On Oct. 12, 2012, a film directed by Ben Affleck, based on the book, The Master of Disguise, by Antonio Mendez, was released in North America telling the story of how six Americans escaped Iran in 1979.The critically acclaimed film, however, downplays the role Canadians had in the rescue. I can assure you; this was far from the truth so today I share the real story of Argo also known as The Canadian Caper
I’m Craig Baird, this is Canadian History Ehx!
To tell this story
For the next few minutes, we will have to be Iranian History Ehx.
Beginning in 1789, and for nearly 150 years after, Iran was known as the Sublime State of Iran, or Qajar Iran.
Ruled by a Shah during the 19th Century, the country maintained political independence for the most part as European colonial powers planted flags throughout the Middle East.
When the First World War began, the Ottoman Empire invaded Iran and for the next four years, massacred thousands of civilians and portions of the country were occupied by the Russian and British Empire.
In 1921, Reza Khan, the commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade, staged a coup and became ruler of Iran, ending the Qajar rule of the country.
He was the Shah of Iran until 1941 when the Soviet Union invaded, and he was forced to abdicate.
In the 1940s, he was replaced by a new Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, his 22-year-old son. Unlike his father, this new Shah was a mild leader and did not take much of an active role in government. Throughout the Second World War, Iran was a conduit for British and American aid to the Soviet Union. In 1943, at the Tehran Conference, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union issued the Tehran Declaration to guarantee Iranian independence following the war.
After the war, Iran continued as it had but as the 1950s dawned, things began to change.
In 1949, there was an assassination attempt on the Shah which led him to become more involved in Iranian politics.
He established the Senate of Iran, but he had the right to choose half the Senators.
He also organized the Iran Constituent Assembly to consolidate his own power as members were appointed by him.
Due to these changes, an opposition called The National Front formed in Iran’s Parliament and gained most seats in the 1951 election.
Mohammad Mosaddegh was appointed as Prime Minister.
Mosaddegh and the Shah did not get along.
He was a direct descendant of the former Qajar rulers of Iran, and he saw the Shah as a usurper to the throne.
As prime minister, Mosaddegh nationalized the oil industry, a move that was incredibly popular among Iranians.
It was less popular with the UK, as Iran could now demand more for the export of oil.
Britain responded by banning commodities, such as sugar and steel, from being imported into Iran.
The Royal Navy was then used to embargo Iranian oil tankers from carrying oil property outside of Iran, which they considered stolen.
Iran’s hard currency was also frozen in British banks. The embargo hurt Mossadegh’ popularity and a second assassination attempt in 1952 led him to use emergency powers to stay in government.
Eventually, as his support in Parliament collapsed, a referendum was held to dissolve Parliament and give Mossadegh total control.
You know, standard dictator stuff.
The referendum went to voters and passed with 99.9 percent approval, with two million votes in favour and only 1,300 votes against.
But it was seen not only as dripping with corruption, but also as an act of treason.
Mossadegh looked to strip the Shah of control over Iran’s national resources and all military power.
As the prime minister consolidated power, and the Shah lost most of his, the CIA entered the chat.
The CIA proposed a coup to remove Mossadegh from power.
Initially the Shah was against it, but changed his mind when he was told by the CIA that if he didn’t go along with a coup, he too would be deposed and sent packing.
And so, Operation Ajax was initiated.
It hoped to remove Mossadegh from power, while backing the Shah as it removed oil nationalization by bringing in five American oil companies to extract Iranian oil.
The coup helped the stagnating economy of Iran, but it also made the Shah autocratic.
While the US supported the campaign towards modernization in Iran, the Shah cemented himself as a dictator.
Random arrests and torture by his secret police helped remove most political opposition.
The United States didn’t have an issue with it. Their policy can best be summed up as:
Mossadegh as a dictator that nationalized Iran’s oil: Bad.
The Shah as a dictator that allowed American oil companies to profit off Iran’s oil: Good.
