Fair Winds, Charlie Wilson

Charlie Wilson died February 10, 2010, ten days ago.  He was my Representative.  I will never forget these memories of the first Congressman I knew (and met), because they are impossible to erase.

When I was in the first grade, my teacher, Mrs. Robertson, was a big-time Democrat.  A lot of people in Texas were, back in those days.  Mrs. Robertson imbued a lot of her politics on me, including the slanders of Ross Perot, which I unwittingly, and to my parents’ surprise, took home in repetition.  So, naturally, I was as excited as she was to learn Governor Ann Richards and Charlie Wilson were coming to our town.  The year was 1987.

The elementary school was assembled in the parking lot of my hometown grocery store, which I would work at exactly ten years later in order to earn money to blow on CDs.  Then, being first graders, we sang songs in anticipation.  My wife was there, too, in the same class, and I had a crush on her then, when we were six.  Then I heard the helicopter approaching.  Yeah, that’s right, a freaking helicopter landed in the grocery store parking lot, and out jump the Governor and my Congressman, who, as I remember, was a giant.  At 6-foot-4, and with his personality, he seemed like a giant to most adults, too.

The speeches came and went, the content of which I cannot recall, but I do remember Charlie Wilson conversing with my teacher and all of us, and shaking our hands.  I shook his hand, and the deal was sealed.  I would never forget Charlie Wilson.

I knew Charlie Wilson was scandalous then, but I was not allowed to know why.  I will not discuss his personal exploits here; you can read all about them on his Wikipedia page, read the biography Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile, see the slimmed-down 2007 movie version, or my preference for a reference, Crile’s short piece, “Charlie Did It,” linked to here.

Instead of the tabloid material, I’d like to briefly address his two major successes: somehow getting re-elected; and defeating the Soviet Union.

So how exactly did the “Liberal from Lufkin” get elected – repeatedly – as the Congressional representative of one of the most socially conservative districts in Texas?  Simply put, he was proficient at accurately reading his Southeast Texan constituency and delivering for them.  He was a master of low-tax populism, replete with a healthy tolerance for cronyism, as long as he could “get the job done” for Historic Texas 2.  Along with his political astuteness, Charlie Wilson had an incredibly infectious personality and a general likability factor, which I observed first hand as a six-year old.

In the Congress, he was a genius at consensus-building, a man with loose convictions on matters that did not initially concern him, at least prior to the vote-trading.  Fiscal responsibility?  Nah, but these were different times, mind you.  Macroeconomics was being handled (quite well, I would offer) by Art Laffer and Jim Baker.

Although I now disagree with his domestic policy agenda, I, like Charlie Wilson, am a US Naval Academy graduate, a former surface warfare officer, and, in turn, an ardent anti-Communist.  In the Summer of 1980, Charlie Wilson embarked on a plan to alter history in that regard, while flexing the powers afforded to his station in government to levels previously unseen.

With the Saudis matching the U.S. dollar-for-dollar in aid to Afghan rebels, this one man was able to funnel over a billion dollars to fund a covert mission to eradicate Afghanistan of their Soviet occupants.  This man personally delivered much of this armament through the Khyber Pass to the Freedom Fighters in Afghanistan.  Mikhail Gorbachev called the Afghan-Soviet War a “bleeding wound.”  It was the only war the Soviets ever lost, and one year later, the USSR was no more.  Former President Zia of Pakistan credits this man with Afghanistan’s success, stating simply, “Charlie Did It.”

This man, when confronted with the truths of our current entanglements there, rejected the notion that his prior involvement had any true bearing on the situation.  No, he would deny the circumstances that inadvertently empowered the mujahideen, and eventually shaped today’s Taliban.  On the contrary, Charlie Wilson would defend the strategy he pursued, saying (with more colorful language) that we wouldn’t have “screwed it up” if we would have followed through with his mission to build schools and fund the development of, and eventually democratize, the fledgling Afghanistan.

He may have been right, but we will never know.  Regrettably, the course of history can’t turn back to take the path not travelled; it must proceed down the path it chose, and make the best of it, accepting the consequences therein.  This is true for both man and nation.  Charlie Wilson confronted his personal and political challenges with his boots on, dusting himself off again and again, with a glint in his eye, and a smile on his face.

So, to honor a man such as this, and to say farewell to a shipmate, I will be at Arlington Cemetery for his funeral this week, where he will be buried with full military honors.  Godspeed, Charlie.

“A gone shipmate, like any other man, is gone forever; and I never met one of them again.  But at times the spring-flood of memory sets with force up the dark River of the Nine Bends.  Then on the waters of the forlorn stream drifts a ship — manned by a crew of Shades.  They pass and make a sign, in a shadowy hail.  Haven’t we, together and upon the immortal sea, wrung out a meaning from our sinful lives?  Goodbye, brothers!  You were a good crowd.  As good a crowd as ever fisted with wild cries the beating canvas of a heavy foresail; or tossing aloft, invisible in the night, gave back yell for yell to a westerly gale.”

- Joseph Conrad