Texas congressman Charlie Wilson, who chaired the House Appropriations Committee, embraced the Afghan cause and, together with allies in Congress and the CIA, managed to triple the (secret) US funding for the Mujahideen. What’s more, he convinced the Saudis to match whatever the United States contributed. By 1987, the Mujahideen were receiving a billion dollars a year from the United States—almost all of it coming through the ISI pipeline, of course—and that much again from the Saudis.