Within this new environment, a Muslim cleric named Ruhollah Khomeini became the Shah’s most vocal critic as he publicly denounced the government in the early-1960s and spent 18 months in prison as a result.
After his release, he was exiled.
The Shah would have likely held power until his death, but things were about to change in the 1970s.
In 1973, oil prices spiked due to an oil embargo by Saudi Arabia that targeted Western Countries who supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
oil prices skyrocketed and, foreign currency flooded Iran as international actors looked to purchase its oil reserves, this caused inflation to rise.
By 1974, the country had a double-digit inflation rate and corruption became rampant.
An economic recession followed in 1975 and 1976, increasing the unemployment rate.
Millions of Iranians looked for jobs, but whatever had been available just a few years earlier had dried up.
High inflation, high unemployment and high corruption, created opposition to the Shah’s rule to increase.
As the Shah became more unpopular, Iranians rallied around the exiled Ruhollah Khomeini as supporters smuggled in tapes to Iran of his speeches, disguised as music recordings from Asia.
In response, the Shah put out news reports stating that Khomeini was the homosexual son of a cabaret dancer. Stories in newspapers said he was born in India and was under the pay of the British government.
In January 1978, the first major demonstrations against the Shah began. Strikes and demonstrations brought the country to a standstill as a popular revolution began to gather speed and snowball.
The Shah cracked down harshly on protesters, but this only galvanized the movement against him.
By late-1978, the Shah knew his time in power was short.
On Jan. 16, 1979, he filled a small wooden casket with a few ounces of his native soil and issued his final order as Shah which was to fuel his Boeing 727.The foreign press was then called to a press conference at the palace.
As they waited, the Shah boarded his plane and left Iran.
Two weeks later, on Feb. 1, Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran and formed a new government.
A referendum was held in April 1979 and Iran became an Islamic republic.
Ruhollah Khomeini became the Ayatollah, or Supreme Leader of Iran.
Ayatollah Khomeini quickly eliminated thousands of dissenters to his new system of government.
While Khomeini had promised a democratic political system, he immediately advocated for the creation of a theocracy as opposition parties were banned, and foreign powers in Iran were looked on with suspicion.
The harshest rhetoric was levied at the American embassy, which was called a “den of spies”.
With this political climate in mind the stage is now set for what became the Canadian Caper.
The man instrumental to the caper was born on Oct. 5, 1934, in Calgary.
Ken Taylor then attended the University of Toronto where he earned a Bachelor of Arts, followed by a Master of Business Administration degree at Berkeley in California.
In 1959, he joined the foreign service, and a long string of international postings. First in Guatemala, where he arrived on a freighter completely broke with his wife Pat after being delayed at an Acapulco dock for five weeks.
From this low point, his career could only go up. After that posting he was sent to Pakistan and the United Kingdom, until he found himself as the Canadian ambassador to Iran in 1977.
If he thought this would be a quiet posting, he would be very wrong.
As we just learned, the Iranian Revolution would soon upend everything in the country.
Following the Iranian Revolution, Taylor and his office helped 850 Canadian workers leave the country. The Embassy staff remained behind and provided information back to Canada about the evolving situation.
On Nov. 4, 1979, hundreds of students protested outside the American embassy in Tehran over the decision by the United States to allow the former Shah to go to New York City for cancer treatment.
The mob of students began to scale the fence of the embassy, eventually taking 66 Americans hostage.
They demanded the extradition of the Shah to Iran and had the support of Ayatollah Khomeini.
In a separate building on the embassy grounds, a group of Americans were working.
Upon seeing the students storm the embassy, the group fled the grounds through another entrance.
Outside the embassy, the Americans split into two groups to avoid suspicion and decided to meet later at the nearby British Embassy.
One group, led by Consul General Richard Morefield, took an indirect route and were captured then returned to the American embassy as hostages.
Led by diplomat Robert Anders, the other group consisted of Cora Amburn-Lijek, Mark Lijek, Joseph Stafford, and Kathleen Stafford.
