George Crile - Charlie Wilsons War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History

Praise for Charlie Wilsons War:

A vivid narrative Charlie Wilsons War is a behind-the-scenes chronicle of a program that is still largely classified. Few people who remember Wilsons years in Washington would discount even the wildest tales.

David Johnston, The New York Times Book Review

Who can possibly resist a story about a maverick Texas congressman who managed to bring the Soviet Union to his knees? Charlie Wilsons War is a cross between Tom Clancy and Carl Hiaasen, with the distinguishing feature that its all apparently true.

Gerard DeGroot, The Christian Science Monitor

Charlie Wilsons War reads like a best-selling novel. Criles globe-trotting research and adroit writing have produced a vastly entertaining book that outmuscles most spy novels in its quota of sheer thrills and chills.

John Marshall, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

What a tale, what a yarn. Good Time Charlie Wilson of Lufkin, Texas, noted boozer and pussyhound, teams up with a rule-bending CIA agent to secretly funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to the mujahideen of Afghanistan. Over the years, they slowly bleed the Red Army to defeat, ultimately causing the fall of the Soviet Union. I know it sounds far-fetched, even fantastic, but Crile has boatloads of evidence to back up his thesis. This has to be one of the wildest stories ever told. Its a whale of a tale and I recommend it highly.

Molly Ivins, The Texas Observer

Criles account is important, if appalling, precisely because it details how a ruthless ignoramus congressman and a high-ranking CIA thug managed to hijack American foreign policy.

Chalmers Johnson, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Irresistible The story of this odd and world-shaping partnership really cant be believed until Crile and his thorough reporting gradually make it clear that yes, it all really happened.

Steve Kettman, San Francisco Chronicle

[Crile] has hold of a story here that everyone else missed an extraordinarily entertaining piece of reportage that has much to tell us about how the United States armed a group of people who are now using the weapons we provided them to kill us.

Charles Taylor, Salon

Practically impossible to put down will keep even the most vigorous critics of this Contra-like affair reading to the end.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Crile has raised the bar on books of this sort. It has more political intrigue, more suspense, more intense psychological analysis, and more technological know-how than anything Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum could fantasize about. And it has something else besides: Its true.

Shannon Friedman, Charleston Gazette

Vibrant storytelling An entirely new take on Reagan-era history with international sweep and modern implications, neatly laid over the intriguing, untold inner workings of [the CIA].

Jan Jordan, Houston Chronicle

A gripping read for students of the Cold War, anyone who wants the lowdown on how their tax dollars really get spent, Central Asian junkies or those who delight in cloaks, daggers, and plausible deniability.

The Economist

This I-cant-believe-its-not-fiction tale has it all: a Marlboro Man handsome leading man, a parade of impossibly gorgeous women, sex, and spies. But Criles book is also a disturbing meditation on the unintended consequences of a U.S. foreign policy so single-mindedly focused on beating the Soviets that we unwittingly helped arm and organize a new Evil Empire.

Kathy Kiely, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A bizarre chapter of contemporary history that could have been written by Ian Fleming, Charlie Wilsons War is a true tall tale of silver screensized characters that, for better or worse, changed the world and it goes a long way toward answering the question asked by many Americans: Why do they hate us?

Mary Brown Malouf, The Salt Lake Tribune

If you like tell-all books about the unbelievable things that our elected folks can do for you, you will love this book. Charlie Wilsons War has it all, as well as an explanation about how our most feared enemy, Osama bin Laden, got his start with a little unintended help from his friends right here in the United States.

Saralee Terry Woods, The Nashville City Paper

An amazing tale, made all the more amazing because it was missed by the press. George Crile has written a book revealing the extraordinary details and intrigue of a secret war, and that alone would be a monumental achievement. But he has also written a book about how power works in Washington, about how the CIA succeeded in this war but failed because it armed an ally who became our enemy, about how we might better understand Islamic fundamentalism, about how a solitary Congressman guilefully moved the U.S. government, and all of this comes with a breathtaking cast of characters worthy of a Le Carr novel. Only its all true. And just as vivid.

Ken Auletta

The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times

GEORGE CRILE

Copyright 2003 by George Crile

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 or permissions@groveatlantic.com.

Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Crile, George.

Charlie Wilsons war : the extraordinary story of how the wildest man in
Congress and a rogue CIA agent changed the history of our times / George
Crile.

p.cm.

ISBN: 978-1-5558-4809-5 (e-book)

1. AfghanistanHistorySoviet occupation, 19791989Secret serviceUnited States. 2. Wilson, Charlie, 1933 3. United States. Central Intelligence Agency. 4. Military assistance, AmericanAfganistan. I. Title.

DS371.2 .C75 2002
958.1045dc20 2002019074

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
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New York, NY 10003

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To BARBARA LYNE,
without whom this story would not have been told

Four things greater than all things are,

Women and Horses and Power and War.

Rudyard Kipling, The Ballad of the Kings Jest

In little over a decade, two events have transformed the world we live in: the collapse of our Cold War nuclear foe, the Soviet Union; and the discovery, after 9/11, that we face a new global enemy in the form of militant Islam. Both have profoundly affected the United States, and in each instance Americans were caught by surprise, unable to explain what had triggered these events.

9/11 was a watershed, as stunning in its boldness as it was frightening in its message. To this day, we know little about how it all worked or what was in the minds of the men who carried it out. Other than a shared religious identity, about the only obvious common denominator among the nineteen terrorists was having spent time in Afghanistan.