year the movie "argo" was released. mr. mendez: everybody in the back, come on up. thank you for your patience. the reports we were getting was the traffic around the block was horrendous. people are nodding. that's good. as a courtesy to those recording the program and the speakers, if you would be so kind as to turn off your cell phones, pda's. that would be a big help. thank you. well, it's wonderful to see all of you here for the signing and as we kick off the signing, i will show you a clip based on -- a clip of the film based on the book he will be signing. and with that, we will him up and do the interview with tony. so -- >> the end of the civilized world -- >> let's go, let's go. americans continue to be held as hostages. >> if we need to go, we need to go now. >> what happened? six hostages went out a back exit. >> while -- where? >> the canadian embassy. deliver the six bikes. >> or you can just send them with training wheels through the border. >> it will take a miracle. [phone rings] .> i've got an idea >> a canadian film crew doing a science fiction movie. >> you want to come to hollywood like a big shot? >> yeah. >> i will get right on it. exotic locations to shoot. >> we need a producer. a fake movie,g there's going to be a fake kiss. >> this is the best bad idea we have, sir, by far. ♪ >> no. sing for me, sing for the year ♪ tom.'s over, >> they're probably not alive. dream on, dream on, dream on ♪ do you really believe your story will make a difference? [applause] >> seeing that, i wish i had had that line when i was in the agents be, yes, sir, it's a bad idea, but it's the best one that we've got. i think all of you can empathize with that. ok. thank you. exfiltration is an extraordinary operation. it often involves a number of people coming from headquarters. it involves great tension. it involves danger and risk. they are not always successful. but in many, many, many cases we were successful in bringing out our citizens. we will get them excellent traded whether it is the end of their lives or their careers. was one of the people in the agency involved in many, many, many of those exfiltration's. his specialty had been authentication documentation and disguise and of course, his wife was the chief of the disguise unit in the cia. so, we are hearing tonight from -- it is something that they did for the agency. this film ising is -- with the usual liberties, rather close to what happened and i think nothing makes it more proximate for us than to watch the protests outside the american embassies today. we see this is a movie not just about the past, but our own times. tony was in the agency for 25 years. he worked in many areas of the world. often areas that were hostile. forhe was often responsible the kinds of operations you see depicted in the film and the book. he earned the intelligence medal of merit. and i should also add they recognized 50 of their outstanding officers and they were called the trailblazers. tony was one of those officers. he is a very accomplished landscape painter. he was a consultant on the cbs series "the agency." and he has written two books -- actually three. "my secretdisguise," and a book hea," has written with his wife. we are very happy you are here. we wish you success. we hope you have a piece of the movie. on that,ou success too. ok, so our format this evening will be tony and jonathan verse experience tony had and also the making of the movie . we will not have a q and a session, but tony will be going back to sign books and i know he will be available to take your questions and talk about the book. please help me welcome one of the stars of the undercover jonna.tony mendez and [applause] >> myself phone. just in case my teenage son shows up. .- my cell phone just in case my teenage son shows up. [laughter] can everybody hear us? is this good? y, letthey are micing ton me just ask -- how many people the room do not know the story is based on. ok. the nine going to tell you a real quick story. shall i start? my dear. thea: i'm going to leave conversation -- lead the conversation tonight. this is about my husband's rescue of diplomats in 1980 following the iranian hostage crisis. basically the american embassy in tehran was overrun, just like you have been seeing on the news the last week or so. it was overrun successfully extremists in the embassy took 60-some americans hostage and help them for 444 days. they brought down the presidency of president carter. there's nothing he could do. there was no one he could talk to. there was no one he could negotiate with. no one wanted to come to the table. they wanted to burn the table down. we were without resources in the hostage crisis. the only successful thing that happened in 444 days of the rescue crisis was tony's of six diplomats who slipped out the back door and were on the in finallytehran landed at the canadian ambassador's residence. tony went in after they had been in the canadian ambassador's residence for three months and tony convinced to them he was going to rescue them -- convince them he was going to rescue them by having us pose as a hollywood location scouting party. onivious to what was going politically in the world, scouting for a movie in tehran. he was asking these people to risk their lives like pretending productiontwriters, .anagers, international bankers but he did convince them to do it and he walks them through probably the most hostile airport in the world, through security, through immigration. the documents he had forged, the himself -- made up it was an amazing performance. not just by tony, but by those -- we call them houseguests to differentiate them from the hostages. the houseguests got out. the hostages stayed for 444 days. you will see a pair of blue laundered have been and pressed. they were worn by one of the hostages. they were worn for 444 days. bestnk it would be the commercial for whatever brand those genes are. -- jeans are. [laughter] i will will -- jonna: ask tony some questions and we will see what his thinking is. first of all, tony. where to start? was this the most difficult and was this the most dangerous exfiltration you ever did? tony: no. but it was exciting. it was fun. it was dangerous. but overall it was a really good show. it was not the sort of thing you want to do every week though. it could wear on you. , my instructions are to answer the question and stop talking. and that is for headquarters. tony: -- jonna: when tony worked for the cia, he worked in an enormous building. he was an artist and as an artist, tonyan takes a different tact. --does not come up with the how shall i say the every day solution to the problem. he comes up with the most creative solution to the problem. you if you were at cia and had an operational problem, you would want tony in the room. you would get a different answer. an answer that was compelling. you are a senior level officer and this guy is telling way to move these people is to make them into a hollywood party.n scouting it is, on the face of it ridiculous. actually a brilliant idea. so, how did you come up with this idea? jonna: -- tony: it was an act of inspiration. when you are doing and exultation, you have to make sure you get a lot of buy-in. because it could go bad. what was the question again? chamberslk about john and his input. tony: yeah. we had a consultant by the name of jerome calloway in hollywood. out how tos figure get people from point a to point b and be invisible. we put those lessons to good use. in this case, i wanted to make sure we had a committee that was under control. they ask you to do something. you some back and say, it will cost this much. what you are trying to do is establish a contract and that is what we had to do with the exfiltration. anyway. what we came up with, it was not a bad idea. we sort of fell in love with it. happens --ee is what anyway, we had to spend a lot of and taking the questions that sort of thing. but once we got to it, we were .ble to buy in we could find people where it might work and we would take it from there. there are a lot of operations that could be canceled and vice versa. tony was called the master of disguise, and he was. but he was a master of different things. from my point of view, e1 was a master of getting something done. there was no way i could get that done. it took about two months to get me an assignment. work.ars, amazing tony, his skill in juggling all of these committees -- really, not committees, governments. he was dealing with the canadian government. can you imagine the canadian government coming to the united states congress and asking us for blank passports? level,aling with every from the white house, jimmy carter, who has actually and a cable journey came in and said, stop, the president is reviewing this. this is unprecedented. thehis does not go well, american flag would be draped. he is working with the and it's critical to get everybody on the same page with the idea they are calling the best dad idea. it he did all that. but beyond that he walks them to own, which on his was not necessarily planned and our headquarters often tells us, don't do that. if it goes wrong they will look to you, without even thinking about it they will turn and look to you and they will compromise you. don't go to the airport with them. he went to the airport with them. , is there anything -- i mean, this is her years later. chain -- 30 years later. if you could change a thing about what you did, is there anything you would change? tony: never. don't mess with success. you have no idea what is going to work. you can only go by your gut. if your gut says looks pretty good, go with it. when the director of the cia asked me how it was when it was over, i said, nothing succeeds like success. he said, i know the feeling, which i guess you did -- he did. we just got back yesterday and it was a week ago that we were in toronto and there were all of these standing ovation -- of nations. john argan kind of steal this movie and if one does not get this supporting alan -- particularly arkin. he always plays the cranky old man in movies. we went to dinner with him one night at one of the after parties. guess what? he is a cranky old man. [laughter] --na: we did a photo shoot mind you, we are two retired spies. this is not. .here was a photo shoot they are going to do for pages and the reporter was saying what is it like to play tony mendez and here is what ben affleck says. "well, he's kind of low key, taciturn." ben affleck said, when i first met tony mendez, i said "tony!" he's really extroverted. your story is going to be all over the world in every language! tony! what do you think? how does it feel?" and he says to the entertainment weekly reporter, tony says, it feels good. so he said, exhibit a, what am i supposed to do? it was good. [laughter] jonna: again, we were in new panel with were at a bob anders this senior fellow in the group -- gray hair. he was a wonderful man. we had never heard him talk. bob, tell us about going to the airport. what did you do? what did tony do? do you remember what he said? tony: no. said, "it wasers kind of fun, this hollywood they would tony knew choose the hollywood cover. they did not want to be nutritionists. they did not want to be schoolteachers. who doesn'td -- want to pretend? and who doesn't want to pretend to be hollywood? bob anderson said, we had been confined. my hair was really long. he said, i look great. i got a shirt that was two sizes too small and unbuttoned it. hair on myf this chest. it really looked good. there were such french code over my shoulders. said, my walk was a little effeminate. said it was fun. it was fun escaping from to ron and that was the genius. knewpicked it because he they could get to it on some level. and he thought he could save this.lives by doing it's an amazing story. you are probably not going to read another story like this about u.s. government were. the cia likes this story. they preferred to be matt damon crazed assassin story. the cia may show it in their theaters. job isy always said the about the cia,th to amend history -- tony: to amend history, but not necessarily all the true. it has to be true, but it doesn't have to be all of it. that's exactly right. you have to know in this story there are still gaps of things that can be said. "ut in this book, "argo, everything is true. we cannot wait for our cia us.eagues to read it, call i think that means -- are you going to tell them? no. what else? tony: i think we are out of time. jonna: he thinks were out of time. jonna,ony mendez and thank you. thank you for your service and for your actions depicted in this movie. we are all very grateful. [applause] bookshelf features the best history writers talking about their books. you can watch every weekend here in

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