Charles Nesbitt Wilson (June 1, 1933 – February 10, 2010) was an American politician and naval officer who was a 12-term Democratic Representative from Texas's 2nd congressional district.

According to Wilson himself, he first entered politics as a teenager by running a campaign against his next-door neighbor, city council incumbent Charles Hazard.

Following this incident, Wilson obtained a driver's permit and drove ninety-six voters to the polls in his family's two-door Chevrolet.

As patrons left the car, Wilson told each of them that he did not want to influence their vote, but that the incumbent Hazard had purposely killed his dog.

While volunteering in Kennedy's campaign, Wilson took a 30-day leave from the U.S. Navy and entered his name into the race for Texas state representative of his home district on the Democratic ticket.

[10] In 1972, Wilson was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Texas's 2nd congressional district, taking office the following January.

Re-elected eleven times,[13] Wilson thoroughly enjoyed his job and always sought to "take care of the home folks" until his resignation on October 8, 1996.

[14] Charlie Wilson was known for his hawkish US military foreign policy and supported the DNC's platform on women's rights, social security, and abortion during the 1980s.

[15] This early achievement made his colleagues respect his political power and Wilson quickly earned an appointment on the United States House Committee on Appropriations.

During his incumbency, Wilson's colleagues regarded him as the "best horse trader in Washington" because of his ability to negotiate and trade votes with other congressmen to ensure passage of his favored bills.

Later, Wilson's close ties with Israel enabled him to collaborate with Israeli defense engineers to create and transport man-portable anti-aircraft guns into Pakistan to be used in the Soviet–Afghan War.

[citation needed] In 1980, Wilson read an Associated Press dispatch on the congressional wires describing the refugees fleeing Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.

The communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan had taken over power during the Saur Revolution and asked the Soviet Union to help suppress resistance from the Afghan mujahideen.

"[28] Michael Pillsbury, a senior Pentagon official, used Wilson's funding to provide Stinger missiles to the Afghan resistance in a controversial decision to supply the Mujahideen with U.S.-origin state of the art weaponry.

Joanne Herring, along with others, played a role in helping the Afghan resistance fighters get support and military equipment from the United States government.

About that visit, Wilson later said that "the experience that will always be seared in my memory, was going through those hospitals and seeing, especially those children with their hands blown off from the mines that the Soviets were dropping from their helicopters.

That was perhaps the deciding thing ... and it made a huge difference for the next 10 or 12 years of my life because I left those hospitals determined, as long as I had a breath in my body and was a member in Congress, that I was going to do what I could to make the Soviets pay for what they were doing!"

[30] However, Wilson's role remains controversial because most of the aid was supplied to Islamist hardliner Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has been accused of serious war crimes and later allied with the Taliban after the U.S.

Wilson was a self-proclaimed "ladies' man" and the news media reported on his exotic bedroom, complete with hot tub and handcuffs where he engaged in romantic affairs.

[3] While in Washington, Wilson became a functioning alcoholic and suffered from severe bouts of depression and insomnia, and his drinking intensified during his involvement in Afghanistan.

In 1980, Wilson was accused of using cocaine at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, but an investigation by Justice Department attorney Rudy Giuliani was dropped due to lack of evidence.

[44] Bringing women to Pakistan created tension between Wilson and the CIA in 1987 when the agency refused to fund his girlfriend's travel expenses.

[1] Wilson received a heart transplant in 2007, and continued to follow the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he expressed concerns about events in that region.

[47] "America has lost an extraordinary patriot whose life showed that one brave and determined person can alter the course of history," said Robert Gates, then United States Secretary of Defense.

[50] A six-piece jazz band punctuated each eulogy with Charlie's favorites "As Time Goes By", "My Way", and in honor of his years as a naval intelligence officer "Anchors Aweigh", and "Navy Hymn".

"He will be missed from the Golan Heights to the Khyber Pass, from the Caspian to the Suez and the halls in Congress, for his civility, and willingness to listen and help and not posture," said John Wing,[51] who worked closely with Wilson on global issues, the two forming a dynamic force in Afghanistan, as well as other regions.

[52] The front rows of the school's Temple Theater were packed with people such as Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, former U.S. Representative Martin Frost, former Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes and Houston gas titan Oscar Wyatt and his wife Lynn.

After Sunday's service, his widow Barbara welcomed a small group of her late husband's intimates to their home on the golf course in Lufkin.

[54] On December 27, 2007, the History Channel broadcast The True Story of Charlie Wilson, a two-hour documentary about the congressman's Afghan war efforts and his personal life.