Charlie Wilson's War the movie

We went to see the movie Charlie Wilson’s War. The beginning statement said it is true story.

The movie is of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, played by Tom Hanks, who was not an outstanding congressman. It seems his only feat was to get re-elected. Then along came a very wealthy female Texan, played by Julie Roberts, who put a bug in his ear about how inhumanely the Russians were treating the people of Afghanistan. The congressman toured the refuge camps and was deeply touched.

The president of Afghanistan asked for U.S. help but Charlie knew the U.S. were nose to nose in the Cold War with Russia – so helping Afghanistan militarily or supplying defense weapons was out of the question.

With the help of the CIA convert department they figured out how they could supply the Afghanistan with weapons. Turn over Russian weapons, that was in a secret stockpile held by another middle east country…. And, in the long run, it was crucial in causing Russia to fold and ending the Cold War.

I thought it was a good movie. It showed how the political machine works and things were sidestepped.