CIA Hero from Iran Hostage Crisis, Edward Johnson, Dies at 81

Edward B. Johnson, who as a CIA officer ventured into Iran with a colleague to rescue six American diplomats who fled the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran, has died at the age of 81, the agency confirmed Monday.

For decades, Johnson’s true identity remained concealed from the public, known only by the pseudonym “Julio,” following the publication of fellow CIA officer Antonio “Tony” Mendez’s book recounting the operation. The 2012 Academy Award-winning film “Argo,” directed by and starring Ben Affleck, notably excluded the second man on the team. Yet, a painting at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, quietly acknowledged Johnson’s existence. In 2023, the CIA revealed Johnson’s identity in a podcast highlighting the agency’s efforts to free the diplomats hiding at the Canadian ambassador’s residence in Tehran.

TRUSTED PARTNER ✅

“Working with the six — these are rookies,” Johnson recounted in the podcast interview. “They were people who were not trained to lie to authorities. They weren’t trained to be clandestine, elusive.”

Johnson passed away on August 27 in his sleep in Virginia, following a battle with pneumonia, the CIA announced.

“Ed’s legacy will continue to inspire those who walk the halls of Langley for generations to come,” the agency stated publicly.

His family honored him in a statement, describing him as “a name that whispered through the corridors of intelligence” through his work. “He was, at once, the ordinary man next door — husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend — and an extraordinary agent of the state,” they said.

Details of Johnson’s professional life remain ambiguous, much of which are known through the CIA podcast “The Langley Files.” Johnson, known as Ed, detailed his path to the CIA after serving as an infantryman in the U.S. Army. He studied French in university, grew up learning Spanish from Cuban and Puerto Rican friends, and later mastered Arabic while teaching English in Saudi Arabia.

His international journey included travels through Egypt and Jordan and studies at Sorbonne University before joining the CIA. In Paris, he met his wife, Aileen.

“It was after having gotten the on-the-ground experience in the Middle East and the educational experience and the language into play … that I was considered to be a good candidate,” Johnson said.

During the Iran hostage crisis, which began on November 4, 1979, with Islamist students storming the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, six U.S. Embassy employees managed to escape and hide at Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor’s residence. Several rescue plans failed before U.S. President Jimmy Carter approved the “Canadian Caper” — posing the officials as part of a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a fake “Star Wars” knock-off called “Argo.”

Equipped with Canadian passports, Mendez pretended to be an Irish filmmaker, while Johnson acted as “an associate producer representing our production company’s ostensible South American backers,” Mendez recounted in an internal CIA document. Mendez noted Johnson’s “considerable exfiltration experience” during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

Arriving in Tehran on January 25, 1980, the men used a local map to find the Canadian Embassy but mistakenly approached the Swedish Embassy, located near the U.S. Embassy, patrolled by armed students. Unable to communicate with a local embassy guard, the men were eventually assisted by a student revolutionary who spoke German. The student provided written directions, hailed a taxi for them, and declined a tip.

“I have to thank the Iranians for being the beacon who got us to the right place,” Johnson said.

The rescuers provided the six Americans with scripts, props, false histories, and training on how to pose as a film crew. Johnson and Mendez worked on the final preparations for the passports and exit slips, a moment immortalized in a painting at CIA headquarters.

“The biggest thing I think we did was to convince them that you can, you can do it — as simple as that,” Johnson recalled.

On January 28, 1980, Johnson, Mendez, and the six Americans safely departed from Tehran on a Swissair flight. Both Johnson and Mendez received the CIA’s Intelligence Star, its second-highest award for valor, for the operation. Johnson retired from the CIA in 1995, later working as a contractor and pursuing a passion for photography.

“Even as the world celebrated his heroism, he remained a ghost, a figure shrouded in anonymity,” his family said. “For decades, his identity was a closely guarded secret. It was only in the twilight of his life that he finally emerged from the shadows, a legend in his own right.”

Born on July 29, 1943, in Brooklyn, Johnson is survived by his wife, five children, nine grandchildren, other family members, and friends.

In the years since the “Argo” rescue, discussions have arisen about the CIA’s actions in Iran, particularly the 1953 CIA-led coup that overthrew the country’s prime minister and solidified the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. This event set the stage for the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the ensuing four decades of hostility between Tehran and Washington. The podcast revealing Johnson’s identity acknowledged this, with a CIA historian referring to the 1953 coup as “one of the exceptions” to the agency’s efforts to promote democracy worldwide.