Stuff You Should Know - Selects: Do People Really Run Off to Join the French Foreign Legion?

Episode Date: March 18, 2023

Anyone who knows anything about Jean-Claude Van Damme knows he played a French legionnaire in the movies. He was just one of many actors to star in films that romanticized this mercenary force. Check out the details in this classic episode with Josh and Chuck.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What would you do if a secret cabal of the most powerful folks in the United States told you, hey, let's start a coup? Back in the 1930s, a Marine named Smedley Butler was all that stood between the U.S. and fascism. I'm Ben Bullitt. I'm Alex French. And I'm Smedley Butler. Join us for this sordid tale of ambition, treason, and what happens when evil tycoons have too much time on their hands. Listen to Let's Start a Coup on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you find your favorite shows. MySpace was the first major social media company. They made the internet feel like a nightclub. And it was the first major social media company to collapse. My name is Joanne McNeil. On my new podcast, Main Accounts, the story of MySpace.

I'm revisiting the early days of social media through the people who lived it. Listen to Main Accounts, the story of MySpace on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you find your favorite shows. Hello, folks, and happy Saturday to you. This week's Selects episode is my pick. This is Chuck, by the way. And I'm going to go with, do people really run off to join the French foreign legion? Or more typically said, do people really run off to join the French foreign legion? This is from March 7th, 2013. And honestly, I picked this one because it was kind of a cool episode. I didn't know much about the French foreign legion, aside from those super cool hats that you get when you sign up. And people do really run off

to join the French foreign legion. That's the spoiler. So check it out and enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, which makes this Stuff You Should Know, the Lightning Quick edition. Is this Lightning Quick? Yes, because of the lightning. Oh, yeah, we have like tornadoes and stuff coming in. So it's like holding out at the okay corral as the storm rolls in. Right, well, we'd also like to get out of the okay corral before the storm gets here. Yeah, that's the point. Yeah, you were saying there was a tornado

flipping cars on like 75 up north of here? Apparently. And I know my dog Buckley is at home just waiting to pee all over the place once the thunder starts. So if I can be there and hold him, he's fine. The French foreign legion, Chuck. They are a fighting force, a military fighting force that one young man by the name of Jean-Claude Van Damme ran off and joined. Did he really? In the movies. Oh, crap. I got you. He totally got me. I was like, I never knew. Can you imagine? No, he was, it was in the movies. He wasn't really a legionaire. It's a bummer. What movie was that? I think legion. It was a movie called legion. Or legionaire. Never heard of it. But yeah, he's a legionaire. I'm not a big fan of his actually. You can tell, well, you know, I don't

know that there are that many like big fans, but I'll bet his big fans are like big time Jean-Claude Van Damme fans. Oh, yes. Like Steven Seagal's fans probably. Yeah, probably so. Just hardcore, you know? Yeah. But you could tell that Jean-Claude Van Damme was in this movie because he's wearing a hat with the little cape in the back. Yeah, the capey. Is that what it's called? Yeah, spelled K-E-P-I pronounced capey and they still wear those. And, you know, it's a tradition that is still true today. The little flat cap, very stiff and rigid. Yeah. And they don't always have the capes, you know, when they're out where they need them, they will. Well, the reason that they would have them is because for the better part of two centuries, the French foreign legion

was stationed in Algeria. Yeah. And the reason they were stationed there is because that's where their headquarters were, almost from the moment of inception of this military group. Yeah. And the reason they were stationed there from inception was because they were a bunch of ne'er-do-well criminals in many cases. Yeah. And so they're like, you know, you guys are great and you're super tough. Let's move you to Algeria to help our colonization efforts and get you out of France. Do you want to talk about the history first? Yeah. Well, today, let's talk about today just for one sec. There are over 7,286 legionnaires as of December of last year, 2012. And to the date, to this date, 35,000 have died in battle over the years. I saw that. Which is not that bad,