This group was on their way to the British embassy when they saw a huge crowd in their path.
Since Robert Anders lived nearby, he took the group to his home.
Lee Schatz, an American diplomat who simply walked out of the embassy, through the crowd and into the Swedish embassy, after making a stop at his apartment to grab a few things.
The six Americans evaded capture over the next few days as they hopped from house to house until they realized the unsafe conditions were untenable. That’s when Anders contacted his friend John Sheardown, who was a Canadian immigration officer on Nov. 8.
Sheardown would be happy to help keep the Americans safe, but he needed authorization to do so and asked Anders to call back in two days.
Sheardown shared the information with the Canadian Ambassador… Kenneth Taylor who contacted Flora Macdonald, the federal Secretary of External Affairs in Canada and set the wheels in motion for what was to come.
Because she gave her authorization to help the Americans but also needed the approval of Prime Minister Joe Clark.
At the time of the phone call, Clark was involved in Question Period in the House of Commons. He said later,
“My Foreign Minister Flora Macdonald literally came to me on the floor of the House of Commons, told me what was happening, and the two of us decided on the spot that we would accept the Ambassador’s recommendation and extend protection to the hostages.”
On Nov. 10, Anders called Sheardown, who offered the Americans sanctuary.
Anders and his group arrived at John and Zera Sheardown’s home when they walked in, they were greeted by …. Ken Taylor.
After the introductions were completed, the group of five Americans that showed up at their home was split.
Joseph and Kathleen Stafford went with Ken and Pat Taylor, while Anders Cora Amburn-Lijek and Mark Lijek stayed with the Sheardowns.
The first week was slow. Reports about what was happening with the American hostages, only came from newspapers that were under the firm control of the government.
On Nov. 21, Swedish Ambassador Kaj Sundberg called Taylor and told him that Lee Schatz, was under their protection, he had been staying in the home of Swedish Consul Cecilia Lithander.
The Swedes were happy to shelter him, but he didn’t speak Swedish and that could blow his cover as a member of their group.
They felt he could impersonate a Canadian better.
Taylor told Sundberg that they would be happy to house another American, as they were already housing five.
Sundberg was reportedly shocked to learn that there were other Americans who had escaped the embassy.
Schatz was soon transported to the Sheardown residence.
Meanwhile, Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were being held hostage by the Iranian regime.
For the six that escaped, they settled into a day-to-day routine of sitting and waiting.
The hope was they would be out of Iran by Christmas, but that was not going to be the case.
Back in Canada in the House of Commons the Liberals and Pierre Trudeau were hammering Clark regarding the hostage situation in Iran and the Americans who were captured.
They were unaware of the sheltered Americans.
The heated debate had resulted in some near slip-ups r. At one point, during a debate, both Flora Macdonald and Joe Clark nearly let everyone in on their major secret.
Flora Macdonald would call that as quote:
“living under the gallows.”
To prevent the secret from getting out, Clark told Trudeau about the Americans in hiding on Oct. 27 in the hope of calming the debate in Parliament and lowering the risk for the story accidently coming out during Question Period.
He told Trudeau,
“We have given sanctuary to six Americans in Tehran. They are members of the diplomatic staff, and they would otherwise be hostages, but they managed to get away and make contact with us.”
Clark stressed to Trudeau that he did not want him to cease questioning.
He stated,
“I would just like to have your questions conditional on this information.”
Clark said later that Trudeau thanked him, and that was his only reaction to the information.
Trudeau continued his questioning over the hostage crisis in America and Canada’s response to it but changed his course somewhat.
In Iran, days soon turned into weeks and the calendar flipped from 1979 to 1980.
Over the course of this time Taylor slowly began to reduce his staff to eliminate the risk of exposure.
On Nov. 10, 1979, he had 17 staff, but by Jan. 18, 1980, that was reduced to 11.
Through this time, he was also in contact with Washington, providing information about the situation in Iran.
