Charlie Wilson to be featured speaker at Annual Jim Wright Symposium

Fort Worth, TX

8/15/2008

TCU announced that Charlie Wilson will be the featured speaker at the annual Jim Wright Symposium September 3 on the TCU campus. The event will take place in the Brown-Lupton University Union Ballroom at noon and includes lunch and lecture on a limited basis by RSVP.

A showing of the documentary “The True Story of Charlie Wilson” will take place on Tuesday, September 2 at 7 p.m. followed by a dicussion facilitated by Dr. Ralph Carter, TCU Political Science professor.  Tickets will cost $25 and will include the documentary and the luncheon the following day. Registration for the event is available online.

Formerly a Naval Intelligence Officer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff,  Charlie Wilson was elected to the Texas Legislature in 1960 where he served until his election to Congress in 1972.  He spent 24 years in the U.S. Congress serving briefly on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Veterans Affairs Committee. The majority of his tenure was spent on the Appropriations Committee, where he served for 21 years. In this capacity, he was assigned to the Defense Subcommittee, as well as the Foreign Operations Subcommittee. He also won a seat on the Intelligence Committee, making him the only member of Congress to serve simultaneously on three legislative bodies dealing with the national security of the United States, as well as its intelligence gathering capacity.

Convinced that the decisive battle of the Cold War was beginning to take place between the Red Army and the Freedom Fighters of Afghanistan, in the 1980's Wilson dedicated himself to strengthening the cause of the Freedom Fighters. Wilson is the only civilian to hold the CIA award as "Honored Colleague." He also holds the Afghan Freedom Medal.
 
For more information on the events, visit www.pol.tcu.edu/events.htm or call 817-257-7395. To register for the events, visit www.lifelong.tcu.edu.