Historian Bernard Fall records, based on Langlais' memoirs, that Colonel Langlais and his fellow paratroop commanders, all fully armed, confronted de Castries in his bunker on 24 March.

In the opening scenes of Red Dawn, he played the paratroop commander, and later the knife-wielding Russian tank commander gunned down at the service station.

As a paratroop commander, Grachev reasoned that a sovereign Russia would need an army, and therefore a defence minister.

The election is for governor of the Krasnoyarsk Province, to replace Aleksandr I. Lebed, the colorful former paratroop commander who died in a helicopter crash in April.

Mr. Chavez, a former paratroop commander who staged an unsuccessful military coup in 1992, has so far shown little respect for the compromises necessary in a democracy, which Venezuela has had for 40 years.

As a paratroop commander in Afghanistan he had seen it all before, and he vowed to stop it at once.

Lieutenant-Colonel Mathieu, the paratroop commander, is the principal French character.

Lieut. Gen. Ivan Babichev, a paratroop commander who was leading one of the three columns advancing on Grozny, halted his troops last week and said he would not fire on civilians.

Mr Chavez, a former paratroop commander who was first elected in 1998, has repeatedly vowed to beat cancer, fully regain his health and sail to a victory in next year's presidential election.

He steadily worked his way up the ranks, serving as a paratroop commander in both the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, and earning two Medals of Valor.