The True Story of Charlie Wilson (History Channel)
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DVD details
Author: History ChannelBrand: A and E Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E HOME VIDEO
Product features:
- No one suspected that playboy Congressman Charlie Wilson and his partner Gust Avrakotos--an aggressive CIA agent nicknamed Dr. Dirty --would mastermind the covert arming of the Afghan Mujahideen in what became the largest and most successful campaign in CIA history. THE TRUE STORY OF CHARLIE WILSON profiles this unorthodox alliance, and chronicles the epic journey the two men undertook to guara
DVD Reviews of The True Story of Charlie Wilson (History Channel)
DVD Review: Diplomatic Kabuki
Summary: 4 Stars
When Henry Kissinger joined the Nixon administration, Daniel Ellsberg had a conversation with him about government secrets.
"Henry, you're about to get a lot of clearances higher than top secret that you did not know existed," said Daniel Ellsberg. "That's going to have a sequence of effects on you. First, a great exhilaration, you're getting all this great information that you didn't know even existed. And then you feel like a fool for not having known any of this. But that won't last long. Very soon, you'll come to think that everyone else is foolish. What would this expert be telling me if he knew what I knew? So in the end you stop listening to them."
I do not have access to the secret information that Ellsberg referred to, but I think I know why he felt foolish for not knowing the truth. Anyone who takes the story of Charlie Wilson at face value would probably feel extremely foolish after learning the truth. Again, I don't know the whole truth myself, but I can make a few guesses.
This documentary makes it seem like a boozing, womanizing congressman through sheer determination forced the U.S. government to help the Afghans defeat the Soviets. It makes it seem like, had Charlie Wilson not been there, we wouldn't have supported the Afghans properly and they would have lost. I can guarantee you that is not what happened.
Instead, the story of Charlie Wilson is what's called diplomatic kabuki. It's a form of theater. It's an elaborate negotiating strategy. To see this strategy in action, let's examine what happened when Charlie Wilson rear ended another car.
According to the documentary, Charlie Wilson needed to convince Clarence Long of the need to increase the funding for the Afghans. To do that, Wilson planned to take Representative Long to Paris on August 11, 1983. The night before, Wilson had nine Manhattans, got drunk, and hit another car on his way home. To avoid a DUI, he fled the scene. Once he got home, he telephoned his associates in Paris and told them what happened. That night, the police waited outside his apartment to arrest him. Eventually, his staff convinced the police to let him leave the country. Wilson went to Paris, Clarence Long decided to support the war, and Congress increased the assistance package by ten fold to $1 billion.
The documentary fails to mention what was going on in the rest of the world at that time. In Chad, a group of rebels backed by Libya were threatening to overthrow the current government, which America supported. Both the government of Chad and the U.S. government wanted France to send soldiers and aircraft to Chad to fight against the rebels. On August 7, France said it would not send soldiers or aircraft. Two days later, France reversed itself and said it would send 180 soldiers. Throughout the rest of the month, the French commitment to Chad continued to escalate until it committed 3,000 soldiers and 10 warplanes.
Two thousand miles to the northeast, in Lebanon, on August 10, the Druze started firing their artillery at the Lebanese army. The Lebanese Army returned fire. Some of the shelling hit the U.S. Marine peacekeeping force. A piece of shrapnel slightly wounded one Marine, Ailneal Morris. Robert C. McFarlane was visiting the Marine headquarters during the fighting. A rocket came within 500 yards of him. McFarlane promptly ended his visit. Lebanon has a long history with France. In the wake of World War I, France gained control of Lebanon as part of the French Mandate for Syria.
Of course, there may have been other issues that I'm not aware of, but let's examine these two issues and how they relate to Charlie Wilson. Here's my best guess as to what happened. America had been pressuring France to send more aid to Chad. France had been resisting. In an effort to fight back, France had either the Lebanese Army or the Druze fire a couple rounds at Robert C. McFarlane. This made America mad. America threatened to cancel the trip to Paris. Had America canceled the trip, the Afghans would not have gotten the aid. Presumably, France wanted America to give the Afghans that aid. In a series of last minute negotiations, France agreed to provide more help to Chad and America agreed to provide aid to the Afghans. The congressional delegation made its trip to France.
Again, what I've just outlined may not be right, but if it's not, something like that probably happened. Let's assume for the sake of argument that I'm right and let's examine the way in which France and America put pressure on each other. To put pressure on America, France had the Lebanese fire their artillery at the American military. Of course, France can't say, "Hey, I'm pissed that you want us to send soldiers to Chad so I'm going to shoot a couple of rounds at you and injure one of your soldiers." That could mean war. Instead, it had Lebanon fire those rounds while France could deny any involvement. Nevertheless, given the situation, America probably blamed France for what happened. But it couldn't prove anything. But it needed to respond. It responded by threatening to cancel the congressional trip to Paris. Of course, America could not say, "You guys just fired artillery at our soldiers and wounded one of them. We're going to retaliate by not sending aid to the Afghans." America couldn't say this because it had no proof. What it could do, though, was to have Charlie Wilson rear end another car on the Key Bridge. Then, it could have Wilson telephone Paris and say that the trip might not happen, not because of what happened in Lebanon, but because of a traffic accident. Now France had a choice. To save the trip, it would have to offer something to America. I imagine that France called the American government and told it that France would offer more support to the government of Chad. That probably satiated the American government. Upon hearing that, America probably informed the French government that the police would not arrest Charlie Wilson.
Description of The True Story of Charlie Wilson (History Channel)
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