He even scouted out helicopter landing spots in Tehran in case a rescue was needed.
By January, the need for escape was increasing due to the risk of the story about the Americans getting out.
At one point, a report from Taylor was accidentally labelled Secret rather than Top Secret and was included in a summary to senior department heads in Ottawa.
Thankfully, the story did not get out.
There were rumours that a reporter in Washington was sniffing out the story and there was a concern it could break and put both Americans and Canadians in Iran in danger.
Realizing things needed to move, a plan was hatched to smuggle the Americans out of Iran.
And you might be familiar with some of the plot points in this next part of the story…d.
To smuggle the escapees out of the country, passports were needed. American passports obviously wouldn’t do, so Canadian passports had to be issued.
For obvious reasons these passports can only be issued to Canadian citizens, so an Order in Council was needed.
An Order in Council is rarely used by our government but it’s a decision made by the federal cabinet that does not need to be approved by Parliament.
With the risk involved in this case, it was absolutely required.
In the cabinet meeting, only four people, Joe Clark, Flora Macdonald, Minister of National Defence Allan McKinnon, and Senator Martial Asselin knew the real reason for the passports.
Clark simply told everyone there was a very good reason for the passports, without going into further detail.
The Order in Council was approved, and passports were issued with fake names.
The next task was developing a cover story courtesy of the CIA. Their involvement would not be known until 1997 when it was declassified.
While various cover stories were suggested, the selected surrounded Canadians, working on a Hollywood crew scouting locations for a new science fiction movie.
The science fantasy novel Lord of Light, written by Roger Zelanzy, was released in 1967.
It’s set on a planet colonized by the remnants of humanity; the novel covers a great span of time as the humans carve out a place for themselves on their new planet.
In 1979, it was announced that Lord of Light would be made into a $50 million film called Argo.
Comic book artist Jack Kirby, the creator of several comic book characters including Captain America, was brought on to produce artwork for the set design.
The planet was supposed to resemble the Middle East.
Due to legal problems, including embezzlement, the film was never produced but the pitch and some of the preproduction still existed.
That proved to be very beneficial to the American escapees.
The film’s script and even the set designs by Kirby were acquired by the CIA for use in The Canadian Caper.
It was believed the film was the perfect reason to scout locations in Iran.
To build the cover story, Tony Mendez, a disguise, and exfiltration expert for the CIA, was brought in to provide documents, clothing, materials, and a cover story.
Mendez had answered a blind advertisement in 1965 for a graphic artist.
He was hired and was soon working as an espionage artist for the Technical Services Division of the CIA where he specialized in document forgery and the creation of disguises.
Working closely with the Canadian government, Mendez was given the passports and other supporting materials. He then flew to Tehran with Ed Johnson, another member of the Technical Services Division, who would assist in the rescue.
To make the cover story work, John Chambers was hired by Mendez.
Chambers was well-known in Hollywood for his groundbreaking makeup artistry.
He created the iconic pointed Spock ears on Star Trek and created the prosthetics for the ape characters in Planet of the Apes, for which he won an Academy Award in 1968
Due to his skill, he was used by the CIA to create disguise kits for CIA agents throughout the world.
With his connections in Hollywood, and his work with the CIA, Chambers was the perfect person to assist Mendez, the Canadians, and the CIA.
Chambers set up a fake movie and production company called Studio Six Productions.
The name was a reference to the six Americans hiding in Iran.
An office was rented in Los Angeles, fake business cards were made and ads for the studio’s upcoming film, Argo, were taken out in various magazines like Variety and Hollywood Reporter.
Taking the cover story even further, a film press party was held at a nightclub in Los Angeles.
Robert Sidell, another makeup artist in Hollywood, was enlisted by Chambers to pose as a producer at the film events in Los Angeles.
Robert’s wife Joan was hired to serve as the receptionist at the Studio Six offices in case anyone called to check the backstory of the film crew.
Back in Iran the Americans waited.
