Charlie Wilson's penchant for cocktails and beauty-contest winners was well known, but in the early 1980s, the dilettante congressman quietly conducted one of the most successful covert operations in US history. Using his seat on the House Appropriations Committee, Wilson channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to support a ragged band of Afghan "freedom fighters" in their resistance against Soviet invaders.
Weapons were secretly procured and distributed with the help of an outcast CIA operative named Gust Avrakotos, who stretched the agency's rules to the breaking point. Moving from the back rooms of Washington to secret chambers at Langley, and from arms-dealers' conventions to the Khyber Pass, Wilson and Avrakotos helped the mujahideen win an unlikely victory against the Russians.
Adapted into a film starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War chronicles an overlooked chapter in the collapse of the Soviet Union-and the emergence of a brand-new foe in the form of radical Islam.
"A vivid narrative.... Charlie Wilson's War is a behind-the-scenes chronicle of a program that is still largely classified.... In its time there was little dispute that the covert war was one of the most successful C.I.A. operations ever undertaken.... Few people who remember Wilson's years in Washington would discount even the wildest tales."
David Johnston, The New York Times Book Review
"Irresistible.... [A] thoroughly reported, painstakingly detailed and calmly written account.... The story of this odd and world-shaping partnership really can't be believed until Crile and his thorough reporting gradually make it clear that yes, it all really happened. Crile also sketches a variety of other figures in this drama with an eye for what makes them strange and interesting."
Steve Kettman, The San Francisco Chronicle
"Charlie Wilson's War is one of the most important books ever written about U.S. government covert operations.... [It's] such a sprawling tale that describing it adequately in a brief review is daunting."
