Charlie Wilson (politician, 1933)

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Charles Wilson

Charles Nesbitt "Charlie" Wilson (born June 1, 1933 in Trinity , Texas , † February 10, 2010 in Lufkin , Texas) was an American politician . He was a Texas Congressman for the Democratic Party and a former American naval officer. He is best known for his leading role in the largest covert CIA operation in history, which supported the Afghan mujahideen in resisting Soviet intervention ( Operation Cyclone ). The 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War , on which a 2007 movie with the same title is based, deals with this period of his life.

Youth and education

Wilson was born in Trinity , Trinity County , Texas and graduated from Trinity High School in 1951. He then enrolled at the United States Naval Academy , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1956 .

Political career

As an adult, initially politically uninterested, he volunteered to support John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign . In 1960, he decided to run for office in Texas while on a thirty day vacation from the Navy - although Navy regulations prohibit serving as an active soldier for public office. With the support of family and friends, he managed to achieve this goal in 1961 and became a member of the Texas House of Representatives for constituency 18 (Trinity) . In 1966 he was elected to the Texas Senate in Constituency 6 (Lufkin) . Before he was elected to the United States House of Representatives for the Democrats in 1972, also in the constituency of Lufkin, his dissolute lifestyle had given him the nickname “Good Time Charlie” (German: “Partylöwe”).

Soviet-Afghan War

Wilson read an article in the Associated Press in 1980 about hundreds of thousands of people who fled Afghanistan - a fact that until then had received little attention from the American public. Since Wilson had recently been appointed to a budget control committee of the CIA, he made sure that the budget for the covert " Operation Cyclone " from 20 to 30 million US dollars in 1980 to 630 million US dollars a year 1987 increased. This budget had a significant impact on the mujahideen military equipment and the development of the war in Afghanistan .

retirement

After he did not run in the 1997 congressional elections, he retired to Lufkin, where he lived until his death. In February 1999 he married Barbara Alberstadt, whom he had already met in 1980 at a party in Washington, DC . In September 2007 he underwent a heart transplant. Three months later, Charlie Wilson was present at the film premiere of Charlie Wilson's War in LA and said, touched, "You have been good to me."

On February 10, 2010, Charlie Wilson died of another heart attack in his hometown of Lufkin at the age of 76 .

literature

  • George Crile: Charlie Wilson's War. Seeliger, Wolfenbüttel 2008, ISBN 978-3-936281-32-3 (English: Charlie Wilson's War. The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times. New York 2003.).

filming

" These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world ... and then we fucked up the end game. "

“ These things happened. They were glorious and changed the world ... and then we screwed it up. "

- Charlie Wilson : Closing quote in the film

The quote refers to the lack of financial aid from the USA for the reconstruction of Afghanistan after the war.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Armorer of the Mujahideen , article from February 12, 2010 by Matthias Rüb on FAZ.NET
  2. ^ Peter Bergen: Holy War, The Free Press, New York 2001, p. 68.
  3. ↑ CIA in Afghanistan: The Legacy of Charlie Wilson

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wilson, Charlie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilson, Charles Nesbitt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 1, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Trinity , Texas
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 2010
Place of death Lufkin , Texas