Dominique Borella: French Soldier and Mercenary

After he turned 18 in 1954, Dominique Borella joined the French Far East Expeditionary Corps and was stationed in the French colony of Indochina. Borella and his fellow soldiers would face off against Ho Chi Minh’s communist guerilla forces. For his efforts in French Indochina, Borella received the Médaille Militaire and was one of the youngest recipients. With overconfidence building, Borella’s commanders decided to take the fight to the north to build a fortress at Dien Bien Phu in order to gain a foothold in the region. In about two months' time, the PAVN besieged the base with the result of an astounding amount of lives lost.

Around 2,000 French and about 4,000 Vietnamese soldiers were killed in action defending Dien Bien Phu. Even after the defeat, Borella still stayed in the country, being one of the last French soldiers to leave in 1956. His next stop; French Algeria. Borella received a transfer to French Algeria shortly after the loss of Indochina to Ho Chi Minh and the PAVN. French Algeria wasn't in much better shape, as a matter of fact, as of 1954, the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) had been formed to take back Algeria from the French.

Within two years of their formation, the FLN had become a brutal force to be reckoned with, from bombing cafes, to attacking police officers in the streets. France sent the Army to attempt to quell the wildfire growing in one of their last provinces and to hopefully restore order. Borella had since joined the elite 2e Parachute Regiment, part of the French Foreign Legion. Borella and his fellow Legionnaires fought for two years, during which Charles De Gaulle regained power and swore to keep Algeria French. By 1958, De Gaulle instead opted for Algeria to be decolonized instead. A portion of the French Army rebelled and formed the Organisation de l’armée secrète (OAS).

Borella joined up the OAS and helped them wreak havoc, in some of the same way the FLN had years prior. The OAS were shut down and locked up until 1962, when the French completely pulled out of Algeria, the OAS members were now free to go.  In the interim, Borella claims to have served in the Congo during the Simba Rebellion (63-65) and also in Biafra in the late 1960s. By 1973, Borella’s record of involvement with the OAS had been effectively wiped clean, and found a job in Algeria working for a shipping company. The quiet life did suit him as well as his new found life as a mercenary soldier. 

In 1974, Borella headed to Cambodia to help prevent the Khmer Rouge from conquering Cambodia. His pay was 3,000 reils a month, equivalent to about 75 francs. It is said he rarely, if ever collected his pay, but always made sure his men were paid fully, and on time. Borella and his men were deep in the Mekong fighting off the communist rebels. Borella’s men considered him invincible since he’d simply shrug off shrapnel during combat, and when the going got tough, he never wavered. By the time he got to speak with journalists, he no longer fought for money, his motivations were to defeat communism and to help liberate Cambodia from Pol Pot’s murderous maniacs. 

Borella also claimed that Russian and Chinese soldiers had boots on the ground alongside Khmer Rouge forces, but the Khmer Rouge refuted the claims. January 1st, 1975, the Khmer Rouge launched a massive attack on Phnom Penh that smashed the Cambodian government’s forces. Borella and his men dug in to defend the airport from the invaders and fought long enough for the Khmer Rouge to call a ceasefire. When it was safe, Borella and his men withdrew, and Borella made for the French embassy while the going was good, to avoid the Khmer Rouge death squads that were making their march through the streets.

By 1975, Borella found a new war to join, this time in Lebanon, where he joined the Phalanges to fight the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and where Borella would be killed in action. The circumstances surrounding his death are still very murky, but it is said a sniper ended his life in front of the Rivoli Cinema on Martyr’s Square. Other stories say he was captured by the PLO and tortured to death, or that a mortar hit his jeep.