Albéric Vaillant or the passion of the Legion

This is a book that presents the exceptional journey of a man who throughout his life never ceased to serve his country and had a passion: that of the Legion. From the Second World War to the end of the 20th century, General Vaillant (1915-2011) was at the heart of all the events of our history. A graduate of Saint-Cyr, he participated heroically as a young lieutenant in the fighting of 1940; in 1942, he joined the Foreign Legion in Algeria, fought in its ranks for the Liberation in Italy, France and Germany; then he left for Indochina, was assigned to the United States, and returned to an Algeria that was in flames. With the French colonial empire having disappeared and the scars of the Algerian War gaping, he organized the repatriation of the Legion to Aubagne; better, thanks to his talents for persuasion, he saved it from a seriously considered dissolution that would have deprived the French army of its elite component. Back in France, he exercised his talents at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers in Europe and Germany before ending his career at the highest levels of the French army and being elevated to the dignity of Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. Both a novel of real-life adventures and a collection of reflections on several decades of military history, this book retraces the exemplary journey of a great soldier who experienced everything from theaters of operations and military life; who lived through the end of a world that knew only wars; and who participated in the most beautiful way in building a new, more peaceful and safer world.