Gordon Carrera

So he's got this amazing experience.

And by the time we get to, I guess, just before Christmas 79, Mendez is thinking about how...

he might do that.

The Canadians are looking for a way to get them out.

And Mendes is trying to think about some of the different options.

And at this point, you know, there are lots of options, but he is trying to work out how he might be able to do it.

Because it is fair to say that the US State Department has been quite happy to have this quite quiet, to some extent to take a wait-and-see approach with the six Americans, because there wasn't publicity around them.

But of course, there is this fear that the Iranians might realise that there's a discrepancy

as they go through all those shredded documents, that there is a discrepancy between the number of people who were at the embassy and the ones that they've managed to take hostages and work out who they might be.

Now, that hasn't happened yet.

They're not sure about it.

But certainly, you get that sense as you get to the end of 1979 that the Iranians might get onto them is a worry in Washington.

And on the ground in Tehran, they're having some close calls about

people may be spotting that they're there.

So the whole policy of just kind of hoping no one notices just doesn't feel sustainable, which is the key for Mendes to really get involved, isn't it?

Because then you're suddenly having to rush them out rather than come up with a carefully planned operation, which is obviously what you prefer.

That's right.

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