Charlie Wilson

Charlie Wilson

1933–2010

“If my constituents didn’t forgive sloppiness and a certain amount of eccentricity,” Democratic Rep. Charlie Wilson once said, “I wouldn’t be here.” Famous for his carousing, Wilson was later known for discreetly directing up to $5 billion in arms to the mujahedin, the Afghan rebels who fought the occupying Soviet army in the 1980s. His story was told in the 2003 book Charlie Wilson’s War, which became a hit movie starring Tom Hanks.

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A native of Trinity, Texas, Wilson graduated from Annapolis “eighth from the bottom of his class, with the distinction of accumulating the most demerits of any midshipman in memory,” said The Washington Post. After naval service, he spent 12 years in the Texas legislature and was elected to Congress in 1972. His trademarks were alcohol and a roving eye: Wilson had at least two midnight car crashes and staffed his office with comely workers known as “Charlie’s Angels.” In 1983, he was investigated on suspicion of having snorted cocaine with two showgirls in a Las Vegas hot tub. The case collapsed, and Wilson’s “reputation as a liquor-soaked party animal” only endeared him to voters. “Those good Christians, you know, believe in the redemption of sin,” he said.

A social liberal who served on the House Appropriations Committee, Wilson won his conservative constituents’ support by being hawkish on defense. Beginning in 1982, that involved helping the Afghan resistance, often with methods that ranged far beyond official appropriations. “When the Soviets deliberately killed camels and mules to cripple the fighters’ supply lines, Wilson flew in Tennessee mules,” said The New York Times. “When the CIA refused to provide the guerrillas with field radios, he sent an aide to buy $12,000 worth of walkie-talkies from Radio Shack.” After the Russians withdrew in humiliation from Afghanistan in 1989, Pakistan’s then president, Zia ul-Haq, was asked how the rebels had managed to win. He responded, “All I can say is, Charlie did it.”

Wilson retired from Congress in 1996. His second wife, a former ballerina, survives him.