I saw Tony Mendez at the International Spy Museum autographing his book; the perfect end to a great visit. The book is well written and gives a good introduction to the radical state sponsored terrorist mind. This is where it all started. I remember those days and how totally flummoxed Carter and the rest of the civilized world became when a sovereign nation suddenly went medieval. The CIA was the only agency that had a clue about how to effectively deal with this and the story of their professional, methodical exfiltration of the 6 hostages reminds us all as to why we need such an organization. The story is a rare insider's look at CIA operations in the modern world. Everyone should read this book. Quite an interesting book. I enjoyed the film a while back and when I saw the book thought it'd be interesting to see how the book compared. The book was well written and the author's observations come across as quite real and well thought out.The book is (not unexpectedly) not as dramatic as the movie. There aren't all the "close calls" that the movie depicts. A lot of that was made up. But even though that intense drama was not there, the underlying drama of the situation does come through in the book and makes you feel for the anxiety and apprehension that the people involved must have felt.
That was one long CV that I read. Still was reasonably interesting.
—King
Cool read. Want to join the CIA now.
—orttalk
Very interesting book.
—mia_maya_pattz