“I WANT to thank Canada.” Viewers watching the Academy Awards ceremony on February 24th might have wondered why Ben Affleck, in accepting the Best Picture award for his film “Argo”, used up precious moments at the microphone to thank an entire country that most Americans regard as an innocuous, kindly cousin—when they bother to think of it at all. To be sure, Canada figures prominently in the film, based on the 1979 hostage crisis in Tehran: “Argo” tells the story of six Americans secretly harboured by Canadian diplomats after an Iranian mob overran the United States embassy. But no one thanked India when “Slumdog Millionaire” won Best Picture, or Scotland when “Braveheart” took the prize.

Mr Affleck’s expression of gratitude was a carefully considered olive branch in his spat with Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador in Tehran at the time, over the film’s portrayal of Canada’s role. In “Argo”, the American CIA agent played by Mr Affleck devises a plan to pass off the six Americans as a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a fake movie, and co-ordinates almost all the necessary logistics to secure their escape. According to Mr Taylor, the execution of the plot was primarily Canada’s handiwork: he himself bought the plane tickets for the group and arranged for their transport to the Tehran airport. Jimmy Carter, America’s president at the time, has lent support to Mr Taylor’s account. On February 21st he said that “90% of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian”—albeit with the disclaimer that he thought “Argo” was a great drama and deserved an Oscar.

It’s no surprise that Hollywood likes to glorify American exploits, and can play fast and loose with the truth in doing so. Mr Affleck has insisted that the film is only loosely “based on a true story”, and many of the film’s most memorable moments, including its climactic chase on an airport runway, are entirely fictional. But the director exacerbated his downplaying of Canada’s efforts by not inviting Mr Taylor to the film’s premiere in Toronto last September. He also added a postscript at the end of “Argo” saying that Mr Taylor received 112 citations for his work before the CIA’s involvement was declassified in 1997—perhaps implying that Mr Taylor had previously received credit for contributions actually made by Americans.

In recent months Mr Affleck has done his best to atone for these snubs. He did invite Mr Taylor to the premiere in Los Angeles, and changed the postscript to include an awkward but more accurate acknowledgement. “The involvement of the CIA complemented efforts of the Canadian embassy to free the six held in Tehran,” it now reads. “To this day the story stands as an enduring model of international co-operation between governments.”