Charlie Wilson (Texas Politician)
Charles "Charlie" Nesbitt Wilson (June 1, 1933 – February 10, 2010) was a United States naval officer and former 12-term Democratic United States Representative from Texas's 2nd congressional district.
Wilson is best known for leading Congress into supporting Operation Cyclone, the largest-ever Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert operation which, under the Reagan administration, supplied military equipment including anti-aircraft weapons such as Stinger antiaircraft missiles and paramilitary officers from their Special Activities Division to the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. His behind-the-scenes campaign was the subject of the non-fiction book Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile and a subsequent film adaptation starring Tom Hanks as Wilson.
Read more about Charlie Wilson (Texas Politician): Early Life and Naval Career, Early Political Career Highlights, Congressional Politics, Support For The Somoza Government in Nicaragua, Soviet-Afghan War, "Good Time Charlie", Retirement, Death, Cultural References
Famous quotes containing the words charlie and/or wilson:
“Don’t pay any attention to Ah Ling. He has a mania for quoting Confucius. And Charlie Chan.”
—Joseph O’Donnell. Clifford Sanforth. Mrs. Houghland, Murder by Television, reassuring her friends after the houseboy has pointed out a sign of ill omen (1935)
“It has become a people’s war, and peoples of all sorts and races, of every degree of power and variety of fortune, are involved in its sweeping processes of change and settlement.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)