<p>Do you remember the “Argo” story? I am afraid to say I do not. Apparently there was a TV movie made about it in 1981 so it was known fairly early on. I guess I’ll blame it on mommy fog brain.</p>
<p>I don’t remember it, either - and I was paying decent attention to the news in 1979-80. I even watched TV movies fairly often (first kid not born until 1983 - I don’t remember anything after that :D.) Loved the movie, though.</p>
<p>[How</a> the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran | Wired Magazine | Wired.com](<a href=“http://www.wired.com/magazine/2007/04/feat_cia/]How”>http://www.wired.com/magazine/2007/04/feat_cia/) The 2007 Wired article that served as a basis for the film. I missed this as well, the first time around.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that it wasn’t really widely reported since the object was to get them out safely. I was a teen at the time and didn’t pay much attention to any news at all ( wish I was that ignorant now ) :)</p>
<p>Sure, I remember the hostage crisis like it was yesterday. But there wasn’t Argo drama around the actual Argo drama; the story was changed immensely to fit the Hollywood model of a story. The hero’s personal life has to be a mess. There has to be a chase. There has to be some jeopardy elements - like the maid saving the day when they’ve built up the idea she might give them away. </p>
<p>As I remembered the story, it was that the Canadians - and some others - hid these people and took them out with minimal US involvement. When I looked it up, that was the case: the people were hidden with the cooperation of at least 3 embassies and they got out with no problems. (I think they intelligently decided to leave on the first AM flight because, let’s face it, armed guards are less inquisitive in the early hours - and may not even be there.) </p>
<p>But it was a cool movie. Really well directed. Which I note because the direction and editing and camerawork made the movie and Affleck wasn’t nominated despite being the director and having major impact on editing and filming. </p>
<p>The hostage crisis itself started up Nightline with Ted Koppel. It began as a special report every night which became 15 minutes and then became a show. </p>
<p>And Jimmy Carter, for reasons never to be understood, decided his response would be to lock himself in the White House. </p>
<p>And unlike in the movie, the Shah wasn’t the focus. We didn’t spirit him out of Iran; he went to Egypt and a bunch of other Arab countries, where he was generally welcomed. He was in the US for a short time getting some cancer evaluation but we didn’t want him here. He ended up back in Egypt. Maybe that reflects some of the Arab Spring elements as well as the Sunni-Shiite division: the Arab nations hated the cleric led uprising and would never, ever trust the Shia. </p>
<p>While there was some hatred of Iranians in the US, people here generally realized the Iranians here were pro-Shah, pro-Western. I remember in Ann Arbor a group of Iranian kids would protest Khomeini every day at the corner of Diag. They had a banner. One or two would be bound and wearing hoods while others would stand with plastic AK-47s as if ready to execute them. It was chilling. They did this in absolute silence for hours every day. They were respected.</p>
<p>I remember it well, and I also remember that what actually happened is nothing as it is portrayed in the movie. Lergnom has it right. It was the Canadians who were the heroes, not the CIA.</p>
<p>[Jimmy</a> Carter’s Take on Argo : The New Yorker](<a href=“http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2013/02/argo-the-jimmy-carter-experience.html]Jimmy”>“Argo”: The Jimmy Carter Experience | The New Yorker)</p>
<p>Yes, I remember it in the news & in magazines ( my first was born in 1982.)
For some reason, my H doesnt remember it as well, so Argo was terrifically exciting to him.</p>
<p>[Nation:</a> Canada to the Rescue - TIME](<a href=“http://web.archive.org/web/20110120111357/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,950226,00.html]Nation:”>Nation: Canada to the Rescue - TIME)</p>
<p>I remember the hostage crisis very very well but I knew nothing about the six who escaped. Based on the movie and what else I’ve read since I saw it, we absolutely let the Canadians take all the crdit for it and pretended we didn’t know anything about it. So I don’t expect it was in the news very long.</p>
<p>I do remember something about Canada rescuing some of our hostages. I was in elementary school and our teacher kept a tally running of the hostage crisis, along with required reading about what was happening.