but it's a small group, you know. 7,000 isn't much. Right. And they are the fighting force in the world that has seen more continuous action than any other. Oh, really? Yeah. They fight constantly. They've been fighting constantly. Well, and they're bad dudes. Yeah. Like they're, they even say in this article, and they're well known to be much tougher than the regular French Army. Right. Because they're not French. Well, they're... Actually, I don't know much that has to do with it, but they're known for being tough dudes. Yeah. And they're also a special forces unit, basically. No women. When we say dudes, we can say dudes. Yeah. There's never been a French foreign legionnaire who is a woman. No. And they are, they've been in just about every conflict

that the French have been in since 1830. And did you know that the French foreign legion invaded Mexico in 1861 and stayed there until 1865 when they were finally beaten back? No, I didn't know that. Yeah. They tried to assassinate the president and install an Austrian prince named Maximilian as the ruler of Mexico, set it up as a French puppet state. I wonder if that had any influence on colonarily speaking. I don't know. French food. You don't see much French stuff pop up in Mexico, like you do in like Vietnam during that colonial period. Yeah. You know? Or Indochine. What would you do if a secret cabal of the most powerful folks in the United States told you, hey, let's start a coup? Back in the 1930s, a marine named Smedley Butler was all that stood

between the US and fascism. I'm Ben Bullitt and I'm Alex French. In our newest show, we take a darkly comedic and occasionally ridiculous deep dive into a story that has been buried for nearly a century. We've tracked down exclusive historical records. We've interviewed the world's foremost experts. We're also bringing you cinematic historical recreations of moments left out of your history books. I'm Smedley Butler and I got a lot to say. For one, my personal history is raw, inspiring and mind blowing. And for another, do we get the mattresses after we do the ads or do we just have to do the ads? From I Heart Podcast and School of Humans, this is Let's Start a Coup. Listen to Let's Start a Coup on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you find your

favorite shows. I'm Dr. Romany and I am back with season two of my podcast, Navigating Narcissism. Narcissists are everywhere and their toxic behavior and words can cause serious harm to your mental health. In our first season, we heard from Eileen Charlotte, who was love bombed by the Tinder swindler. The worst part is that he can only be guilty for stealing the money from me, but he cannot be guilty for the mental part he did. And that's even way worse than the money you took. But I am here to help. As a licensed psychologist and survivor of narcissistic abuse myself, I know how to identify the narcissist in your life. Each week, you will hear stories from survivors who have navigated through toxic relationships, gaslighting, love bombing,

and the process of their healing from these relationships. Listen to Navigating Narcissism on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. MySpace was the first major social media company. They made the internet, which up until then had been kind of like a nerdy space, feel like a nightclub, and also slightly dangerous. And it was the first major social media company to collapse. Rupert Murdoch lost lots and lots of money on MySpace because it turned out it was actually not a good business. My name is Joanne McNeil. On my new podcast, Main Accounts, The Story of MySpace, I'm revisiting the early days of social media through the people who lived it, the users. Because what happened in the

MySpace era would have sweeping implications for all the platforms to follow. Listen to Main Accounts, The Story of MySpace on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you find your favorite shows. Okay, so do you want to go to the history? Yeah, how do these cases start? Well, in 1830, Josh, let me tell you a little story about a guy named King Louis Philippe. It's known as the July Revolution. He replaced King Charles X. After the Bourbon monarchy fell, and this was Parisian radicals were involved in this overthrow. So even though he was made King in large part because of these radicals and because of radicalism,

these radicals were some tough guys and a lot of them were, you know, it kind of brought in this criminal element in some cases. And, you know, I don't want to say they were bad guys, but maybe they were bad guys. Well, the King Louis Philippe thought that they were a threat to the monarchy because, you know, he had gotten to the throne by these radicals and it attracted radicals from all over Europe and a lot of them were very soldier-like. And he was like... Or former soldiers, period. And he said, welcome to France. Let me figure out what to do with you. I can't legally make you a part of the French army. So how about I just make a foreign legion made up of foreign dissidents, foreign nationals and send them elsewhere?

