40 Fun Facts About Charlie Wilson's War

At 13, Charlie Wilson first campaigned against a neighboring city official who had killed which of his pets?

His dog was fed crushed glass by the man next door, so the boy drove 96 voters to the polls. The official lost by 16 votes, and Wilson tells the story in the film.

Which two-time Best Actor winner plays the hard-partying Texas congressman of the title in Charlie Wilson's War?

Tom Hanks also produced the film, having bought the rights to the book that revealed the congressman's secret Afghan campaign.

In Charlie Wilson's War, which shoulder-fired American missile lets Afghan fighters bring down Soviet helicopters?

Stinger missiles proved so deadly that in the 1990s the United States ran a buy-back program to keep unused ones away from terrorists.

Which actress plays Joanne Herring, the socialite who draws Charlie Wilson into the Afghan cause?

Julia Roberts earned a Golden Globe nomination for the role. The real Herring, a former television talk show host, later founded a charity to rebuild Afghan villages.

Which future New York mayor investigates Charlie Wilson's alleged drug use in Charlie Wilson's War?

Rudy Giuliani ran the Justice Department inquiry, which was dropped for lack of evidence. In the film the congressman takes the good news by phone during a night out.

Which actor earned the only Oscar nomination for Charlie Wilson's War as the gruff CIA officer Gust Avrakotos?

Philip Seymour Hoffman drew the film's warmest reviews as the short-tempered spy, who makes his entrance by smashing his boss's office window in a rage.

What does President Zia arrange for Charlie Wilson to visit before flying home, a sight that hardens his resolve?

A refugee camp full of wounded Afghans leaves him heartbroken. The real Wilson said he came away determined to make the Soviets pay for what they were doing.

Which screenwriter adapted the book Charlie Wilson's War into the film's fast-talking screenplay?

Aaron Sorkin was hired in 2004 to adapt the book, and he later won an Oscar for writing The Social Network.

Charlie Wilson's War was the final film of which director, an Oscar winner four decades earlier?

Mike Nichols was one of the few entertainers to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, and he gave this war story a light satirical touch. His Oscar came for directing The Graduate.

In which city is Charlie Wilson's hot-tub party with strippers, the root of a later federal drug inquiry?

Las Vegas, at Caesars Palace in 1980, is where he was accused of using cocaine. In the film a television news report on Afghanistan pulls his attention from the party.

Through which country do the weapons reach the Afghan fighters in Charlie Wilson's War?

Pakistan's intelligence service handled the delivery and the training, and in the film its president insists that all the aid must pass through him.

Charlie Wilson brokers a secret arms deal between Israel and which Arab country, with help from a belly dancer?

Egypt's defense minister is distracted by the dancer in Cairo while his deputy agrees to supply bombs and mines for the Afghan fighters.

Which government secretly matched American spending on Charlie Wilson's Afghan war dollar for dollar?

Saudi Arabia agreed to match the CIA's Afghan money, and when payments ran late the congressman and his CIA partner flew out to press the monarchy in person.

Charlie Wilson's War shot its overseas scenes in which country, where bad weather ruined one whole sequence?

Morocco's weather sent the crew to the mountains of California to finish the sequence, and the director defied anyone to tell the two apart.

Joanne Herring, the fundraising socialite of Charlie Wilson's War, comes from which Texas city?

Houston's affluent River Oaks neighborhood was her childhood home, and she spent about 15 years hosting a daytime talk show on the city's television.

What NATO name was given to the Soviet Mi-24 helicopter gunship feared in Charlie Wilson's War?

Hind gunships were known to Soviet pilots as flying tanks, yet a flaw in their engine layout left them highly vulnerable to heat-seeking missiles.

Which actress plays Bonnie Bach, Charlie Wilson's loyal administrative assistant on his trips abroad?

Amy Adams took the part just after her fairy-tale musical made her a leading lady, and one trade review praised her as sweetly savvy in it.

Which British actress plays Jane Liddle, a donor's daughter invited to Charlie Wilson's apartment?

Emily Blunt appeared in four films in 2007, this one among them, the year after The Devil Wears Prada gave her a breakthrough.

Which veteran character actor plays Doc Long, the subcommittee chairman Charlie Wilson must win over?

Ned Beatty plays the Maryland congressman who supervised the foreign aid budget. The real Long backed the Afghan cause, then lost his seat in 1984.

Which veteran Indian actor plays General Zia-ul-Haq, the president who asks Charlie Wilson for planes and guns?

