The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

52 OCTOBER 2012 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL mal life. Still, he remained a prominent figure, and his perceived role smoothed the way to a plum posting as consul general in New York City and, later, a job as vice president for government relations with RJR/Nabisco. Where Praise is Due I first learned of the CIA announcement when a reporter called to ask for my reaction. Stunned, I refused to comment until I could confirm that the agency had gone public. Mean- while, as more reporters called me, I became increasingly mysti- fied by the tone of their questions. Many, especially the ones from Canadian media, implied that Taylor had done something dishonorable. I could certainly understand the disappointment, that what was presumed to have been a Canadian operation turned out to involve CIA assistance. But I still found this reaction bizarre and insisted, as often and as clearly as possible, that Taylor and his Canadian colleagues had done their jobs, and done them very well indeed. I made the same point in several documentaries later made about Mendez. Fortunately, Amb. Taylor’s role is now well documented in an excellent book by Robert A. Wright, Our Man in Tehran: The Truth Behind the Secret Mission to Save Six Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Ambassador Who Worked with the CIA to Bring Them Home (Harper Collins, 2010). I have also taken every opportunity to praise John Shear- down, the Canadian consul in Tehran and the man most responsible for our finding refuge. Back in 1979, Bob Anders, the ranking FSO in our group, telephoned Sheardown after we had been in hiding for four days and were beginning to realize that the takeover would have no quick end. Sheardown’s immediate response was, “Why didn’t you call sooner?” Anders explained that we were still coping on our own, adding that there were five of us (the sixth was still hiding else- where). Sheardown commanded, “Bring ‘em all!” An Unconditional Welcome Although several more days passed before we concluded that imposing ourselves on Sheardown was our only viable option, Anders made clear that Sheardown had extended an uncondi- tional, almost insistent welcome. That greatly eased our con- cerns. Desperate as we had become, we understood that anyone who sheltered us was taking a huge risk, a risk the British had already been forced to decline. We spent one night in the Brit- ish residential compound uptown, but their embassy down- The author returns to U.S. soil at Dover Air Force Base on the evening of Jan. 30, 1980. U.S. State Department