2: 2. Heidi August Witnesses the Gaddafi Coup and CIA Restrictions on Marriage Liza Mundy Book: The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA The story moves to Heidi August, a college graduate and political science major hired by the CIA in 1969 as
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 19 October 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
The story moves to Heidi August, a college graduate and political science major hired by the CIA in 1969 as a GS-3 or GS-4 clerk-secretary. On her first posting in Tripoli, Libya, she displayed the necessary characteristic of a spy—the willingness to go out when hearing something dangerous. Heidi was the first American officer to recognize that Muammar Gaddafi was fomenting a coup, catching the male leadership of the station completely flatfooted. She, along with a friend, drove through gunfire to successfully "burn out" the station (opening safes and destroying classified files) using techniques learned only from a training video. Despite this bravery and competence, she remained a clerk. The agency culture at the time (before EEOC laws) explicitly required women serving overseas in a clandestine capacity not to marry or have children; they would be forced to resign if they did.
Transcript
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| 0:30.1 | This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchel with Liza Mundy, her new book, The Sisterhood, |
| 0:45.1 | The Secret History of Women at the CIA. Heidi August, born 1947-48, has a dream of being an adventurer, even attracted by the U.S. government, to do something romantic and worthwhile for the country. |
| 0:50.1 | It is now September 1, 1969. |
| 1:02.6 | Heidi hired as a GS-3 or GS-4,, which is ex-secretary at the CIA, has been assigned to the romantic spot of Libya. |
| 1:09.7 | She's in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, and she is spending a weekend with a good friend of hers who's come to visit. |
| 1:12.5 | This is seen as a good post for the CIA. |
| 1:17.5 | It's on the Mediterranean and as a king named Idris, who's very friendly with Washington. |
| 1:25.1 | It's 1969, for heaven sakes, and there's gunfire. Liza, what does Heidi think of the gunfire? |
| 1:45.0 | What does she do about it? She goes out to see what is happening. And that is really a hallmark of a personality characteristic that a CIA officer, that a spy, a CIA spy needs, is the willingness to go out his desire and urge to go out in the street when you hear something scary and dangerous and see what it is. |
| 1:46.8 | And that's exactly what she does. |
| 1:48.0 | She goes out on her balcony. And she is the first American officer to see that Moormar Gaddafi is fomenting a coup and taking over Libya that the king who's out of the country on vacation is being deposed and |
| 2:01.7 | thrown out. And this, this colonel in the Libyan Air Force is now going to take over as a leader |
| 2:09.0 | of the country. And so she watches that unfold. She calls her boss, because just as you said, |
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