Chapter Six. Transnational Public Diplomacy: Assessing Salvadoran Revolutionary Efforts To Build U.S. Public Opposition To Reagan’s Central American Policy

Abstract

This chapter documents the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front's (FMLN's) public diplomacy efforts and provides evidence that the Salvadoran revolutionaries' transnational campaign effectively moved U.S. public opinion. It focuses on ways in which supposedly weak transnational sub-state actors have confronted more powerful adversaries in asymmetric international conflicts, sometimes with great success. The chapter advocates the use of a specific methodological technique-quantitative content analysis of constituency mail-as a valuable tool for accurately measuring a public diplomacy campaign's ability to influence U.S. public opinion. It presents evidence that these transnational civil society, non-governmental, and social movement forces were pivotal in the success of the Central American revolutionaries' public diplomacy campaign. The chapter applies statistical techniques which show that the pressure generated by the U.S.-Central American Peace and Solidarity Movement (CAPSM) is what activated mass public opposition and led elites to oppose Reagan's El Salvador policy. Keywords: Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN); Ronald Reagan; Salvadoran revolutionary efforts; transnational public diplomacy; U.S. Central American Policy