Tony Mendez
| Tony Mendez | |
|---|---|
|
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| Birth name | Antonio Joseph Mendez |
| Born |
November 15, 1940 Eureka, Nevada |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service/branch | Central Intelligence Agency |
| Years of service | 1963–1990 |
| Rank | SIS-2 |
| Unit | Graphics and Authentication Division |
| Battles/wars | Iran hostage crisis, Cold War |
| Awards |
Intelligence Star (1980) CIA Trailblazer Award (1997) Order of the Sphinx (2000) |
Antonio Joseph "Tony" Mendez (born November 15, 1940) is an American CIA technical operations officer, now retired, who specialized in support of clandestine and covert CIA operations. He has written three memoirs about his CIA experiences.
Mendez was decorated, and is now widely known, for his on-the-scene management of the "Canadian Caper" during the Iran hostage crisis, in which he exfiltrated six American diplomats from Iran in January 1980. They posed as a Canadian film crew, and as part of their cover, the diplomats carried passports issued by the Canadian government to document them as Canadian citizens.
After declassification of records, the full details of the operation were reported in a 2007 article by Joshuah Bearman in Wired magazine. This was loosely adapted for the screenplay and development of the 2012 Academy Award-winning film Argo, directed by Ben Affleck, who also starred as Mendez. Mendez also attended the 70th Golden Globe Awards to give a speech about the film, where it was nominated (and later won) for Best Motion Picture – Drama.
Mendez was born in Eureka, Nevada, in 1940 to John George Mendez (June 12, 1917, Atlantic, Iowa – October 24, 1943, Kimberly, Nevada) and Neva June Tognoni (October 23, 1919, Preston, Nevada - October 6, 1995, Chandler, Arizona), where he attended local schools. His father was of Mexican descent, and his mother had Italian, French, and Irish ancestry. Mendez was interviewed in Open Your Eyes magazine, and he explained that he never learned to speak Spanish, since his father died when he was quite young. "I think of myself as a person who grew up in the desert" he claimed, and saw no problem with Ben Affleck portraying him on screen. He moved with his family to Colorado as a teen. After graduating from high school, he went on to study at the University of Colorado.
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