Om Puri had already appeared in Hollywood films such as City of Joy and Wolf, the second of them for this same director.

Which journalist wrote the bestselling book behind Charlie Wilson's War but died before the film was released?

George Crile began researching the Afghan war in the late 1980s, and his book spent months on the New York Times best seller list.

The author of the book Charlie Wilson's War spent years producing reports for which CBS news program?

60 Minutes hired him in 1985, and he drew on 14 years of reporting on Afghanistan and the Middle East for the program when he wrote the book.

Charlie Wilson, the hawkish Texas congressman who armed the Afghan rebels, belonged to which political party?

Democratic and proudly so: his votes for Medicaid, a higher minimum wage and abortion rights earned him the nickname the liberal from Lufkin.

At which military college did Charlie Wilson collect the second-most demerits in the school's history?

The Naval Academy graduated him eighth from the bottom of his class in 1956, and only his roommate ever earned more demerits.

Charlie Wilson's hold over the CIA's secret Afghan budget came from his seat on which House committee?

Appropriations had a defense subcommittee that funded CIA operations, so when its new member asked to double the Afghan money, the request simply went through.

Which CIA honor, never before given to a civilian, does Charlie Wilson receive in the film's opening scene?

The Honored Colleague Award ceremony bookends the film: the story flashes back to 1980 from the stage and returns there for the final scene.

Gust Avrakotos cautions a celebrating Charlie Wilson with a Zen master's parable involving which animal?

A horse is central to the tale, an ancient Chinese parable in which good luck keeps turning into bad and back again. Gust tells it to warn that the victory may not last.

Gust Avrakotos smashes his boss's office window after being denied the CIA station chief's job in which city?

Helsinki was a real grievance: the CIA officer had taken a Finnish-language course for the posting before new superiors ruled him too unpolished for it.

The real Gust Avrakotos, Charlie Wilson's CIA ally, was moved aside after a memo opposing which secret operation?

The Iran-Contra affair struck him as the work of a lunatic fringe, but it had presidential support, so his warning was unwelcome and he was sent to the Africa Division.

Charlie Wilson's Afghan cause became part of which policy of backing anti-Soviet movements worldwide?

The Reagan Doctrine ended the need to hide where the weapons came from, which opened the way for American-made arms to go to the Afghan fighters.

What was the real code name of the CIA program to arm the Afghan mujahideen that Charlie Wilson championed?

Operation Cyclone began with shipments of antique British rifles and grew into one of the longest and most expensive covert operations the CIA ever ran.

The sole Oscar nominee from Charlie Wilson's War lost Best Supporting Actor to which No Country for Old Men star?

Javier Bardem won for playing the remorseless killer Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers' crime film, his first Oscar after an earlier nomination.

An early script for Charlie Wilson's War reportedly ended with which event, dropped after its star objected?

The September 11 attacks reportedly closed the first draft, and the finished film ends on the congressman's award ceremony instead.

In which country did Universal decide in 2008 not to release Charlie Wilson's War in theaters at all?

Russia's Universal office said the film simply would not make a profit, though bloggers there complained that it showed Soviets as brutal killers.

One historian said Charlie Wilson's War offered the same fantasy and escapism as which Sylvester Stallone film?

Rambo III sends its hero to help Afghan rebels fight the Soviet army, so the comparison was a pointed one from a scholar of Afghan warfare.

Three months before the film about him opened, the real Charlie Wilson underwent which major operation?

A heart transplant became necessary after years of heavy drinking, which German doctors had once warned him was causing the organ to fail.

Where was the real Charlie Wilson buried with full military honors after his death in 2010?

Arlington National Cemetery received him two weeks after he died, following a funeral at which a jazz band played his favorite songs between the eulogies.

Charlie Wilson joined the House Ethics Committee in return for a seat on which arts venue's board of trustees?

The Kennedy Center seat was a reward from the House Speaker, and he prized it mainly because it always gave him somewhere to take a date.

Which news anchor's report from Afghanistan catches Charlie Wilson's eye on television during his hot-tub party?

Dan Rather appears on the news wearing a turban, and the congressman is more curious about that than about the showgirls around him.

Which Mad Men star plays Henry Cravely, the CIA superior who passes over Gust Avrakotos in Charlie Wilson's War?

John Slattery plays the agency's head of European operations, and the film reached theaters in the year his run as the ad man Roger Sterling began.