Scurrilous.

This is coolbert:

Germans in Vietnam? Germans? 

That allegation that the French Foreign Legion [FFL] during the First Indo-China war had recruited to service large numbers German nationals of dubious character, many having served in German units during World War Two the activity of which was characterized by war crimes and heinous atrocity.

Bernard B. Fall, writing in the context of the First Indochina War, has called the notion that the Foreign Legion [FFL] was mainly German at that time:

"a canard [a lie with malice] . . . As a rule, and in order to prevent any particular nation from making the Legion into a Praetorian guard [forming, or resembling the Roman imperial bodyguard], any particular national component is kept at about 25 percent of the total. Even supposing (and this was the case, of course) that the French recruiters, in the eagerness for candidates would sign up Germans enlisting as Swiss, Austrian, Scandinavian and other nationalities of related ethnic background, it is unlikely that the number of Germans in the Foreign Legion ever exceeded 35 percent. Thus, without making an allowance for losses, rotation, discharges, etc., the maximum number of Germans fighting in Indochina at any one time reached perhaps 7 000 out of 278 000. As to the ex-Nazis, the early arrivals contained a number of them, none of whom were known to be war criminals. French Intelligence saw to that. Since, in view of the rugged Indochinese climate, older men without previous tropical experience constituted more a liability than an asset, the average age of the Legion enlistees was about 23. At the time of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, any Legionnaire of that age group was at the worst, in his 'Hitler Youth' shorts when the [Third] Reich collapsed."

Consider also: Total numbers [by nationality] French Foreign Legion: [from inception until NOW!]

* Germany - - 210,000

Followed by:

* Italy - - 60,000
* France - - 50,000

* Spain - - 40,000
* Belgium - - 40,000
* Switzerland - - 30,000

Germany has contributed the most Legionnaires by far!! It takes the next five nationalities combined to exceed the German total! This from FFL records too!

Allegations unverified, not substantiated, scurrilous and even libelous? But widely believed?

coolbert.