Immortalized in 'Charlie Wilson's War,' former Texas Rep. Charlie Wilson helped arm Afghans to defeat the Soviets. Charlie Wilson dies

Former Rep. Charlie Wilson, a colorful 12-term congressman who pushed the covert action that helped Afghanistan rebels defeat the mighty Soviet Union, died Wednesday afternoon at a hospital in Lufkin, Texas.

Wilson, 76, was pronounced dead at 12:16 p.m. of cardiopulmonary arrest when he arrived in the emergency room of the Memorial Health System of East Texas, a hospital spokeswoman said.


Wilson, a Democrat, became a national celebrity in old age after Tom Hanks played him in a 2007 movie called “Charlie Wilson’s War,” a dramatic retelling of his push from Congress for the Reagan administration to support anti-Soviet forces in the country.

His nickname on Capitol Hill was "Good Time Charlie" because he loved his liquor and populated his staff ranks with young, attractive women. The 6-foot-4, cowboy-boot-wearing Texan was largely considered a political lightweight until he got serious about using covert funds to arm the Afghan resistance in the early 1980s.

His position on the powerful foreign operations subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee gave him the platform he needed to covertly funnel more than $1 billion to the Afghan cause. That money helped buy the Stinger missiles and other weapons the Afghans needed to challenge the Soviets.

Former Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas), who served in the House with Wilson for two decades, called him "an extraordinary public servant" who changed American foreign policy with his push to support the Afghan mujahedeen, who were fighting the Soviet Union’s massive army.

Frost told POLITICO that the stories about Wilson’s involvement "were completely true."

In a 2003 book, which the movie was based on, author George Crile called the effort “the biggest and most successful CIA campaign in history.” He said the two central figures behind the operation were Wilson and Gust Avrakotos, a CIA officer whom he worked with closely.

“Wilson so easily crossed the line into this covert arena that no one stopped to question his right to be there or worry about the precedent he might be setting,” Crile wrote.

What was perhaps most remarkable about the Afghanistan operation is that it stayed quiet for as long as it did. At a time when Congress was holding hearings on the Reagan administration’s support for the Contras in Nicaragua, a massive infusion of money was going to anti-communist Afghan rebels without any public notice.

Frost, the former congressman, also said that the portrayal of Wilson as a hard-drinking womanizer in the movie "Charlie Wilson's War" was, if anything, subdued.

Wilson's partying often got him into trouble. He was investigated in the 1980s by the House ethics committee and Rudy Giuliani, then a federal prosecutor, for marijuana and cocaine use, but no charges were ever brought against him. At one point, Wilson owned part of dance club called Elan on K Street. In 1983, Wilson was suspected of drunken driving when he lost control of his Lincoln and crashed into a Mazda on the Key Bridge.

"Tom Hanks underplayed him in the movie," Frost said. "Charlie was actually far more colorful than that."

Charlie Nesbitt Wilson was born on June 1, 1933. He graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis and served as a lieutenant before returning to the part of east Texas where he grew up. Legend has it that Wilson first got involved in politics when an incumbent on the City Council poisoned his dog. He served in the Texas House from 1960 to 1966 and then in the state Senate from 1967 to 1973.

He won his first House race in 1972, the same year Richard Nixon won reelection in a landslide.

His positions weren’t always popular with voters in his conservative district, especially on abortion and civil rights, but he put a great deal of energy into constituent services.

“While his personal lifestyle might not have been in sync with a majority of Lufkinites, his constituents saw that he was one of them, represented them and their interests and did a whole lot of other good stuff,” Norm Ornstein said Wednesday.

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Wilson described himself as "a liberal Democrat.”

“I believe in being a dove, but a heavily armed dove,” Wilson said. “I believe the Soviet Union did not mean us well. I despised the tyranny."

Wilson was disheartened when the administration of President George H.W. Bush did not support continuing increases in aid for Afghanistan when the Cold War had ended.

He decided to retire in 1996, resigning before his term ended, when Newt Gingrich was House speaker. For the first time, Wilson wasn’t part of the majority.

He then worked as a registered lobbyist — his clients included the government of Pakistan — for about a decade after he left Congress.

Wilson stopped drinking in 1998 and got married in 1999. Poor health and a desire to retire led him to move back to the district he had represented. In 2007, he underwent a heart transplant.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and a sister, Sharon Allison.

Said Frost, the former Texas congressman: "There will be no more Charlie Wilsons."

John Bresnahan and Laura Rozen contributed to this report.