S8 Ep736: 2. WITNESS TO A REVOLUTION: HEIDI AUGUST IN LIBYA Guest Mundy: Guest Mundy recounts Heidi August’s 1969 assignment to Libya, where she witnessed Muammar Gaddafi’s coup firsthand,. Despite being a college graduate, August was hired as a clerk and onl
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
2. WITNESS TO A REVOLUTION: HEIDI AUGUST IN LIBYA Guest Mundy: Guest Mundy recounts Heidi August’s 1969 assignment to Libya, where she witnessed Muammar Gaddafi’s coup firsthand,. Despite being a college graduate, August was hired as a clerk and only informed of secretarial roles. When the coup began, she was the first American official to identify it, while her male superiors remained unaware. Demonstrating remarkable composure, August drove through gunfire to "burn out" the station and destroy classified cables. This experience sparked her lifelong passion for intelligence work, even as agency rules then barred female clandestine officers from marriage or children,. (3)
1956 Hungary
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| 0:47.9 | I'm John Batchel with Liza Mundy, her new book, The Sisterhood, the Secret History of Women at the CIA. |
| 0:58.0 | Heidi August, born in 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. |
| 1:02.0 | It is now September 1st, 1969. |
| 1:08.0 | IDI hired as a GS3 or GS4, which is ex-secretary at the CIA, has been assigned to the romantic spot of Libya. |
| 1:18.9 | 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. |
| 1:26.2 | This is seen as a good post for the CIA. It's on the |
| 1:29.1 | Mediterranean and as a king named Idris, who's very friendly with Washington. It's 1969, for heaven |
| 1:35.5 | sakes, and there's gunfire. Liza, what does Heidi think of the gunfire? What does she do about it? |
| 1:43.0 | She goes out to see what is happening. And that is really a |
| 1:47.1 | hallmark of a personality characteristic that a CIA officer, that a spy, the CIA spy needs is the |
| 1:53.7 | willingness to go out his desire and urge to go out in the street when you hear something scary and |
| 1:59.0 | dangerous and see what it is. |
| 2:02.6 | And that's exactly what she does. |
| 2:03.8 | She goes out on her balcony. |
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