Several cartoons and at least one movie (a Jean Claude Van Damme flick) have made a plot device of the French Foreign Legion. It goes like this: some schlep sees a poster promising “exotic travel,” joins up, and then finds themselves digging ditches in the Moroccan desert for some military organization from which there is no escape.
Several questions:
Did the Legion sucker Americans (and other non-French people) into joining with misleading promises? If so, why did they try so hard to recruit foreigners?
Does the Legion still exist? What is their purpose?
If Joe Yankee did sign up for the Legion under such misleading pretenses, wouldn’t the State Department take a dim view of Americans being conscripted (for lack of a better choice of words) into foreign “armies”?
No matter what country or service your talking about, ALL armed forces recruiters “sucker” young men into signing up.
2)Yes. They do France’s dirty work. Desert Storm, riots in Fiji, etc.
3.If a US citizen is found to be enlisted in the FL or any other armed forces of a foreign country, he is liable to have his citizenship revoked by the US State Dept.
Didn’t Cecil say that a U.S. citizen can serve in another nation’s army provided that they:
(A) Don’t hold officer status -and-
(B) Aren’t at war with the U.S. or it’s immediate allies?
I spent an interesting afternoon with some Legionnaires in the Comoro Islands some years ago. From what they told me, the Legion doesn’t sucker Americans or anyone else into joining with misleading promises. First of all, there are people who like to do what the Legion does (kind of like the American Marines but not so pantywaist). They told me that a lot of there comrades had been mercenaries in the Congo (or at least claimed to have been mercenaries in the Congo) and the Legion was a job you could get when there wasn’t much of a market for mercenaries. Second, the Legion gives enlistees a new identity. Some of people joining the Legion have problems with their past identities. This is a real draw for some people and not a misleading promise. Third, I think the Legion’s officer corps has enough trouble keeping these guys around and in line without the recruiters sending them people who are going to think they have been cheated and try to run off.
As for the purpose of the Legion, it was explained to me that they are the shock troops who battle valiantly and die gloriously fighting until the last man against great odds with the purpose of holding the fort until the French Army arrives. They aren’t supposed to win battles, just terrify the enemy. (The Legion is the only fighting force that celebrates its defeats, not its victories.)
The word “conscripted” has no relevance here. It means being drafted and no one is drafted into the French Foreign Legion. Everyone volunteers to get in. I suppose you could protest to a representative of your native country that you only volunteered because you were so stupid you believed whatever the recruiter told you, but I’ll bet he’d figure your country had put one over on France in this transaction and “no take-backs”.
Not true. Before you join they question you to make sure you’re not a murderer or wanted by INTERPOL. It might have been done 100 years ago, but now they want you to make sure you know what you are doing.
Yes, it still exists and is an elite fighting force. It’s original purpose was to clear France of a whole bunch of unwanted foreigners after Napoleon was deposed. It’s current mission is to fight for France as an elite unit.
No, it is not a conscription. It is strictly volunteer. You can join and keep your US citizenship. You can also change your name when you join. After you’ve served
your first term you can elect to get French citizenship if you want.
I have to modestly say that these answers are definitive because I have studied the FFL. There is a semi-official FFL website.
Not true. Before you join they question you to make sure you’re not a murderer or wanted by INTERPOL. It might have been done 100 years ago, but now they want you to make sure you know what you are doing.
Yes, it still exists and is an elite fighting force. It’s original purpose was to clear France of a whole bunch of unwanted foreigners after Napoleon was deposed. It’s current mission is to fight for France as an elite unit.
No, it is not a conscription. It is strictly volunteer. You can join and keep your US citizenship. You can also change your name when you join. After you’ve served
your first term you can elect to get French citizenship if you want.
I have to modestly say that these answers are definitive because I have studied the FFL. There is a semi-official FFL website.
As a clarification, the Foreign Legion is so named because it it made up entirely of foreign (i.e., non-French) soldiers. Traditionally, you couldn’t join if you were French, but anyone from another country was welcome.
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.
As was mentioned earlier, the French “foreign” legion was supposed to be made up of “foreigners”- that is, non-Frenchmen. In reality, about half the legion is/was usually French. Fact is, nobody checked too closely.
The whole idea was, Frenchmen wouldn’t support sending their OWN sons into combat in the jungle or the desert, but they’d gladly send a bunch of foreign-born cutthroats and mercenaries off to do such dirty work. If a ten thousand young Frecnhmen were killed defending the French empire, there would be a huge outcry. But if ten thousand foreigners died in the sand… who’d care?
As mentioned earlier, the French Foreign Legion still exists, and consists almost exclusivley of mercenaries. There are still times when France wants to use some muscle in Africa (or elsewhere), and it’s still a lot safer politically to send foreign mercenaries into a dirty little Third World War, than to send the cream of young French manhood.
I must refure Yeah’s assertion"(The Legion is the only fighting force that celebrates its defeats, not its victories.)" We Americans seem to take a perverse pride in Pearl Harbor (where we were literally caught napping), and the Alamo (where the Texans should have abandoned fixed fortification and adopted harassment tactics). In contrast, at Cameronne and Dien Bien Phu the Legion was fairly outnumbered and had no option but to hunker down.
To address the original thread, I recommend the book “Mouthful of Rocks,” by Christian Jennings, a swell book and proof for American readers that foreign armies are as full of shit-for-brains kids as our is.