From Frontlines to Home: The Impact of Returning Soldiers’ Testimonies on Public Opinion

How does a nation's overwhelming support for one side of a conflict shift dramatically to the other? This paper examines how public opinion in Norway evolved from a strong pro-Israel stance in the 1950s to widespread criticism of Israel’s policies in the occupied territories by the late 1970s. To explain this shift, we analyze the role of Norwegian UNIFIL soldiers returning from Lebanon from 1978 onward. Combining panel data from opinion surveys and soldier records, we exploit regional variation in soldiers' return locations to show how their first-hand accounts from the frontlines influenced political attitudes in their local communities. The findings highlight the impact of exposure to first-hand testimonies on broader attitudinal shifts, and underscore the importance of trust in information sources.