And they were pretty happy with that plan. It was March of 1831. He laid out his eight articles and pretty much that was what the foreign legion was from who they were to be, where were they to train, what were they to wear, and a lot of the traditions were established in that very first set of articles. And then included in that, Chuck, was one that said that you had to check for a birth certificate, a certificate of good life manners, and a certificate from a military authority saying that this person is a good soldier. And you had to have all that if you're going to accept or recruit that, or it was up to the commandant's discretion. Yeah, it reminded me of like how there'll be a paragraph in a legal contract that says all

these things at the very end. It'll say like, or we could just change our mind about all that. Right. So basically, yeah, we need all these papers and documents. And that was in article seven or article six. And then the seventh article said, or just let them in if you have a good feeling about them. Exactly. And don't worry about the papers so much. And that led to this thing called anonymat, which is anonymity in French. And it says that you can join the French foreign legion under an assumed name, because we're going to give you an assumed name one way or another. For the first year of your service in the French foreign legion, you need to basically take on an assumed name. You're leaving your old identity behind. And that's a really strange,

unusual aspect of the French foreign legion that still exists today. Yeah. In fact, it was mandatory until just a few years ago, until 2010, you had to sign up under a different name. And then at the end of that year, you could go through a process called military regularization of the situation, which basically meant you could get your old papers back from your home country and go back to your old name. Right. And you can still do all that. It's just not mandatory any longer. No. But a lot of guys, it's like the fresh start, you know. Yeah. That's what they're looking for. A lot of men who join the army. And that's one of the country. That's one of the things that the French foreign legion touts when you join it, is that we're a place you can have a second chance.

Yeah. Forget your past. Even forget your name. Minor criminal records. I mean, back in the day, they would accept major criminals. Now they're a little more selective and they'll overlook like a minor criminal record, but nothing like they won't accept murderers and things like that. Right. And for a very long time, they would accept nothing, no one but foreign nationals. You couldn't be French and join the French foreign legion. Yeah. You could join the army, but not the foreign legion. Right. They recently changed that so you can be French and join it. Right. Yeah. And you can gain your French citizenship as a foreign national by serving, what, three years? Three years. In good standing. Yeah. And I think you have

to go back to your original name and stuff. Yeah. If you're going to get citizenship, you can't do it under your declared name. Right. And you were talking about that, the, what was it called, where you go through that process of the year? The military regularization of the situation. Right. Such a weird name for name change. It really is. But it's not just the name change. It's basically like that represents the end of your first year and it represents the end of the French foreign legion owning you during this time. During your first year, you cannot have a civilian bank account. You can't get married. Yeah. You can't wear civilian clothes even off duty. You can't buy a car. You can't travel abroad on leave to anywhere but France.

You have to wear your uniform? Yeah, all the time. Yeah. Some, in some form or fashion, you have to wear a uniform. So yeah, it's, they own you for the first year. It's definitely harder than the French army, like you said. Yeah. And whatever status, if you're married and you join the French foreign legion, you have to enlist as a single man. Right. So I don't know if, I guess you can remain married technically but the papers say that you're a single man. I would imagine if you run off to the French foreign legion, your marriage might be on shaky ground as it is or you're not married. Yeah, that's a good point. There's probably not of like already married men. Doesn't seem like a very family supportive place. Yeah. It's kind of like,

you know, you are getting away from a situation or something like that. Honey, I'm going to have to deny your existence and change my name. Right. But it's really worth it because I want to be a legionnaire and wear the KP. Right. And gain the respect of the French. You think? Just kidding. Well, you know, what's funny is they are, I read an article, there's an article in the December 2012 Vanity Fair called The Expendables. That's pretty interesting. It's about the French foreign legion, what they're doing now. Yeah, I saw some of that. You remember in our gold episode? Yeah. We talked about illicit gold mining in Guyana. Yeah. Apparently one of the things the foreign legion is doing now is they're fighting those gold miners now. Oh, shutting that down.