They read, played games such as Scrabble, and passed the time however they could.
Taylor spent his time getting non-essential Canadian embassy personnel out of the country.
To establish erratic patterns in case they were followed and to figure out airport procedures, Taylor also sent people out on fake errands in Tehran.
Each of the Americans also rehearsed their own roles in the cover story.
Cora Lijek became the film’s writer, while Mark Lijek was the transportation coordinator.
Kathy Stafford took on the role of set designer and Joe Stafford was an associate producer.
Robert Anders was the director of the film, while Lee Schatz was the film’s cameraman.
Everything was moving smoothly, but tensions were high in the house as everyone worried about being discovered.
On Jan. 19, 1980, someone called Ken Taylor’s home. Patricia Taylor answered and the person on the other line stated he wanted to speak to the house guests and demanded to speak with the Staffords.
Not knowing who she was talking to, she denied the Staffords were there and hung up.
Back in North America, another man was starting to figure out the story.
Jean Pelletier was the Washington correspondent for the Montreal newspaper La Presse.
He first began to suspect something was up when the Americans in press conferences referred to different numbers of hostages held by the Iranians after the embassy was stormed.
He wrote in his book, The Canadian Caper,
“It started with the numbers. They weren’t right. They didn’t compute, fit together. Ninety. Seventy-five. Forty-three. Thirteen, Fifty. So many soldiers out of step.”
He quickly concluded that some had escaped.
The only way the Americans could still be in Iran was if they were being housed by another country.
The logical conclusion for Pelletier was that the Canadians were involved.
He said.
“The Canadians were involved in some kind of sanctuary set up in Tehran and they were skittery as barnyard cattle before an earthquake.”
From here, he began to build his story through good old-fashioned journalism.
He kept his notes hidden in a filing cabinet in a folder labelled Fisheries.
Once he had completed the story, Pelletier had a choice to make.
He could hold the story and risk someone else breaking it or wait until the operation was completed.
Pelletier’s managing editor at La Presse wanted to run the story. QUOTE
“We are not in the businesses of covering up news. We don’t keep information to ourselves, we don’t make a practice of working hand in hand with governments. We are in the information business.”
Pelletier, despite having a career-making story on his hands, refused to allow his story to be published due to the risk for the Americans and Canadians in Iran.
He stated,
“We would only be playing into the hands of the militants. Is there anything they’d enjoy more now than to expose yet another nest of spies? No. I won’t be a party to that.”
If the story was broken by someone else, it is possible this wouldn’t have had a happy ending.
With all of this in mind… the Canadian Caper was on…
Early in the morning on Jan. 27, 1980, Mendez, Johnson and the six Americans left the homes of their Canadian hosts.
They made their way to Tehran’s international airport with their forged entry documents and real Canadian passports.
The worry of discovery as they moved through security and customs was real, but everything went off without a hitch.
The Americans made it to their aircraft, Swissair Flight 363, and left Iran for Zurich, Switzerland.
In an amazing coincidence, the aircraft was called Aargau (pronounced Argo), named for a state in Switzerland.
Upon arrival in Switzerland, the Americans were taken by the CIA to a mountain lodge safe house for the night.
The same day the Americans left Iran; the Canadians closed their embassy.
Taylor sent one last message to Canada from the embassy, which stated quote:
“This is the last message from Fortress Iran. See you later exfiltrator.”
He then smashed the embassy’s coding and communication equipment.
Soon after, he and the remaining Canadians in Iran, left the country.
Initially the plan was for the Americans to be kept hidden in a secret location in Florida but the day after the escape, Pelletier broke his story in La Presse.
The story was immediately picked up by the international press and spread around the world.
With their plans changed, the Americans were taken to West Germany, and then flown to Delaware on Jan. 30, 1980.
Kathleen Stafford said,
“It felt so great to be out and safe from harm.”
Back in North America, the escape of the six Americans came as a complete surprise.
