Argo how the CIA and Hollywood pulled off the most audacious rescue in history
This is a true story of secret identities and international intrigue; it is the gripping account of the history making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage. It relates the true account of the 1979 rescue of six American hostages from Iran. On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stor...
| Main Author: | Mendez, Antonio J. |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | Baglio, Matt. |
| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Viking,
2012.
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: |
This is a true story of secret identities and international intrigue; it is the gripping account of the history making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage. It relates the true account of the 1979 rescue of six American hostages from Iran. On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran and captured dozens of American hostages, sparking a 444-day ordeal. But there is a little-known footnote to the crisis: six Americans escaped. A midlevel agent named Antonio Mendez devised an ingenious yet incredibly risky plan to rescue them. Armed with foreign film visas, Mendez and an unlikely team of CIA agents and Hollywood insiders, directors, producers, and actors, traveled to Tehran under the guise of scouting locations for a fake film called Argo. While pretending to find the ideal backdrops, the team succeeded in contacting the escapees and smuggling them out of Iran without a single shot being fired. Here the author finally details the extraordinarily complex and dangerous operation he led more than three decades ago. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: |
viii, 310 p. ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780670026227 0670026220 |
| Author Notes: |
He became a technical operations officer and was promoted to deputy chief of authentication in December 1979. He orchestrated the rescue of six American diplomats from Iran in January 1980. This mission became the basis of the 2012 Oscar winning movie Argo. Mendez spent 25 years undercover and retired in 1990. He wrote several books including The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA written with Malcolm McConnell, Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War written with Jonna Mendez and Bruce Henderson, Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History written with Matt Baglio, and The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics That Helped America Win the Cold War written with Jonna Mendez. He died of Parkinson's disease on January 19, 2019 at the age of 78. (Bowker Author Biography) |