That entire episode really helped me understand world politics.</p>
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<p>Very little of what the movie portrayed was factual, so I wouldn’t base anything on that. Anyone who was directly involved has said what actually happened, including Pres. Carter. I agree that the film was a good one, exciting, interesting, but it was largely fiction.</p>
<p>[Argo:</a> Iran hostage crisis film fiddles with the facts](<a href=“http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/argo-iran-hostage-crisis-film-fiddles-with-the-facts-1.1167994]Argo:”>Argo: Iran hostage crisis film fiddles with the facts)</p>
<p>Another tidbit: the naming of every thing on the news with a special graphic really started also in Carter’s time. That was with Three Mile Island; the networks started running a special report graphic for that story. It became seemingly mandatory with the hostages.</p>
<p>Remember the hostage crisis but didn’t know a thing about the hidden Canadians until seeing the movie. I was in high school when it was all happening.</p>
<p>I saw a documentary about the story on TV the other night–a recent one, done with interviews with the hostages and with Tony Mendez. Neither what we saw in the movie nor what was reported at the time are accurate, but the reporting at the time was intentionally inaccurate. Canada was given credit for the rescue because they could not reveal the facts of the situation. It is only now, that the story has been de-classified, that the facts are coming out.</p>
<p>They really were given false identities as a film crew and brought out by Tony Mendez. A number of the things that happened in the movie, though, didn’t happen. The movie was, understandably, much more exciting. </p>
<p>They even talked about how hard it was for the Canadian Ambassador to take all the credit knowing that it wasn’t his to take, and what a good guy he was.</p>
<p>A lot of interesting information about tradecraft was included in the documentary. For example, they made sure that they had agents flying in to Tehran from various places at the same time that they were going to claim the hostages had arrived from Canada, so that their entry documents would have the signature of the guy who was actually on duty at that date and time.</p>
<p>Both my mom and I were from Canada, and she took particular pride that Canada had helped hide and rescue the hostages. So what if it was not “truthfully” reported!
If the US HAD taken credit at the time, for the hostages getting out, think what could or would have happened to the other 44 hostages still being held in Iran! So, yeah, duh!, of course the CIA involvement would have been kept secret.</p>
<p>I am with those who remember the hostage crisis well but did not know anything about the hostages who escaped.</p>
<p>I wasn’t aware that anyone escaped back then , but I do think that this was a turning point in my life when I actually began paying attention to international news and the politics of it all. I think national news was more objective back then.
I recall sending cards to the hostages , but can’t recall what teacher / class arranged that</p>
<p>I don’t remember the 6 at all. Of course I remember the hostages, but honestly didn’t even know they were just work a day embassy employees. </p>
<p>I also don’t remember Vietnam being on the news everyday either. </p>
<p>I think my parents protected me from the news, where my husband remembers all of this because they watched it every night. </p>
<p>I haven’t seen any movie recently that makes me think I want to spend any time in the middle east.</p>
<p>I don’t recall Vietnam being in the news every day, but I absolutely remember the picture of Kim Phuc when it first appeared in the papers. It completely floored me … I was just a bit older than she, and it made the “conflict” feel so very real. I can still remember how awful I felt for her and for all the children caught up in that war.</p>
<p>I was never protected from the news, and I vividly recall the articles about the '67 riots in Detroit. Of course, I also heard the gun shots and saw the tanks roll in (I lived a mile from Detroit).</p>
<p>I recall the Iran hostage crisis quite well. I also recall the escape of the six with the help of Canadians. I recall being quite touched by the Canadians’ willingness to stick their necks out to save these Americans - when no one else would.</p>
<p>I also recall that the Canadians were given all the credit at the time. The only mention I heard of the CIA back then was they they had forged the Iranian entry stamps on the Canadian passports that the six Americans were issued for their escape caper.</p>
<p>I also later heard of the heavy CIA involvement and the fake movie story when the documents were unclassified about 20 years later. Not to take anything away from the heroism of the Canadians - that were still the only country who stepped up to help the trapped Americans, at great risk to themselves.</p>
<p>I think the biggest inaccuracy from the movie was the thrilling chase at the airport. From what I read it went very smoothly at the airport. They just boarded the plane and flew away, no fuss no muss.</p>
<p>According to the documentary, there was some suspense when their Swiss Air flight was delayed a few hours, but that just gave them more time on the ground to be nervous. Nothing actually happened. They mentioned that the one guy who knew Farsi picked up a Farsi newspaper and they were worried the guards would notice that and think it was suspicious.</p>
<p>They did mention celebrating when they got out of Iranian air space, like in the movie.</p>