That's one of the things they're doing because Afghanistan is winding down for the French, so they're kind of looking for new stuff to do and that's one of the things. New guys to go beat up. Right. Your first contract, if you join up as a legionnaire, is a minimum of five years and pay for a corporal starting out is 1,043 euros per month. Plus, of course, all room and board. But that's your take home pay. Right. Or not on a take home, but that's your salary. And you get 45 days leave and then there is a path to prosperity to some degree and success, just like any other army. You work your way up through the officer ranks. And after that first five years, successive contracts are six months to five years. And I'm not sure how they determine

that, whether it's up to you. Like, if you're like, I just want to go six months at a time here, guys. Gotcha. Or I'm not sure I couldn't actually find any information on that. If they're like, no, you must sign for three years. Right. Six months, whatever. Yeah. They're like, you'll probably be dead by then anyway. So, and we'll keep all of your euros. So, in that article, one of the things I was, that I came across was that the legionnaires view themselves and apparently are viewed by the French as, that's why the article is called the expendables, as basically there to fight and kill and die. Yeah. And that there's a lot of honor in dying, even if it's unnecessarily. But they're just, they kind of are nihilistic, I get the impression.

And I think they even use that word, they're nihilists. Oh, really? Well, it's a nihilists. Not say nihilists. Yeah, I did read part of the article though, and they said that normal people don't join the French foreign legion. Right. They said they're all just a little, little off. Yeah. Which, you know, good. I bet they're tough dudes. Yeah. And the Spanish, the Spanish tried the same thing. In 1920, they tried to form the Spanish foreign legion. And it didn't take. So, now it's just called the Spanish legion. It's made up of Spaniards. Yeah. And some folks say America could try something like a foreign legion with the influx of non-Americans in this country. Right. To maybe serve under our regular armies.

And I don't know if that's ever been pitched. Patch the citizenship. Should be in the Dream Act. Yeah, why not, dude? I don't know. I'm sure people would be like, this is why not. Well, yeah, you can email us later. Yeah, I didn't consider it. It just came to my head. You got anything else? No, I want a capey. I'll get you one for your birthday. Do you remember when those were like hip in the 80s with the break dancing? Yeah. Those were awesome. It's so funny what different cultures latch onto from different eras. Yes. You know. Yeah, somebody said that will look very cool when I'm doing a head spin. Yeah. And the capey was adopted. Awesome. Breaking Ohio. It's like the painter's cap. And when I was growing up, the painter's cap and the

bicycle caps were very big in the 80s. Oh, yeah. The bike caps with the bill folded up. Oh, yeah. I had a couple of like Italian ones. I just thought it was so cool. What was the name of that one brand that everybody had with the bike hat? You know what I'm talking about. A trick? No, it was like a French name, I believe. Oh, I don't know. I think I had one though. I thought it was Italian. It's similar to the word shimano or something, but it wasn't shimano. Yeah, that's Japanese. And I know what you mean. It's going to come to me. I wonder if it is Japanese. I'll bet it's Italian or something and I'm saying it's Japanese shimano. Yeah. I love it when we do these things that we can't think of something because we always get emails

where people like, oh, screaming in my home. The name. We're sorry for all of you. Campanelli? Campanelli? Yeah, that sounds close. It's not so close that we're not going to get emails, but those of you screaming right now, settle down. Ravioli, get ahold of yourselves. Podcast. If you want to learn more about the foreign legion, you can type that word or those words into the search bar at howstuffworks.com and that will bring up this fine article. There you go. And I said, search bar, so it's time for Listener Mail. I guess before we get into that, Chuck, you want a message from our sponsor? Let's do that. What would you do if a secret cabal of the most powerful folks in the United States told you,

hey, let's start a coup? Back in the 1930s, a marine named Smedley Butler was all that stood between the US and fascism. I'm Ben Bullock and I'm Alex French. In our newest show, we take a darkly comedic and occasionally ridiculous deep dive into a story that has been buried for nearly a century. We've tracked down exclusive historical records. We've interviewed the world's foremost experts. We're also bringing you cinematic historical recreations of moments left out of your history books. I'm Smedley Butler and I got a lot to say. For one, my personal history is raw, inspiring, and mind blowing. And for another, do we get the mattresses after we do the ads or do we just have to do the ads? From I Heart Podcast and School of Humans, this is Let's Start a Coup. Listen to

