Marcel Bigeard
French military officer
Died when: 94 years 124 days (1132 months)Star Sign: Aquarius
Marcel Bigeard (February 14, 1916 – June 18, 2010), personal radio call-sign "Bruno", was a French military officer and politician who fought in World War II, the First Indochina War and the Algerian War.
He was one of the commanders in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and is thought by many to have been a dominating influence on French "unconventional" warfare thinking from that time onwards.
He was one of the most decorated soldiers in France, and is particularly noteworthy because of his rise from being a regular soldier in 1936 to ultimately concluding his career in 1976 as a Lieutenant General and serving in the government of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
After leaving the military, Bigeard embarked on a political career serving as deputy of Meurthe-et-Moselle from 1978 to 1988 and became a prolific author.
His final years were marked by a controversy surrounding allegations that he had overseen torture during the Algerian conflict; he denied the allegations of personal involvement, though defended the use of torture during the war as a necessary evil.
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