George Crile III - Charlie Wilson's War

In the late 1980s Crile began the research and reporting on the Afghan War that led to his 2003 best-selling book, Charlie Wilson's War, which tells the story of how the United States funded the only successful jihad in modern history, the CIA's secret war in Afghanistan that gave the Soviet Union their own Vietnam. The support for the Afghans, which took place via a Pakistani corridor, according to some strained interpretiations led to a later jihad against westerners, which Crile claimed to have foreseen.

Charlie Wilson’s War has been widely and favorably reviewed and is currently in its 10th printing. It is the basis of the Tom Hanks/Mike Nichols film, Charlie Wilson's War, which was released by Universal Studios in December 2007.