Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History (2012)

by Antonio Mendez, Matt Baglio, Matt Baglio (Author)

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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History. Nonfiction. HTML: 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 and a quake in global politics still reverberating today. But there's a little-known footnote to the crisis: six Americans escaped. And 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 perfect scenery and backdrops, the team succeeded in contacting the escapees and smuggling them out of Iran without a single shot being fired. Antonio Mendez finally details the mind-bogglingly complex and dangerous operation he led more than three decades ago. A true story of secret identities and international intrigue, Argo is the gripping account of this history-making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage… (more)

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The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran by Andrew Scott Cooper (StreedsReads)
StreedsReads: Contains opposing and similar stories to what lead up to the fall of the Pahlavi regime and the ensuing Islamic Revolution.

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Very much enjoyed the book; made the mistake then of watching the movie and was disappointed. (

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LyndaWolters1 | Apr 3, 2024 |

I liked this book but I liked Our Man in Tehran better. Argo focused on the CIA's efforts to extract the Americans in Tehran and it was interesting to learn about the disguises and exfiltrations conducted by the CIA. Our man in Tehran was more detailed in telling the story of the day to day activities of the Americans while they were in hiding. (

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ellink | Jan 22, 2024 |

A real page-turner. It's about the rescue of six American diplomats during the Iranian hostage crisis, and let me tell you, it's one wild ride. Mendez, a CIA agent, and his team come up with this crazy plan to disguise the diplomats as a film crew, and it actually works. The writing is engaging, the story is unbelievable, and you'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time. If you're a fan of spy thrillers or just looking for a damn good book, "Argo" is the way to go. (

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paarth7 | May 6, 2023 |

Needless to say Tony isn't a Pulitzer prize winner, but the story is informative nonetheless. That said, it could have been shorter due to what I felt was an awful lot of unnecessary 'back story', but it does help to some degree. The other surprise was the difference between the film script ending and the true one written here. I actually preferred the additional tension added in the movie though I give kudos to the team having succeeded in a swift, nearly flawless escape. (

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Jonathan5 | Feb 20, 2023 |

Exciting and well-writen. This book really brings you back to the dark days of 1979-80. The Canadians really provided a ray of light. (

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JBGUSA | Jan 2, 2023 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Mendez, Antonio	Author	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Baglio, Matt	—	main author	all editions	confirmed
Baglio, Matt	Author	main author	all editions	confirmed
Amell, Alissa	Designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Baker, Dylan	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Dual Identity	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Has the adaptation

Argo [2012 film] by Ben Affleck

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Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2012

People/Characters

Antonio Mendez

Central Intelligence Agency

Important places

Tehran, Iran

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Washington, D.C., USA

Important events

Iran Hostage Crisis (1979 | 1981)

Related movies

Argo (2012 | IMDb)

Epigraph

Dedication

To Jonna

First words

Late that Saturday afternoon I was painting in my studio. (Introduction)

The call went out over the radio network a little after ten o'clock in the morning: "Recall! Recall! All marines to Post One!"

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

"The story became a chapter in my first book, The Master of Disguise, then it became an article in Wired magazine, and then a movie script titled Argo, and now it has become a book in its own right." from the Acknowledgments.

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Rimington, Dame Stella

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

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Wikipedia in English

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▾Book descriptions

History. Nonfiction. HTML:

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 and a quake in global politics still reverberating today. But there's a little-known footnote to the crisis: six Americans escaped. And 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 perfect scenery and backdrops, the team succeeded in contacting the escapees and smuggling them out of Iran without a single shot being fired.

Antonio Mendez finally details the mind-bogglingly complex and dangerous operation he led more than three decades ago. A true story of secret identities and international intrigue, Argo is the gripping account of this history-making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage

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