Charlie Wilson's War is a 2007 film about Democratic Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who conspired with a rogue CIA operative named Gust Avrakotos to launch an operation to help the Afghan mujahideen following the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The film is adapted from George Crile's 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History[1] Directed by Mike Nichols, written by Aaron Sorkin, and starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, the film was nominated in 2007 for five Golden Globe Awards, including "Best Motion Picture."
Plot summary Urged on by his staunchly anti-communist friend and romantic interest, Joanne Herring, Wilson helps lead the effort to provide United States aid to the mujahideen. In the process, the film also reveals Wilson as a Congressman whose disdain for the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan is supplemented by his gregarious social life of women and partying. U.S. support for the mujahideen ultimately evolved into a policy known as the Reagan Doctrine, under which the U.S. assisted the mujahideen and other anti-communist resistance movements around the world. Controversial at the time, some now credit the policy with contributing to the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union and global communism, bringing about the end of the Cold War. Despite the victory, Avrakotos warns that unless there is a serious effort to help Afghanistan rebuild back into a stable society, there could be dire repercussions for both that nation and the USA. Unfortunately, Wilson finds exceptionally little enthusiasm in the government for even the modest measures he proposes to heed this warning and his efforts are frustrated. The film ends with Wilson receiving a major commendation for the support of the US clandestine services, but his pride is sadly tempered by his fears of what unintended consequences his secret efforts could yield in the future. Release and reception The film was originally set for release on December 25, 2007; on November 30, however, the timetable was moved up to December 21.
Charlie Wilson's War received generally favorable reviews from critics. As of December 24, 2007, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 83 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 129 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 67 out of 100, based on 36 reviews.
Reagan-era officials have criticized the movie, writes Bill Gertz, claiming it promotes the notion that the CIA-led operation funded Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and ultimately produced the September 11, 2001 attacks. Conservatives often assert that it was native Afghan fighters, not foreign Arabs like bin Laden, who received U.S. aid during the conflict. Historical context The policy of aiding anti-communist resistance forces in Afghanistan enjoyed considerable bipartisan support in the U.S. However, while Wilson was a Democrat, the policy's broader and highly controversial application around the world, in Angola, Cambodia, Nicaragua and other nations, was largely opposed by U.S. Democrats. The policy was mostly a creation of the conservative Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, whose foreign policy experts visited with these forces and advocated support for them. The policy was embraced by Reagan administration foreign policy and defense officials, who escalated conflict with these Soviet-supported governments, and Jimmy Carter himself later distanced himself from the policy's broader application and was a vocal opponent of U.S. aid to these movements.
Charlie Wilson has since recounted that, "I always, always, whenever a plane goes down, I always fear it is one of our missiles. Most of all I wanted to bloody the Red Army. I think the bloodying thereof had a great deal to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union."
Carter's National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski has stated that the U.S. effort to aid the mujahideen was preceded by an effort to draw the Soviets into a costly and presumably distractive Vietnam War-like conflict. In a 1998 interview with the French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Brzezinski recalled: "We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would...That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap...The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War.
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