Schools

SP Man Who Lived 'Argo' Speaks to Key School Students

Lee Schatz was one of the six American diplomats hiding for his life during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.

If you’ve seen the movie Argo, while watching it you probably experienced an accelerated heart rate and edge of your seat suspense.

Severna Park native Lee Schatz doesn’t need to see the film to experience the rush of danger—because he lived it.

During the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, Schatz, who served as an agricultural attaché, was one of six American diplomats hiding in the homes of Canadian diplomats in Tehran after anti-American protesters overran the U.S. embassy.

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With a candid and often humorous demeanor, Schatz spoke about this time in history, and his experience to a group of 11th-grade students at The Key School Thursday afternoon.

“I knew what I was getting into when I took the job,” Schatz said. “The first few months [I was in Tehran] was one of the most exciting things I have ever done.”

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Schatz’s tale gained national recognition after it was depicted in the film Argo. The Key School students watched the movie, and then asked Schatz a number of questions.

One would think Schatz would reflect on the time when he was hiding for his life with restraint, but he doesn’t look at it that way. In fact, he said they often played games and drank to pass the time while they were hiding in the Canadian house.

“We played scrabble. They wanted me desperately to learn how to play cards. I said, ‘if I am here forever, I am not going to learn cards,’” Schatz said with a laugh. “We memorized—well some of us, two of us—the designs on the back of the tiles. I paged through a two-volume British dictionary looking for new words.”

Schatz said that anyone that goes into the business of foreign services knows there is a risk, but he insists that during his time hiding in the Canadian home he wasn’t a hostage—not compared to the people trapped in the Embassy.

“I wasn’t locked up,” he said. “I wasn’t a hostage; the other people were hostages. I was kind of locked up on the way to the departure lounge. “

Much of Argo focuses on the unique way Schatz and the other hostages were freed—by pretending to be movie stars on location for a film.

Schatz said they had about 36 hours to learn their new movie star identities before heading to the airport. Once at the airport, Schatz was actually the first person to get through. He said they questioned him because his mustache looked different than in the photo on his passport.

Since the film came out, Schatz said he has since learned new information about their storied escape.

“Security is on a need to know basis,” Schatz said. “There are things I have found out in the last 36 months about this activity that I didn’t know before. One of which was they gave it a 50 percent chance of working—glad I didn’t have that information before.”

The now famed Argo tale, orchestrated by American CIA technical operations officer Tony Mendez was classified information for 17 years. The story was only recently declassified.

Schatz said they were never specifically told not to talk about it, it was just understood.

“Tony said if you don’t talk about this, and everyone is going to want to talk to you, if you don’t talk about this we might be able to use it again,” Schatz said. “He didn’t tell us we couldn’t; they just made it real clear that if we did we took away an option for them. And no one talked about it for 17 years.”

During the presentation Schatz also talked about his feelings for Iran now. He said he has always wanted to see a flag go back up on the U.S. Embassy. But he didn’t dwell on the issue.

In fact, Schatz didn’t dwell on much of his experience with Argo. Students asked him if his life had changed any since the mission was declassified. Schatz said it really wasn’t something that is glorified in his eyes—it was really just part of his past.

“That’s less than a half of one percent of my life,” he said. “It was 90 days in my life. People ask, ‘Are you going to think that’s the best?’ I don’t think so. There’s a lot of adventures you can experience out there. It’s not a contest.”

See Also:

  • Severna Park Man Lived ‘Argo’


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