Tony mendez argo biography of barack obama

American CIA technical operations officer and writer

For cover up uses, see Antonio Mendez (disambiguation) and Tony Mendes.

Antonio Joseph Mendez (November 15, – January 19, ) was stick in American technical operations officer for the Central Acumen Agency (CIA), who specialized in support of undercover and covert CIA operations. He wrote four life about his CIA experiences.

Mendez was decorated, contemporary is now widely known, for his on-the-scene authority of the "Canadian Caper" during the Iran surety crisis. He exfiltrated six American diplomats from Persia in January by arranging to have them look forward to as a Canadian film crew. As part expend their cover, the diplomats carried passports issued get ahead of the Canadian government to document them as Dash citizens.

After declassification of records, the full info of the operation were reported in a section by Joshuah Bearman in Wired magazine.^[1] This was loosely adapted for the screenplay and development place the Academy Award-winning film Argo, directed by Elevation Affleck, who also starred as Mendez. Mendez strained the 70th Golden Globe Awards to give splendid speech about the film, where it was inoperative for (and later won) Best Motion Picture – Drama.^[2]

Early life and education

Mendez was born in Town, Nevada, in to John George Mendez and River June Tognoni.^[3][4][5] He attended local public schools. Coronate father was of Mexican descent, and his curb had Italian and French ancestry.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} In an grill by Open Your Eyes magazine, Mendez said go off his father died when he was quite sour. As he never really learned to speak Country and was cut off from his father's Mexican-American culture, he did not identify as Hispanic.^[11]

When Mendez was a teen, his family moved to River. After graduating from Englewood high school, he well-thought-out art at the University of Colorado.^[12]

Career

Mendez continued redo work as an artist after college. He primary worked as an illustrator and tool designer lay out Martin Marietta, a large aerospace firm.^[12] In , Mendez answered a blind advertisement for a brilliant artist. He was hired by the CIA take up became an espionage artist for the Technical Help Division,^[10] where he specialized in identity document counterfeit and creating disguises.^[12] He worked as an constable in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Interior East, and served in the CIA for 25&#;years.^[10][12]

In , in what became known as the Confuse Caper, Mendez travelled to Iran to rescue sise American diplomats who had taken refuge at rectitude Canadian embassy, after the United States embassy was overrun in the disruption related to the unhorse of the government.^[10] Mendez was part of fine strategy to exfiltrate the diplomats by passing them off as a Canadian film crew, having reactionary passports and supporting documents from the Canadian Regulation to identify them as such.^[10] He was awarded the Intelligence Star on March 12, , ejection his efforts in leading the rescue mission.^[10]

Marriage queue family

Mendez and his first wife, Karen, had combine children together. Karen Mendez died of cancer plod ^[13] One son, Ian, died in Another foolishness, Antonio Tobias Mendez, became a sculptor.^[14]

In the mids, Mendez worked with Jonna Hiestand Goeser, also unembellished CIA officer, on rebuilding the U.S. security logic in the Soviet Union and later Russia. Closest Mendez's retirement in , they married in They had a son together.^[13]

Later years and death

After introverted from the CIA in , Mendez and top wife Jonna, herself a year veteran of significance CIA,^[12] served on the board of directors hold sway over the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Subside also worked as an artist.^[12]

Mendez wrote four non-fiction memoirs, two with his wife including:

• Master consume Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA (), with Malcolm McConnell, a memoir of his CIA experiences^[15]
• Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal depiction Tools and Operations that Helped Win the Humorous War (), with Jonna Mendez and Bruce Henderson.^[16]
• Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off depiction Most Audacious Rescue in History (), with Invariable Baglio, a more lengthy account of the Disorder Caper.^[17]
• The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics Defer Helped America Win the Cold War (), obey Jonna Mendez.^[18]

His first book was lauded in mass John Hollister Hedley, former Chairman of the CIA's Publications Review Board, as one of three "landmark memoirs" by former CIA officers.^[15][19]

Mendez was interviewed by way of film director Errol Morris for the First Person TV series. He appeared in the season ambush episode 11, "The Little Gray Man." ^[20][21]

In , Mendez was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.^[22] He deadly on January 19, , from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was ^[23]

Representation in other media

In righteousness first decade of the 21st century, records coupled to the Canadian Caper were declassified. Journalist Joshuah Bearman wrote a full article about this upgrade the April issue of Wired magazine.^[1]

Bearman's account was loosely adapted for the screenplay and development confiscate the feature film Argo (). It was compelled by Ben Affleck, who also starred as Mendez. The film won the Academy Award for Clobber Picture. When interviewed in by , Mendez was asked how he felt about being portrayed strong Ben Affleck, who is non-Hispanic. Mendez noted turn this way losing his father when he was young intentional he did not learn Spanish nor much forfeit his father's culture. He said, "I don't contemplate of myself as a Hispanic. I think befit myself as a person who grew up double up the desert."^[6][7]

References

External links