Let's Start a Coup on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you find your favorite shows. I'm Dr. Romany and I am back with season two of my podcast, Navigating Narcissism. Narcissists are everywhere and their toxic behavior and words can cause serious harm to your mental health. In our first season, we heard from Eileen Charlotte, who was love bombed by the Tinder swindler. The worst part is that he can only be guilty for stealing the money from me, but he cannot be guilty for the mental part he did. And that's even way worse than the money he took. But I am here to help. As a licensed psychologist and survivor of narcissistic abuse myself, I know how to identify the narcissist in your life. Each week, you will hear stories from

survivors who have navigated through toxic relationships, gaslighting, love bombing, and the process of their healing from these relationships. Listen to Navigating Narcissism on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. MySpace was the first major social media company. They made the internet, which up until then had been kind of like a nerdy space, feel like a nightclub, and also slightly dangerous. And it was the first major social media company to collapse. Rupert Murdoch lost lots and lots of money on MySpace because it turned out it was actually not a good business. My name is Joanne McNeil. On my new podcast, Main Accounts, The Story of MySpace, I'm revisiting the early days of social

media through the people who lived it, the users. Because what happened in the MySpace era would have sweeping implications for all the platforms to follow. Listen to Main Accounts, The Story of MySpace, on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you find your favorite shows. And now it's time for Listener Mail. Yeah. This is from Donato, and it's about altopsies. Dudes, just finished listening to how altopsies work, wanted to mention a couple of things. I'm currently in law enforcement and have attended a few of them. My first one was really fascinating. The ME tried to get me to vomit by handing me a brain to pass to his assistant, but it actually really turned out to be extremely

exciting for me. So screw you, ME. I'm not vomiting. Look at me. I'm juggling this brain. I'm excited. I wanted to point out you did not mention the extraction of vitreous fluid from eyeballs using a needle. That part was a little freaky to me. I have to admit. And after a couple of times asked why it was done, which leads me to toxicological examination. Fluids and samples from some organs are sent for examination in these cases. And in my experience, MEs will not provide a final autopsy before toxicology results come back. And lastly, the difference between cause and manner of death, COD and MOD. They are used interchangeably often, but COD is the physiological mechanism responsible for death where MOD is the explanation of how the COD came

to be. For example, asphyxia is the COD and murder is the MOD if a person is smothered with their pillow. So COD can be considered purely medical while the MOD is a combination of medical and investigative and evil. And evil. So I hope it did not double tap something you guys covered. Oh, that's an old timey reference. Nice call out to Green Berets. Delta Force. Delta Force. Thank you, Donato. Thanks, Donato. Appreciate that. He's written in before. Awesome. Thanks for writing in again. Has he made listener mail before? No, I'll tell you what he wrote in before or after. Okay. I just winked at Chuck. If you want to write in, you can write in as many times as possible. See if you can get on listener mail twice. I don't think anyone ever has, right?

Well, Sarah, the amazing 11, 12, now 13, 14, probably 15-year-old. Yeah, that's right. Thank you for correcting me. And Sarah, come on. We haven't had a letter in a while. Yeah, it's been a long time. We don't know how drama class is going and all that stuff. Geez, get on it. All right. If you want to get in touch with us, you can tweet to us at syskpodcast. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuff you should know. And you can join us at the Universal Church of Chuck and Josh, stuffyoushouldknow.com. Stuff You Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts on My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

What would you do if a secret cabal of the most powerful folks in the United States told you, hey, let's start a coup? Back in the 1930s, a marine named Smedley Butler was all that stood between the U.S. and fascism. I'm Ben Bullitt. I'm Alex French. And I'm Smedley Butler. Join us for this sordid tale of ambition, treason, and what happens when evil tycoons have too much time on their hands. Listen to Let's Start a Coup on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you find your favorite shows. MySpace was the first major social media company. They made the internet feel like a nightclub. And it was the first major social media company to collapse. My name is Joanne McNeil. On my new podcast, Main Accounts, the story of MySpace, I'm revisiting the early

days of social media through the people who lived it. Listen to Main Accounts, the story of MySpace on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you find your favorite shows. I'm Dr. Romany, and I am back with season two of my podcast, Navigating Narcissism. This season, we dive deeper into highlighting red flags and spotting a narcissist before they spot you. Each week, you'll hear stories from survivors who have navigated through toxic relationships, gaslighting, love bombing, and their process of healing. Listen to Navigating Narcissism on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.