Beyond a handful of people, no one else knew Canada’s help in keeping the Americans safe in Iran.
The outpouring of gratitude was immense.
In Detroit, billboards were put up facing the northern border with “Thank you Canada” written on them.
The Canadian embassy in Washington, was overwhelmed with people calling to say thank you.
The biggest outpouring of gratitude was directed at Ken Taylor.
On his way home to Canada, he was offered the Key to New York City.
He was called the hero of the entire rescue.
Newspapers began to call him the Scarlet Pimpernel, referencing the literary character Sir Percy Blakeney created in 1905.
In the books, Blakeney leads a double life as a wealthy playboy who is also a formidable swordsman and master of disguise.
He became a basis for superhero stories such as Batman, Superman and Zorro.
In Canada, the Canadians who helped orchestrate the rescue were honoured almost immediately.
Ken and Patricia Taylor, John and Zera Sheardown and embassy staff Mary Catherine O’Flaherty, Roger Lucy and Laverna Dollimore were all awarded the Order of Canada for their work.
Zera Sheardown was born in Guyana, and not eligible, but Flora Macdonald made an exception, and she was presented with an honorary membership to the Order.
Taylor was also awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan.
This award is the highest civilian award in the United States.
He also received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement.
Appointed as the Consul-General to New York City after his return from Iran, Taylor left the foreign service in 1984.
He remained in New York City until his death on Oct. 15, 2015, from colon cancer.
He lived long enough to see his heroics heavily downplayed by Ben Affleck in the film Argo.
In the film, Ken Taylor is shown not as the man who jumped immediately into action to protect the Americans but as an ambassador who ordered the Canadian embassy closed.
At one point the Canadians are even seen considering abandoning the Americans.
As you now know…Neither is true.
A title card was displayed at the end of Argo stating the CIA gave Canadian Ken Taylor credit simply for political purposes.
This, suffice to say, was a complete rewriting of history and due to the backlash Ben Affleck changed the postscript text to state,
“The involvement of the CIA complemented efforts of the Canadian embassy to free the six held in Tehran. To this day the story stands as an enduring model of international co-operation between governments.”
As the Toronto Star wrote quote,
“Even that hardly does Canada justice.”
Former US president Jimmy Carter said,
“90% of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian. And the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA…the main hero, in my opinion, was Ken Taylor.”
Taylor himself stated,
“Canada was responsible for the six and the CIA was a junior partner. But I realize this is a movie and you have to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.”
Affleck’s response to all of this was that the film was based on a true story and stated that the film had the spirit of truth.
That is one way of putting it.
Another way is to say it rewrote history to make other people look like heroes at the expense of the reputation of the diplomats that risked it all in the Canadian Caper.
But hey…that is just my opinion and the opinion of Ken Taylor, alongside Sir John Graham, who was Britain’s ambassador to Iran at the time, who has denied that the US diplomats were turned away from Britain’s embassy as shown in the movie.
Not only that…the hero of the movie was CIA fixer Tony Mendez, played by Ben Affleck…
According to Richard Sewell’s diary, a Kiwi diplomat, New Zealand ambassador Chris Beeby, was closely involved with the ambitious plot to fly the US diplomats to safety.
The diary even hints that Mendez nearly ruined the Canadian Caper on the day the Americans were to be flown out of Iran because when he went to pick up Mendez from his hotel, he was still asleep and had to be awoken with a phone call. The pair eventually arrived 30 minutes late for their flight, and Mendez allegedly pleaded: “For God’s sake don’t mention this to anyone.”
Regardless, the Canadian Caper saved six people from the fate faced by all other US Embassy employees who were held hostage for 444 days, from November 4, 1979, to their release on January 20, 1981… almost a year after those kept safe by Ken Taylor and the Canadian Embassy in Tehran.
[OUTRO]
Information from The Canadian Caper, The Canadian Museum of History, The Government of Canada, Macleans, Wilson Centre, Wikipedia and the Canadian Encyclopedia
