Mendez and his "film crew" scouted locations and then announced their "return to Hollywood." They flew home on an Iranian airliner, after using their fake Canadian passports to leave Tehran.
Argo was based on real events. It was neither a satire nor a bit of feigned reality. It was, rather, a creative subterfuge which saved the lives of six American diplomats.
This was one of Jimmy Carter's finest leadership moments as president. To protect the remaining 66 American hostages from retaliation, the rescue was announced as a Canadian secret operation, dubbed "The Canadian Caper."
The story of the rescue was not fully declassified until 1997, 17 years after Carter left office.
During Jimmy Carter four years in the White House, not a single American was killed by enemy fire, and not a single enemy combatant was killed.
After Carter's successful secret 1979 rescue mission, this cannot be said of any succeeding U.S. president. Deceit, lying, and military ventures have become the prevailing modus operandi of succeeding American governments.
Ronald Reagan, who succeeded Carter as president, set the new deceit tone. Negotiations to release the 66 hostages were kept secret by Reagan until after Carter left office, allowing Reagan to pose as the great savior of the hostages.
Having known Jimmy Carter when he was Governor Carter, I was not surprised to read in The New York Times that he is still teaching Sunday School in Plains, Georgia.
That story reminds me again of the high moral character of the man, his ingrained modesty, and the positive impact he has had, and continues to have, on the nation and the world.
Wag the Dog was a satire, The Syrian Bombing was feigned reality, and Argo depicts a creative subterfuge orchestrated by an American president, a subterfuge meant to save, not to kill nor destroy.
Carter's choice of a peaceful solution saved the lives of American diplomats. All these years later, he knows he chose the right path.
Keep teaching it, brother.
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