When Jonna Mendez, then the CIA's chief of disguise, was asked to brief President George H.W. Bush on the agency's new mask technology in the early 1990s, she wanted to make a powerful impression to secure more funding. "It's expensive to make these masks," says Mendez, 78. Meeting Bush in the Oval Office disguised as a Latina woman with black curly hair, she described the extraordinary results her team achieved to evade Russia's KGB. Bush curiously glanced to her side, perhaps looking for a briefcase holding the new disguise. She told him she was wearing it. "He said, 'Hold on, don't take it off yet.' Then he got up and took a closer look," she recalls.
"He said, 'Okay, do it."" Like a Mission: Impossible character, Mendez slowly peeled off a remarkably lifelike mask, revealing her true face: blue eyes, fair skin and short, dark blonde hair. When she held up the disguise that duped everyone in the room, Bush and his advisers seemed dazzled. "The masks were something that no one else, not even Hollywood, could do," she says.
That's just one memory from Mendez's 27-year tenure as a master of disguise that she's mined for her CIA-reviewed memoir In True Face: A Woman's Life in the CIA Unmasked, out March 5. "This is my career that no one knows about," she tells People from her Reston, Va., home. "You step into that world, and the door closes behind you. I thought it would be interesting to open the door. People who knew me well will be shocked."
This story is from the March 04, 2024 edition of People US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 04, 2024 edition of People US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
All About Tom Brady's Summer Plans & New TV Gig
Tom Brady is doing just fine in retirement - if you can call it that. On June 12 the former NFL quarterback, 46, was inducted into the New England Patriots' Hall of Fame.
Inside Billy Ray Cyrus's Divorceand Where Miley Stands
Just seven months after Billy Ray Cyrus and Firerose said \"I do,\" their marriage has come to an end.
MISSY ELLIOTT'S SUPA DUPA NOW!
THE HIP-HOP SUPERSTAR REVEALS HOW SHE OVERCAME HEALTH ISSUES AND ANXIETY FOR A BIG RETURN TO THE SPOTLIGHT
MARIA SHARAPOVA - Still Winning!
JUGGLING NEW PURSUITS WITH RAISING SON THEODORE, THE TENNIS LEGEND OPENS UP ABOUT APPROACHING LIFE WITH THE SAME ENERGY SHE BROUGHT TO THE COURT
JUDE LAW MOVIES OF MY LIFE
HE'S PLAYED A ROGUE, A ROBOT, A SPY, A SEDUCER AND NOW A KING. JUDE LAW LOOKS BACK AT SOME OF HIS ALL-TIME FAVORITE ROLES
SANDY HOOK SURVIVORS GRADUATE 'The Sorrow Has to Live Within the Joy'
THEY WERE FIRST GRADERS WHEN A GUNMAN MURDERED 20 CLASSMATES. NOW THEY'RE ENTERING YOUNG ADULTHOOD FOREVER CHANGED BUT READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG WHAT I KNOW NOW
AS A NEW DOCUMENTARY EXPLORES THE DESIGNER'S INFLUENCE ON FASHION AND CULTURE, SHE'S SHARING THE SOURCES OF HER INNER WISDOM
THE JOY OF BEING AMY POEHLER
THE INSIDE OUT 2 STAR ON PLAYING AN EMOTION, RAISING TEENS AND MAKING THE VERY MOST OF VACATION
Why I Believed Her
Sherri Papini faked her own abduction and torture and lied about it to authorities-and her husband for six years. Now Keith Papini speaks out
Princess Kate's Moment in the Spotlight
THE ROYAL MOM MADE A POWERFUL RETURN AT TROOPING THE COLOUR, RADIATING STRENGTH AND RESILIENCE ALONGSIDE HER FAMILY AS SHE CONTINUES TO UNDERGO CHEMOTHERAPY