161. Argo: Six Fugitives in Revolutionary Tehran (Ep 2)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2026

⏱️ 67 minutes

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Summary

Six Americans are hiding out as Canadian houseguests in Tehran. To get them out, the CIA will invent a Hollywood film studio that does not exist. In this episode, David and Gordon examine how the CIA worked with Hollywood to plan a daring escape from revolutionary Iran during the hostage crisis. ------------------- THE REST IS CLASSIFIED LIVE 2026 at The Rest Is Fest: Buy your tickets ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see David and Gordon live on stage at London’s Southbank Centre on 4 September: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/the-rest-is-classified-live/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Sign-up for our free newsletter where producer Becki takes you behind the scenes of the show: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign⁠-up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Join the Declassified Club to go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, regular livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. Just go to ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠ or join on Apple Podcasts. ------------------- Get a 10% discount on business PCs, printers and accessories using the code TRIC10. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://HP.com/CLASSIFIED⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more information. T&C's apply. ------------------- Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠therestisclassified@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@restisclassified⁠ Video Editor: Joe Pettit Social Producer: Emma Jackson Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books.
0:13.1	Join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com. Six Americans are hiding out as Canadian house guests in Tehran. To get them out, the CIA will
0:32.1	invent a Hollywood film studio that doesn't exist. Well, welcome to the rest is classified. I'm Gordon Carrera.
0:38.8	And I'm David McCloskey. And we are in the midst of the aftermath of the Iranian
0:43.2	revolution. The US embassy has been taken over. Hostages have been taken there, but six
0:49.0	Americans have slipped out a side gate and have ended up sheltered inside the homes of two brave Canadian
0:56.8	diplomats in Tehran. We left last time with Tony Mendez of the CIA's Office of Technical
1:03.4	Service planning the idea of how he might be able to get them out from inside Iran.
1:13.3	So, David, I guess we're back to the story of the CIA and the Canadians, just to remind
1:19.8	people, rescuing these six diplomats.
1:23.8	This is going to go on for the entirety of the series, isn't it?
2:01.3	It is, yeah. He won't relent. He won't relent. So, plans, Gordon. What's the plan here? There's lots of plans. And none of them are good. No. I think it's fair to say there are lots of plans. I could have come up with better plans than some of these plans to get them out. Do you think so? I don't know, Gordon. Thanks. Maybe. But there are a couple of ideas. And some of these are coming from the Canadians, I have to say, and some are coming from the State Department. The question is how you're going to get these people out because the point is they cannot be
2:06.4	American diplomats. They've got to be someone else to get them out and there's got to be a route to get them out as well. Right. And it also is worth just before we lay out the
2:13.2	the bad plans, it is worth saying that the challenge, the exfiltration challenge here is significant
2:18.7	because there's a group, there's six people, they're between the ages of 25 and 54, they're
2:27.2	diplomats, they're not intelligence officers, they have no experience working with alias documents
2:33.6	and cover. They're not trained for this at all, period.
2:36.9	So you have to think about the cover problem from the standpoint of the humans that you have
2:42.3	sitting at these homes in, you know, Canadian diplomatic residences across Tehran,
2:47.0	and it is a significant one.
2:52.4	This episode is brought to you by HP.
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