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Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History |
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Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
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by George Crile
Sales Rank: 26932
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Discount: 34 %
List Price: $27.50
$18.15
At Amazon
on 6-19-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 416 pages
Published by: Atlantic Monthly Press April 2003
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0871138549
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0871138545
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
Weighs: 2 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
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, a six-feet-four-inch Texas congressman,liberal on social issues but rabidly anti-Communist, a boozer, engaged in serial affairs and wheeler-dealer of consummate skill. Only slightly less improbable is Gust Avrakotos, a blue-collar Greek immigrant who joined the CIA when it was an Ivy League preserve and fought his elitist colleagues almost as ruthlessly as he fought the Soviet Union in the Cold War's waning years. In conjunction with President Zia of Pakistan in the 1980s, Wilson and Arvakotos circumvented most of the barriers to arming the Afghan mujahideen-distance, money, law and internal CIA politics, to name a few. Their coups included getting Israeli-modified Chinese weapons smuggled into Afghanistan, with the Pakistanis turning a blind eye,and the cultivation of a genius-level weapons designer and strategist named Michael Vickers, a key architect of the guerrilla campaign that left the Soviet army stymied. The ultimate weapon in Afghanistan was the portable Stinger anti-aircraft missile, which eliminated the Soviet's Mi-24 helicopter gunships and began the train of events leading to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and its satellites. A triumph of ruthless ability over scruples, this story has dominated recent history in the form of blowback: many of the men armed by the CIA became the Taliban's murderous enforcers and Osama bin Laden's protectors. Yet superb writing from Crile, a sixty Minutes producer, will keep even the most vigorous critics of this Contra-like affair reading to the end.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A longtime Sixty Minutes producer investigates the expenditure of what eventually amounted to $1 billion a year to support Afghanistan's Mujahideen in their battle against the Soviets.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Reader Reviews
"Charlie Wilson's War" serves as best example of the direction which American "free" press shifts in the last few years. The direction of one sided, pro-government "journalism" which serves as one of the tools used to brainwash average American. No wonder to see it in the book written by George Crile, long time producer of the TV show "60 minutes". I read this book not from "average American" point of view. I read it as former Russian Airborne soldier, who was drafted at the age of 19 and sent to Afghanistan in 1984. 621 days of war I didn't want. 217 days of combat I couldn't forget. I read it as a soldier who had to watch his friends getting killed. Friends who was same as me, 18-19 years old. Who was drafted and didn't want to go to that war. But we had no choice. Friends who had to kill not for the triumph of USSR, but in order to survive. We were soldiers. I read this book as a Veteran who became journalist after the war and fought propaganda machine in the USSR, who was telling the truth about a war and had to leave his home in order not to get arrested for doing so. Mr. Crile is a very good writer and it is sad to see that he is an excellent "demagog" at the same time. He proudly presents Congressman Wilson as some kind of hero. The hero, who went around the legal system of the USA and built up a machine to train and finance extremists to fight "Evil Soviets" in Afghanistan. But he forgot to mention 75% of the side effects of his doing: 1. For the first few years of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, this was no war in existence. Not until US money started flowing and new "Hero Wilson's" trainees begun attacking Soviet troops and their supporters. As result of this war? Over ONE MILLION Afghans was killed and over 50.000 Russians. 2. The "Evil Russians" was mostly 18-19 years old kids, who were drafted and didn't want to be at this war. But Mr. Crile carefully forget to mention that. 3. Same as he carefully forget to mention that "Soviet supporters" then are now on the American side during antiterrorism fight in Afghanistan. Where American soldiers have to fight "formally known as freedom fighters", well grown on Wilson's financial and training "Miracle Whip". 4. Mr. Crile has interesting point: "After the last Soviet commander crossed the bridge back into what was then the USSR, '60 Minutes' asked Pakistan's President Zia ul-Haq: how was all this possible? Zia's simple reply: "Charlie did it." But he forgot to mention that this was not Wilson who did it. But President Gorbachev, who gave the orders for Soviet troops to leave Afghanistan and who stopped the bloodshed in torn apart country. PS: When did real journalism switched to one sided propaganda machine? When would we understand that cutting off the branch we are sitting on usually brings bad luck? I don't have an answer, but if I would want to read books by real American journalists? I would read books by Mark Hertsgaard. Reviewed by "russianwriter.net"
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Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
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Price: $18.15
Updated on 6-19-2008.
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