Non, je ne regrette rien

This table contains in itself infinite arguments, if I had to do them all, the average response of the viewers would be TL, NR, so I will be very tight and I will list a series of keywords for those who want to deepen the topics:

First Indochina War - French Foreign Legion - 1er BEP - war of liberation - decolonization - cold war - 
imperialism - Viet Minh - Dien Bien Phu - Algiers putsch  of 1961 or putsch des généraux - Vietnam War -

The First Indochina war began in December 1946 and lasted until July 1954, it was fought between the French colonial army and the liberation movement of Vietnam, of communist ideology, known as Viet Minh and supported militarily and financially by China. After long years of war, France supported economically by the USA, after the defeat of Dien Bien Phu renounced to the control of the Indochinese peninsula that lasted from 1852. The colonial dominion was subdivided into the states of the North-Vietnam, South-Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

The war was fought by the Colonial Army and by the Foreing Legion because the French Parliament forbidden the use of the Metropolitan Army.

The 1st Foreign Parachute Battalion (1er Bataillon Etranger de Parachutistes, 1er BEP) was a parachute battailon of the French Foreign Legion. It was created in Algeria in 1948 and was sent to Indochina in the same year. The bataillon was used intensively, and was dissolved for losses and reconstituted twice, to be later destroyed for the third time in the battle of Dien Bien Phu, virtually the entire 1st BEP fell into battle. For these reasons the battalion obtained the prestigious Fourraggère of the colors of the Médaille Militaire. The battalion was transformed into a Regiment in 1955, becoming the 1st REP. The regiment was dissolved in 1961 because it participated in the failed coup of the generals in 1961.

The paratrooper wears an American camouflaged suit from the Second World War, he is armed with a bolt-action rifle MAS 36, the French Military wear their Beret the other way round, with the specialization badges over the right eye, but to be honest they are the other nations that wear the beret the other way, because the first army corp that wore this kind of beret was that of the French Chasseur Alpine, with the yellow horn worn over the right eye.

In the table are drawn just French weapons, while, expecially in the early stage of the war,  French Colonial Army had issued a lot of US weapons, principally BAR LMG, M1 Carbine and Thompson Gun, the helmets and often the uniforms were American too. They were in use German weapons too, booty of war, first of all the MP40 SMG.  Then with the post-war economic recovery, French supplies became increasingly preponderant.  The  number in the abbreviation-name represent the years in wich the weapon was adopted, as you can see quite almost these weapons served the French Army in WW2.

The second Indochina War is well known as Vietnam War.