 Former Texas Democratic Congressman Charlie Wilson spoke to an Irish Room packed with members of the BC community on Thursday night.
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It's going to take more than a heart transplant to take Charlie Wilson off his game.
Tom Hanks's latest alter-ego - the real Wilson - found himself facing a packed Irish Room on Thursday night, with students perched on windowsills and lining the room's perimeter.
"You make me feel like I'm at an Obama rally," he said.
The former Texas Democratic congressman, with his booming voice and imposing stature, delivered stories from his life and times in Congress with exactly the rugged flair and amiable brusqueness expected of him.
Everyone knows - or at least thinks they know - who Charlie Wilson is, based on Hanks's recent portrayal of him. The womanizing, hard-drinking, rough-and-tumble congressman - all true descriptors, he concedes - secured the money needed to help fund the pivotal Afghan victory over the Soviet Red Army in the 1980s.
But while the legacy of Wilson's days as a congressman lives on in the pages of George Crile's book, Charlie Wilson's War, and on the silver screen of Hollywood, the man behind the story emits a somewhat softer, wiser presence. Sober 10 years as of April 15, and with a new heart transplanted just six months ago, Wilson speaks with authority and insight not only on the past, but on the future of America - the country he fell in love with as a 14-year-old.
As a congressman, Wilson found himself at the helm of a subcommittee charged with defense appropriations, specifically in the vein of supporting CIA operations. After reading about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the plight of thousands of refugees, Wilson threw his political support behind sponsoring the largest-ever covert CIA operation to counteract that assault. Allocating over $300 million of defense funds, Wilson supplied Afghan Mujahideen fighters with weaponry, which eventually allowed them to defeat the Soviets, calling it "one of the most miraculous victories in the history of humankind."
"The Soviets hurled power of the entire Red Army into a religious country with no resources, no army, and poor, illiterate farmers," he said. "The world thought it would be a six-week-long walkover for the Red Army, which had terrorized the world for 50 years."
