Some Reagan-era officials , including former Under Secretary of Defense Fred Ikle , have criticized some elements of the film . '' The Washington Times '' reported claims that the film wrongly promotes the notion that the CIA-led operation funded Osama bin Laden and ultimately produced the September 11 attacks . Other Reagan-era officials , however , have been more supportive of the film . Michael Johns , the former foreign policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation and White House speechwriter to President George H. W. Bush , praised the film as " the first mass-appeal effort to reflect the most important lesson of America 's Cold War victory : that the Reagan-led effort to support freedom fighters resisting Soviet oppression led successfully to the first major military defeat of the Soviet Union ... Sending the Red Army packing from Afghanistan proved one of the single most important contributing factors in one of history 's most profoundly positive and important developments . " In February 2008 , it was revealed that the film would not play in Russian theaters . The rights for the film were bought by Universal Pictures International ( UPI ) Russia . It was speculated that the film would not appear because of a certain point of view that depicted the Soviet Union unfavorably . UPI Russia head Yevgeny Beginin denied that , saying , " We simply decided that the film would not make a profit . " Reaction from Russian bloggers was also negative . One wrote : " The whole film shows Russians , or rather Soviets , as brutal killers . " While the film depicts Wilson as an immediate advocate for supplying the mujahideen with Stinger missiles , a former Reagan administration official recalls that he and Wilson , while advocates for the mujahideen , were actually initially " lukewarm " on the idea of supplying these missiles . Their opinion changed when they discovered that rebels were successful in downing Soviet gunships with them . As such , they were actually not supplied until the second Reagan administration term , in 1987 , and their provision was advocated mostly by Reagan defense officials and influential conservatives
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Charlie Wilson's War (film)