PublishedPenguin, October 2012 |
ISBN9780241964590 |
FormatSoftcover, 320 pages |
Dimensions19.8cm × 12.9cm × 1.9cm |
Tehran, November 1979. Militant students stormed the American embassy and held sixty Americans captive for a gruelling 444 days. Until now, the CIA has never revealed the twist to the crisis: six Americans escaped. The escape plot was run by Antonio Mendez, head of the CIA's extraction team.
He invented a fake sci-fi film called "Argo" (from the actual name of the CIA mission, a reference to "Jason and the Argonauts"). Mendez put together a team of real 1970s Hollywood actors, directors and producers - along with covert CIA officers. They would travel to Iran under a foreign film visa, and while 'scouting locations' throughout the country they would track down the six Americans who were hiding out. After giving them false identities as part of the film crew, they would spirit them back across the border. Now a major film directed by and starring Ben Affleck.
