Thirteen Days: Charlie Wilson's War

There were many aspects about the film, Charlie Wilson’s War, that struck me besides the drug and alcohol abuse, or the sexual content that was pervasive in the Congressman’s life. However, despite his vices, Charlie Wilson played an instrumental role in convincing both the CIA and Congress to support the Mujahideen’s efforts against the Soviet invasion. Personally, what caught me the most by this film, as the way in which the public influenced foreign policy, particularly the role of Joanne Herring. Without her, I feel he would have been much more challenged in accomplishing his goals without her reputation among the Pakistanis, and public support. I also thought it was interesting to see just how influential a single member of congress could

In Thirteen Days, Congress played a very small role in the decision making process during the Cuban Missile Crisis, either that, or the film ignored those details. With Charlie Wilson’s War, the viewer witnessed just how influential Congress can be when concerning foreign policy. There could be two possible reasons as to why both films focused mainly on one branch of government. The first, could simply be a decision made by the directors and producers of the films, and the second could be the nature of Congress during the 1960s and 1980s. In Glenn P. Hastedt’s book, he describes the different relationships between Congress and the president, whether that be passive or aggressive. We can ascertain from these films that Congress in, Charlie Wilson’s War, was rather supportive congress since Wilson was able to garner others to his cause with the President’s approval. In Thirteen Days, what we can gather from the film is that Congress seemed to be rather disengaged with the threat the U.S. faced in 1962. There was little to no involvement portrayed in the film, and most decisions were made by the president himself, with the support of his cabinet. Although his military advisors did create contention on the issue, they held no seat in