bout de papier, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2014) — Summer 2014 // Été 2014, p. 26
ESCAPING IRAN —- A TRUE
ACCOUNT OF THE BEST BAD IDEA,
Deeds Publishing, Atlanta, Georgia,
U.S.A., 2014, 258 pp., $21.89.
Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be another book or film about the Canadian Caper, along comes another one. This book has a unique angle, though. It’s a personal account by Mark Lijek who, along with his wife Cora and four other Americans, was one of the “houseguests” protected by the Canadian embassy in Tehran in 1979. He is the only one of the six to have told the story from their perspective.
Lijek’s motivation in publishing his story is to set the record straight. “I believe that by telling the story in full detail, the true heroes will stand out and it will be clear why they should be remembered”, he says in the Foreword. Lijek began to be concerned in 1997, after the CIA declassified the details of the rescue of the six by agent Tony Mendez, that the actions of the Canadians were being relegated to secondary status. But it was the film Argo that convinced him to write his own account, “in the hope that Hollywood fiction, no matter how well done, did not completely overwhelm fact”.
The “best bad idea” of the title comes, of course, from Argo. There is a scene in the film where the CIA are asking then U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance for permission to implement a rescue scenario that would have the six Americans adopt aliases as Canadians working on a Hollywood movie production. It was a highly improbable plan, but when Vance questions it they tell him it’s the best bad idea they’ve come up with. (In fact, we in the management team of the Canadian embassy had a better idea, which was to take the Americans out quietly over several days, by ones and twos, accompanied by one of us. But then we don’t have that Yankee flair, do we?)
The list of people that Lijek considers the heroes of the Tehran incident is a long one, but right at the top is John Sheardown. He was the Immigration Program manager in the Canadian embassy who took the initiative to welcome the Americans into his home. Sheardown, who died in 2012, was a big, gruff guy, a decorated WWII bomber pilot, with a soft heart and a no-nonsense attitude. He and his wife Zena looked after four of the Americans (two stayed at the official residence) for more than two months. He was so effective at protecting them and assuaging their fears that they began to call him “Big Daddy” and to look forward eagerly to his return from work each day.
Lijek is generous with his praise for all the people who helped the six to find sanctuary, including those in the Canadian embassy and those in other friendly embassies, as well as some Iranians and other foreign nationals. He has a less rosy view of senior officials in the U.S. State Department and the U.S. embassy in Tehran, who did not foresee what might happen after President Jimmy Carter admitted the deposed Shah of Iran to the U.S.A. Lijek devotes a good deal of space to the question of why the embassy was not better prepared for the attack less than two weeks later.
This is the second version of Lijek’s account. The first, published as The Houseguests: A Memoir of Canadian Courage and CIA Sorcery, was a slimmer book but “prompted a number of people to come forward with corrections, both minor and major”. It also attracted the interest of a firm called Deeds Publishing, in Atlanta, Georgia, which offered to help improve the book and republish it. The new version covers much more than the intense, but brief, story of the houseguests and their exfiltration. In fact, the broader story makes this a much more interesting book.
The book begins with the day of the takeover, November 4, 1979, and recounts the hour by hour drama of the attack on the embassy and the stealthy exit of Lijek, his wife and some co-workers by a rear door. There follows the frightening and frustrating search over six days for a safe hiding place, until one of the group called John Sheardown. “Why didn’t you call sooner?” was the response.
Lijek describes the daily life of the Americans in the Sheardowns’ home for the long weeks until January 26 when welcome by the Pres media are recounted in detail.
From this point on, the book tells a more personal story. Lijek talks about his education, his army service, his application to join the foreign service, his training and assignment. This will be of great interest to readers curious about how the U.S. foreign service operates. Ultimately, Lijek’s tale circles back to the posting to Tehran and a description of his work in the weeks before the attack. The discussion of how the embassy grappled with understanding the new regime in Iran is fascinating.
As I read the book, I watched — in vain — for signs of remorse on the part of Lijek and his companions, guilt over the way successive U.S. administrations had used the Shah, winked at his corruption and encouraged Savak, his repressive secret police. I found none. Lijek says, very evenhandedly, “We should have distanced ourselves from the shah earlier, or supported him more earnestly. A case can be made for either strategy”.
This caveat aside, Escaping Iran is an excellent read and a valuable addition to the Tehran incident canon.
John Kneale is a former Foreign Service Officer and Head of Mission. He served in the Canadian embassy in Tehran as First Secretary, Economic and Trade Relations and, after the seizure of the American embassy, prepared reports for Ottawa and Washington on the impact of U.S. sanctions against Iran. He was also the embassy spokesperson. He wrote about his Tehran experience in his 1993 book Foreign Service (excerpted in the special section on John Sheardown in bout de papier, Vol.27, No.2).
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2014) — Summer 2014 // Été 2014, p. 26. Read the rest of this issue →
