It was 1990. Jonna Mendez fidgeted with her pencil, nervously awaiting her face-to-face with President George H.W. Bush. White House senior officials stood near her chatting in the President’s outer office, but Mendez kept her distance.
As the group filed in for the briefing, Mendez sat closest to the President, kicking off the meeting by detailing the latest in disguise technology. Her boss, CIA Director William Webster, sat to her left, along with other top officials. As the CIA’s Chief of Disguise, Mendez worked for the Agency’s Office of Technical Services and was well-versed in spyware. Her nerves eased as she dove into a subject she knew better than most.
Mendez, 30-something at the time, with chin-length, curly black hair and glasses, had never met President Bush. Yet she spoke with confidence about the subject she knew, describing new techniques being used to make disguise technology more lifelike. As she addressed the group, she observed the President. Clearly he was watching her, and it was as if everyone in the room was wondering the same thing: did she bring along a sample of this fascinating spyware technology?
Mendez recalls that things got really interesting when she knew she had their collective attention. She announced she was wearing it—a mask—and reached to her face. But the President stopped her, stepped close, and studied her head and neck. She stood still. What was fake? he asked her. Her nose? Her chin?
Finally, she peeled off her mask to reveal the true Jonna Mendez—blue eyes, light brown hair, and a fair complexion. The rapt room nearly gasped in unison, the President’s eyes lighting up as he peppered her with questions. Others in the room perked up, as this highly unusual stunt sunk in.
With her mission accomplished, Mendez took her leave, pleased and victorious. Years later, she received a photo of the meeting. The mask had been airbrushed out, still classified information.
By Taylor Mickal for the International Spy Museum
SpyMuseum
At the International Spy Museum in D.C., the Gadget Lab exhibit features some of the novel tech employed by Jonna Mendez and other CIA officers, including disguises and covert surveillance devices. Left: According to Mendez, the CIA uses the “Little Gray Man” model to create disguises that avoid all suspicion. Even a simple disguise like this one turns Mendez invisible, although advanced disguises employing masks and prostheses can also be used.
Memoir Unmasks A Historic Career
Mendez’s path was unconventional from day one. In the mid-1960s, at age 20, the Wichita State University English lit major traveled to Germany for a friend’s wedding. But instead of returning to the comfort of her Midwest roots, she pivoted, doing a 180 after the nuptials.
She never looked back.
Hopping a train to Frankfurt, Mendez called American companies from a payphone looking for a job. Pouring over the listings alphabetically, she first tried American Express. A resounding no. Next she contacted Bank of America. Again, no. She spoke no German, had no bank experience, and didn't have a work permit.
Next up on the list was Chase Manhattan Bank, and Mendez experienced the first of many unexplainable breaks in her career journey. Bingo. She was hired, and the young American began working at a Chase branch in Frankfurt.
Mendez soon fell in love with a tall, handsome American—John Goeser—who, after proposing, confessed that he worked for the CIA. They would have to hide the details of their life from friends and family, and life as she knew it would end. Madly in love, Mendez accepted.
Once married and living in Europe, she became a CIA secretary, where most women there started in the typing pool. Smart and resourceful, Mendez worked her way up the secretarial ladder, eventually landing a job in the Far East Office with the Executive Officer, when her husband was transferred.
It was there she became intrigued with the Office of Technical Services, the CIA team who provided materials and resources to assure operational success. The department was the CIA’s equivalent of James Bond’s “Q” and was responsible for supporting the agency’s clandestine operations with gadgets, disguises, forgeries, secret writings, and weapons. It would be there that Mendez hit her stride.
She was soon authorized to be trained in espionage photography. Over the next two-plus decades, she gained expertise in photography, disguise, secret documents, and a whole war chest of covert skills.
“We could convincingly disguise an officer, even create a clone of the officer,” Mendez explains. “We could change their ethnicity or gender or ‘borrow’ another person’s identity if necessary.” Mendez says the technology changed the way operatives were able to work against KGB harassment on the streets of Moscow.
She earned the respect and esteem of her colleagues with her skill at disguise, including one as a prime minister. And, she developed groundbreaking methods for masks, carrying concealed cameras, and protecting operatives in the field.
“I always felt like what I was doing was protecting everyone working for us,” she says. “They were taking huge risks.”
Eventually, after her 23 years of marriage ended in divorce, she married Tony Mendez, with whom she’d worked closely. Tony was a big-time operative and the renowned CIA officer who helped rescue six U.S. diplomats from Iran in 1980. His 1999 memoir, The Master of Disguise, was adapted into the Academy Award-winning movie, Argo, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2012. Ben Affleck starred as Tony and was the film’s director. The top-tier cast also included Alan Arkin, John Goodman, and Bryan Cranston.
The couple teamed up, globetrotting to become espionage’s undercover dynamic duo. Mendez says the challenge to match wits with Russia’s KGB, East Germany’s Stasi, Cuba’s DGI, and China’s MSS pushed the couple to new levels of problem-solving.
After a 27-year career in the CIA, moving up the ranks to achieve the position of Chief of Disguise, Mendez retired as a respected leader in a male-dominated field, blazing a path for more women to climb to success at the highest levels of the agency.
Together, Jonna and Tony collaborated on several books about their CIA careers, including Spy Dust, The Moscow Rules, and Argo. Now 78, the Reston resident reveals the highs and lows of her fascinating career in her new memoir, In True Face: A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Unmasked, just published in March (Hachette/PublicAffairs). Always busy, she serves on the board of the International Spy Museum and travels the world as a sought-after speaker, revealing details of her life under cover.
Courtesy of Jonna Mendez
Much of her work in the CIA had been kept under wraps—some of it still is. But now, thanks to international exposure, book tours, speaking engagements, and her new book, leaders from the intelligence world are taking notice of Mendez’s exceptional career.
“Jonna Mendez’s memoir, In True Face, will be, as her career itself was, an inspiration to generations of intelligence officers, particularly women,” says Michael Morell, former deputy director and twice acting director of the CIA.
“I think she’s a trailblazer,” Heidi Nulton tells me.
She’s Mendez’s younger sister, a Richmond resident and her junior by 17 years. Nulton lived with her big sister and her first husband during several of their early CIA assignments, and she was sworn to secrecy for decades—nothing about Jonna’s life could be revealed. “She moved up the ranks,” Nulton adds, “and had the opportunity to do some really amazing things. And then in a whole second life, she was given additional opportunities to share it with the world and tell the stories.”
