Charlie Wilson's War
eBook - ePub

Charlie Wilson's War

  1. 560 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Charlie Wilson's War

About this book

The bestselling true story of a Texas congressman's secret role in the Afghan defeat of Russian invaders is "a tour de force of reporting and writing" (Dan Rather).
 
A New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times bestseller.
 
Charlie Wilson's penchant for cocktails and beauty-contest winners was well known, but in the early 1980s, the dilettante congressman quietly conducted one of the most successful covert operations in US history. Using his seat on the House Appropriations Committee, Wilson channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to support a ragged band of Afghan "freedom fighters" in their resistance against Soviet invaders.
 
Weapons were secretly procured and distributed with the help of an outcast CIA operative named Gust Avrakotos, who stretched the agency's rules to the breaking point. Moving from the back rooms of Washington to secret chambers at Langley, and from arms-dealers' conventions to the Khyber Pass, Wilson and Avrakotos helped the mujahideen win an unlikely victory against the Russians.
 
Adapted into a film starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War chronicles an overlooked chapter in the collapse of the Soviet Union—and the emergence of a brand-new foe in the form of radical Islam.
 
"Put the Tom Clancy clones back on the shelf; this covert-ops chronicle is practically impossible to put down. No thriller writer would dare invent Wilson." — Publishers Weekly
 
"An engaging, well-written, newsworthy study of practical politics and its sometimes unlikely players, and one with plenty of implications." — Kirkus Reviews

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Yes, you can access Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Political Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Author’s Note
  7. Introduction: A Strange Award at Langley
  8. Chapter 1: A Hot Tub in Las Vegas
  9. Chapter 2: Defender of Trinity
  10. Chapter 3: A Rogue Elephant in the Agency Woods
  11. Chapter 4: A Texas Bombshell
  12. Chapter 5: The Secret Life of Charlie Wilson
  13. Chapter 6: The Curse of Aliquippa
  14. Chapter 7: How the Israelis Broke the Congressman’s Heart and He Fell for the Muj
  15. Chapter 8: The Station Chief
  16. Chapter 9: Cocaine Charlie
  17. Chapter 10: The Congressman Takes His Belly Dancer to the Jihad
  18. Chapter 11: The Rebirth of Gust Avrakotos
  19. Chapter 12: The United States v. Charles Wilson
  20. Chapter 13 : The Seduction of Doc Long
  21. Chapter 14: Gust’s Secret
  22. Chapter 15: The Opening Salvo
  23. Chapter 16: Howard of Afghanistan
  24. Chapter 17: Cogan’s Last Stand 233
  25. Chapter 18: The Birth of a Conspiracy
  26. Chapter 19: The Recruitment
  27. Chapter 20: No Wasps Need Apply
  28. Chapter 21: Man of Destiny
  29. Chapter 22: Mohammed’s Arms Bazaar
  30. Chapter 23: The Senator and His Even Crazier Right-Wing Friends
  31. Chapter 24: Techno Holy Warriors
  32. Chapter 25: “The Noblest Smuggling Operation in History”
  33. Chapter 26: Dr. Doom Declares Charlie Dead
  34. Chapter 27: Charlie’s Irregulars
  35. Chapter 28: The Silver Bullet
  36. Chapter 29: The Other Silver Bullet
  37. Chapter 30: The Brown Bomber
  38. Chapter 31: “It’s My War, Goddamn It”
  39. Chapter 32: A Jihad to Remember
  40. Chapter 33: The Price of Glory
  41. Chapter 34: “Here’s to You, You Motherfucker”
  42. Epilogue—Unintended Consequences
  43. Source Notes
  44. Acknowledgments
  45. Index
  46. Footnotes