Book Review - Charlie Wilson's War
I wrote a while ago about a book I was reading, Charlie Wilson’s War, which I finished a few weeks ago. This book, highly recommended by my brother, is the true story of how Congressman Charles Wilson and CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos colluded to fund and provide Afghan Mujahideen with arms to fight the Soviets in the 1980s. There are two part two this book, political and personal. Politically, the book shows how one person, on the right Congressional Committees, can exert enormous power. Congressman Wilson was the single driving force that led to hundreds of millions of dollars being funded to arms the Mujahideen. He also coordinated (almost all illegally) matching funds from Saudi Arabia for arms, political support from President Zia of Pakistan, and weapons the Israeli government (yes for Muslims in Afghanistan). Personally, Charlie Wilson was an alcoholic who had a thing for models, socialites, belly dancers, and killing Russians. As I mentioned earlier, the story also focused significantly on Gust Avrakotos, a rogue CIA agent that broke many a law to help Charlie Wilson’s crusade in Afghanistan. Both Avrakotos and Wilson grew up during the cold war and had intense personal hatred for the Russians. Although Gust was interesting, the book spent way too much time on him (perhaps because he contributed to the author so much). I would have rather seen such an in-depth profile of Pakistan President Zia, a military dictator who acted as a “father” to Charlie Wilson, risked being invaded by the Soviets in order to help the Afghans, and managed to get millions in aid from the US government on the condition that he wouldn’t build an “Islamic Bomb” (which he still tried to do anyway). Two other people who seemed more interesting the Gust were Mike Vickers and Joanne Herring. Vickers was a brilliant young, low-level CIA agent (and former green beret) who was placed in charge (unofficially since he was so low-level) of the strategic-arms plans for the entire Afghan program. Joanne Herring was a beautiful rich Texas socialite who used her social events to manipulate US foreign policy. It was Joanne that introduced Wilson to the Mujahideen and to President Zia.
As a piece of literature, the book was good, well-written but drifted off topic too often. I would give this book a 7.4 out of 10. If you don’t know that much about the history of Afghanistan or how our government works, this book would be a real eye-opener.
I was reading Mayday by Nelson Demille (recommended by my father) but I misplaced it before my honeymoon. So I picked up a copy of Angels and Demons (the prequel to the Da Vinci Code). I’m more than half way through and have been disappointed with most of it, yet the writing style really keeps you wanting more. The story is basically the same as the Da Vinci Code, except this one doesn’t seem nearly as insightful.
As a piece of literature, the book was good, well-written but drifted off topic too often. I would give this book a 7.4 out of 10. If you don’t know that much about the history of Afghanistan or how our government works, this book would be a real eye-opener.
I was reading Mayday by Nelson Demille (recommended by my father) but I misplaced it before my honeymoon. So I picked up a copy of Angels and Demons (the prequel to the Da Vinci Code). I’m more than half way through and have been disappointed with most of it, yet the writing style really keeps you wanting more. The story is basically the same as the Da Vinci Code, except this one doesn’t seem nearly as insightful.
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