page_title: Jean-Bédel Bokassa
section_title: Military career
hierarchical_section_title: Jean-Bédel Bokassa / Military career
caption_attribution_description: English: Jean-Bedel Bokassa while serving in the Foreign Legion in 1939 Русский: Жан-Бедель Бокасса в период службы в Иностранном Легионе в 1939 году
context_page_description: Jean-Bédel Bokassa, also known as Bokassa I, was a Central African political and military leader who served as the second president of the Central African Republic and as the emperor of its successor state, the Central African Empire, from his Saint-Sylvestre coup d'état on 1 January 1966 until overthrown in a subsequent coup in 1979.
  Of this period, he served about 11 years as president and three years as self-proclaimed emperor of Central Africa, though the country was still a de facto military dictatorship. His imperial regime lasted from 4 December 1976 to 21 September 1979. Following his overthrow, the CAR was restored under his predecessor, David Dacko. Bokassa's imperial title did not achieve international diplomatic recognition.
  In his trial in absentia, he was tried and sentenced to death. He returned to the Central African Republic in 1986 and was put on trial for treason and murder. In 1987, he was cleared of charges of cannibalism, but found guilty of the murder of schoolchildren and other crimes. The death sentence was later commuted to life in solitary confinement, but he was freed in 1993. He lived a private life in Bangui, and died in November 1996.
context_section_description: While serving in the Second bataillon de marche, Bokassa became a corporal in July 1940, and a sergeant major in November 1941. After the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, Bokassa served with an African unit of the Free French Forces and took part in the capture of the Vichy government's capital at Brazzaville. On 15 August 1944, he participated in the Allied forces’ landing in Provence, France, in Operation Dragoon, and fought in southern France and in Germany in early 1945, before Nazi Germany was toppled. He remained in the French Army after the war, studying radio transmissions at an army camp in the French coastal town of Fréjus.
  Afterwards, he attended officer training school in Saint-Louis, Senegal. On 7 September 1950, Bokassa headed to Indochina as the transmissions expert for the battalion of Saigon-Cholon. Bokassa saw some combat during the First Indochina War before his tour of duty ended in March 1953. For his exploits in battle, he was honored with membership of the Légion d'honneur, and was decorated with Croix de guerre. During his stay in Indochina, he married a 17-year-old Vietnamese girl named Nguyễn Thị Huệ. After Hué bore him a daughter, Bokassa had the child registered as a French national. Bokassa left Indochina without his wife and child, as he believed he would return for another tour of duty in the near future.
  Upon his return to France, Bokassa was stationed at Fréjus, where he taught radio transmissions to African recruits. In 1956, he was promoted to second lieutenant, and two years later to lieutenant. Bokassa was then stationed as a military technical assistant in December 1958 in Brazzaville, and in 1959 after a twenty-year absence he was posted back to his homeland in Bangui. He was promoted to the rank of captain on 1 July 1961. The French colony of Ubangi-Chari, part of French Equatorial Africa, had become a semi-autonomous territory of the French Community in 1958 and then an independent nation as the Central African Republic on 13 August 1960.
  On 1 January 1962, Bokassa left the French Army and joined the Central African Armed Forces with the rank of battalion commandant under then commander-in-chief Mgboundoulou. As a cousin of the CAR President David Dacko and nephew of Dacko's predecessor Barthélémy Boganda, Bokassa was given the task of creating the new country's military. Over a year later, Bokassa became commander-in-chief of the 500 soldiers in the Central African Army. Due to his relationship to Dacko and experience abroad in the French military, Bokassa was able to quickly rise through the ranks of the new national army, becoming the Central African Army's first colonel on 1 December 1964.
  Bokassa sought recognition for his status as leader of the army. He frequently appeared in public wearing all his military decorations, and in ceremonies, he often sat next to President Dacko to display his importance in the government. Bokassa frequently got into heated arguments with Jean-Paul Douate, the government's chief of protocol, who admonished him for not following the correct order of seating at presidential tables. At this time Mgboundoulou no longer advocated his status as leader of the army. At first, Dacko found his cousin's antics amusing. Despite the number of recent military coups in Africa, Dacko publicly dismissed the likelihood that Bokassa would try to take control of the country. At an official dinner, he said, "Colonel Bokassa only wants to collect medals and he is too stupid to pull off a coup d'état".
  Other members of Dacko's cabinet believed that Bokassa was a genuine threat to the regime. Jean-Arthur Bandio, the minister of interior, suggested Dacko name Bokassa to the Cabinet, which he hoped would both break the colonel's close connections with the CAR army and satisfy the colonel's desire for recognition. To combat the chance that Bokassa would stage a coup, Dacko created the gendarmerie, an armed police force of 500 and a 120-member presidential security guard, led by Jean Izamo and Prosper Mounoumbaye, respectively.
caption: Bokassa in 1939
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