THERE ARE A LOT of words one could use to describe former congressman Charles Wilson–drunkard, sleazy, womanizer, patriot–but the one that most comes to mind in my dealings with him was simply “persistent.”
Wilson, whose role in supporting the Afghan mujahedin in their war against the Soviets in the 1980s has become the stuff of a best selling book (Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile, a long-time CBS news producer) and now a ticket-selling movie success of the same name, was a tall, lanky populist Democrat from East Texas. Wilson had first been elected to Congress in 1973 and, by the time the Afghan war had broken out, by hook and by crook, he had made his way well up the seniority ladder of the all-powerful House appropriations committee. It was there he could protect aid to Israel, keep money flowing to Somoza in Nicaragua, and–eventually–pour money into the “covert war” the CIA was quasi-supporting and quasi-directing in Afghanistan.
