Public Closely Followed U.S. Invasion

The U.S. invasion of Panama riveted the attention of the American people as few stories have, a survey released today finds.

Six in 10 Americans “very closely followed” news of the invasion, according to the monthly Times Mirror News Interest Index, which has been monitoring public reaction to the news since 1986. Only the space shuttle Challenger disaster, the San Francisco earthquake and the rescue from a well of Jessica McClure surpassed the invasion in public fascination in that time. Hurricane Hugo equaled the invasion in interest.

By comparison, however, only 29% of Americans very closely followed the revolution in Romania, the survey found. That is about the same number who said they were paying very close attention to the National Football League playoffs this month.

And only 22% were following the letter bombings of federal judges.

One story that attracted almost no attention was the trip by National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger to China in December. Only 6% very closely followed the story.

While initially President Bush said that capturing Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega was not the primary goal of the invasion, the hunt for the former dictator was the primary interest of the American public. More than half said efforts to catch him was the element they followed most, while only one-third said news about the fighting was their primary concern.

Relatively few, only 14%, said they were paying close attention to news about the new Panamanian government. But an extraordinary 82% knew that Noriega took refuge in the Papal Embassy. Only 17% of Americans could identify the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Colin L. Powell.

Despite the modest level of interest in Romania, 66% know that the Romanian revolution succeeded and 70% can describe the fate of executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.