Weekend Economists Make War on Charlie Wilson August 22-24, 2014

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2. Charlie Wilson's War bonus clip - Tom Hanks Who is Charlie Wilson?

Wilson's Early life and naval career

Wilson was born in the small town of Trinity, Texas, to Charles Edwin Wilson, an accountant for a local timber company, and Wilmuth (née Nesbitt), a local florist, on June 1, 1933. Wilson had one younger sister, Sharon Wilson Allison, former chair of Planned Parenthood and president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, who currently resides in Waco, Texas.

Growing up, Wilson attended Trinity public schools and, upon graduation from Trinity High School in 1951, he attended one semester at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, before being appointed to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. While at Annapolis, Wilson earned the second most demerits in the history of the academy (his roommate, Robert Mullen, earned the most demerits). Despite the excessive number of demerits Wilson graduated eighth from the bottom of his class in 1956 with a B. S. in Engineering, specializing in electronics.

Between 1956 and 1960, Wilson served in the United States Navy, attaining the rank of lieutenant and gunnery officer on a destroyer. While in the Navy, Wilson's commanders reported that he was the "best officer on ship but the worst in port." Wilson's exploits in port did not impede his career in the Navy and he was assigned to the Pentagon as part of an intelligence unit that evaluated the Soviet Union's nuclear forces.

Early political career highlights

From a young age, Wilson took an interest in national security and foreign matters. Growing up during World War II encouraged Wilson to avidly read military history, including numerous articles and other literature on the war. This led Wilson to have a lifelong reverence for Winston Churchill. Wilson even took the opportunity as a child to “keep watch” over Trinity for Japanese aerial attacks from his post in the back yard. Wilson's early sense of patriotism and his strong interest in international affairs encouraged him to become politically active later in life.

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. When Wilson was thirteen years old, Wilson's fourteen year old dog entered Hazard's yard. Hazard retaliated by mixing crushed glass into the dog's food, causing fatal internal bleeding. Following this incident, Wilson obtained a driver's permit and drove ninety-six voters, primarily black citizens from poor neighborhoods, to the polls in his family's two-door Chevrolet. As patrons left the car, Wilson told each of them that he didn't want to influence their vote, but that the incumbent Hazard had purposely killed his dog. After Hazard was defeated by a margin of 16 votes, Wilson went to his house to tell him he shouldn't poison any more dogs. Wilson cited this as "the day he fell in love with America."

While Wilson worked at the Pentagon, he volunteered to help in John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. While volunteering in Kennedy's campaign, Wilson took a 30-day leave from the Navy and entered his name into the race for Texas state representative of his home district on the Democratic ticket. This action violated Navy regulations, as active-duty service members are prohibited from holding public office. When Wilson returned to duty, his family and friends went door to door campaigning. In 1961, at age 27, he was sworn into office in Austin, Texas.

Temple Inland, Inc., an East Texas forest products producer owned by Arthur Temple, Jr., and Temple's son, Buddy Temple, employed Wilson during his incumbency in the Texas legislature, but business interests were nevertheless suspicious of Wilson's policies. While serving as a Texas state representative for twelve years, Wilson battled for the regulation of utilities, fought for Medicaid, tax exemptions for the elderly, the Equal Rights Amendment, and attempted to raise the state's minimum wage. He was also one of the few prominent Texas politicians to be pro-choice. All of these policies earned Wilson the reputation of being the "liberal from Lufkin."