seen as a rough mercenary force that guaranteed immunity from criminal prosecution, as well as a new life and French citizenship. Men who joined up after a lifetime of crime, fighting valiantly, then leaving the Legion to become tough, faceless mercenaries trading on their background, or else dying in the mud of Dien Bien Phu as the last choppers leave for La Belle France. What comes to mind when you think of the French Foreign Legion? Most likely men struggling through the desert in heavy blue coats and white peaked caps.
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