The True Story of Charlie Wilson (History Channel)

Makes James Bond look like a third grader.
I had never heard of this documentary until I first viewed it on THE HISTORY CHANNEL. Initially I thought it was some "action adventure" fiction type. It did not take long to figure out this was a real event that changed the history of the world: was responsible for kicking the Soviets out of Afghanistan and led to the demise of the Soviet Union.

What is so amazing is that one "on the wild side" U.S. senator and one "shunned/rouge" CIA agent was responsible for all of this. They did not just sit behind some desk either! They were on their own. Of course that is until near the very end when the CIA wanted some of the glory too.

This is a documentary you do not want to miss! The Hollywood version, "Charlie Wilson's War" staring Tom Hanks is; I'm sure a good movie but in no way can portray the real life events of of Charlie Wilson and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos.

The True Story of Charlie Wilson
I am a lawyer and actually knew Charlie Wilson from his first term in Congress--he appointed me an intern in his Washington office in 1974. I used a 4-minute clip from this movie of his explaining how he got into politics (a neighbor poisoned Charlie's dog when he was 13, and he skillfully organized constituents to vote the guy out of office by 16 votes) in a guest lecture I gave to a college government class on local politics. It was a big hit with the students. The movie is much more interesting than the Hollywood film starring Tom Hanks (even though Hanks does a great job) because it shows the real people and events, not actors and graphics.

The real Charlie Wilson in his own words
If you want to meet the real Charlie Wilson and the real exchanges that took place as he forstered the Afgan effort to drive the Russians out of of Afganistan, then you'll want to see the History Channels "True Story". It involves so much detail about how things get done in Washington and in Congress that if your like me you'll watch it over and over. This is no movie made up by Hollywood, but, except for some parts, it puts together documentary scenes with the protagonist himself, Congressman Charlie Wilson, telling story, how he got Congress to fund the weapons and supplies to the Afgans, how he made visits to the right world leaders to help instigate it, and without a lot of publicity.

One scene that the History Channel had that unfortunately did not get onto the DVD is the finale of the Russians, as they were leaving Afghanistan across freedom bridge, requested that Charlie show up in military uniform. Charlie thought the Russians were going to shoot him since he was...

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