Charlie Wilson et al's War

Highly recommended: Charle Wilson's War. It's a remarkable story of how a handful of oddballs changed the world. Wilson himself is retired, and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos is dead, but their weapons expert Michael G. Vickers is now an assistant secretary of defense with broad counterterrorism responsibilities. His wife Melana Zyla Vickers wrote regularly for TCS during the same years I did.