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Argo: How The CIA & Hollywood Pulled Off The Most Audacious Rescue In History (2012)

by Antonio J. Mendez(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0670026220 (ISBN13: 9780670026227)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: The book Argo is an action-packed thriller consisting in Iran. The Iranians seize the U.S embassy located in Iranian where Americans were held working but later captured hostage and others escaping. A US CIA Agent is called upon one of the most severe rescue mission in history that were accomplished by the government and CIA successfully. The team and so called film team were filming a Hollywood movie so they can fulfill the scene of rescuing the Americans in an attempt to bring them home safely.
review 2: I want to start by saying that this will not be my typical critique. I was more interested in the reality of this book than the writing and storytelling, so forgive my very irrational examination thereof. Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Au... moredacious Rescue in History is the first person recounting of one of the greatest declassified exfiltrations in the history of U.S. clandestine operations. In 1979 when the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran and sparked what would become the Iran hostage crisis, five Americans were able to escape the U.S. embassy and hit the streets of Tehran to look for a place to hide. With the help of the British embassy, they found safety with the Canadian ambassador. Being joined later by a sixth American, they holed up for two months with the Canadians while the U.S. government was busy planning a way to get them out. Enter Tony Mendez and his department of disguise and exfiltration operators in the CIA. They were tasked with getting the six Americans disguised and out of Iran. Needing to think outside the proverbial box, Mendez and his team worked with the Canadian government to get all necessary documentation for a cover operation. During this time, three possible covers were devised within the CIA and U.S. government in order to get the “houseguests” (code name given to the Americans by the Canadians) out. Two of the options were almost immediately found to be full of holes by Mendez and the CIA. Being an expert in disguise, Mendez recounts his experiences with Hollywood makeup artist John Chambers. He then devises a cover story for the “houseguests” that makes them a Hollywood location scout team made up of eight Canadians. Mendez and Chambers determine in order for the operation to work, there needs to be a flawless and thorough backstopping (a way of verifying or legitimizing an alias operation if anyone checks). Together, the two men create a movie production company in LA, find a script, and create publicity for a movie they will pretend to make. With all the pieces in place (backstopping, Canadian credentials including redundant passports and visas, and disguises) Tony and fellow agent “Julio” fly into Tehran, implement their aliases and get the six Americans out with barely a hiccup.There were parts of this book that read like a history text. It was absolutely replete with historical information designed to bring the reader up to speed on what was going on in the world in order create context for the story. But it wasn’t just historical data and timelines. Mendez pulls in bits and pieces of experience he had collected over the course of his entire career to give himself a résumé of credibility. By the time he and his colleague “Julio” go into Tehran to exfiltrate the six “houseguests,” there is no doubt in the reader’s mind that Mendez is the guy for the job. Of course, you always want your hero to be the right guy for the job, so it might come off as a litany of braggadocio, but I did not see it that way. This was a real clandestine operation with actual lives on the line. I will take any bloviating of details in a story like this one as being acceptable because I don’t believe any words could ever describe the profundity of the business of saving lives. Telling Tony Mendez that he’s just bragging is like telling Neil Armstrong landing on the moon wasn’t that big a deal. Very few people on this planet could have done it. Criticize him all you want for the manner in which he told his story; just realize that you will never be that cool. Ever. Argo… is one of those books that defines a very specific type of person. It is written by that kind of person and can only truly be understood by others of that mold. For the rest of us, it’s a fascinating, realistic glimpse into a world we will never honestly know anything about. Don’t kid yourself thinking you know how the intelligence community works if you’ve never been a part of it. Reading all the Jack Ryan novels doesn’t make you an expert on squat. There’s a reason the whole world believed the Canadians pulled this Argo mission off on their own until 1997. The CIA didn’t want you to know about it. The thing I loved about this book was that I knew how it ended, but the details that made up the story were so fascinating that I couldn’t put it down until I had read it all. It was like watching Penn and Teller reveal every little detail about how they deceived us with that one awesome trick. When it was all over, I shook my head in amazement and walked away satisfied.Like any good story you know the end to, Mendez and Baglio created suspense by adding intricate layers. If they had simply told the story of going in and getting the “houseguests” out, the book would have been half as long and much less fascinating. Instead, the authors showed how each element of the operation was derived by showing us from where the experience had come that made each element possible or successful. Despite what some reviewers might say, there wasn’t a superfluous detail or side story in the entire book. Everything came back to getting the “houseguests” out alive. I give Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History a solid FIVE stars for telling history the way all stories in history should be told, with all the gritty details. WARNING: There is a bit of foul language in the book. less

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