Legio Patria Nostra

<p>The French Foreign Legion is an integral part of the recently professionalized French regular army yet outside of Europe and Asia the organization remains an obscure and sometimes misunderstood entity with even some American military officers unaware of its existence. Many believed the Legion went the way of French imperialism after the country's defeat in the Algerian War in 1962. In those post-war years however the Legion shed its mercenary image through reorganization and real world operations and quietly rebuilt itself into a ready and relevant fighting force. This thesis summarizes the Legion's history describes its current structure and characterizes its place in the French military complex. In doing so it shows that despite a rocky early history a mercenary reputation and recent obscurity the French Foreign Legion has built and maintained a level of readiness and competency that is more than equal to that of other professional military organizations and it remains a vital component of the French military infrastructure.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>