 Léon M 'ba was one of the most loyal allies to France in Africa, even after the country's independence. In fact, France maintained 600 paratroopers and an air force unit, which included Mirage V and Jaguar jet fighters, at the Camp de Gaulle military base until at least 1987, a warning to any Gabonese coup plotters. M 'ba famously commented during a 1961 visit to France that "[a] ll Gabonese have two fatherlands: France and Gabon", [a] and Europeans enjoyed particularly friendly treatment under his regime. French journalist Pierre Péan asserted that M'ba secretly tried to prevent Gabonese independence; instead, he lobbied for it to become an overseas territory of France. He went so far as to say that "Gabon is an extreme case, verging on caricature, of neocolonialism."
