Charlie Wilson's War
The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
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Charlie Wilson's War
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Narrated by:
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Christopher Lane
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By:
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George Crile
About this listen
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Listen to No Easy Day...much better
- By JMM on 10-20-12
By: Mark Bowden
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Inside the Kingdom
- Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia
- By: Robert Lacey
- Narrated by: Robert Lacey
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 136
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 102
Best-selling author Robert Lacey tells us what happened in the Middle East's oil-rich powerhouse---while we weren't looking.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Inside the Kingdom
- By Ibrahim on 03-19-10
By: Robert Lacey
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The Nightingale's Song
- By: Robert Timberg
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 22 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Robert Timberg weaves together the lives of Annapolis graduates John McCain, James Webb, Oliver North, Robert McFarlane, and John Poindexter to reveal how the Vietnam War continues to haunt America. Casting all five men as metaphors for a legion of well-meaning if ill-starred warriors, Timberg probes the fault line between those who fought the war and those who used money, wit, and connections to avoid battle.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Too Long
- By Tom Carroll on 11-15-18
By: Robert Timberg
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Red Heat
- Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean
- By: Alex von Tunzelmann
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4 out of 5 stars 63
The Caribbean crises of the Cold War are revealed as never before in this riveting story of clashing ideologies, the rise of the politics of fear, the machinations of superpowers, and the daring of the brazen mavericks who took them on. The superpowers thought they could use Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as puppets, but what neither bargained on was that their puppets would come to life.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting, not extraordinary.
- By History on 10-24-11
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A Kingdom of Their Own
- The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster
- By: Joshua Partlow
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fabulous
- By Charles S. on 10-23-23
By: Joshua Partlow
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Legacy of Ashes
- The History of the CIA
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,598
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,866
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,850
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Flawed but Important
- By Michael on 07-18-08
By: Tim Weiner
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The Art of Betrayal
- The Secret History of MI6 - Life and Death in the British Secret Service
- By: Gordon Corera
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 17 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 64
From Berlin to the Congo, from Moscow to the back streets of London, these are the stories of the agents on the front lines of British intelligence. And the truth is often more remarkable than fiction.
MI6 has been cloaked in secrecy and shrouded in myth since it was created a hundred years ago. Our understanding of what it is to be a spy has been largely defined by the fictional worlds of Ian Fleming and John le Carré. Gordon Corera provides a unique and unprecedented insight into this secret world and the reality that lies behind the fiction.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good details but lacks thorough research
- By Unapologetic on 09-06-17
By: Gordon Corera
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War on Peace
- The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
- By: Ronan Farrow
- Narrated by: Ronan Farrow
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,449
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,139
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,127
American diplomacy is under siege. Offices across the State Department sit empty while abroad, the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We're becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing account ranging from Washington, DC, to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea in the years since 9/11, acclaimed journalist and former diplomat Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well Timed and Authoritative:
- By JC on 04-24-18
By: Ronan Farrow
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Debriefing the President
- The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein
- By: John Nixon
- Narrated by: John Nixon
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 288
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 255
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 256
In December 2003, after one of the largest, most aggressive manhunts in history, US military forces captured Iraqi president Saddam Hussein near his hometown of Tikrit. Beset by body-double rumors and false alarms during a nine-month search, the Bush administration needed positive identification of the prisoner before it could make the announcement that would rocket around the world. At the time John Nixon was a senior CIA leadership analyst who had spent years studying the Iraqi dictator.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not What You Think It Is
- By Doug on 01-10-17
By: John Nixon
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The Operators
- The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan
- By: Michael Hastings
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 439
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 382
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 386
An explosive, behind-the-scenes look into the workings of the U.S. war in Afghanistan that lifts the curtain of the world stage to reveal the devastating greed, waste, and failure surrounding this unwinnable war.
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4 out of 5 stars
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VERY INTERESTING STORY
- By Professor on 01-04-13
By: Michael Hastings
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The Accidental President
- Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World
- By: A. J. Baime
- Narrated by: Tony Messano
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,269
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,973
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,965
The dramatic, pulse-pounding story of Harry Truman's first four months in office, when this unlikely president had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and the atomic bomb, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Exceptional
- By Jean on 11-14-17
By: A. J. Baime
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The Brilliant Disaster
- JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba
- By: Jim Rasenberger
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 140
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 122
The U.S.-backed military invasion of Cuba in 1961 remains one of the most ill-fated blunders in American history, with echoes of the event reverberating even today. Despite the Kennedy administration’s initial public insistence that the United States had nothing to do with the invasion, it soon became clear that the complex operation had been planned and approved by the best and brightest minds at the highest reaches of Washington, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President John F. Kennedy himself.
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2 out of 5 stars
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US Government Perspective
- By Kindle Customer on 05-25-11
By: Jim Rasenberger
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The Fourth Star
- Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army
- By: David Cloud, Greg Jaffe
- Narrated by: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 118
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
They were four exceptional soldiers, a new generation asked to save an army that had been hollowed out after Vietnam. They survived the military's brutal winnowing to reach its top echelon. They became the Army's most influential generals in the crucible of Iraq. Collectively, their lives tell the story of the Army over the last four decades and illuminate the path it must travel to protect the nation over the next century.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Learning from the Military
- By Joshua Kim on 06-10-12
By: David Cloud, and others
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The Main Enemy
- The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
- By: Milton Bearden, James Risen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 835
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 746
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 736
A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A masterpiece of espionage history
- By kucherv on 08-21-18
By: Milton Bearden, and others
What listeners say about Charlie Wilson's War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- sharon solwitz
- 03-13-23
Terrific
Hard to put down. I felt I had a ringside seat to middle eastern history with emphasis on the end of the Cold War. His rendition of Charlie Wilson’s over the top personality is completely combing though Charlie was a piece of work. The ending still haunts me.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- headman
- 02-04-10
Charlie Wilson's Movie?
They should have made a movie about this book. Oh wait they did or did not. This book makes sense of what happened. It was a great read/listen. The story has considerable depth, which does not translate into the movie. If you hated the movie or at least thought it shallow, you will love the book/listen.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 05-15-08
Great Read
This book is funny, sad, exciting and predictable. The usual suspects i.e. the CIA and big brother conspired to win a war and then lose the peace (sound familiar?. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the mid-east.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jesus
- 04-22-12
Bliss, I was so sorry it ended
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
It is well written, exciting and the narator is excellent
What was one of the most memorable moments of Charlie Wilson's War?
I loved every second of it
What does Christopher Lane bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Yes, a thousand times yes. I want more books with him as narator
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Neither, just made me proud to be an American
Any additional comments?
Shortes 12 hours in my literary life
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2 people found this helpful