Former President Jimmy Carter said in an interview that aired Thursday that while he enjoyed the movie “Argo,” a leading contender for the top prize of best picture at this Sunday’s Academy Awards, the film strayed from the facts.
The movie depicts an incredible rescue operation of six American diplomats stranded in Iran after the 1979 hostage crisis, a key moment in the Carter presidency. But Carter told CNN’s Piers Morgan that the operation was largely orchestrated by Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor, whose home served as asylum for the diplomats after they escaped from the U.S. embassy in Tehran, and that the film gives too much credit to the Central Intelligence Agency.
“Well, let me say first of all, it’s a great drama. And I hope it gets the Academy Award for best film because I think it deserves it,” Carter said. “The other thing that I would say was that 90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian. And the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA. And with that exception, the movie is very good.”
