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Far from the clichés that see France’s armed forces, and in particular the army, as an archetypal conservative institution, no other state body has undergone such far-reaching restructuring and transformations, which have been almost non-stop over the last half-century. The two geostrategic about-turns of 1962 (withdrawing from conflict in Algeria to the French mainland) and 1989–1991 (implosion of the communist system and the end of the bipolar world order) were followed by necessary periods of adjustment that were sometimes chaotic, still involving the fervent desire for an armed-forces model with overall consistency. During this half-century, the army was to change in nature, certainly by becoming professional, but also by henceforth being restricted to the single function of a fighting instrument, whereas historically it had been responsible for an enormous “national military fabric” on behalf of the whole Ministry of Defense. What light does this throw on the current far-reaching transformations? This retrospective examination aims to assist with the analysis.