Mendez, Jonna Hiestand 1945-

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MENDEZ, Jonna Hiestand 1945-

PERSONAL: Born 1945, in KY; married Antonio J. Mendez (a CIA intelligence officer), 1991; children: Jesse. Education: Attended Wichita State College.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER: U.S. intelligence officer, photographer, consultant, lecturer. Worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, Frankfurt, Germany; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1966-93, Office of Technical Services, 1970-93, chief of disguise, 1991-93. International Spy Museum, Washington DC, advisory board member; The Agency (television series), technical advisor, 2001—; guest appearances on nationally broadcast television and radio programs; La Gesse Foundation, board of directors.

AWARDS, HONORS: Intelligence Commendation Medal, CIA, 1993; IMOS Inter-Allied Distinguished Service Cross, and Order of the Sphinx, Legion of Frontiersmen, both 2000.

WRITINGS:

(With husband, Antonio J. Mendez, and Bruce Henderson) Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War, as Authorized by the CIA, Atria Books (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Jonna Hiestand Mendez is a retired Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) intelligence officer who rose to the position of chief of disguise. She worked for Antonio J. Mendez, who she married toward the end of their careers, and by that time, their combined service totaled more than fifty years.

Jonna was born in Kentucky and attended high school and college in Kansas. She was working in Germany when she was recruited by the CIA in 1966. She lived under cover, serving in Europe, the Far East, and the Subcontinent, as well as at CIA headquarters in the United States. In 1970, Mendez joined the Office of Technical Service and became expert in the use of spy cameras and in interpreting the information obtained through photography. Her leadership potential had by now become evident, and Mendez was chosen for officer training, after which she chose an overseas assignment that took her to Asia, to work in disguise, identity transformation, and clandestine imaging.

Mendez returned to headquarters in 1986 and was assigned to Denied Area Operations. She rose to the position of deputy chief of disguise in 1988, and chief of disguise, the position formerly held by her husband, in 1991, the year of their marriage and his retirement. Mendez left the CIA in 1993.

Mendez, her husband, and true-crime writer Bruce Henderson wrote Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War, as Authorized by the CIA. The "dust" of the title refers to a powder used by Russian spies to keep track of American agents and is just one of the techniques and tools described by the authors. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that they "shift back and forth in their account as separate assignments eventually converge in the extrication from Moscow of a high-ranking KGB mole." They also show how their own countrymen, including Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen jeopardized their work.

When these counterspies were discovered, the Mendezes used that knowledge to develop countermeasures to foil their plans. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Spy Dust "a surprisingly open account of the intelligence community's long, often deadly engagement with its counterparts in Russia, China, and Cuba," and felt the book would be "a real-life pleasure" for fans of spy authors John le Carre and Tom Clancy. Booklist's David Pitt wrote that "this is an endlessly fascinating book, one that spy buffs will return to again and again."

Mendez and her husband are on the advisory board of the forty-million-dollar International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. The museum, located just a few blocks from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on F Street, is not officially affiliated with the CIA, but it does house actual gadgets and weapons used by the agency during the cold war. Because many of the devices are tiny, the museum supplements the exhibits with film and videos. Other displays feature the toys of fictional spies, like the Aston Martin DB5 that is similar to the car driven by James Bond in Goldfinger, and visitors can attend a "school for spies." The multi-building museum was the brainchild of Milton Maltz, a former disc jockey and television and radio station owner who also helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Maltz, who served with the U.S. Navy, became fascinated by intelligence functions when he worked with the National Security Agency.

In a New York Times article about the museum, Phil Patton wrote that "during her years with the CIA, Mrs. Mendez worked with pinhole cameras and facial disguises. She once visited the first President Bush in disguise, then stripped off her false face right in the Oval Office to demonstrate the state of the disguise art for the startled president. 'I made myself younger and considerably prettier and gave myself the hair I always wanted,' she said."

Patton noted that "the Mendezes hope the museum will correct fantasies about spies. 'We want to show that spies are not just romantic cowboys who ride off into action,' Mrs. Mendez said. 'There is a lot of method and planning. There are those who go out and climb over roofs, and there are those who are studious and sedentary. You might call one the dagger type and the other the cloak type.'"

The Mendezes retired to their farm, where he paints landscapes and she takes pictures. Patton noted that Mrs. Mendez, "who once operated cameras that looked through walls, now takes large-format photographs. 'No more pinholes,' she said."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Mendez, Jonna H., Antonio J. Mendez, and Bruce Henderson Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War, as Authorized by the CIA, Atria Books (New York, NY), 2002.

periodicals

Booklist, August, 2002, David Pitt, review of Spy Dust:Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War, as Authorized by the CIA, p. 1898.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2002, review of Spy Dust, p. 936.

New York Times, July 17, 2002, Phil Patton, "once Secret, and Now on Display: Declassified, a Spy Museum Opens This Week in Washington," p. E1.

Publishers Weekly, July 22, 2002, review of Spy Dust, p. 165.