In
November 1979, Iranian revolutionaries, many of them students,
stormed the American Embassy in Tehran and took
more
than sixty staff hostage. The attack
was condoned by the Ayatollah Khomeini
who, only months earlier, had formed a provisional
government after the exile of the shah, and
although several hostages were later released the majority remained
captive for 444 days.
Unbeknown to the revolutionaries six Embassy staff were outside of
the Embassy when it was attacked, and they managed to keep themselves
hidden until the Canadian Embassy gave
them refuge. The fact that they had avoided capture and that the
Canadians were now harbouring them had to be kept secret, but
everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before the
revolutionaries would flush them out.
Antonio
Mendez, working in the disguise and extrication section of the CIA,
was given the job of getting the six Americans out of Iran. He knew
that his chances of success were extremely slim, but he was prepared
to try even if it meant that he could lose his life in the process.
He came up with the
idea
of a film company producing a film ‘Argo’, and the six Americans
were to be Canadian film crew checking possible locations
for the film. Mendez hoped that the airport immigration authority
would accept the story – evident from all the forged paperwork –
that the Americans had only been in the country for a few days and
were now on their way elsewhere.
Photo of Antonio Mendez from
The
amount of background work that went into building up this story is
amazing, and from this point of view the book is extremely
interesting. However, excluding
the
final
chapter
where
there
are some nail-biting scenes,
the
book
fails
to impart
the tension
and
the suspense
that
would
have
been
a
major
part
of such
an undertaking.
This
could be the
fault
of
the
writing,
which
is very mediocre,
or
it
could
be due to the fact
that there is
far
too
much, to
my
way
of
looking
at it
unnecessary,
information
and
too
many
references
to
incidental
characters.
I can
understand
that
Mendez
most
probably
wanted
to
give
some
idea of his
standing
and his
exploits
within
the
CIA,
but
the
overload
of
information
impacts negatively on the story as a whole.
The
book
was followed almost
immediately
by
the
film
by
the
same
name.
Since reading the book, I have
seen
the
film,
and
thankfully it does
manage
to
extricate
the
suspense
and water
down
the
information
overload.