his own country. According to George Crile III, U.S. Representative Charlie Wilson's relationship with Zia was instrumental in the final go-ahead for the Stinger introduction. Wilson and his associates at first viewed the Stinger as "just adding another component to the lethal mix we were building." Their increasingly successful Afghanistan strategy, formed largely by Michael G. Vickers, was based on a broad mix of weapons, tactics, and logistics, not a 'silver bullet solution' of a single weapon. Furthermore, the previous attempts to provide MANPADs to the Mujahideen, namely the SA-7 and Blowpipe, hadn't worked very well. Engineer Ghaffar, of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami, brought down the first Hind gunship with a Stinger on 25 September 1986 near Jalalabad. As part of Operation Cyclone, the CIA eventually supplied nearly 500 Stingers (some sources claim 1,500–2,000) to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, and 250 launchers. The impact of the Stinger on the outcome of the war is contested, particularly in the translation between the impact on the tactical battlefield to the strategic level withdrawal, and the influence the first had on the second. Dr. Robert F. Baumann (of the Staff College at Fort Leavenworth) described its impact on "Soviet tactical operations" as "unmistakable". This opinion was shared by Yossef Bodansky. Soviet, and later, Russian, accounts give little significance to the Stinger for strategically ending the war. According to the 1993 US Air Defense Artillery Yearbook, the Mujahideen gunners used the supplied Stingers to score approximately 269 total aircraft kills in about 340 engagements, a 79% kill probability. If this report is accurate, Stingers would be responsible for over half of the 451 Soviet aircraft losses in Afghanistan. But these statistics are based on Mujahideen self-reporting, which is of unknown reliability. Selig Harrison rejects such figures, quoting a Russian general who claims the United States "greatly exaggerated" Soviet and Afghan aircraft losses during the war. According to Soviet figures, in 1987–1988, only 35 aircraft and 63 helicopters were destroyed by all causes. The Pakistan Army fired 28 Stingers at enemy aircraft with no kill. According to Soviet figures, by 25 December 1987, only 38 aircraft (airplanes, helicopters) were lost and 14 more were damaged by MANPADS (Blowpipe or Stinger), or 10.2% kill probability. According to Crile, who includes information from Alexander Prokhanov, the Stinger was a "turning point". Milt Bearden saw it as a "force multiplier" and morale booster. Representative Charlie Wilson, the politician behind