Jeannou Lacaze was an officer of the French Foreign Legion. He notably commanded the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP). The son of a non-commissioned officer in the French Gendarmerie and of an Annamite woman of Chinese origin, he was born on February 11, 1924, in Hué, French Indochina. Repatriated to metropolitan France at a very young age following his father’s recall, he grew up and completed his secondary education in the Bordeaux area.
Deeply affected by France’s defeat in June 1940 at the start of World War II, he chose a military career. In 1943, he first enlisted in the Chantiers de jeunesse (a Vichy-era youth paramilitary organization) and, in June 1944, he joined the French Forces of the Interior (FFI), part of the French Resistance. Appointed as an aspirant (officer-cadet) in the 78th Infantry Regiment (78e RI), he continued his military service after the Liberation of France. In 1945, he entered the prestigious French military academy in Saint-Cyr and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He graduated in 1947 from the Infantry Application School at Auvours.
Upon completion of this training, he opted for the Foreign Legion. He received an assignment to the 1st Foreign Infantry Regiment (1er REI) at Le Kef, Tunisia, where he was promoted to lieutenant. Designated for the Far East, where he hoped to find his mother again, he joined the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) as a platoon leader in the 3rd Battalion and fought in the First Indochina War (1946-1954). On January 5, 1948, he was seriously wounded during the assault on the village of Hô Chim and was repatriated for medical reasons. At the end of 1948, he rejoined the 2e REI, this time in Algeria. He then returned to Indochina with the regiment, where he commanded a platoon in the 2nd Company of the 1st Battalion.
After returning to France in 1951, he was assigned to a Moroccan Tirailleurs regiment. During the 1950s, he served with the Army Technical Section, an organization responsible for conducting and monitoring armament operations, and was promoted to captain. Admitted in 1954 as a trainee to the Advanced Scientific and Technical Military Education program, he rejoined the Technical Section the following year. There, he served as an experimental officer within the “Infantry” group. In 1958, he was assigned to the 129th Infantry Regiment (129e RI).
From 1959 to 1962, he served with the 11th Parachute Shock Demi-Brigade (dubbed 11e Choc) during the Algerian War (1954-1962). He was promoted to major in 1960. From 1962 to 1965, he held staff positions with the 1st Military Region in mainland France. In 1965, he was admitted by selection to the War College (École supérieure de guerre; 79th class) and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
On July 18, 1967, he returned to the Foreign Legion and assumed command of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP), succeeding Colonel Arnaud de Foïard. Promoted to colonel in 1969, he led the regiment during Operation Limousin in Chad in 1969–1970 and was cited in orders. This period constituted one of the high points of his career.
Lacaze left the Legion in April 1971. He was then called to join the external intelligence services, where he became director of the “Research” sector within the Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage (SDECE).
Promoted to brigadier general in 1974, he was appointed in 1976 as deputy commander of the 11th Parachute Division (11e DP). He advanced to the rank of major general in 1977 and commanded the 11e DP from 1977 to 1979. At the head of this division, he was in particular involved in the intervention of the 2e REP at Kolwezi, as well as in overseas operations in Lebanon and Mauritania. In 1980, he was promoted to the rank of army corps general and was appointed Military Governor of Paris.
Elevated in 1981 to the rank and title of Army General, he served as Chief of the Defense Staff (the highest ranked commissioned officer of France’s armed forces) from February 1981 to mid-1985. He left active service in early July 1985 after forty-one years of service. The following year, he became special adviser to the Minister of Defense for military relations with African countries linked to France by defense agreements.
After leaving active service, he also became involved in political life. From 1989 to 1994, he served as a Member of the European Parliament under the banner of the National Center of Independents and Peasants (CNIP), before founding the Union of Independents (UDI). In 1991, he published Le Président et le champignon (The President and the Mushroom), a work in which he set out his reflections on French defense after the end of the Cold War.
Jeannou Lacaze died in Paris on August 1, 2005, at the age of eighty-one. A widower, he was the father of five children. A Grand Officer of the Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honor), he held the Croix de guerre des théâtres d’opérations extérieurs (Foreign Theaters of Operations War Cross) with three citations, the Croix de la Valeur militaire (Military Valor Cross) with three citations, the Volunteer Combatant’s Cross (1939–1945), and the Combatant’s Cross, as well as numerous foreign decorations.
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L’article en français : Général Jeannou Lacaze
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