FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 9, 2004

Charlie Wilson to Present Lale Lecture

Retired U.S. Rep. Charles (Charlie) Wilson will present the eighth annual Georgiana and Max S. Lale Lecture, sponsored by the East Texas Historical Association, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, in the Stephen F. Austin State University Grand Ballroom.

Wilson will speak on “The Afghan Struggle Against the Soviet Union (1980s) and its Aftermath.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Wilson retired from the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996 after representing the second district of Texas for 24 years. Wilson was a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the senior Democrat on its foreign operations and defense subcommittees. He played an active role in arming the Mujahideen of Afghanistan in their effort to expel the armed forces of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, worked closely with the CIA and Department of Defense to secure financial assistance for the Afghans and is the only civilian to receive the CIA’s Honored Colleague Award.

Wilson’s efforts to aid the Afghan struggle were the topic of the recent bestseller “Charlie Wilson’s War” by George Crile. He is currently the president of Wilson Associates, which represents the governments of Pakistan and several security and defense firms.

The lecture is part of the annual fall meeting of the East Texas Historical Association to be held Sept. 23 – 25, at the Fredonia Hotel.

The meeting will feature approximately 20 separate informative sessions during three days. The sessions begin at 2 p.m. Thursday with “Secession in Texas,” “Texas Disasters” and “Violence and Love in the African American Experience.”

On Friday, sessions on topics such as historic preservation, black education in Texas, and Texas in the Great Depression highlight the schedule. A Friday evening banquet address “Is There Anything Funny About History?” will be presented by East Texas Historical Association president Gail K. Beil.

The final day of sessions will feature presentations on local history, Spanish exploration and German immigration in Texas. The annual awards luncheon will feature a talk by Randolph B. “Mike” Campbell, author of “Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State.” Awards to be presented include the Ottis Lock Educator of the Year Award, the Ottis Lock Best Book Award, the Ottis Lock Research Grant Awards, the C. W. Chamberlain Award for Best Article Published in the “East Texas Historical Journal” and the Bob and Doris Bowman Best of East Texas lifetime achievement awards.

Registration for the event is $20 and includes admission to all sessions. Pre-registration is encouraged, but walk-in registration will be accepted beginning at 1 p.m. the first day of the meeting. For more information, contact the East Texas Historical Association at (936) 468-2407 or e-mail amcdonald@sfasu.edu. The Web address is www.easttexashistorical.org.